Easy Red 2 Appreciation Thread - Throwback single-player World War II combined arms warfare

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May 14, 2019
I wanted to make a thread to raise awareness of this specific game.

After years of crappy ahistorical diverse AAA shooters and autistic simulationist multiplayer indie shooters, a really small team (one guy?) has made a game that costs almost nothing but has far more content than any of those.
Easy Red 2 is basically a jank-ass indie throwback to old Call of Duty/Medal of Honor that depicts EVERYTHING from World War II. It plays more or less like Enlisted but focused on single-player, as you spawn in as a squad and can switch off seamlessly between the squadmates who have different, accurate roles (like designated marksmen with scoped rifles, submachine gun usually on the squad leader, light machine guns, anti-tank rifles, etc.), with a tank system that similarly has at least some of the basics (tread disabling, armor profiles) and lets you control the whole tank if you can staff each role. The planes are shit and I wouldn't touch them, there's no reason to want to play as a plane when War Thunder exists. What you have is a selection of campaigns from all over World War II. Some of it is (extremely cheap) DLC, but it's got:

Stock:
- Mediterranean vacation: Tunisia, Kos (Corelli's Mandolin), Anzio-Cassino
- Flintlock and Makin for the Pacific Theater

DLC:
- D-Day
- The Ardennes; German blitzkrieg against France, the Bulge
-Stalingrad
- Shanghai and the Raep of Nanking (this one actually kind of sucks, the only reason anybody gives a shit about Shanghai is that it was Stalingrad on the Yangtze and these shitters focused on the rural outskirts so they wouldn't have to make it that dense)

In which you can play as rarely-seen factions like the French and Free French, Chinese Nationalists and Allied Italians.

With the Russo-Japanese clash at Khalkhin Gol and Hungary (German-Hungarians vs Soviet-Romanians) on the way.
Does it play well? Reasonably for what it is. Compared to Enlisted it is not, of course, a competitive sport-style multiplayer game, but the AI is notably smarter, the tone is much better and the framing of it (each operational campaign plays out through many separate tactical engagements on different parts of the same massive map) is nicer. What you are not going to get is one of those lame old-school narrative campaigns where the Generic Jew, Generic Texan and Generic Guido team up to win World War II by spouting the most boring dialogue possible. (Unlike those, it also sticks to the best part, which was being one mook in a big battle that's going to go on with or without you.) You won't even get massive autistic infodumps like Isonzo does. But it is functional. The different roles are fun to play. The worst thing I can say for the AI is that it doesn't hit the dirt like a human player will. It is sort of... inconsistently smart. It seems to have no self-preservation around tanks (they die like flies to them) but their competence is about right to put up a fight.

Go buy it for $8, or better yet, $30 for the whole bundle (I got it on a big sale). It is based.
 
I quite like this game, even if the fact so many mods need all DLC to play sucks ass. I need to buy all the DLC eventually.
 
I love the shit out of the game ever since almost every item was from the unity asset store and the vehicles looked like they were modeled in 2003.

It's got even better since then.


If you want to get violently motion sick then be the tail gunner for an AI pilot.

Edit: if you're the collectable type then most maps have at least one 'gold dogtag' that lets you spawn as a historical figure with a unique loadout. But just once per mission, and you still die just as easily.

You can also rummage through corpses for ammo, weapons, bandages, tuna (used to be the only healing item in the game) and hats just like a FPS mowass2.
 
I'll be honest I'm really tired of WW2 games (all media really) just hitting France 1944 highlights. I wish more games had China as a theater and thankfully this game delivers
 
How's the AI? I'm not looking for something on-par with actual people but when I bought Ravenfield it was super disappointing since the AI just ran in a conga line towards an objective with enemies randomly deciding to focus on you instead of simulating an actual battlefield with a bit of randomness.

The Steam forums aren't all that useful since most of the feedback I could find is from earlier this year/last year from before their recent AI rework.
 
How's the AI? I'm not looking for something on-par with actual people but when I bought Ravenfield it was super disappointing since the AI just ran in a conga line towards an objective with enemies randomly deciding to focus on you instead of simulating an actual battlefield with a bit of randomness.

