Ok, it's coming from a guy (me) who completed the game in original language, so I cannot say anything about quality of translation and voiceovers (in Russian storyline and writing is superb, and voice acting is good, even surprisingly good - usually, Russian games do not excel in this area).
So, review of this review:
" The potential of Hammer & Sickle is obvious, but much of the game is muddled, sloppy, and terribly tedious. It's also very short, with few missions to complete or areas to explore."
First and foremost:
The game is NOT short. It CAN be short, but only if you'll rush the game to the 'poor' ending, so, right you are, the game will be short.
Yet, it is about the same as claiming that the game is short because you stepped on the mine, died and give up after the first minute of playing!
The game is VERY nonlinear, and you can complete the game at the very least 2 times while seeing completely different things.
I, unfortunately, due to my, ahem, personal problems haven’t beaten it more then one time, YET I've completed it with one of 'better' ways (and it
wasn’t short) and I've seen players talking of quests and locations not simply completed different way as I completed them - but something I've never seen altogether!
Completely different events and storyline progression!
It lacks 'freeform' gameplay elements, but it's an incarnation of Nonlinearity, heh.
"So far, so good, but any game touting itself as an RPG better have a strong story and rich game world, and Hammer & Sickle is a mess where that's concerned. You play as a Russian commando in 1949, sent into British- and American-occupied western Germany as the Cold War starts to heat up. That's a premise rife with promise, but the story, such as it is, meanders without any sense of pacing or direction -- or even coherence half the time. It's not always immediately clear what you're supposed to be doing or why you should care. Characters and concepts seem to pop up only to be forgotten. It's hard to believe this is a real place or to care about any of the people."
No, it means that reviewer is a total dumb asshole with zero attention span (or, perhaps, something was terribly messed up during translation, see above).
The game internal logic is nigh flawless - especially having in mind its unprecedented nonlinearity.
Yet, you have to behave and think like a spy to get the most out of this game.
Means report to your command, hide incriminating evidence, don't laze around - time is VERY important, yet don't 'run&gun' - it's not Serious Sam, for Satan's sake!
And this game allows you to play a role not just in traditional way like 'slay with spell, sword or stealth'... oh, I mean, 'gun, grenade or stealth or whatever' - your actions and
inactions defy what challenges you'll meet and where storyline will go.
The game challenges player to THINK what to do next, to really play the role of a spy on the enemy territory, not give you an equivalent of a shopping list, so you can run around, buying stuff... I mean, completing quests.
Anyone doubts that reviewer is dumb bastard by now?
" You don't truly get to plan where you want to go or what you want to do, but instead you usually get shunted from one little area to another after scripted events open up mini-missions like wiping out some local bandits or attacking a convoy. You might get to return to previously visited areas, but there's often no compelling reason to, other than perhaps to buy and sell loot."
Now, I think, all doubts are dispelled. He wants to have a neat list of things to do. And perhaps, like in Doom or Quake, game being laid out like a corridor where it's physically impossible to get lost or stray from the prescripted path. Moron.
And btw, there is a LOT of moments in the game where you have to return to already visited areas to progress your storyline. No wonder that this jerk found it 'incoherent'.
About AI: Well, I found it even better then in SS and SS:S, so anyone who found SS remotely enjoyable will not be disappointed.
Same goes for combat.
Yes, it's turn-based and rather slow, but there is a slider that can speed up animations, and I have NOT found it to be boring, instead, it was better then in SS, cause it is more challenging.
Yea, it often comes to numbers, but either this guy never played game before, or simply never realizes that AI, for now, unfortunately, stands for 'artificial idiot' and will inevitably lose to player intelligence... and, in the long run, it’s his ultimate purpose, heh.
About 'long load times":
I highly suspect that this idiot cannot keep his computer in semi-decent shape (if he cannot find his way in a game w/o a list of things to do... in fact, there is one, it's just not as obvious as one in Oblivion. Perhaps, for some, it's a major flaw
.), and notice his RAM. 512 megs. FTW? Even dirt poor Chinese students must have at least a gig of ram right now, if they hope to play modern games with FPS above single digits!
And with poor memory and swap file management, it is more then possible the game was snail-slow on his system.
It was 'flying' on mine, and I have WORSE system specs (well, not by much, yet...), but I have a gig of RAM. And I keep it tidy and clean.
"Still, Hammer & Sickle is one of those "if only" games: if only the RPG elements had been fully developed; if only the game world were larger; if only the combat were smoother and not slow as molasses; if only the A.I. were stronger; if only the bugs and general sloppiness had been worked out. Hammer & Sickle has some nice ideas, but feels more like a rough draft of a game than a finished product."
If only the reviewer was not a moron with zero attention span and cognitive abilities of concussed mollusk, I'd give this review 5 out of 5.
But I rate this review
0 out of 100
Notice that he noted how 'kewl graphix and physix' are. Well, they are, indeed, but it's one of LESS important parts of the game, that's for sure.
There a lot of games with 'kewl graphix'.
Yet, I've yet to see games there are as detailed and nonlinear as Hammer & Sickle.
Oh, and notice it’s not ‘classical’ RPG in the strict sense. It’s a
tactical RPG, more akin to games like Jagged Alliance.
Yet, its RPG elements put many other ‘classical RPG wannabes’ to shame, that’s for sure.
