Today we revisit Easy Red 2, also known as singleplayer Enlisted without the grind, because it’s had some pretty hefty updates since my last review over a year ago.

Out of all the patch notes, the thing that got my attention the most was the introduction of realistic aircraft handling which I hoped would improve the utterly terrible, TERRIBLE flying and handling from when I last played it, and there’s no denying that improvements have been made across the board, though while it’s strong in certain areas, like the variety of weapons and the sheer scale of the battles it can support, I still feel like it’s lacking in some critical areas, like how clunky the movement feels and how stupid the AI can be, and honestly after revisiting the game and checking out some of the changes and seeing some small improvements here and a new map there, it mostly still feels the same as it did last year… Kind of shit, which is something it also shares in common with Enlisted.

Sure the maps are pretty big, but they’re mostly empty, with most all of the action taking place in whatever small area of the map currently holds the objectives… And yeah it can support a lot of bots, but they’re mostly stupid and couldn’t hit a barn door with a shotgun from 5 feet away… But at least you can jump in a plane and fly around bombing ground targets and dogfighting other fighters, though it’s probably not a good idea because while you’re up there, your team of bots will fail miserably to make any actual progress towards the objective.

Now defenders of the game may say that’s meant to be played in multiplayer where the bots are replaced by real people, but for that it would need people to actually play it so that’s not an option worth mentioning. Another popular comment on my last review was that this is the best shooter on Switch, but as I only really cover PC games on this channel, if you’re interested in getting it on Switch there’s probably much better channels out there that can help you out.

Yet despite still being a bit clunky and janky, it’s managed to carve out a pretty large and loyal community across various platforms that will defend it down to the ground, and it’s sitting comfortably in a niche in the market that basically no other games exist in – A ww2 sandbox shooter with lots of toys to play with, where you can fly, drive and fight your way across large, open maps, that’s easily moddable and focusses mainly on single player and coop gameplay.

Basically it’s like Battlefield 1942 but on bigger maps.

I jumped on for a few matches with Terrydactyl earlier today and, despite a few cool moments when we were pushing an objective or screaming down in a stuka reigning hell from above, it all just felt a bit meh, and it was impossible to ignore the clunky movement, the lacklustre sound effects, or the AI that would just stand there staring at you in a straight line that looked like they were using tactics straight out of the American Civil War, and yet despite all that, there’s something charming about it that I just can’t put my finger on… Though that could just be this Snickers I’m eating…

No but there are moments when this game can make me go “huh, that was pretty cool” or “damn, that was epic”, like when you’re rushing into a packed capture point filled with enemies, getting pinned by MG fire as artillery rains down from above and everyone’s shouting all around you, and you manage to get off a couple of good shots that turn the tide of the battle.

Or the medic system that dares to add a bit more complexity than most games are interested in, where downed friendlies and even enemies can be revived using one of 3 different medic tools, and you’ve got to use the right tool to get them back up based on the symbol they have above them when they’re laying on the ground.
And being able to play through the many missions on offer with full coop support in a sort of campaign style where each victory unlocks the next mission in the list, you know, that’s pretty cool, but every time I go back to it I just feel like those epic moments and cool bits are few and far between, and the rest feels a little big mediocre and boring.

#easyred2 #easyred2game