Courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios

“Tribes: Ascend” is a first-person shooter game currently in closed beta testing. It is scheduled for release later this year.

“Tribes: Ascend” is a class-based first-person shooter involving large maps, jetpack-equipped players and a serious sense of speed. For those wondering about its free-to-play business model, it seems to be relatively inoffensive, taking after the industry standard “League of Legends” model. There are only a few classes unlocked at the outset, with more classes, weapons and options unlocked through either playing or shelling out money. The only real gripe I have is that the launcher is an abomination that makes the “League of Legends” Adobe Air launcher look slick in comparison.

Freedom of movement is the name of the game in “Tribes: Ascend.” Each player has a jetpack to help him or her navigate the enormous maps. By holding down the space bar while running down a hill, players can “ski” along the ground and pick up momentum. When combined with the thrust of the jetpack, that momentum sends players sailing through the air at breakneck speed. Skiing is a skill to be honed, and experienced players can make efficient use of their momentum to cover vast tracts of ground in a matter of seconds.

The most basic class, the Pathfinder, is equipped with the series’ iconic weapon, the Spinfusor, which fires explosive blue discs. The discs are relatively slow-moving projectiles, so players will have to learn to lead their opponents properly in order to secure kills. Bullet-based weapons such as the assault rifle are also somewhat difficult to use, as it’s no easy feat to keep your crosshair trained on such fast-moving targets.

If it’s not obvious already, “Tribes: Ascend” is not an easy game to play. Although it might be streamlined compared to the older games, it still feels like a ’90s PC shooter—an all but extinct species. It’s a game in which movement is an art to be practiced, and each weapon is a science to be learned. Many games nowadays are geared towards instant gratification, but “Tribes: Ascend” is not one of these games. New players thus might be put off by how difficult it is to bag a single kill.

That might sound frustrating to some, but having grown up with “Unreal Tournament” and “Quake,” I can’t get enough of “Tribes: Ascend.” More than anything else, “Tribes: Ascend” is a game that rewards skill. If you can ski, you can escape from an ambush completely unscathed. If you can handle a Spinfusor, you can shoot players out of the sky and earn the Blue Plate Special medal. If you can do both, you can catch up to an enemy flag runner by out-skiing him and bring him down with a disc to the face. In “Tribes: Ascend,” if you’re good, you’re a god.

And that’s just the infantry aspect of the game. Capture the flag, the most classic “Tribes” game type, features bases with generators, turrets and vehicles. Teamwork and coordinated assaults are necessary if you want to actually leave the enemy base with their flag, much less drop it off at your own base. There seems to be a competitive community springing up around the game as well, with the North American Star League picking it up for future seasons.

“Tribes: Ascend” is currently in beta, with developers Hi-Rez giving out keys to anybody who likes them on Facebook. If you’re looking for a game of speed and skill, there’s no better choice.

Uber Entertainment

“Super Monday Night Combat” (“SMNC”) is the sequal to the third-person multiplayer shooter game “Monday Night Combat.” “SMNC” is currently in beta mode.

“SMNC” lifts the “League of Legends” business model wholesale, which is as good as it gets for a free-to-play game. There are currently thirteen classes—“pros”—available in total, with a weekly rotating roster of five available to everyone. Content such as pros, skins, taunts and endorsements—small stat boosts—can be unlocked by one of two virtual currencies: combat credits, which are earned through playing the game, and Uber points, which are purchased with money.

So far, the game seems very “League of Legends,” and it really is interesting just how much “SMNC” has embraced the “DotA” genre. For one thing, the game is now five-on-five instead of the original game’s six-on-six. On the maps I’ve played, there are two lanes that contain endlessly spawning waves of cannon fodder in the form of robots, and each team’s job is to escort these bots so that they can destroy the powerful enemy turret guarding the lane. Players take much less damage, but their health regeneration is also severely reduced. This leaves less room for run-and-gun and encourages harassing the opponents in your lane.

Respawn times grow as your level increases, and if you overextend, it’s very possible to find yourself underleveled and overwhelmed in the face of an unstoppable—“fed”—opponent. Finally, the tower defense aspects appear less prominent, as players can no longer build turrets in their base or repair the turrets already there.

