The direct sequel to Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam brings the intense tactical realism of Tripwire Interactive's Red Orchestra series into the the Vietnam War, at the height of American involvement, with the notable continuation of asymmetrical faction elements from the previous title (such as the helicopters and air support of the American forces versus the tunnel spawn system of the Vietnamese forces). Both the United States Army and Marine Corps are present in levels based on their respective battles of the war, fighting against either the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) or the People's Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army). A new feature of this title is the ability for the player to customize the personal appearance of their in-game character, differentiated between the four factions and the additional helicopter pilot class of the US forces.
The following weapons appear in the video game Rising Storm 2: Vietnam (2017).
Weapons of the US Army, USMC and the Australian Army
Sidearms
Colt M1911A1
As with the previous title, the Colt M1911A1 is available as a sidearm to most classes in the US forces, with the exception of the Grunt, and the Radioman and Combat Engineer on some maps. It comes with two spare 7-round magazines.
Added in the 1.03 update, the M1917 Revolver is an alternative to the 1911 pistol for US forces issued with a sidearm. It is fired in double-action mode with a significantly long trigger pull and poor accuracy, but the hammer can also be cocked manually before each shot to eliminate the delay and the accuracy penalty. The revolver is loaded using two half-moon clips, and comes with 6 spares for a total of the 3 reloads from empty. It cannot be reloaded if less than three rounds : the player character never ejects a clip if there are still rounds on it. So if 3 to 5 rounds have been fired, he only ejects the half-moon clip with the spent rounds on it by keeping the other one in place with his palm, and one loaded half-moon clip is placed inside the cylinder. If all the rounds have been fired, both clips are ejected and two new ones are put in place.
The M3A1 Grease Gun is available to the Pointman, Combat Engineer, and Commander classes. It is issued with 3 spare magazines, and its wire stock can be collapsed for added maneuvrability in tight spaces which, naturally, also decreases accuracy.
The 12-gauge Ithaca 37 pump-action shotgun, used extensively by US forces in Vietnam, is available to the Pointman and Combat Engineer classes. It comes in three distinct variants :
- the full-size Trench Gun sports wooden furniture, a heat shield, and a bayonet lug which can mount a standard M7 bayonet. It holds 5 shells.
- the 'Stakeout' Riot Gun is a handier variant, with a pistol grip and no buttstock, that also recoils a lot harder. Note that it isn't an actual 'Stakeout' model : it has a standard 20-inch barrel instead of the shortened 13-inch barrel.
- the 'Duckbill' Conversion is fitted with an extended magazine tube that holds 8 shells, and a muzzle attachment that spreads out fired pellets in a wide, horizontal pattern.
Both the Trench and Riot Guns are issued with 35 shells of either 00 Buckshot (8 large pellets) or No.4 Buckshot (16 smaller pellets) : the former packs more punch, while the latter increases hit probability at extended ranges because of the sheer number of projectiles. The 'Duckbill' Conversion on the other hand comes with 32 shells of No.4 Buckshot only, to get the most out of its muzzle attachement. It is worth to note that the reload sequence for all the available Model 37 variants is performed incorrecty. When reloading from empty, the player character always puts one shell too many in the magazine tube (5 when there should be 4 for the Trench and Riot Guns, 8 when there should be 7 in the 'Duckbill' Conversion), and does so while the bolt is back so when he racks the action forward, there should be no round in the chamber. And when topping off the magazine tube, he racks the action backward before filling up the magazine tube, which is not only unnecessary but also counter-productive as it ejects an unfired shell.
The M16A1 is the assault rifle of the US Rifleman. It comes with seven spare 20-round magazines that actually hold 18 (a common practice to avoid magazine-related malfunctions), accepts a bayonet, and both the short-range and long-range apertures are usable.
The M14 rifle is a large-caliber alternative to the M16 for US Grunts and Radiomen, and is the only rifle available to the Commander role. It is capable of mounting a bayonet, and is issued with five spare 20-round magazines that can be topped off using 5-round stripper clips. Its rear sight can be adjusted for elevation through five settings, from 91 meters all the way up to 457 meters (100 to 500 yards). Although the real-life M14 is select-fire, the in-game version can only be fired in semi-automatic mode (as was common practice during the Vietnam conflict).
The XM21 rifle is available to the US Army Marksman. It comes in two variants :
- the Standard variant is just what you'd expect. It can mount a bayonet.
- the Suppressed variant (added as part of the August 2017 1.03 update) is a little more interesting : it is fitted with a sound suppressor instead of the standard flash hider, and fires subsonic ammunition. Its action also has to be manually operated after each shot, so either the lower power ammunition can't cycle the bolt, or the gas sytem has been cut off by the user to avoid the action noise and make the rifle as quiet as possible.
Both rifles come with an AR TEL scope with six magnification setting from 3x to 9x. Each magnification setting also has its own zero setting (the higher the magnification, the higher the zero distance), and it is different for the two rifles because of the different ammunition they fire. The Standard variant starts off at 100m and can get to 700m in 100m increments, while the Suppressed variant begins at 50m and can get to 200m in 25m increments. They also have an alternate aiming mode for close range where the player character simply points the rifle forward and the view magically zooms in.
Both rifles come with 3 spare 20-round magazines.
