Preview Hammer & Sickle gawkings at Killer Betties

Tags: Hammer & Sickle

<A href="http://www.killerbetties.com/">Killer Betties</a> has posted <A href="http://www.killerbetties.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=372">a preview</a> of <a href="http://www.nival.com/hs/">Hammer & Sickle</a>, that cold war CRPG. Here's a clip about the classes:
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<blockquote>You begin the game by selecting what particular talents you wish your agent to have, and this determines the effectiveness of his activities in the game's various operations. The choices include: 1)an Engineer (skilled at placing and disarming munitions as well as getting through locked doors, but who is not the best at hand to hand or distant combat, 2)the Scout (expert at observation, infiltration and is good at hand to hand, 3)the Soldier (the best with weapons), 4)the Sniper (can kill expertly from long distance), 5)the Medic (can heal himself and other characters), and lastly, 6)the Grenadier (an expert with heavy weapons). The game has a number of appearance 'skins' so you can change the look of your character.</blockquote>
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I'm just kind of curious how all the combat classes fair in this game which apparently cracks down on combat if you engage in it too much.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

Well, you can still find plenty opportunities to fight, even if you take the more peaceful route - after all, it's not 100% classic RPG, where you can choose to avoid fighting altogether if you want to.
However, if you'll run around killing everyone, that will, indeed, will lead to the shortest (and least... at least, for most, I guess ) ending - the WWIII.

 

That's one of the features that really is making me want that game bad.

 

Been playing this thing for a few days now. I'm pleasently surprised. After a heep of crappy games (RPGs especially) by russian devs in past few years this is something I'd recomend to everyone, not only Jagged Alliance fans.

The combat is improved since original SS. It's much more balanced/realistic, very challanging, but not in a worst way. You have to play extremely carefull and think twice before making next move if playing without quicksave.

But most important - this game alows role playing. In a sense that you can make choices that really matter. Yes, there aren't many dialogues. Most conversations between PC and friends/foes process in a slideshow manner where you only observe what's been spoken, but when dialogue/action choice appears, they makes crucial impact on the futher plot.

Plot is branching in about 3 or four baselines, but there's some little details, that reminds me of falloutish attiute to the quests and details, that affects the situation.
For exmple: in the very beginning you must eliminate some bad guys and shortly after you may enter the conversation with local townspeople. One of them says that they would help to get rid of reamining badguys (who'll attacks bit later) if they had a guns. When I played through first time I looted all the harware in a common greedy RPG way and had to deal with all the sentinels alone (which wasn't that easy). Second time it hapenned so that I spoke to that guy before looting and voila, PC tells the guy to check the bodies and take weapons from them. Now we have a minor militia squad who helps our PC to deal with threat.

It's nice that you may go noncombat way to accomplish your tasks. Yes, you'll eventually get to the point when violence is inevitable, but firstly, it's dependant on your previous choices (which is good) and, secondly, the combat is really addictive. Of course, you can go on the killing spree and shoot dead everything that dares to oppose you and your plans - that is not forbidden and wont brake the main plot - but it will cause fail of the mission, preventing a global conflict. Not a game stopper though. (which again is good, you're not forced to save the world to beat the game :twisted: )

I say that this marvellous peace is more an RPG than steaming pile of dungeon sieges which represents the RPG genre on PC now.


Oh by the way, hi.
Been lurking for couple years now and what the hell, must join in at once.

 

I liked being a solo Sniper in Silent Storm, some of the best gaming I ever did.

 

Soloing is definitely the way to get the most out of S2, and I love how they implemented sniping. I took a scout, though, so I'd have a little more of a chance when I lost control of the tempo, or had to get into close quarters. Tons of stealth, a scoped Lee-Enfield and a Khukhuri = joy.

Has there been any word of acquiring a party in this one? I certainly hope it's an option, just to make soloing it more of a challenge. I know you have, as per that article, NPCs that join you on a mission, but that could be akin to the flock of Englishmen that fight alongside you in the early Allied missions. Even if you do have control over them, there's still the question of if their help is outright required to complete said missions... or possibly worse, that you'd piss off an important contact by refusing their direct aid.

In any event, I'd hate to think it's generally built for a one-man force, as that doesn't leave much room to play against the balance without making a character that's a useless gimp.

 

You can go all alone all the way, but there are some branches or quests which can be opened only if you have a certain NPC in your squad. It''s arbitrary though.
Also some quests can be solved/failed differently if some NPC is in party.