The end result of these changes is a game that looks like the original on the surface but actually plays nothing like it. It’s a much more conservative game than before, and the opening portions of each match will be spent farming up gold and experience while poking at your opponents to prevent them from doing the same. “SMNC” is certainly more rewarding, and it’s shaping up to be the deeper, more tactical game. In the transition, however, I think it has lost some of its immediate pick-up-and-play appeal. A large part of that is compounded by the fact that you can no longer join matches in progress, and you are penalized for leaving mid-match.

The unequivocally great additions to the game are the new classes, which range from a gorilla in a tuxedo named Cheston to an overweight mascot wearing Mad Max gear. Much like the classes of “Team Fortress 2,” each one has a distinct personality and charming voice acting. They’re all amazingly well animated, and each pro’s custom taunts are the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The maps have also seen an overhaul, and in an effort to combat the fatigue of playing in the overly similar and sterile maps of “MNC,” Uber has placed two new arenas in a jungle and a desert, which is a large improvement.

“Super Monday Night Combat” might be a different beast from the previous game, but it’s no less entertaining. If you have any interest in class-based multiplayer shooters, go register for the beta on Uber Entertainment’s site and try it for yourself.

EA Games

“Mass Effect 3,” developed by BioWare, is an action RPG set for release in March.

“Max Payne 3” (May 15)
Max Payne’s journey into the night continues, but this time it’s guided by Rockstar Games instead of series creators Remedy Entertainment. The new developer chose to set the game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a ways away from the perma-winter New York setting of the first two games. Although I was originally doubtful that sunny South America was a good fit for the series’ heavy noir stylings, the trailers thus far have made me a believer. Bullet time, guns, violence, angry men, kidnapped women, gravelly voice acting from James McCaffrey, trench coats: “Max Payne 3” has it all. Prepare to repeatedly dive through the air in slow motion while shooting people come May.

“Borderlands 2” (June 30)
The first “Borderlands” felt like a great template, but not much else. Millions of guns! Too bad they were all fairly homogeneous. Tons of quests! But they all involved fetching things or killing a certain number of enemies. At least there was cooperative play, but even then, it didn’t work on launch. And that ending. Ugh. Luckily, Gearbox Software seems to be listening, and “Borderlands 2” seems to be fixing the weakest portions of the first game. Instead of simply being more, it’s more variety, and that’s a good thing for a game that boils down to grinding and loot.

“Bioshock Infinite” (Dec. 31)
I can’t think of a more horrible title for a more promising game. Anyway, leaving behind the underwater city of Rapture, Ken Levine takes to the skies instead. This new game is set in the floating city of Columbia, which looks influenced by both early 20th century Americana and war propaganda. Aside from looking like another resounding success for Irrational Games’ art department, “BioShock Infinite” looks to be following the series’ familiar mix of shooting and spawning horrible things from your hands. Nobody quite sells a setting like Irrational, and I expect “BioShock Infinite” to be met with the same praise as its predecessors. Prepare to unleash a murder of crows from your hands at the very end of the year.

“Tomb Raider” (December 31)
Like the movie industry, the only thing the video game industry loves more than sequels are reboots. The newest entry, once again developed by series caretaker Crystal Dynamics, reimagines Lara as a 21-year-old who gets shipwrecked on a mysterious island with even more mysterious natives. The usual, then. That said, the game takes an interesting approach to the traditional formula. It appears to be an open-world affair that sees Lara forging makeshift weapons from the environment. There is also a strong emphasis on survival. With the new game comes a new Lara, whose soft features and surprisingly reasonable physique do their part to make her seem like a real character instead of a blow-up doll.

“Diablo III” (TBA)
Thanks to Blizzard Entertainment’s decision to include a real-money auction house and always-online DRM in its latest game, “Diablo III” has had plenty of controversy surrounding it, yet none of it really has much to do with the game itself. But the game! The game looks excellent indeed, with a unique skill system that encourages experimentation. It also has a variety of classes to play as, and an extra thick layer of that fine Blizzard polish. Although “Torchlight” was a fine hack-and-slash game in its own right, all eyes are on Blizzard to deliver the one true dungeon crawler. However, with the game still currently in closed beta, and with major gameplay changes just announced, don’t expect it to come out any time soon.

Courtesy of Nintendo

I have never been a Super Mario fan. I am pretty bad at playing platform games, and the silliness of Mario did not appeal to me. Considering this, I was surprised to find myself enjoying “Super Mario 3D Land,” the Mario game on Nintendo’s latest handheld, the 3DS. The platform puzzles in the game are well-designed for the handheld gaming experience, and I had a lot of fun playing it.

