Preview Night Watch first look at GameSpot

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Night Watch; Nival Interactive

<a href=http://www.gamespot.com>GameSpot</a> has posted one of those <a href=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/nightwatch/news.html?sid=6146379&mode=recent>first look</a> article, dedicated to Nival's <a href=http://www.nival.com/nightwatch/>Night Watch</a>:
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<blockquote>Fortunately, he'll be armed with one of the most satisfying tactical strategy systems to date: the same technology that powered the outstanding sleeper Silent Storm. While there won't be quite as many spectacular explosions or as much environmental destruction as in that game (and the new game won't offer as many stealth options), Night Watch will still offer the intuitive and flexible round-based battles the engine is known for. Like in other tactical games, such as Jagged Alliance 2 and the Fallout role-playing series, Night Watch's combat will be turn-based and will give each character a certain number of "action points" (or "AP") per turn, which can be used to move, climb, draw weapons, attack, reload weapons, and use magic spells. Players will also have a limited magic meter that will replenish slowly each round of combat (and replenish continuously outside of combat, during which the game takes place in real time).</blockquote>I'm not excited about this game for some reasons, but tactical turn-based combat is always welcome in these parts.
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Thanks, <b>kumquatq3</b>

 

[FrancoTAU]

Why'd i think Night Watch was going to be real time? Have they just been avoiding the whole combat system before this?

 

[Jed]

I saw the Night Watch movie a couple of weeks ago. Pretty interesting, though probably more "power-up" screaming than most Japanese fighting games...

 

[Shagnak]

Why'd i think Night Watch was going to be real time? Have they just been avoiding the whole combat system before this?

Well, one of the selling points has been that it uses the Silent Storm engine.
And since everyone knows that has a turn-based implementation...

 

[RiK]

The screenshots look great and, from what i've read, it seems it could turn out a good, solid game..
But i'm still recovering from Hammer & Sickle...

 

[Zomg]

The demo was pretty embarassing.

 

[RiK]

The demo was pretty embarassing.

The full game doesn't get much better. Sadly..

 

[EEVIAC]

I liked the combat (enemy turns seemed to pass much faster) and streamlined interface in the demo, but the lack of character options or customization and the fact that there's only 16 missions puts a wet blanket over things. I think its going to be more like a console TB strategy game, like Onimusha Tactics, Fire Emblem and the like.

The full game doesn't get much better. Sadly..

Does the main character ever get to evolve out of the bulldog form if he chooses shapeshifter? I was expecting a fuck-off huge russian bear or something.

 

[Brother None]

I saw the Night Watch movie a couple of weeks ago.

I hate that movie. Deeply.

The books are awful too.

This game is tainted! Dark-sided, AAARGH.

 

[Jason]

Here's what Novik (the Hammer & Sickle designer) said about the full game over at StrategyCore:

"Short summary:
1) Linear scenario. Without any global\chapter map, without reusing locations, without roleplay etc.
2) 16 scenario zones.
3) I can describe game process as "kill all - see cutscene - kill all - see... ...game over."
4) Game is very easy, tactic is very poor. Factically, is very, very hard to lose in this game.
5) Russian release contain really fun dialogs... Don't know, what will be with its after translation."

This doesn't surprise me after playing the demo.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

That's too bad. I was hoping for it to be a bit more, and now it just kinda pales in H&S' shadow.

I'll probably still get it anyway, because I'm a total sucker for the SS engine.

 

[RiK]

I liked the combat (enemy turns seemed to pass much faster) and streamlined interface in the demo, but the lack of character options or customization and the fact that there's only 16 missions puts a wet blanket over things. I think its going to be more like a console TB strategy game, like Onimusha Tactics, Fire Emblem and the like.

The full game doesn't get much better. Sadly..

Does the main character ever get to evolve out of the bulldog form if he chooses shapeshifter? I was expecting a fuck-off huge russian bear or something.

Oh, sorry.. I was talking about Hammer & Sickle: the game does not get much better than the demo.
That's why I doubt this one will be any good. But I'll be trying it anyway.

 

[RiK]

I liked the combat (enemy turns seemed to pass much faster) and streamlined interface in the demo, but the lack of character options or customization and the fact that there's only 16 missions puts a wet blanket over things. I think its going to be more like a console TB strategy game, like Onimusha Tactics, Fire Emblem and the like.

The full game doesn't get much better. Sadly..

Does the main character ever get to evolve out of the bulldog form if he chooses shapeshifter? I was expecting a fuck-off huge russian bear or something.

Oh, sorry.. I was talking about Hammer & Sickle: the game does not get much better than the demo.
That's why I doubt this one will be any good. But I'll be trying it anyway.

 

[Jason]

According to RPGDot, the sequel has already been announced.

 

[FrancoTAU]

According to RPGDot, the sequel has already been announced.

I guess the game sold well because of the license. Whether it's a sequel or and expansion, i doubt it'll be much better.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Gave the demo a whirl the other day. The animations do a sufficient job but sometimes aren't appropriate; some people will be talking about serious issues and start scratching themselves.

There's also a couple of situations which I just didn't get. There's a Vampire Lord Fatty Police Captain McFat guarding a train where a demoralization took place, and one of the options to try and get by him is to offer my blood. I offer it, but my character's HP are the same. I didn't noticed any drop in performance from this either.

To make it somehow worse, I try attacking him trough a dialogue choice and am shown an uninteractive sequence of my character kicking the cop's nutsack, then being kicked into the ground and apparently losing. I don't lose HP's this way either, and tried to kick him again when I got control back only to get plastered one more time. So I gave up and went on to try and solve the train thing... By going trough this long path which could have been circumvented much quicker if somehow they handn't decided every of one of the train's doors had to be locked and couldn't be picked or broken.

Best part is when I finally confront the guy who did the demoralization and watch the following antics between Dark Others and things like that, I go around killing every cop in the subway. They didn't react to one single blow I landed on them. Unless placing themselves in a combat stance is a reaction of sorts. About 8 or 10 cops down and not one gives me experience points.

I also proceed to beat the crap out of the fatty vampire cop afterwards with almost no danger.

 

[Deacdo]

Even worse news: The team behind Night Watch (and probably the upcoming Day Watch) was the S2/S3 team