This World War II MMO is STILL ALIVE after 20 years... and is coming to Unreal Engine 5

I've found myself deep into WWII Online, and I can't tell if its a good thing or bad thing. I absolutely love the idea of the game despite the graphics, and it might just be my newest addiction.
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0:00 - Intro
1:26 - What is WWII Online?
4:12 - Progression, Air Force, Army & Navy?!
5:38 - Initial Impressions
7:11 - AIR COMBAT IS AMAZING
8:08 - Realistic Tank Armor & Penetration
8:35 - REAL NAVAL WARFARE?!
9:14 - What I DON'T Like
10:25 - Subscription Model
12:21 - Final Thoughts
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Special thanks to my Commanders!
stephen roberts
Rooski
Lancer
stephen roberts
Goldenshrimp
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Streaming PC:
CPU: i9-9900k
GPU: GTX 1080
RAM: 32gb (4x8gb) 3200 Corsair Vengeance LPX, Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO MOBO with 500gb SSD and 4TB HDD storage.
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Disclaimer:
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#games #gaming #mmorpg

[@MoiDawg]

I'm stupidly addicted to this dinosaur of a game and would love more people to jump in the war with!

[@andreinokelainen1401]

dude , there are tears in his eyes .

[@edgychico9311]

This game is basically if Post Scriptum but an MMO :)

[@accursedcow1312]

I'm getting this game. So glad it exists.

[@editingbasket9728]

WTH dude? nothing in video is about the title?? unreal engine 5 section where? the fuck..

[@diondrenoel]

You kno very well you found this from Bluedrake42.....

[@Slecker95]

The campaign feature of WWII Online is what I've dreamed of Squad having. It would be nice if defeats and victories had a sense of continuity and impact on the campaign with losses of manpower and vehicles (tickets) having a material effect on subsequent battles.

[@robphx387]

In ww2ol it most certainly does. Each unit has finite supply which regenerates over time based on the factory status... and factories can be bombed, shelled with destroyers/artillery, or sapped by commando raids to reduce their output and lengthen resupply timers. Every death or wasted piece of equipment matters.

[@orangesel9338]

dynamic campaigns are "too hard" on current hardware they say (despite games from 2 decades ago having them).

[@Slecker95]

@@orangesel9338 The closest I've seen to a modern game implementing a campaign system is Red Orchestra, but it's very bare-bones compared to this and it just amounts to getting to choose where to attack next.

[@robphx387]

@@orangesel9338 There is a little bit of truth in the claim. as I recall, one of the reasons WW2ol didnt release in UE4 (they first began porting to UE4 before UE5 was a thing) had to do with the engine having some difficulty handling all aspects of the game campaign map at this size... As they were solving that problem, UE5 became a thing, did it easier, and had better assets... so they just made the switch to UE5 and have since really started to make progress. Its a ways off, but they just showed off some of the UE5 asset work ported back into the current engine and between that and the chokepoint trials, its looking very promising.

[@wrecker4846]

I remember back in Project Reality days, Wicca and PRTA ran a tournament of sorts where previous game outcomes effected the next game, sorta like a campaign and commanders of the team got to choose how to set up their assets for the next match. It was a tooooon of backend work for the organizers but it was so fun

[@dirge24sg]

I used to play this years ago, my favourite moment was being para dropped into a town at night whilst it was under attack by a warship. Landing at night with no idea where your team mates were was crazy. The pilot had to turn off their engine to silently glide over the town but we took fire and had to jump early. Only lasted a few minutes but it was cool 😆

[@snickle1980]

I was always an FNG that barely knew what was going on, but I remember there was one Naval operation involving loading tanks and carrying them across a river. I earned my SMG that day =)

[@yippeethreeeight]

Mine was when a friend of mine and I were playing as British infantry. We were approaching a town when night fell. He and I were laying in the ditch on the side of the road and there was a Sd.Kfz. 232 and German infantry about 3 meters from us. Night was so dark that they couldn't see us, and we couldn't see them, except as a vague silhouette. Eventually, they move on. But while they were there, it was tense as hell.

[@rexrock]

That's crazy. I forgot about this but I went to a launch event in the Dallas area at cornered rat studios in 00, I believe. I was a part of the allied high command on the first campaign, and religiously played this game for a long time. What nostalgia. Thanks for covering it.

[@vonp588]

Former commander of Luftflotte 3 from 2002-05 S!

[@rexrock]

@@vonp588 s! I probably fought against you in a p40 at some point, while escorting bombing runs against the factories. Cheers

[@flgators1986]

I've been playing this game since 2002 great game. I can remember the sky's blacking out from bombing raids. 20 tanks collums rolling out of FB a surrounding a town an army base.

[@thanie84]

S! Played it since 2005 till 2011, great times!

[@parisinfire]

Oh man the tank and troop convoys were epic.

