Rising Storm 2: Vietnam throws Australians into the fray
Throw a shrimp on the napalm
Crikey! Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, the unforgiving multiplayer shooter from the Red Orchestra devs, has gone down under for its first major update - and come back with an Australian fighting force that's equipped with new weapons and vehicles. The fighting still takes place in Vietnam - it's in the name, innit - but the Bushranger update also brings 3 new maps for the new soldiers to shoot their way around, as well positional voice chat and more.
(There won't be any more lazy verbal Aussie appropriation in this post, promise.)
There are 6 new weapons in total, and seeing as their specific models don't tell me anything more than 'LMG' or 'SMG', I'll leave those of you that are more au fait with historical boomsticks than I to look over them in the patch notes.
Continuing our 'Matt does not know much about the Vietnam war' theme, let me tell you about the new maps. Operation Forrest is the game's "largest Supremacy map to date", while Rung Sac is "an assault on a colonial French fort". Lastly, Long Tan features "the iconic Australian night battle in heavy rain". If your interest is piqued by the real history behind those maps, there's a neat thread on the game's steam community page which goes into just that. I've heard that the 10 part BBC documentary that's currently airing is pretty good, too.
Jumping back into the video game details immediately after linking to that makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but if we're going to play and talk about a game based on a relatively recent conflict then I don't think the real world history is something we should shy away from.
The update also brings in the Bushranger helicopter, which is equipped with "Dual M60's for the door gunners, reticulated miniguns and rocket pods". You'll also see the Canberra Bomber in the skies, in the form of a new commander ability that lets you send in the plane to carpet-bomb an area.
As well as the new features, the update also tweaks the balance of various weapons and squashes a swamp-load of bugs. Here are the patch notes in full.
Samuel Horti gave the game a glowing review:
"It's not the most polished shooter but it does shine in all the right places, and it builds on the huge potential of Red Orchestra, which I loved. There are very few games that can match the feeling you get when you watch an artillery strike destroy a treeline and push up with your squad mates under the cover of smoke and deafening explosions. If you're after a slower-paced shooter with tactical combat and tense moments, then it's time to enlist."
You can enlist via the Rising Storm 2's Steam page, where the game is half price until 6pm GMT on December 1st.