Green Room Review| Easy Red II

 

Image Credit: Steam

On September 10th, 2002 EA and Dice released Battlefield: 1942 spawning a new franchise of multiplayer war games that involved massive online recreations of the most pivotal battles that defined World War II. That was one of the first shooter games I ever played and though it was insane with how many options it gave you to enter the engagement as infantrymen, tanks, jeeps, planes, and manning the cannons of a battleship. I had been chasing the high of that game for years looking for a true successor until a gem appeared in my steam queue one fateful day for the low price of $8.99 (price is in USD). This game hooked me from the start the training explaining how the squad mechanics work, the way the tanks don't just have a health bar and can be destroyed by slowly attacking each component or getting a lucky shot that kills the crew. Lets dive into this review!

(Reviewed on Windows PC (Core i9-12900k, 32gb ram, and RTX 4070))

Gameplay

Easy Red II can easily fall into the Battlefield clone category as most battles play as a mix of conquest and rush with each team being given spots on the map to attack or defend, once the attacking team takes the current objective and clears the defenders there the battle advances to new points until they reach a final point. The game in single player breaks down the historical context of each battle providing some education alongside your fun. The weapons all seem to be period accurate to when the battles take place I cannot confirm the accuracy as I'm not a military historian but in early battles seeing the MP-38 instead of MP-40 and other details like that. The gameplay is a mix of sim like elements like having to do a minigame as a radioman to get the correct coordinates for support and minor squad commands. When you spawn in you control a whole squad swapping between them to use their weapons and abilities. Vehicles have this same mix of simcade elements with the tanks being a whole squad but you can control it all from the gunner seat instead of having to switch between all the seats like in a simulator. The aircraft is where the game feels most arcade like as the controls are very simple and doesn't have separate pitch, yaw, and roll to my knowledge. It mixes together very well and provides lots of fun.

Audio

We'll skip over story as this game is not a narrative driven title and we all know the history of WWII. The audio in this game is immersive the chaos of a battlefield with artillery constantly shelling the objectives and soldiers yelling commands in their native languages all mix together to make you feel immersed in a true warzone. The distant sound of armor approaching or the fear as you hear the Jericho trumpets and look up to see a Stuka dive bomber attacking your position. The yelling and loud gunshots with the screen shake of the artillery just creates a feeling of being in the often young boots of these men in the greatest war fought paired with the lack of music until the end of the battle plays the winner's anthem creates tense moments that invest you in the game.

Summary

If you are looking for a solid WWII shooter that you can play solo or multiplayer that straddles the line of realism and arcade into a class of its own this game is prefect. The audio mix creating immersive chaos, the squad system, and variety of battles all work together to pull players in for hours till the operations are completed and the final outcome has been reached. This game is a hidden gem on especially in the WWII community and the continued developer support still adding new content five years on from the original release keeps this a good way to spend a few bucks. With all the DLC even covering the much ignored Second Sino-Japanese war this game will keep you busy for days and definitely has struck the best value for price in any recent games for me. This title earns a 3.5/5 as it is an incredibly fun game and can be an enjoyable way to kill a few hours with friends or alone. Thank You, for reading! Drop your favorite WWII games below or some more hidden gems!