[@spook75a28]

I remember playing the game in the early 2000s when we would have SO many players in the same area that player icons would pop in and out of nowhere as the game could only render so many entities, 128 I think. Anyways planes would fly over and blink out of existence, and infantry would ghost in and out of existence. I remember the devs saying that in one of the bigger battles we fought in there were upwards of 300 players in theater. It was crazy. Early in the game it was common to have an AT gun/carrier teams. One player was the AT gun, in my case a German 88, and the carrier drove the halftrack that would tow you from point to point. manning a rapidly firing gun all the while hordes of enemy tanks are closing in on you, attaching to the halftrack to speed away under fire to a more distant firing point. I had more fun gaming in that era than I could possibly describe.

[@rattyratstuff7125]

i remember stealing a..... deusenberg? i think? during an event and high tailing it from western france to northern germany to get to a battle with my bonuses because i spawned in the wrong place.

[@spook75a28]

@@rattyratstuff7125 Opel?

[@redXJ_kc]

I played so much of this game when I was just 8 years old. My dad would use me as an auto pilot for shuttling tanks and stuff to the front lines.

[@mikemcknight1104]

Awe, tell him to play again! 😂

[@kralkrauterblach414]

Stupid parents when they let little kiddies play wargame 👎💩💩

[@johncage3969]

Based Dad using his 8 year old to supplement logistics lmao

[@tigerpaws77]

I played this about 10 years ago. I was in 101st abn and we would have squad night every Tuesday, with about 50 of us dropping in from the skies and taking towns. It was such a blast!

[@Fractal_blip]

Dang and this game was old then.

[@tigerpaws77]

@@Fractal_blip it is and was but the community was like no other. I hope more players get involved because if you can join a good squad like I did, it's an incredible gaming experience

[@tswordz1386]

101st! S! spent the majority of my teenage years dropping with those boys in 2005 and 2006. Such great times XD

[@cerealbird4476]

I’m so glad you’re bringing some attention to this game, It really is just a gem.

[@kugellehr]

i played this when it first came out when i was 12. I spent whole summers devoted to this game. The stories i could tell came flooding back. I hope the upgrade comes through then maybe ill give it another go

[@raygreen257]

had to love the launch what a mess we got to play for free for months

[@ronin3028]

I played this game back in the day, talking like 2005+, in its prime it was absolutely amazing, i was in a stuka squadron and would go do bombing runs on the front line or go hit logis running on roads, imagine 6-9 stukas flying in formation, dropping in on targets....it was absolutely amazing

[@snickle1980]

one of the best gaming experiences i ever had. I was just infantry, but damn...when a big operation was underway and you were getting onto a ship or riding on a tank to the front line..it was like a movie. Pretty sure Patton was there too. 😁

[@manners7483]

I had a blast gunning for many a Stuka. It was a great game for multitasking. I would just hang out when I had work to do and wait for the pilot to inform me of enemy air contact and I would grab the controls and do my thing. I cant think of a game with such epic situations. Driving tanks was great too, cooperating and listening to commands from the commander and whatnot. You could really get a feel for the war too. So much waiting and preparation and such. Anticipating where the enemy would attack and asking for someone to give you a tow, finding an ambush position and often nobody would ever come but boy when they did it was just so amazing waiting for the perfect time to strike. Epic just epic.

[@cdgncgn]

I remember first unreal posters from a magazine, it was from 1998 btw. No internet for 8 years.

[@corneredrats]

@MoiDawg, we are glad to have you aboard. Thanks for letting more folks know about us, we sure appreciate that. Salute!

[@Atari5732]

I've been playing this game off and on for the past 20 years. I still remember rolling through the countryside at night with dozens of tanks, listening to the local run radio (complete with WWII era songs and reports) enroute to destroy some enemy fobs. I am glad they are remaking it, it deserves to live on.

[@relarz]

This game was WILD, my boys and I fought for Sedan one night for 6 hours. Then we went to bed and woke up to find Sedan was retaken, so we had to fight hard again for it with tanks and CAS.

[@elitebasker]

This game was crazy fun back in the days. Remember playing as a tiger hidden in ruins waiting for tanks comming in to our town. I took out soo freaking many enemy tanks and trucks that day whit my 88mm and managed too drive back to base whitout a scratch.

[@Soyfunnykids]

2010? 7 Shermans in northrrn part of the map?

[@Marc42]

OG WW2OL person here, Day 1 badge, Gold Founder status and all. Will jump back in these days, thanks for the reminder! :))

[@tailgunner2]

Nice! Same here. Heh, I wonder if I can still log into my old account.

[@merc88]

yep, Day one here as well... its not what it once was...

[@bakanur]

man I remember looking at this game 20 years ago and thinking about how awesome it looked. unfortunately when it came out I did not have the PC or connection needed to play it,and I eventually forgot about it. awesome to see its still around! im going to have to finally go ahead and check it out for sure

[@alfascav1754]

the original game engine the game eventually got built off was a flight sim on 1/4 scale map of europe, thats why the flight model is so in depth

[@BhagwanCos]

I’ve been playing on and off since 2010, I can confidently say this is one of my favorite games of all time. The subscription price has gone up a bit since I first started, and it’s one of the things keeping me from playing as often as I’d like to. I’d happily pay $10/month but close to 20 is hard to justify. For I time I was even a builder paying $30, but you get a second account and I was really down the rabbit hole having fun with that. This game needs more people, closer to the population size when I first started playing to feel better. Definitely urge you guys to try it out! S!