Like all Super Mario Bros. games, the story involves saving Princess Peach from the evil boss, Bowser. You control Mario, who attacks and solves puzzles by jumping, although you will get a few upgrades to give him the abilities to shoot fireballs and attack enemies using your tail. There are no fancy moves you can pull off, but this deficiency does make it easier for you to get used to the controls of the game. In previous “Mario” titles, I found the controls clunky at times, which made it hard for me to keep Mario from falling off the screen. This is definitely not the case for “3D Land”—controlling the movement of Mario is made much more intuitive and not as demanding.

The game is basically made of a few dozen platform puzzles called courses, and the sole objective for Mario is to reach the end of each course, where he climbs up a flagpole. You fight bosses occasionally, and you are supposed to find out the weaknesses of each boss in order to defeat it. Although the controls in this game are not as demanding as in previous titles, you are still required to be sufficiently proficient with the controls to beat the courses. The courses are generally short and are meant to be beat in around two minutes, which is great for a game on a handheld system. However, sometimes you will be stuck in certain situations, and you will feel frustrated because you have to start over if you die. I understand that this is a Mario tradition, but not having the ability to respawn at the place I died really made the game unnecessarily frustrating to play. Nintendo could have taken these frustrations out of the game easily, but unfortunately they chose not to do so.

Overall, the game is a great choice if you are looking to have some games to play on your Nintendo 3DS, which hasn’t received a lot of support from the gaming industry and for which there are few titles worth buying at this moment. The game can get frustrating at times, but otherwise it is a well-designed, light-hearted game, with bite-sized courses for you to enjoy during your study breaks.

Carlton Beener | carltonbeener.com

People gather at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Irvine, CA for a BarCraft event.

BarCraft is pretty easy to sum up: fans watch a professional video game competition in a bar. It defies social norms, but maybe that’s why it’s so popular. The movement began this spring at Chao Bistro in Seattle, where a patron asked the bar owner if he would be willing to show professional StarCraft matches on Wednesday nights. The Korean owner agreed, and he was overwhelmed when over a hundred people showed up to the very first BarCraft.

Since then, the event has spread like wildfire. Glancing at a map dotted with all of the BarCrafts that have already happened, you will see nearly a hundred events spread out across the entire world. All but maybe ten states have had at least one event, including Hawaii. More exotic BarCrafts have been held in Tel Aviv, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and Iceland. Montreal, however, might take the cake. Their event, which was held in a club and charged $15 for cover, boasted nearly a thousand attendees. Some bars have gone so far as to create special drink menus with items named after units from the game.

St. Louis has its own BarCraft events, kindly organized by Chris “Gilligan” Zammit. The first three were held at the Lion’s Den, a small bar in St. Charles about half an hour away. I had the pleasure of being there for the first event and watching the opening night of the North American Star League (NASL) with other enthusiastic fans. However, after some poking and prodding from city dwellers, Zammit was gracious enough to schedule the next event in St. Louis. The upcoming BarCraft will watch the NASL Finals this Sunday, December 4 at Post Sports Bar and Grill at 7 p.m.

Zammit was originally waiting for a BarCraft to pop up in St. Louis, but when nothing appeared, he took matters into his own hands. Inspired by success stories from the Internet, he realized that, “e-sports isn’t just going to happen based on wishes and dreams, it’s going to take all of us getting involved and getting out there and making it happen.”

Interested in the event, I decided to ask Zammit about what it was like to talk to bar owners and make BarCraft in St. Louis a reality.

“I decided that my pitch to the owners needed to start with what was in it for them rather than what was in it for me,” he said. “So my first words to the owner were, ‘I’m interested in having a large group of 50 or more people in your bar a couple times a month but I have some special needs.’” From there, he was asked, “So… what…exactly…is it you’re going to be watching?”

When Zammit explained StarCraft, bar owners didn’t seem to hate the idea.

However, he was still worried about the attendance.

“I was terrified that me, my girlfriend and my friend Steve would be the only ones sitting there watching StarCraft in a bar the first night,” Zammit said.

It turned out there was nothing to fear, as the first event drew about sixty people. Attendance for the following events has held steady around 30 people, but with the upcoming BarCraft in the city, he hopes to “overrun the bar with nerd-ballers.”

Zammit has even higher hopes for the future of StarCraft and e-sports—and there’s no reason not to, considering the success of BarCrafts around the world and in his own city.