The Steam forums aren't all that useful since most of the feedback I could find is from earlier this year/last year from before their recent AI rework.
I guess it's fine? It doesn't to my observation use advanced squad tactics or anything like that. It survives. It takes cover, hits the dirt, attacks from multiple directions, etc., but it's a little "sluggish" in doing that. So for example, this game is the first one I've played that has really sold how important is to use different positions because unlike things like WW1 Game Series you don't have gamey, carefully designed terrain to just feed you cover that's dolled up as thematically correct; half the time you have open desert or fields and you will just die. So you learn to hit the dirt whenever you hear bullets come in, crouch to return fire, stand to run and feel the rhythm of when they're done returning fire (safe to crouch or run). The AI will sometimes lay down to return fire, sometimes it just mulls around.

But it's functional, it does actively fight back.

The biggest asymmetry I see is in tanks. Enemy tanks in my experience are pretty effective at fighting you in a tank. On the other hand, the guy didn't seem to code in any behavior for infantry to just flee from a tank, so they're overpowered there.

The AI just doesn't other me.

I've never seen anything like that conga lining. If you are out way on a flank sniping them as a designated marksman some will stop, turn their attention and return fire if they realize what you are doing, some will continue on their way to reinforce the front.

It's better than Enlisted. That may have also have to do with there not being an enemy team, but even just in terms of me versus the enemy bots, you cannot annihilate a whole squad as quickly or effortlessly as in Enlisted.
 
I liked the game but it wasnt for me (i refunded it 2 times ) but for the 3rd time i will pirate it and see how it is.
Also if you are interesting into games with AI that can do some shit (idk how much since i refunded that game too) you can check out Angels Fall First its sci fi shit or you can go to classic Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) or if you want more grounded shit you can check out older Battlefield games (there are mods to fix some issues with ai in 2)
 
How's the AI? I'm not looking for something on-par with actual people but when I bought Ravenfield it was super disappointing since the AI just ran in a conga line towards an objective with enemies randomly deciding to focus on you instead of simulating an actual battlefield with a bit of randomness.

The Steam forums aren't all that useful since most of the feedback I could find is from earlier this year/last year from before their recent AI rework.
I've seen AI demonstrate different behavior by faction too. Japs bayonet charge like crazy on Makin.


I've beaten Kos, Tunisia, France, Makin, all but one of Shanghai, most of Nanking.
I'm real disappointed with Omaha Beach. It's a common problem with games that they might perfectly recreate a battlefield, but it's given a token force of troops that aren't enough to defend a position properly. It's really a video game designer trick: when the defenses aren't fully manned, it lets you keep the theming of real combat (working trenches, moving from cover to cover) while turning the defenses into an attacker's asset. Isonzo and Verdun depend on this.

But, apply that to D-Day, or at least badly, and it's absolutely absurd. Storm the beach and take it... right away.

Makin is genuinely miserable.

Stalingrad so far seems brilliantly realized.
 
I was partially wrong about Shanghai-Nanking. It sucks that it doesn't depict the distinctive deep city fighting and that (historically accurate) it's a mindless infantry and armored car fight, but two things it has going for it are that Chinese cities are very distinctive and it does a good job with the feeling of an operation creeping in around the suburbs of a city (getting more and more dense, or vice versa pushing out).

Chinese cities have these grid patterns, HUGE wide roads, and especially the walls. I've never seen something like that before, a Medieval siege feeling against tall, thick walls like storming a castle (but under machine gun fire from it).
 
It fills me with bitterness that Enlisted is now like sawdust in my mouth (it was like gruel before) when they've added the Russo-Japanese front on top of the Burma campaign.
Aside from the gameplay itself (and they're trying to do different things, but I'll still say Easy Red 2 is just better), Easy Red does NOT do something I found obnoxious in Enlisted. Enlisted's voice calls have always sounded theatrical and silly in a way that to me almost feels disrespectful. Kids playing GI Joes ina sandbox versus bland background noise ala Battlefield.
 
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