[@euphobone]

6:17 There is free look. Left Alt is the default. Its a toggle. You hit it again to turn it off. Q and E let you turn your head left and right. The lean mechanic was removed for some reason when the current infantry models were implemented.

[@thepinkplushie]

I started playing just before leaning was removed and it's honestly why I stopped playing. It felt somewhat passable before that but that was the last straw for me, everything infantry related is just so clunky

[@botmushin8878]

Once upon a time I had hoped that Warthunder would turn into this.

[@lodragan]

I want to say some of the Cornered Rats came originally from War Thunder, correct me if I'm wrong...

[@botmushin8878]

@@lodragan They have all the ground work to implement it, they just won't do it.

[@stefthorman8548]

@@botmushin8878 people play war thunder for the tanks and planes, not to be infantry, people play specialized games for that

[@botmushin8878]

@@stefthorman8548 .. they are the same developers of enlisted and I believe they originally wanted to fuse them together when WT was in alpha. Probably didn't do it in the end because they wanted to profit off of all those world of tanks whales.

[@incrediblelatte]

OMG I remember playing this when it first came out. RAF Raids against factories deep behind enemy lines. Multiple hours of flying a Spitfire Mk1 to escort bombers - great game

[@macklroy2005]

Played this 15-20 years ago! and still remains one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time. A massively open 1/2 scale western front of the European theater in real time! Just so far ahead of its time. The technology does not do the gameplay justice.

[@heftyjo2893]

Played this game when it first came out. There were hundreds of players in a single engagement back then but many people were still on dial up. So, the slow internet made desyncing and players warping around the screen very common, which made it a chaotic mess.

[@diegobluc]

I played this game for a while a couple years ago. The players said it was dying but there were several players online. I had a blast for a whole week playing it and this is just awesome news!

[@nickl6929]

Played it for thousands of hours. I were in the player development group for a while as well. You can thank me that the Stug 3G has the speed it has (was slow as a snail) and that LMGs have tracers. 😅. In the early days there were no mobile spawns. Period. You had to load up a truck and drive infantry to battle. Awesome way to make friends as it took a while. Though necessary something died with that mechanic being superflous with mobile spawns. Great game thanks for giving it the appreciation it deserves.

[@nathanwailes]

100% agree that mobile spawns changed the feel of the game

[@exedeath]

You could have both, by allowing players to despawn at transport vehicles and they would stay there (until the vehicle despawn), players would be able to spawn as one of the soldiers inside the vehicle. With that you would be able to quickly fill the vehicle (1-spawn as one soldier outside vehicle 2-Despawn at vehicle 3-Go back to 1), but the vehicle would still need to drive itself to battle and go back to pick more soldiers.

[@ImpendingJoker]

I was part of the original 12 month beta of WWII Online. Oh, no, wait, that was the first 12 month of the release. It was so trash, then they wanted you to pay a monthly fee for it, and I stopped playing after the purple sky bug hit and they didn't fix for months and then asked you to start paying a monthly fee after being free for 6 months. The back lash was pretty huge so they pushed it back another 6 months, then people pretty much bailed on it all together. I'm surprised that it's still going. I was in the Army at the time and had been in about 5 years at that point, myself and a WWII OL squad made up of RL squad mates manning a PzIV with "borrowed" hand held radios so we had real time comms inside the tank at a time where VOIP was new and not very good, and most games used text chat to communicate so it made us a force to be reckoned with. Same with placing 88s around a town with 4 of us on guns and 1 guy driving the german halftrack to tow us into position. Then it got airplanes and the game sorta went down hill at that point and we kinda stopped playing, then the purple sky bug pretty much killed it for us all, and we never touched it again.

[@JunkoXan]

there needs to be a correction here, Unreal Engine 1 dates back to 1998 which was used in Unreal 1 and Unreal Tournament. Now the engine that would be around would be Unreal Engine 2 which was used for Unreal 2/2003/2004/Championship and Championship 2 Liandri Conflict. So in turns, it would be released when UE2 was released. not sure if it's been said or not.

[@JGibbgg]

I played so much of this in the late 00’s Had a joystick setup and paddles for flying. You don’t know the feeling of satisfaction untill you hit a +150m snipe on this game.

[@AsthmaQueen]

honestly I looked at this game and its armor piercing simulation with awe back then

[@SheilaTheAussie]

WW2 Online is special to my heart.

[@lodragan]

Me too. Sometimes I have dreams about being outnumbered and overrun in Huy by a mass of German armor...oh god...

[@mrclean7634]

you are the best THANK YOU for bringing attention to this game its so fun and needs every player it can get

[@tailgunner2]

Wait, WWII Online had a game that came with the forums? It is STILL around? Wow, I still have my original Yellow Box. I loved spawning the fairmiles, though the destroyers sure had their problems. One thing I liked was just how versatile the keymapper was. The game would let you use a lightpen if you told it to.

