Remember the days when vidya was all about trying to be realistic as possible and had a focus on gameplay rather than on (((narrative)))?

well there is one game that does both and gives the player an unbiased narrative through the harsh, brutal environment of the eastern front

the game is fairly simple, they'll give you a medal of honor styled boot-camp basic tutorial (as a german solider)

where you'll learn all the basic stuff and controls

the funny thing about RO 2 that the default starting campaign is the German one and only AFTER completing the german campaign you can play the (((soviet))) campaign

anyway the game gives simple objectives such as "go kill some commies" or defend an objective

using the battlefront 2 unit deployment system, where you have a number of troops and once a troop dies you go and play another troop on the battlefield

each mission takes on a different roleplay, at the first missions you'll play as a rifle man and later missions will teach you how to command a squad and issue orders, how to control tanks and how to play the team-leader role

it's effectively a campaign and a multiplayer tutorial at the same time, which is why i recommend playing on a harder difficulty than normal

as the maps from the single player are used in multiplayer, (similar to battlefront 2) it's highly recommend to play the campaign before you go to multiplayer, and i'ed highly recommend you test out the guns and realistic sights system before getting entering the MP battlefield

Now gameplay mechanics worthy of mentioning:

you have two bars in this game, stamina (for sprinting, vaulting over objects and jumping) and combat morale

getting shot at, explosives blasting around you will reduce it (it regenerates fairly quickly)

you can sprint while crouched and can go prone mid sprint (useful since prone makes you regenerate stamina fairly quickly, not to mention reduces your hitbox and gives you more accuracy)

Cover Mechanic: while you can play this game like your typical E-shooter (you can lean to the sides using the Q and E keys)

you can also play it like a strategy shooter by pressing F (the action) next to a sand-bag or a wall, to easily pop in and out of cover (there is also blindfire)

being behind cover will also speed up the generation of battle morale

Spotting mechanic, unlike battlefield the spotting mechanic is vague and highly situational

when you "spot" someone he will only blip on your allies screen for a few seconds, servers with a realistic setting on makes the spotting mechanic almost completely useless since the spotting will give a vague location of the enemy on your allies screen

there are ammo boxes that refill your ammo and grenade spread around the map

by pressing ALT you will bring up your tactical HUD which will highlight the objectives, your teammates and ammoboxes and radio stations (relevant only to Team-leaders)

miscellaneous shit:

when shoot you can pat up the wound by pressing F, light wounds (yellow) might not need patching and simply by crouching or going prone the bleeding will go away

you can press 6 for different fire mores (for example turning an automatic rifle/sub-machinegun to semi-auto mode, or using the ironsights of a sniper rifle)

you can bind an additional key for "alternative fire mode" for machine guns (single fire or bursts)

you can also adjust the ironsights/scope for longer ranges (extremely situational, on rifles don't do this it's fucking pointless since most rifles are effective up to 400-500 meters+)

Squad Leader mechanics: if you're new to the game, don't play squad leader UNLESS you've played the campaign

squad leaders much like battlefield are the respawning point for your squad, so your objective is not to die and give marks on the map for Artillery (will expand on this on the TL section)

if you're playing a game with bots (such on empty or half empty servers) it is highly useful to use the "B" command widget to tell troops to assault/defend a position

and if you're using strategy to the extreme, cycle between your fireteams (assault, riflemen, and LMG) and place them on key location (only really useful on defense and playing vs bots, on full servers there is no need for all this)

SL start with advanced weaponary (either a semi-auto or a submachine gun) and they also get a smoke grenade which is extremely useful for assaulting an entrenched position

you also get a binoculars which you use to mark positions for the TL to drop a fat payload on (you can also mark for arty by pressing your unit command key (F2) and then pressing left click

this is arguably better because you can still have a gun in your hand as you are busy marking though for long distance precision use the binoculars

to expand on the subject refer to this guide

Team-leader: this position can turn the tide of battle or absolutely shoot a team in the foot

he who picks this class in MP bears a heavy burden since Artillery can totally change the course of battle

you start with advanced weaponary (same as SL) and get 2 smoke grenade instead of 1

teamleaders also instantly respawn the whole team by pressing N (has a 2 Min cooldown)

they can also contact the radio for an Aerial Recon (map will show enemy locations)

just like the SL the TL has the ability to mark positions for arty

and to drop a payload on a marked location one must go to a radio station click the marked location and select which payload to drop

you have 2 options, dropping mortars (light cooldown) or artillery barrage (5 min cooldown)

you'ed most likely want to drop artillery on locations that bottleneck the enemy (either a spawning position, or a position that prevents the enemies from advanacing, but of course to drop artillery's on an entrenched position would be best (provided you warn your team not to advance to that location if that's an objective

you can stop an artillery barrage by press M (brings up the map) and moving the mouse and pressing "cancel barrage"

if you want more on this refer to this guide

Tank-busters: this game doesn't have bazookas or panzershrekts since it mostly revolves around conflict and weapons from 1940-1942

so instead you get an anti-tank rifle which absolute shrekts infantry but has to be mounted in order to fire (either on a sand-bag/cover on while prone)

to shoot a tank effectively you'll have to aim for weak parts (the back, the tracks, the gunnery) here's a guide

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=144224938

Sniper class: self-explanatory

you're the one who's supposed to sneak away to the other half of the map and snipe the machine gunners and squad leaders

don't take this if you suck (cause there is only 3 slots per team)

Assault class: the submachine gun class, useful for CQC and clearing out objectives

Elite Assault class: an extremely important class that i DO NOT recommend taking unless you know what you're doing (limited to only 2 slots per team)

Germans get the legendary MP44 (in this game it's the MkB-42 which was the predecessor)

and soviets get the AVT-40

only available to people veterans (people who have achieved over surpassed level 20 or people who bought the "i got more money than you" edition (which is literally a difference of a few dollars nowadays on CD-key sites)

great for CQC and even mid range sniping (put it to semi-auto mod) since 1-2 bullets are enough to kill someone (for a rifle one bullet to the torso is enough)

Engineer class: situational has a satchel charge to destroy destructible barriers or objectives on certain maps

uses a SMG fairly straight forward

Rifleman: while straightforward this class is unironically the most powerful of them all, since one shoot=1 kill

highly recommended to use rifles from cover to cover, and in CQC you can try your luck shooting from the hip or melee the foes if you've unlocked your beyonet (first unlock for rifleman)

and yes the game features an unlock system, though the unlocks are not game breaking

they often give an advantage (or disadvantage) to players depending on the weapon itself

note: you can't buy your way through the unlock system like (((most))) AAA games, no for this you'll have to play well or grind

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180151731

Tank operator: the final and last class, since i'm a lazy nigger i'm just gonna tell you this

DON'T PICK THIS UNLESS YOU'VE PLAYED THE CAMPAIGN

tank operator demands not only teamwork, but knowledge of how to operate a tank

though you can also play as a tank gunner if someone already took a tank class and decided to allow players in instead of bots

though since the game has friendly fire on, i recommend this only to seasoned players

yes, if you suck at games and want to play something casual, stop reading right now and go play the latest Faggotfield or Cuck of Duty.

for multiplayer there are two modes, normal and realistic campaigns

realistic campaigns were actually the building block for battlefield 1's "operations" and it's the OG content that keeps you coming back

i'm not gonna spoil the whole thing, but set your online filters to campaign and see for yourself why it's so popular