Easy Red 2

Review

Easy Red 2 is a WWII themed FPS simulator developed by Marco Amadei. An early access game with a fun gameplay and a ton of future potential.

Easy Red 2 currently offers an in-depth campaign based on real historical events set in two theatres of World War 2, and a basic firing range map called Virtual Training.

The game also promises a lot and features road map containing future features to be added and a list of known issues. After going through this list and hours playing in-game, I must say I am very impressed with how the game is shaping up and what it might become in the future.

Campaign: Easy Red 2 currently features two theatres of WWII Italy and the Pacific. Both feature historically accurate events and the game tries to portray that image.

Battle of Anzio; The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944, to June 5, 1944. The operation was opposed by German forces in the areas of Anzio and Nettuno. You will be fighting the Germans on five separate battles set on historically accurate dates and times. 

Battle of Kwajalein; is the second campaign in-game set in the Pacific theatre of WWII in the Marshal Islands.

The Battle of Kwajalein was fought as part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. It took place from 31 January – 3 February 1944, on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The game currently features one mission, the battle of Kwajalein Island.

Gameplay: Currently the game features a lot of functions and promises a lot of features in future updates.

The gameplay is mostly a mixture between casual fps and a detailed simulator-style gameplay, which plays out well with the campaign. You can attack as the Allies or defend as the Axis powers.

Basic WASD Movements, while not sluggish, are pretty slow. You are carrying a lot of gear and the weight is slowing you down, so when you think about it, the heavier movements start to feel kinda immersive, in a way.

Where the movement machine comes short is its crouching and proning system. In FPS simulators, both crouching and proning play an important part. And this game comes short in this aspect with its sluggish and slow movement, glitches, and poor animations. During intense firefights, I died a lot because of its sluggish crouching and proning systems.

Gunplay; for the most part, gunplay in this game played out really well, with its historically accurate portrayal of slow-firing guns in addition to weapons that have a high rate of fire and dry out magazines in a blink of an eye.

The detailing and animations are well put together and played out well, except for the heavy MG’s and Sniper Rifles, with their animation issues and issues while crouching. The devs seemed to notice this and promised a future fix. Till then, I’ll be staying away from the heavy MGs.

Game mode; the game currently hosts two campaigns and six separate battles within them. There are only two styles of gameplay: Attack (as the Allied forces, capture the given targets and kill the defenders), and Defend (as the Axis powers, defend your objectives against waves of enemy infantry squads).

The only downside here is that you can push in-land until you win the battle as the Allied forces but you can’t seem to push back the Allied forces as the Axis power. Other than that, there's nothing much to it currently.

Soldiers: The game currently hosts infantry gameplay only. You will be playing as a part of an infantry fire team, and each team has a leader and six soldiers: Squad leader, Radioman, Marksman, Heavy MG, AT unit, & Rifleman. The whole squad can be controlled using the in-game commands.

The US and German forces currently have a detailed lineup of infantry fire teams including Paratrooper fire teams with a few different weapons.

And then there's the Japanese fire teams with poor weaponry and no Paratroopers.

Inventory system: The game features a detailed inventory system, with a lot of items from all the factions to interact with. You can shuffle through your inventory using ‘’I’’. Pick up gears, weapons, and ammunition from dead bodies.

The game also features a one-click simple healing system with bandages, but there’s no animation for it.

Sound effects: Sound effects are another area where the game comes short, with its poorly designed sound effects and issues while firing weapons (mostly heavies) and explosions.

Ignoring minor issues with the gun sounds, I did still enjoy the gunplay, but the sound issues with the explosions were a deal-breaker for me. 

Visuals: Visually simple with a large playable area. The game doesn’t really appeal much with the quality of its graphics and environment design.

But the game tries its best to put different elements in motion, to make the maps appear as the historical battlegrounds that they should be according to the era. It’s not perfect, but I appreciate the effort.

World Design: With a large sandbox playable area, the game is giving the player much-needed flexibility to move and flank. For the most part, the world seems empty, with a few exceptions where there are areas crowded with trees and two-storied housing.  This makes the game very difficult for the attackers to attack without getting shot by a sniper.

Review written by BiteMexD for Zeepond.com!