[@hotfightinghistory9224]

I played this at launch :) It was a full 1/3rd scale map of all europe at the time. The chance of even seeing another player was so ridiculously small :)

[@palpot1189]

Been playing on and off since 2005-ish and have spent countless hours looking out the window trying to map out an ant trail to the EFMS. Love the game and have made a lot of friends around the world while playing.

[@markrogers7304]

I played this when it 1st released. Had to buy the box copy then i think it was $9.99 a month. 1st month of release was painful. Servers couldnt keep up. But the idea was like nothing else at the time. Huge battles,day/night cycles plus everything mentioned in video. Each day the battle updates would be newspaper format. We would have truck convoys just to transport troops for 20 minutes to the battle. Nothing like having 50+ players loaded in trucks going down the road then getting strafed by planes...trucks would stop and players would scatter. Most times too many damaged trucks so troops had to hike the rest of the way to battle.

[@phreakyeggz]

I was turned off by this game's pay to play model after playing it years ago. It's got good bones, but after decades...that's it. I can't imagine any other developers getting away with charging people for years like this and doing next to nothing. I doubt the port to unreal engine will ever happen, and they probably said they would do it at least 5 years ago. They've crowdfunded and teased a Hell Let Loose style game called WWIIOL: Chokepoint, but I'm pretty sure have abandoned it. These have to be the slowest developers of all time, and they charge a premium for it at $18 a freaking month. No thanks.

[@jsmithnevinsky]

Thank you! A comment from someone who actually knows. Everyone else in the comments section is just simping and consigning on the hype without the cold hard facts like toxic developers who have been over charging for few updates for 20 years.

[@tex64]

This last update has imported UE5 assets into the game. Work continues on the conversion and Chokepoint. In other news, the Steam Starter pack which has some Tier progression is now $7.99/mth. The game is not perfect but we continue to work for our loyal gamers. Join us next weekend for an all-access weekend and OP HURRICANE.

[@simpsondr12]

​@@tex64If I want to be an NCO your game, right, really innocuous want... 1 year of that is worth 6 new AAA games. Guess I won't be getting S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Space Marine 2, Payday 3... (Which is actually only $40) I know you're extremely biased, but do you honestly, in your heart of hearts, think that your subscription model is worth it? Those 3 games I mentioned are worth

[@tex64]

@simpsondr12 I appreciate the question, seriously I do. I've been subbed since 2001 so I'm all in on the project not only in $$ but time as a volunteer working with CRS. So many games that once they are shipped development ceases. Most people don't know the OG crew has been gone for years. The volunteer crew picked up the pieces in 2016 and began to reverse engineer it due to limited documentation. For many years prior to and after the new CRS team came online, no development occured. Over time the team figured it out, added new content, features etc. All possible due to our loyal subscribers which kept funding the project. Our last years of development has been strong and continues as we are moving to UE5. New higher poly-count models are present with many more in the pipeline. New updates in our legacy engine occur every 2-3 months at no charge to our players. We hope in the next month or so to give an update on Chokepoint. We hit a snag with it which has taken longer than forecasted but things are trending upwards again with CP. I encourage you to join us OL during the next all-access weekend, 9 -10 of September. Of course, you have the free to play option as well as the Steam Starter sub of 7.99/mth to make things more palatable if needed. More good things are happening behind the scenes and we have a good team of folks who are pretty bright. Either way, follow our development as we shocked the world once when we launched in 2001 and we aim to do it again. Thanks, tex

[@mattmcfadden5847]

Red Orchestra 2 is still my favorite WW2 game. It's so brutal.

[@KaiserRisOfficial]

A vid on WWII online? this made my day

[@xmas7765]

I played WWII Online for many many years… So god damn frustrating and yet so addictive!! Some of my favorite gaming experiences ever!

[@martinblank1484]

Played this a lot in 2002 and it was amazing back then...but pretty painful too. Hope to port goes well as I'd be interested in this if it was updated.

[@elkpants1280]

Used to play this like crazy back in like, 14 or 15 years ago. So many crazy stories. I got really good with tanks and tank killing, it was my typical role with my clan. There’s probably still an ancient guide on the game’s forums I made as a kid for anti tank riflemen

[@duskworker8469]

one thing ill always remember of this game is the dynamic shrapnel destruction of buildings, with realistic pockmarks and small holes you can actually fire through.

[@odonovan]

duskworker8469, you have the wrong game. WWIIOL does not have a "fully destructable" environment. Buildings have only two states, intact and fully destroyed. Any fire that hits but does not destroy them leaves a temporary mark on them as the only effect.