“There’s no reason why we should feel like nerds or uncool for being passionate about it,” he said. “Always be excited and proud of what you love.”

Courtesy of Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the latest installment in Nintendo’s Zelda series. The game, released November 20, 2011, for Wii, utilizes the Wii Motionplus system.

After five years, Nintendo’s gamble on motion controls has finally hit the jackpot. The newest installation in the venerable Legend of Zelda series, “Skyward Sword,” proves beyond reasonable doubt that motion controls can be exact, engaging and fun. “Skyward Sword” is the best game for the Wii this year, and should be on everyone’s holiday wish list.

The story of “Skyward Sword” is strong, though melodramatic at times and too faithful to the narrative formula of most Zelda games. The protagonist, Link, hails from Skyloft, a city that resembles a floating Hobbiton. The inhabitants of Skyloft travel from one floating island to another on the back of massive birds and never venture to the surface. A sinister force abducts Link’s friend, Zelda, sparking a chain of events in which Link proves his heroism. Action is constant; I stuck mostly to the main storyline, and there was always something new to do, since the tale unfolds with pacing comparable to “Half Life 2.” The narrative’s exposition relied mostly on dialogue with no voice acting save for some grunts and wheezes. This is unfortunate, as the characters look silly flapping their mouths and fluttering their limbs to explain things. The main storyline will take several days to finish, and the numerous side quests guarantee that completion of this game will take upward of fifty hours. The side quests tend to be more humorous than the epic main story, but still demand the player to make severe ethical decisions. For example, should Link deliver a rival’s love letter, or should he give the paper to a ghoul for use as toilet paper? A memorable supporting cast adds the color in the story, especially in these side quests. My favorites included a sassy robot and an enthusiastic archaeologist. Unfortunately Link’s companion for most of the journey, a spirit named Fi, is boring, functioning mostly as an unfunny Nintendo version of GLaDOS.

The biggest attraction of “Skyward Sword” is its innovative gameplay, especially during combat. The player can control Link’s sword with one-to-one precision. Slice to the right with the Wii Remote, and Link slices right; thrust forward with the controller, and watch Link stab an enemy. Enemies react to the position of Link’s sword and defend themselves accordingly, adding a level of depth superior to the hack-and-slash button mashing of traditional RPGs. While at least one major reviewer took issue with the controls, I can only attest that they always worked for me. “Skyward Sword” hits some turbulence in the graphics department. Nintendo wisely chose to stylize the visuals with cell shading and blurring. The result is a handsome game with backgrounds that look worthy of an Impressionist’s easel. However, some textures close to the camera look blurry or muddy, and some diagonals are rendered as jagged lines. This may be a result of the Wii age and hardware limitations, but it was distracting at times, and I wish Nintendo had refined the look for a smoother appearance. All in all, the flaws I mentioned were the result of looking for mistakes. “Skyward Sword” is a near-perfect game with few issues and a staggering amount of content. Fans of the series may wish to know whether it’s the best of the series, and I’ll leave the argument to them, since such a call relies on personal opinion. “Majora’s Mask” still has the best story, and “Wind Waker” has the best aesthetic. “Skyward Sword,” though, soars by ushering in a generation of games in which motion controls are not a cheap gimmick, but an immersive and accurate aspect of gameplay.

“To the Moon” is the first game to make me cry. It’s actually the first anything to make me cry, as I’ve never shed a tear over any form of media prior to finishing the game last week. I didn’t bat an eye at the montage in the opening act of “Up,” but I felt a single tear roll down my cheek as I watched the ending to this pixilated adventure game written by one man. If you play one game this year, make it this one.

In “To the Moon,” there exists a company with technology that enables doctors to dive into dying patients’ memories and make their last wish come true, with the caveat that it will be the last memory they have before passing away. A terminal man named Johnny has hired the company to fulfill his final wish: to go to the moon. There’s a catch: he doesn’t actually know why he wants to go to the moon, and so the story begins.

The game puts players in the shoes of two doctors, Neil and Eva, who are assigned to Johnny’s case. In order to help him fulfill his wish, the pair travels backwards through their client’s memories to find the source of his subconscious dream. In the process, “To the Moon” touches on the themes of regret, loss, death and coping with tragedy. The story’s protagonists make their own decisions about how life should be lived, and chances are you might not agree with some of those choices. Even so, the game has a keen sense of humor, and it throws in some light-hearted banter between Neil and Eva when things become too gloomy.

