Grunts don’t give armour enough respect, tinned tuna is too common in inventories, and the Gurkhas don’t carry kukris. If you held a Luger to my head I guess I could come up with a few criticisms of Easy Red 2, but it would be a struggle. Recently updated and enlarged, Marco Amadei’s marvellous multi-front WW2 FPS is available for a paltry four quid at the moment. At that price, it puts the Browning automatic rifle in ‘bargain’.
The new Monte Cassino campaign that came with Monday’s wide-ranging update is worth the entrance fee on its own.
Fifteen missions long and as cosmopolitan as they come, it serves as a reminder of just how many nationalities fought and died in the shadow of that infamous hilltop monastery.
At various points, assuming you shun the Axis option, you’re drafted into British, US, French, Canadian, New Zealand, Indian, Nepali, and Polish ranks. Naturally, the uniform you wear, the equipment you carry, and the names and shouts of your comrades, reflect every nationality shift.
Not surprisingly, in the new mission sequence there’s plenty of advancing up steep, rock-strewn, bullet-lashed slopes with a rifle, SMG, or LMG in hand. It’s not all onwards and upwards though. Fights in flatter venues – villages, towns, vineyards etc – also figure.
As in the other stock campaigns (Anzio, Tunisia, Kos, Makin, and Operation Flintlock) maps are generally spacious affairs studded with unfolding objectives. On taking this peak or strongpoint, or that farmhouse or square, the next goal will appear on the map and HUD. After bandaging a wound perhaps, and wolfing down one of those tins of tunny that everyone seems to carry, you’re off again, dashing from cover to cover, issuing orders to your squad of AI comrades (assuming you choose to play as the squad leader) and taking aim at fleeting targets while bullets whip past.
Perish and, assuming your side hasn’t exhausted its manpower reserve, you can either respawn as another footslogger or, depending on the mission and your mood, try your hand in an AFV or aircraft. If a particular mission proves too difficult, there’s always the option of playing as the other side in order to progress.
While mission mechanics inspired by multiplayer formats means Easy Red 2 is bereft of story and characters, and doesn’t feature any stealthy interludes or other changes of pace, usually the maps and AI are sufficiently interesting to disguise the fact that every campaign episode is essentially a glorified bot match.
I’ve had unscripted adventures in this game that couldn’t have been more exciting if they’d been carefully choreographed by a level designer. For instance there was that time I played hide and seek with that flamethrower tank in the ruins below Cassino, and that time I was shot down near Nanking and, pistol in hand, fought my way back through enemy lines.
Oh and how could I forget the occasion when I lost my Daimler to a faraway Pak 40 and, after lots of crawling and corpse rifling, managed to get revenge with a tossed potato masher.
Because the battlefields are generously proportioned and buildings disintegrate fairly dynamically, long-range and HE weapons have a chance to shine. Need a break from claustrophobic FIBUA, trench clearing or bunker busting? Spawn as a sniper, radioman, tanker or aviator, and sit back, smiting from afar.
While the warbirds are crude by sim standards (don’t come to ER2 expecting memorable dogfights), the game does a pretty passable impersonation of a light WW2 tank sim at times. Thanks to modular damage, it’s not uncommon to find yourself firing from an immobilised AFV, or picking off enemy crewmen desperately trying to fix damaged caterpillars.
Enjoy commandeering enemy kit? This is the game for you. Unattended halftracks, abandoned AT guns, dropped Panzershrecks, MGs, and rifles… if equipment isn’t damaged, chances are it’s scavengeable.
In order to enjoy all the fruits of ER2’s vibrant modding scene, you’ll need the four official DLCs. Available separately or in a bundle* with the base game, Shanghai-Nanking, Normandy, Stalingrad, and Ardennes 1940 & 1944, will be joined by a payware Hungarian adjunct in the first half of 2026.
By the sound of it, this late war offering will abound with esoteric weaponry. I’m already looking forward to trundling through blasted Budapest in a Zrínyi and clearing buildings with a chattering Danuvia SMG.
Splendidly, Marco’s plans also include more free content. There’s a strong possibility of a second Tunisian campaign (think Kasserine Pass and Mareth Line) in the near future, and Iwo Jima and Khalkhin Gol action isn’t out of the question.
Whatever happens in 2026, I can’t see Easy Red 2‘s ‘Very Positive’ Steam reception degrading anytime soon. Attractively priced, generously proportioned, regularly updated, highly playable, and slathered in WW2 history, games like this make friends and keep them with ease.