[@duskworker8469]

@@odonovan how long is this temporary mark? to me it seems like many hours, more than enough time to be relevant in an objective or firefight. obviously since it's a match based game and the map resets nothing is permanent. not sure when i ever implied that it was. also not sure why you put "fully destructible" in quotes, seeing as i literally never said those words lmao anyway i vividly remember firing through a hole in the wall that was definitely dynamically created by shrapnel. never said the buildings were 'fully destructible'

[@xxfloridamanxx6666]

Played this religiously back in the day. Was originally named Blitzkrieg Online if I remember right. Favorite role was as an Anti-Tank gunner. Setting up a PAK gun on a hillside overlooking an enemy supply town and terrorizing the armor columns moving to the front.

[@-Karnage]

Wow this game seems really cool, I'm blown away by how deep it actually is. It is way ahead of it's time. The subscription price is outrageous though.

[@HoagMurkula]

The sub price keeps going up as the playercount keeps going down. Join up and play free to play

[@nikdog419]

0:20 Damn, I was expecting the original Unreal Engine WWII game, Red Orchestra, to get mentioned. 0:53 Unreal 1 came out in 1998..... and this is 2001.....................

[@apropercuppa8612]

Hey! I was fighting alongside you in the battle at 5:40. Even see my own comment in the chat, lol. I knew I recognised your name.. I remember trying to hold and push back to retake the town, it was tough. Leaving that SCP and trying to push down the side of that main road was hard. Axis forces had some good defense there.

[@ThunderRod]

I would definitely like to see more of this game from you

[@Judokast36]

I remember this game. I never played it, but I remember one of the gaming magazines of the time had a reviewer/journalist that would review wargames called Mr.Trotter, he had a first name but i don't remember but yea, i remember thinking how cool a game like this was and wishing i could play. He reviewed it and played it so i got to know it pretty ok, unfortunately the computer i had at the time wasn't quite good for games. Once i had a good computer, simply forgot about this one but wow, this brought me back.

[@RooskiRooski0]

I still have the box to this game from the early 2000s

[@oofdotcom420]

Played it a few weeks ago was kinda difficult to orient myself around the menu/layout but it's okk good community

[@GetUpTheMountains]

I used to play this when the campaigns numbered in the 30's. 2006ish. It provided some of the most impressive group gaming experiences I've ever been in. Today it looks nearly identical to how it did 17 years ago and makes me not want to resubscribe. If they manage to get it all over into Unreal, then I'd totally come back.

[@TheBeardedMitchGaming]

Glad you found the game and are enjoying it!

[@cletishempire6842]

I remember playing this game a few years ago, and it was quite fun. Although not much server were available that I could find

[@Tomofdahook17]

Earlier this year my friend and I drove to Paris in trucks. It took us 2-4 hours of real travel time. We got to park next to and drive under the Eiffel Tower, across the Seine and then onward to Versailles. Yes that’s right Versailles is there too and not only that but the Palace of Versailles is a full scale 3D model. But NOT ONLY THAT!!! You can drive inside it. but not only that…… IT HAS M-F’ING PINK WALLPAPER, BLACK AND WHITE CHECKERED FLOORS AND A WHITE ORNATELY CARVED CEILING!!!!!! And if you drive out through the other side there are pools of water along the gardens. It’s absolutely mind blowing.

[@lytuy7952]

I had a similar experience once: Heroes & Generals. There were online wars that went on with people running their supplies called Assault Teams (if I remember it right). They consisted of infantries, motorized and mechanized, armored vehicles, which means tanks and then fighter planes. They were all moved around the battlefield by players. Though there's no high command, no emulated production rate by factories, the resources were automatically filling up at the same rate. You can choose sides, but can't change it for the rest opf the war. But it was close enough, I guess. And that's the strategy gameplay, or so called Generals part. FPS gameplay (Heroes) was quite good too. You had different characters with different branch of resources: Infantries, Scouts, Armored, Fighters and Paratroopers. You can choose between characters you built with different loadouts during the game. Which means you can jump from a rifleman to an sniper scout, to a machinegunner, to a tankman, to a fighter pilot, to a paratropper dropping behind enemy line, as long as you have the resource in the battle. (there were also limitations from squad technical slots, or squad types or really, just lots of bad decisions from the devs, like a certain update which made heavy tanks are easier to defeat than a light tank or later updates were all about micro transactions and stuff.) It was fun. But it was a shitty show. If I were to go into details about what went wrong, it'd take years long rants just to get to a point I think was enough to describe the gist of it. And bad decisions were not the only thing bad, how they treated their player base was comparable to EA too. Last straw was when they stopped the game operation. They ran a cloud funding pool to move the game to Unreal Engine, which was fine. But then, they held the game hostage, threatening that if the funding campaign were to fail, that renewed game is not going to be done but the original game will be closed anyway. And god damned it, the cloud funding campaign goal was 2 millions of US dollars which they reached just over 111,000 for it. I will stop here before this turns into a rant. But yes, it was a fun experience. Enough that I played it for at least 4 years, dropped it to come back for it later just to then to drop it again but still came back once more before I quite it entirely. But it was damned. And I don't want that kind of experience for anyone ever again. It was bad. And I was gald to hear it closed, but a part of me still missed the time I spent playing that game as you can see many do on its Facebook/Twitter which still exist.

