Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad is a multiplayer first-person shooter set in World War II, more precisely the fights in the area of Stalingrad from 1942/43. In comparison to most other games of its genre it tries to create a more realistic atmosphere: the most prominent example would be that almost every hit is an instant kill. And if not, the wound has to be bandaged to avoid bleeding to death. The weapons react more realistically (it is hard to keep a machine gun steady) and have no crosshair. Additionally there is no in-game indication besides the uniforms which player is on which side and there is no announcement of kills. All this creates the need to progress carefully at a slower pace.

There are also other areas where Red Orchestra 2 differs from regular multiplayer shooters: only a certain amount of every class type are allowed on a map to keep the balance and respawns are not instant - instead the game waits until a few people are ready to spawn to simulate reinforcements. Other features are the morale system which improves the performance when players with a high rank are nearby, and a cover system.

However, no experiments are made with the ranking system. Players receive points for helping the team (e.g. for kills or giving out ammo) which eventually results in a better rank. Practically the player can receive more stamina and better weapons this way, even if slower than usual. The commander can give out commands and order air attacks. There are three multiplayer modes: countdown, territory and team-deathmatch; the former two are variants of the known "conquer and defend certain areas" kind. The two singleplayer campaigns are basically just multiplayer games with bots.