To be honest, “To the Moon” isn’t a video game in the traditional sense. It has even less in the way of gameplay than, say, “Phoenix Wright.” On the surface, it looks like an old school Japanese RPG and controls like one, but the framework exists only to move the story forward and keep the dialogue running. You’re funneled to each location, and there is no inventory, no death, nothing. There are tiny puzzles bridging each memory, but none of them pose any challenge or require any real thought. For those curious about length, I finished the game in a little under five hours.

Regardless of what “To the Moon” might be classified as, its charm is undeniable. The 16-bit artwork is evocative of “Chrono Trigger,” with fantastic sprite work full of personality and character. However, it’s actually the game’s soundtrack that tugs at the heartstrings the most. The score, composed by Kan R. Gao, also the sole writer for the game, is a beautiful series of piano and violin based tracks that drive the game’s most emotional moments home. Much like my other favorite soundtracks, I can listen to a song, close my eyes, and picture the scene it accompanies.

There’s so much more I want to say about “To the Moon,” but it would spoil one of the best stories to grace games in ages. I want to gush about the meaning behind the hundreds of origami rabbits in Johnny’s basement and the bittersweet ending, but obviously I can’t. If you have any interest in a good story, buy “To the Moon” from the developer for the paltry sum of $12. Play it, and weep.

Courtesy of Bethesda Softworks

Skyrim, the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, is a RPG game with stunning, realistic visuals.

How is it truly possible to describe “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” in a 500-word review? This is a game that has enveloped my life over the past few days, with much more to come. The strategy guide alone is 650 pages. To put a game like “Skyrim” into 500 words is like trying to experience a country by spending a few hours in its airport. You cannot begin to understand just what this game is like unless you put your life on hold for about a month and just start playing it.

“Skyrim” is the fifth installment of Bethesda Softworks’ “Elder Scrolls” series, set in the ancient home of the Nordic race, Skyrim. It is an RPG that is entirely open-world. There is a main storyline, but you can go off and do things on your own without worrying about the fact that dragons are attacking towns.

It is the most unbelievable game I have ever played. Ever. I’m not entirely impartial, as I love RPGs more than anything else, so I was expecting something incredible. Bethesda Softworks doesn’t make bad video games. And yet, all my expectations were blown away.

“Skyrim” is huge, it is beautiful, it is challenging, it is rewarding. It is a game that actually starts to make me think I am living in a real world. Since it came out on Friday, I have probably sunk about 14 hours into it, and I have barely scratched the surface.

At this point, I do not know a single thing about the story (aside from what you can find in the trailer, which is that dragons are coming back and you have to kill them). I have been going around, joining some groups, going into a couple dungeons. I have played 14 hours and I don’t feel like I have an understanding of this world in the slightest. Everything is so deep and intense; it is impossible to think that I might be able to do everything in it.

Moreover, the game looks absolutely stunning. I am running it on a partition on my MacBook Pro, and even on low quality, it has some of the most realistic looking scenery you could possibly imagine. I truly feel as though I am in the forests of Northern Germany, and I even experience fear that a giant spider will attack me at any moment.

All of the people look and act very human. I was in a town for the first time and a dragon showed up and started burning it down. The city guards and I managed to take the dragon down after a long and hard-fought battle. Afterwards, the city folk stood around the body in awe, and they were speaking to each other in amazement of what just happened.

Everything feels so real that it is impossible not to get lost in it.

As a warning, this is not a game for the faint of heart. Once you start it, it is like opening Pandora’s box. You can’t hope to play it for 20 hours and think that you have come anywhere close to finishing the game. It is something that requires work and dedication.

This is the game of the year, hands down. It is beautiful, doesn’t glitch and has a ton of deep, realistic characters and a new simple leveling system. The game is absolutely perfect. If you like RPGs at all and have some time, please, play this game. It is one of the best things ever made, and you will not regret the decision.

Courtesy of 2DBoy

“World of Goo,” developed by 2D Boy, is one of the multi-platform games made available in the first Humble Indie Bundle, a set of five independently released games made available for download on a pay-what-you-want basis. Humble Bundle, Inc., released its latest set of games on Oct. 31, 2011.

I might be mistaken, but I believe the first use of the pay-what-you-want model was for the one-year birthday of “World of Goo” in Oct. 2009. The game’s developer, 2D Boy, allowed people to buy the game, originally priced at $20, at any price they wanted, starting at a mere cent. The result was interesting, to say the least.