[@VioletMarbitz]

I loved heroes and generals, i played it pretty early on but ever since I realized that the game is no longer being developed with passion I dropped it and really hope 'Enlisted' would fill the place but enlisted doesnt have the same charm that heroes and generals had to me either it be cringe voice acting, the animations being super stiff or that the sounds also just dont feel good, it just never really replaced heroes and generals like i had hoped it would.

[@TheSapier]

Great video

[@HistorySeekers]

I played this game on its first day of release MANY years ago. I have always wanted a game that was like this with updated graphics but nothing ever comes close. I hope they get the Unreal engine update done soon.

[@ronrolfsen3977]

So many fun memories from this game. My first kill. Huge tank battles. Being tracked just outside an enemy town in a ditch and surviving for a good bit. Being bombarded to pieces by the enemy navy. Maybe not the best shooter, but definitely one of the most memorable ones.

[@manners7483]

Yea it was great. only thing I hated was the way the bunkers would shake making it so hard to defend. Everything else was so realistic but that would make me want to punch a hole in my screen, which would have been hard back then when the monitors where a half inch of glass and imploded when broke haha. Still just epic. Some of the most fun was multi crewing a full tank and only having one job like driving. I use to love towing ATGs into positions and waiting to see if I had dropped them off in good spots. Nothing even comes close in realism but it is mostly a game for extremely patient people though. Not many folks want to sit behind a bush for hours just for a chance for a tank to come by but nothing can beat it when they do and you get to take out the first and last vehicle in a column and shoot them like fish in a barrel. But yea most times you would just end up wasting your time but like they say "Good things come to those that wait".

[@user-zv3jx5wp4m]

hey moidawg i heard you say that the infantry combat was extremely dated well, i agree but ww2 online is also developing a game called chokepoint. that game is now in ue4 and is in the process of going into ue5 once that is done all of the in the infantry mechanics of chokepoint will be used in ww2 online 2.0

[@eszrah5129]

This game was so awesome back in the day, as you said it's still good but it is well past it's prime. Just to drive the point home, it used to support dial up connections, that's how long its been around, idk about now but it used to have an awesome community that would help you learn how to fly or do bombing runs. I think everyone should try it out but just be ready for its age to show often.

[@lodragan]

I helped put together infantry training for the Allied side back in the day; we players trained each other back then.

[@SvensHistoryLab]

I've been playing it for about a year now and it's REALLY fun

[@DMGmork]

Love wwiiol and have been playing on and off since 2001. It is very addictive and has been the source of many of my best online gaming experiences.

[@AcceptYourDeath]

I remember this :D I was really hyped finding out about this game....I always thought this project died out. As far as I remember it was in beta and then it somewhat vanished. I think this game was on many peoples radar back then. WW2 was the most popular scenario and theme by alot at that time and I think nothing like this existed back then. Planetside 1 maybe? Not sure.

[@manners7483]

This game is epic. I was playing back when we had 56k modems. Nothing beats catching a tow a few kilometers outside of town and waiting to ambush an enemy. You can just go afk and do something else and wait to hear the enemy coming. Its just epic. Ill never forget the time I thwarted an enemy attack by parking my Stug3 in the countryside and knocking out six enemy tanks before getting knocked out. Just epic is all I can say.

[@r4microds]

I played this on and off over the years but only could ever stomach maybe 2-3 hours at a time. A lot of the content was behind paywall. I did enjoy taking off aircraft, flying the pattern and landing.

[@bkbaughn]

Day of Defeat was my jam and I still play it from time to time... There maybe a total of around 20 to 40 people who still play it. wish it would come back. in its hayday was an absolute blast.

[@vievictus]

This game was so ahead of its time. Combined arms on an insane scale, persistent server, historically accurate vehicle modeling with weakpoints, etc. etc. I can go on. Truly an impressive game, very glad it's still kicking and hopefully gets a rebirth.

[@rock2k14]

Played this with my friends after school, ah the joys of downloading it on a 56k modem, even just travelling in transports was a laugh then

[@spook75a28]

I played the absolute hell out of this game the first years it came out. It was totally unique and a hell of a lot of fun.

[@manners7483]

And he says the graphics are bad now. back then they didnt even have hills lol.

[@spook75a28]

@@manners7483 It had flying tanks though. In the very beginning. I love the story on how they evolved into flying boats.

[@matthewdekorte373]

i played this game for 15 yrs as maddog68 and it the best ww2 game ive ever played

[@lodragan]

Hey maddog68 - I remember you. I was 'Malus' in the 3rd Canadian division.

[@KingKabila]

One of my all time favorites

[@Rickenbacker69]

This brings me back! Used to play pretty much ONLY WW2OL when it first came out, after a long "career" playing Warbirds and Aces High... Not sure if I could stand the dated graphics and feel today, though. But the concept is absolutely fantastic.

