'83

Soldato
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Haven't seen a thread about this one yet, but I imagine there might be a few Red Orchestra/Rising Storm fans here who might be interested.


‘83 is a Cold-War-Gone-Hot, combined arms, squad-based, tactical online FPS build around the idea of 'accessible realism' - which is all about making the gameplay feel as realistic as possible, until it stops being fun. And then we wind the realism back a notch to keep the mechanics enjoyable!


I, for one, am hyped about this. Over the years, the Red Orchestra/Rising Storm series of games have been the only ones that really excite me. RS2 is still the only online FPS I regularly play. It strikes just the right balance of realistic feeling and impactful gunplay and player movement, authentic weapons and settings, and large-scale, objective-based infantry combat - but does away with concepts like medics and detailed logistics management in favour of wave reinforcement respawns. Which means that it feels realistic, but there's plenty of action and the game never puts realism in front of fun - "accessible realism". You can dive into the game for an hour or so and be guaranteed plenty of action.

As a very brief history - Rising Storm 2 (which grew out of the Red Orchestra series) was developed by Antimatter Games, who then went on to start two other projects, a Project IGI continuation, and '83, an online only tactical shooter in a similar style to RS2. Eventually they canned '83, but then Blue Dot Games (which I think is formed of ex Antimatter devs, including those who worked on the RO series and the original Insurgency bought) the IP and have started actively developing it again - hence the reannouncement.

Unfortunately, RS2 was pretty much abandoned in 2019 (apart from a couple of recent patches) so I've been left feeling a bit downhearted that no other game scratched the same itch - I tried Squad for a while, but got bored of spending hours in games doing not a lot - digging fortifications, staring at a black screen waiting for a medic - I just don't have the time to devote to hugely long games anymore, and it's a game which is absolutely reliant on having good squad leaders. Same for Post Scriptum/Squad 44. Hell Let Loose seemed to be the best successor, but some of the gunplay and mechanics I found frustrating and it never grabbed me. Insurgency: Sandstorm has fantastic gunplay and realistic settings, but it's pretty small scale. Battlefield, CoD - none of these are on my radar really, all too fast paced for my aging reactions :D

'83 looks like the only chance of a game which is going to continue that spirit, so I'm pretty invested in it succeeding. So if you have any interest at all, please wishlist the game on Steam and share it around, as I think games like these tend to be pretty niche and it deserves every chance it can get.
 
Waited years for this and watched Bigfry stream it, looks like hot garbage.. Off my wishlist it goes.
 
Anyone tried this yet? Launched today
Forgot about this thread tbh as no one seemed interested. I haven't tried EA yet, as I'm away from home until Saturday....but I actually ended up getting accepted as a tester in the middle of last year, and have been attending regular internal playtests, including a final test of the EA release build on Tuesday.

My opinion - it's still got a fair way to go before it can truly be considered a true RO successor, but the fundamentals are there. The gunplay needs refinement, and animations are a bit rough in places, but over the last few months I've found myself enjoying the game and gunplay more than a lot of contemporary shooters. Still not quite as good as RS2 - weapons could do with a bit more weight and punch, and probably more impactful recoil. And it feels a little sterile, like it could do with more atmosphere. But the essential gameplay loop very much reminds me of RO/RS - it's got that same blend of accessible realism; it feels slower and more realistic to play, but it doesn't have mechanics which keep you out of the action for long like medics, or reviving, or having to yomp several miles to find action.

However for all it's faults, I'm fairly optimistic because over the last few months, I've seen huge improvements and a dev team that's been attentive to feedback. Last winter, they released a public demo and it was - rough. Really rough. And the feedback bore that out - really it shouldn't have been shown in that state, imo. However, they took that on board, postponed their previous EA release schedule and went back to testing, and it's improved a lot since then. Like I said, still needs work; but I noticed over the past few months that I was really looking forward to the regular weekly playtests, and being a bit sad when they ended after a couple of hours. I had the urge that I'd like to keep playing, which I think says a lot.

As to whether it's worth your money, I think that depends. If you're a fan of the RO franchise, I still think this has the best chance of continuing that vein. But it's still going to need work, and there's absolutely no guarantee it will get there. Especially as I fear it's going to end up fizzling out first - it's already a niche game and I don't think it makes an amazing first impression (see reply above, and mixed Steam reviews already). And full disclosure, I won a release key as part of a weekly giveaway for attending playtests, so much as I'd like people to buy it to support it, I haven't had to spend money myself.

My advice - buy it, start a 1hr 55min timer and play it. If you like what you see and think it's got potential, keep it and see how it improves; if not, refund and move on.
 
Well written there Conscript.

Yeah I completely agree with your sentiments. I did buy it and I've put 3.5 hours into it. And it does leave me feeling a little bit meh and underwhelmed.

It all seems a bit safe and lacks punch in many areas. I think there is a patch out today at some point so I've heard which might improve a couple of bits, but I think it will take quite a while for it to get a fair bit better.

It just doesn't seem to have that " God I can't wait to play it again" feeling.
 
If i had a quid for every half arsed early access tactical shooter that gets released...
I think when you consider the effort that the dev team has gone to to bring the game back from the dead, and (in my experience) the work and improvement the devs have put into the game over quite a short space of time, it's a bit unfair to label it haff-arsed.
I've got my reservations about it, and it's not yet everything I hoped for, but credit where credit is due to them for trying to revive a franchise I love.

I do take your point though - this segment of the market is crowded, which is one of the issues; they're going to have trouble standing out.
 
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