For the first week of the sale, more than 57,000 people purchased the game at an average of $2.03, with sales of $0.30 and below completely swallowed due to transaction fees. Somehow, it was still a huge success. The sheer volume of sales turned out to make up for the incredibly low average price. 2D Boy was on to something.

In May 2010, the first Humble Indie Bundle was released, organized by Wolfire Games. It offered five games with the same pay-what-you-want model, with a slight twist. The amount consumers paid could be split up between the developers and charities like Child’s Play. Over the two weeks the sale ran, the first Humble Indie Bundle managed to rack up more than a million dollars. A year and a half later, the bundles are organized and the sales managed by Humble Bundle, Inc., a spin-off of Wolfire Games. Including the first Humble Indie Bundle, these folks are currently running their sixth sale with no signs of slowing down.

Courtesy of Indie Royale

Beyond the wave of pay-what-you-want bundles, other indie studios have been experimenting with pricing models for yet-unreleased games. The development of titles like Overgrowth and Project Zomboid is being funded through discounted pre-orders, which give customers access to the alpha phase of the game and all subsequent versions. Fans who are willing to put money down for an unfinished product get the satisfaction of funding something they have faith in, and developers have more money to spend on improving their product.

Though I don’t doubt that indie studios’ pricing experiments are better for the consumer, I have lingering concerns as to whether they are better for the studios themselves. After buying so many indie bundles, I have to admit that my answer to “What’s my game worth to you?” has become less and less. I’m less likely to buy indie games at full price, because I know that there’s a good chance that I’ll be able to pay what I want for it shortly down the line. The Humble Bundle folks, which used to rarely release bundles, have put out three bundles in the past six months. Between the cutthroat pricing of iOS games and the pay-what-you-want sales of PC games, indie studios might find their work being valued less and less.

I don’t think anybody quite knows where these pricing experiments will lead, but I have to applaud independent developers for giving consumers more flexibility when buying their games. Who knows if any of these models will actually extend beyond the realm of indie games, but in the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to whatever the indie studios think of next.

Courtesy of Tripwire Interactive

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, is a PC-based shooting game that focuses on the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.

There’s a great game in Red Orchestra 2—somewhere—but it won’t be apparent to the majority of people who play it. At first glance, it’s a World War II shooter, complete with MP40s, stielhandgranate and what have you, but the game’s adherence to realism makes it stand out from the crowd. The weaponry and the accompanying ballistics model are all based off of research, and the same goes for the complex, sprawling maps that depict some of the more notable skirmishes on the Eastern Front.

The action is fast but incredibly brutal. Death is instant, frequent and can come from absolutely anywhere. The drab landscape makes soldiers on both sides blend in and as a result, it’s difficult to identify targets, let alone distinguish between friend and foe. Due to the large maps and deadly weapons, aiming and reflexes are secondary to positioning and awareness. Though the pace is relatively glacial compared to that of other multiplayer shooters, the resulting tension means that each kill is incredibly satisfying.

Then there’s the swath of smaller features that add to the atmosphere. There’s bleeding and bandaging, a “hero” system in which the best players provide buffs to peons around them. Tanks that are driven in first-person with an AI crew. I love how you can tell the two sides apart by their different running animations and how each side has access to appropriate Russian or German weapons. In terms of back-of-the-box features, Red Orchestra 2 has a list that has even the most expensive shooters beat. But there’s a catch.

These features simply don’t make enough of a difference to offset the game’s lack of polish. The game is surprisingly resource-intensive despite using Unreal Engine 3. The animations are stiff, the movement is clunky, the interface and fonts are unattractive and the entire production looks like, well, a mod. I even had difficulty pulling down servers in-game, and I had to resort to using Steam’s server window on my desktop to find a match.

If it sounds like I’m being harsh, it’s because I expected better out of a company that has two releases under its belt. I expected something slicker—slick enough to compete with bigger titles. It’s a shame, because Red Orchestra 2 provides balanced realism in a way that not many other games do, and deserves its niche among simpler, less punishing games. There’s still a good chance it’ll carve out that niche and keep it, but I can’t help but feel that a better launch could have done wonders for the player base.

There’s still a host of issues to be sorted out, but Tripwire is pushing out patches with commendable regularity. If you only play games that are polished to a mirror sheen, you may want to wait a bit. However, if you have a decent PC and a fair amount of patience, and you’re looking for a more grounded experience, don’t hesitate to give Red Orchestra 2 a shot.