For the past few weeks I have been addicted to a cheap indie fps known as Easy Red 2 by Corvostudios. The game relies on the fast paced movements of your troops constantly pushing forward in waves to overwhelm the defending troops and continually push them back through various stages of defense. Easy Red reminds me a lot of early Battlefield gameplay, especially the first console entry, Battlefield 2; Modern Combat, which featured an interesting mechanic that allowed you to jump from friendly unit to friendly unit to gain a tactical advantage over your enemy, or to simply swap to a character that still has some ammunition to fight back with. A mechanic I thoroughly enjoyed in the singleplayer portion of the game.
Easy Red 2 features a similar mechanic. At the beginning of each match you are given the option to select which squad you wish to be a part of. This can include different types of infantry squadrons, tanks, troop transports, and planes. But it doesn't end there, as seen in the above right photo, at any point you can hold the X button on your keyboard and switch to any other squadmember that is still alive. Do not fear if all your friendly catch some hot lead, once new squads move forward you will automatically join a new squadron and you can swap to a new unit if needed! If you are the unlucky pixellated soul to fall in combat you will have the chance to rejoin the combat by swapping to one of your other squadmates. If you and all your squadmates have all perished then you will be prompted to join a new squadron making their way up from the spawnpoint. In the case of this mission, you will rejoin in a new troop transport boat to storm the beaches. Once your team captures the beach they will then be able to spawn from the nearby road.
Battles in Easy Red 2 are something I've only really seen in the grandest of games. The hail of gunfire, both incoming and outgoing, can be overwhelming at times. The cacophony of war rings all around you, machine gun fire to the right, through the smoke ahead of you at least two infantry squads are unloading volley after volley through the dense grey smoke. Above you the distinct and terrifying whine of the Stuka dive siren can be heard. Three large thuds to your far left tells you the squadron that had your flank is now a red mist. Thats when you hear the 16 inch ship guns open up. Your mate on your flank must have been able to call in the artillery. A second later the first shell crashed into the front of a two storey building, blowing the front completely off. The next rounds crashed in all around the first. Using the confusion of the artillery as cover, you make it to the low wall that separates beach from town. Pull up your Thompson submachine gun you start slinging .45 caliber rounds towards the Jerries hiding behind a sandbag. Barely able to see anything through your peep site, you manage to take the helmet off one of the Germans holding the beach. Another falls to a few rounds to the shoulder. After your next burst that misses high and to the right you hear the click of an empty magazine. Quickly reaching for a new mag, you see out of the corner of your eye an entire squadron of fresh enemy troops heading right for you. They stop and fire, at least, you think they fired. Your world went black before you were sure.
Each life in Easy Red ends with the name, date of birth and date of death of the person you played as. Making each life feel like a small chapter in a larger novel. Now, don't get me wrong. I know this is a video game. And I know most likely, these names are fictitious, like the battles. But a part of me knows that real people faced this and worse in real life. And games like these allow you to be a part of the harrowing experiences of war. Something that I've grown to appreciate more and more as I age and our current world climate continues to develop. Video games are entertainment at the end of the day, and they make digital war fun. But real war is anything but fun.
Being in war is endless hours of mind-numbing boredom interspersed with intense moments of sheer terror.
To get back to the gameplay of Easy Red 2, each mission and campaign in the game can be played from both sides! When choosing a mission, you get the choice of which nation to fight for. The default first option will always be the attackers, and the second option will be the defending nation. I already covered the goal of the attackers, force through various defenses to the end objective. For defenders it's a bit more simple. You have to outlast the enemy waves until they run out of troops to attack. Sometimes this can be relatively easy and the attacking forces can be stopped in the first wave. But the gods of RNG are a fickle beast and the next time you try that same mission the enemy will have you pushed back all the way to the last objective. Can you withstand the onslaught?
The same troop-swapping mechanics apply to the defending team, so feel free to issue orders as your commander and then swap to the MG42 to buzzsaw the beaches. Once you deplete your ammunition try your hand at being a sniper for a bit, or maybe you will become the medic and bravely run forth to bring fallen friendly back into the fight.
The game also allows you to control the amount of bots that fight alongside and against you. I often will put it on the maximum amount so that the odds feel ever against me. Death happens so fast when there is upwards of 5 or 6 squadrons running around per side. But it also falls upon them just a quickly!
Currently in the game there are missions that follow 3 separate campaigns, with one additional DLC campaign recently released. Each campaign consists of several missions played over a vast map. There is well over a dozen missions for you to play, and with both the attackers and defenders being playable it doubles the campagin length! All this is available for under $10 CAD, with the DLC being an additional $5 CAD. You can easily get this game and the DLC on sale for under $15! And it is well worth the price.
Easy Red 2 is available on PC and Nintendo Switch, with future plans to release on X-Box. The game is also currently undergoing some campaign reworks that will see some of the Pacific Campaign maps change dramatically, and there us rumors that more maps will be added in the near future! There is also a multiplayer portion of the game that I unfortunately have to leave unexplored due to my current network conditions. Alas, The arctic is not friendly for modern day gamers.
Find my photographs of Nunavut scenery and Wildlife on my website, Midnight Sunsets
Follow me on twitter here: @MidnightSunsets
I am also on Instagram: @midnightsunsetsphotography