[@brianhall4182]

I remember when this came out back in the day. I'm pretty sure it was the first FPS MMO. I wanted to play it but a) I couldn't afford a monthly subscription since I was just a freshman in high school at the time and b) my family didn't have a good enough computer or internet connection to play it. On top of that it was hit hard by bugs and lag issues which pretty much killed it fairly quickly.

[@AdurianJ]

I remember getting a friend to ship the game from the US so i could play it in Europe. Its first major patch was supposed to have come out on September 11 2001 so that was the forum i was on when 9/11 happened.

[@ernestyoung5516]

Oh my god that brings back so much memory!

[@ChristinanathanWesterfie-pr4jj]

We were Really looking fwd to the introduction of the HMS Illustrious and eventually the 1943 "clipped wing" F4U-1A. Still waiting lol. Cheers!!

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

I played this quite a bit when they introduced the free class, it was really fun since it had like 3k players at peak hours (sometimes you even had to wait in queue to log in). I remember fighting in the woods being quite fierce and even managing to sneak around and getting some knife kills, it was really fun, but it got quite boring fast since as a free player you can only play as rifleman cannon fodder and since I am from BR ping was quite high which made fighting in cities nearly impossible. They really should just make a buy it once version that gives you at least some basic stuff since I am not a fan of paying monthly.

[@liameyles1450]

this game came out when i was three but i don't know how I've never herd of this and love world war 2 titles

[@lillerik01]

it's videos like this that make more people find old games that they didn't know existed. like me for example I've been looking for a game like this after heroes & general goes to gen5 too.

[@Enigma89]

I played this game for a long time, one of the best games I have ever played before. It is just too hard to play it now because we used to have battles with hundreds of players and now we have maybe a dozen total. You have one of the largest maps in the world and have 30% of the population of a squad server. It's just been hollowed out too much. The devs ruined this game and then it got outpaced by everyone else. If it comes to a new engine, I will come back but I am not holding my breath. The people that were really deep into this game all have left and we all have a feeling that the devs now we just claiming that a new engine is coming, in hope to raise more funds, but don't really have a real plan to deliver a new engine upgrade.

[@tex64]

@Enigma89 This past week, the game literally just imported new UE5 assets into the legacy engine of WWII Online. We have held private briefings with some of our long-standing gamers & stakeholders to showcase our current efforts towards UE5. More things are coming through the pipeline as we keep our head down and keep grinding.

[@Enigma89]

​@@tex64 Importing UE5 assets into the legacy engine is just that. It's taking assets and putting it into the existing engine, the same engine that has no future. I realize that taking things to a new engine is a monster project and it takes a lot of work, but the communication around this project is either fishy or incompetent. From the outside, looking in, we see that there has been constant calls for fundraising to fuel efforts for the new engine. We haven't seen any real gameplay from the new engine. I want to be supportive of this game. It's def one of the best games I have ever played in my life, with that said I have my guard up. CRS, NEEDS, to give a clear timeline and a project plan to make this seem real. The longer this UE5 transition drags out, the more this looks and feels like a scam. The simple truth, is that with the reduced player counts, this game is not compelling to play anymore. The concept has always been solid but the game feels really old and the player count isn't there anymore. The devs have basically squandered the last 10 years and still have not been able to make anything playable yet on a new engine.

[@tex64]

@enigma89 - our timeline is that this will be a multi-year process. It is also volunteer powered which we are not shy about sharing. Our current inventory of over 200+ vehicles, weapons, and ships needs to be ported into UE5 which our team is in the process of doing and then trickle-down back into 1.0. This is a 2 for 1 win-win for our playerbase and has to be done anyway for us to launch to 2.0 and UE5. It makes zero sense to recreate all those models in UE5 when porting them thru our proprietary tool can do it more efficiently and with less manhours expended. Everyone wants this yesterday but that is not going to happen and attempting to pressure internally/externally to show "something" is really not the best for the game. We will just keep grinding and showcase things when we can. I think what many people don't know is that CRS 2.0 is not only volunteer based but has had to reverse engineer from scratch due to lack of documentation. The time that was lost, etc we cannot recover but these last few years have seen new vehicle platforms, planes, light and medium artillery at historical ranges, features, etc. That has been all in the last 2 years. Since Q2 of this year, ALL dev resources are focused on UE5 while production works on our existing inventory of equipment in 1.0 and UE5 to include updated terrain, audio/video effects, etc. We are very open in what we are doing and how we developing things as we share with the community thru "town halls" on Discord, home page articles, etc. Our last fundraiser was funded at 119%. We are by no means perfect but we are on a journey that continues to make progress behind closed doors. We have our share obstacles but we are getting there day by day, step by step. We could not haven gotten this far without the subscription model so we are extremely thankful to our loyal gamers who typically receive ongoing updates every 2-3 months at no additional charges.

[@Marc42]

​@@tex64Thanks for the update tex, S!

[@tex64]

@@Marc42 Glad to do it, sir. We are making progress but it does take time. :)

[@ValensBellator]

Duuuude this was the game that taught me what RAM was and how to get more 😂 So cool to see it’s still going.