The M40 Sniper Rifle is issued to the USMC Marksman with the equivalent of six stripper clips of spare ammunition, for a total of 30 spare rounds. Its distinctively-finished Redfield scope is elevation-adjustable through 6 settings, from 90 to 550 meters (100 to 600 yards), However, unlike the actual scope, it is not adjustable for magnification but locked to 3x. This means the scope's rangefinder doesn't work even though the necessary reticule markings are correctly featured (see pictures for detailed explanation). The scope also covers up the feeding/ejection port so the M40 must be reloaded with individual rounds.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingM40 sniper rifle - 7.62x51mm NATOFile:RS2VM40I.jpgHolding the M40.Error creating thumbnail: File missingThe rangefinding procedure for this Redfield scope is as follows : 1) Place the target between the two horizontal lines at the top. 2) Adjust the magnification for it to perfectly fit. 3) If you zoomed in, the range scale zoomed in too, so now part of it is cut off by the edge of the scope. 4) The bottom-most figure on the scale is your approximate range to the target. This can't be done in game because the scope's magnification is fixed. The horizontal bars at the top also appear to be too close to eachother for man-sized targets : when looking at a target we know is at 200 yards, it's twice as tall as the space between the bars.File:RS2VM40B.jpgOperating the M40's bolt.File:RS2VM40R.jpgReloading the M40.
Machine Guns
M60 GPMG
The M60 is the main machine gun of the American forces, and only available to the Machine Gunner. "The Pig" is issued with either three 100-round belt boxes, or a single 200-round belt of 7.62x51mm ammunition, with one in five a tracer. Its rear leaf sight is adjustable for elevation in 100-meter increments, from 400m to a rather optimistic 1100m. It also has a bipod usable when prone or behind cover.
The signature weapon of the Grenadier, the M79 Grenade Launcher is the only explosive launcher available to the US forces. It is quite versatile, as players have access to a variety of 40x46mm ammunition loadouts for different situations : 6 rounds of High-Explosive and 2 rounds of masking smoke, 6 rounds of HE and another 6 rounds of Buckshot, or simply 9 HE grenades. The HE rounds have a realistic arming distance of about 15 meters : within this range, they won't explode if they hit their target, or a barrier, to protect the shooter. Unexploded 40mm rounds still hurt though, and can kill with a well-placed shot : managing this will earn the player the 'Thumper' achievement. Finally, the M79's rear sight is adjustable for elevation from 50 to 300 meters, in 25 meters increments.
The Combat Engineer has a single M112 C4 charge at his disposal, given that he doesn't equip the flamethrower. It can either be stuck on a surface or thrown like a handgrenade, only not as far because of the weight, and is detonated from a distance. It is very powerful and can be used for ambushes or clearing fortified emplacements.
The Marksman has one Claymore mine, and the Pointman has two. It can be placed on the ground, and then detonated with a M57 switch, sending dozens of deadly fragments in the direction the front of the mine faces.
Two M60D Machine Guns are mounted on the UH-1 'Huey' transport helicopter, one on each side. They can be used by the passengers, with no class requirement, to suppress ground troops.
The MAT-49 is a usable submachine gun for the Vietnamese forces. Players can choose between the original French 9mm version or the Vietnamese 7.62x25mm Tokarev conversion, the latter has an increased fire rate.
The PPSh-41 is another usable submachine gun for the Vietnamese forces, having a much higher fire rate than the MAT-49. Like in Red Orchestra 2, the PPSh starts off with 35-round magazines, though the original 71-round drum magazines are also available in the loadout screen. The fire selector is also usable on the base weapon. The model looks slightly different though.
A double-barreled IZH-58 shotgun is usable for the Vietnamese forces in both full-length, Coach Gun and sawed-off versions. The Sawn off version appears to reload slightly faster and is limited to 00 Buckshot while the Coach Gun and Full-lenghth versions are able to use 1oz Slugs in addition to Buckshot.
Several AK-pattern rifles grouped under the "AK-47" classification are available to the Rifleman on the North Vietnamese side :
- the AKM, with its fixed wood stock, 'bakelite' pistol grip, ribbed dust cover and open front sight ring. It accepts a Type II bayonet.
- the Type 56, that differs with its wood pistol grip, smooth dust cover and fully enclosed front sight ring. It also has integrated spike bayonet which can be unfolded.
- the Type 56-1 is the underfolding variant of the Type 56. It doesn't have a bayonet.
All three rifles come with three spare 30-round steel magazines. They can be fired in semi or fully-automatic, and while the fire selector is not animated and stays in the 'Safe' position, for some reason, the hand of the character actually moves down when switching to semi, and moves up when switching to fully-auto, which is some welcome attention to detail. The rear sight of all the rifles are adjustable for elevation from 100m to 800m in 100-meters increments, which is correct for the Type 56 guns, but not for the AKM which should be able to go up to 1000m.
The Mosin-Nagant M91/30 is the oldest gun in the game, available to the Vietnamese factions in both the standard and sniper rifle variants.
The former can be loaded with stripper clips, but the latter must be reloaded by individual rounds due to the scope.
The SVD Dragunov appears as another sniper rifle for the Vietnamese forces; its semi-automatic operation and box magazines are key advantages over the scoped Mosin-Nagant.
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