[@ValiduzZ]

I used to play this 2002-2005~. Great memmories that i still think about to this day. Like my own virtual PTSD WW2 (online. heh) flashbacks.

[@yoji-_]

I bought the boxed version of this game on ebay probably back in 2003 or 2004 or something and could never get it to run. Interesting to actually see gameplay of it.

[@chugg159]

I remember seeing a video of an entire funeral procession played out in-game something like a decade ago.

[@tex64]

@chugg159 It was May of last year, here is the Service Bulletin. It was a sad but respectful day as we honored two of our own. drive.google.com/file/d/1MD8kGp6_dCGbEy44ajeNTuXDY2kP6Rvp/view

[@lodragan]

I participated in that - one of the beloved players died, and we were part of a commemoration event. I was one of the people to do a 21 gun salute. It was held at one of the cathedrals at a major city. At the time, there were German and Allied players in attendance. Most amazing thing I think I've seen in a game. There are plaques in the cities with the names of players who have died. One guy I played with was a Canadian soldier who went to Afghanistan and got hit with an IED in a convoy.

[@Mad-Jam]

When i think of early ww2 multiplayer i played is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (29 May 2003) and B1942 (10 september 2002). I was playing them 24/7 early 00. I have never heard of WW2 online until now. I wonder why.

[@Marc42]

It was always very hardcore, in a janky Tarkov kind of way, and way before KZbin, Reddit or Twitter.

[@user-zp6ff2gr4n]

Back in the day there were many thousands of players. CRS always held the player number too close to their chest, so I never found out any concrete player numbers. Today it is a shadow of what it once was. In the early 2000s, there were so many players, distant players would sometimes disappear because the game was at render limit. We used to fly 30 bombers with 50 escorts to Allied factories. Everyone on teamspeak with their own channel or squad. On one mission, someone must have leaked the plan, because when we got over the channel, there were dozens of allied planes waiting for us at altitude. So began a huge furball of fighters and bombers exploding over the channel. Another campaign I recall vividly was a legendary Battle for Helmond. It might have been 2006 or 2007. The allies threw everything they had at us. We held on for 10 hours and repelled their assault. I must have sat in an Flak36 for 4 of those hours, with squad mates running trucks to deliver ammo. It was such a great time. No other game to date offers this type of experience. I fondly remember the countless hours spent with the squad and all the friends made & lost over the years.

[@matthewdekorte373]

i was part of a 96 player para drop and nothing has come close since

[@Mikexmikex2003]

What is dead may never die. Day 1 player 23rd armor playing with pecks was the ultimate experience. The changes made along with subscription I will never go back.

[@YesOfficer]

I'm glad it's still kickin'. I used to play it nightly with a squad back in 2004+ (23rd armoured and 11th hussars!) I loved the realistic armor pen back when everything seemed hit points based. Everytime a city was being attacked I'd take a Daimler armored car out, zoom around the Germans flanks and pop them pz3 turrets left and right.

[@lodragan]

I was with the 3rd Canadian division on the zipper along the Meuse river at Namur holding the line between the French and British armies against a phalanx of German divisions always trying to turn the flanks there.

[@lodragan]

Malus was my handle.

[@Eyepoke42]

dang i remember buying the hard copy at best buy and i couldn't even get it to work! crazy it's still going!

[@Curaissier]

I have been playing this game since it's first year and it remains the best game I have ever loaded onto my PC. It is not for everyone, but the depth, scale and teamwork make it uniquely amazing.

[@instanthorror]

I remember playing this when it came out. Was blown away by the game at the time. There was really nothing like it on that size and scope. When it was at its peak tons of people playing. I played the hell out of it back then. Until battlefield 1942 came out.

[@jes2294]

Played it when it first came out. Played it a year ago. Still fun just wish it had a bigger population in the modern day. Still remember my memories of defending a bunker with my squad with no hope of resuply. Also the time my squad and I took out a forward base, and i had to sacrifice myself because some random tank drove by

[@hunterbeach762]

I remember seeing boxed copies of this game at half price books

[@aaronwhite1786]

Holy shit. I'm shocked this is still going. I remember thinking how perfect the idea of the gameplay sounded back in high school before it came out, but then the actual game dropped and I just couldn't play it and my internet sucked too.

[@Lilbee730]

This game is honestly awesome. The last true remaining MMOFPS. And no, don't say planetside 2. Planetside 2 has nothing on this. I'm so glad it's still around!

[@emeraldeyes9246]

this game has a memorial for a friend of mine who passed away, you should be able to see it on plaques around the cities.

[@lodragan]

I participated in a Memorial formation for that - I want to say we did the 21 gun salute. I can't remember where it was...was it held in the cathedral in Luxembourg?

[@emeraldeyes9246]

@@lodragan Im not sure, I don't play the game much since it happened, it's fitting since Luxembourg was a place we dedicated a whole night getting to though

[@reminder9146]

I remember seeing an ad for this game in a magazine my history teacher gave me in 6th grade. That was in 2004

[@d133710n]

Remember trying this over 10 years ago and being scared to get into it