An obscure little game by the name of Hammer and Sickle.

[Goblino]

Anybody ever played it before? I don't know if Silent Storm really counts as an rpg, but for those of you who liked it, It had a sequel/bastard brother named Hammer and Sickle. For anyone unfamiliar with Silent Storm, it plays similarly to Jagged Alliance 2, but with more depth, and some of the most endearingly bad voice acting since RAD for ps2. The reason H&S counts as an rpg is that it has a story and game world with numerous branching paths and options for how you beat the game. For people who just dont know fuck about what I'm saying, I'll explain the premise finally. You play a Russian officer of your preferred class who is sent to post ww2 Germany to establish a foothold in intelligence and help wipe remaining nazi forces from the countryside. Opens up with a sequence where you must pass the border at night, and from the moment the first combat encounter ends, youre left to find your way through the entire game with very little sense of direction until you figure out what in the holy hell the poorly translated plot is telling you to do. This game was one of the first 5 or so games I ever played on my first pc, and god damn was I lucky to pick it up. Have fun trying to find it or smuggle it down the pipes guys, but if you ever see this game fucking buy it. If you like to save scum and plot your every movement like it really matters, then H&S will reward you for it.

 

[ColCol]

Yeah, it has been talked about here several times. Never played it, sound interesting, but also frustrating.

 

[Goblino]

It's seriously worth a shot homie. H&S sports a localized damage mechanic that most tactics games lack completely. I played this game before I had the concept of hardcore gaming.All I knew was that this stupid ruski game was kicking my ass. Trust me when I say this game was made with some love.

 

[Blackstaff]

Indeed, it's a great game and you should vote here to make it come to GOG :

http://af.gog.com/wishlist/games/hammer_and_sickle?as=1649904300

Having at least 300 votes is a serious push for GOG to consider making a game come to its service. So, yes, in this case, it's important to vote...

 

[Commissar Draco]

Voted for this gem of game age come on Kodexers do your part for Motherland and give her 159 votes it needs. :russia:

 

[Baron Dupek]

There's a man who did (or abandoned) his LP from that game, iirc it was ERYFKRAD

I also need to play that one. There was bunch of them on local auction site, but these days, for unknown reason, the amount of (199x-2010?) PC games is astonishing.

More depth than JA2? I disagree. Played both. And yes I'm talking about Ja2 without 1.13, even if S2 have the depth - it's easy to understand by average Joe, even without tutorials I'm naive.

 

[Grimwulf]

For anyone unfamiliar with Silent Storm, it plays similarly to Jagged Alliance 2, but with more depth

 

[Goblino]

I meant more depth in control and what you can do like trapping doors an localized damage. Ja2 still has the whole controlling a mercenary revolution thing going on

 

[Grimwulf]

I meant more depth in control and what you can do like trapping doors an localized damage

Breaking news - you can do that in JA 2 as well. SS was a meh-tier experience, gud for what it is, but comparing its depth with JA 2 is simply wow.

 

[Goblino]

Okay I suck dicks, but still I think h&s was fun as shit, charming, and easier to get running than ja2

 

[Grimwulf]

Okay I suck dicks, but still I think h&s was fun as shit, charming, and easier to get running than ja2

Do you want my VATNIK tag? You deserve it more than I do.

 

[Goblino]

fuckin gimme it nigr

 

[a Goat]

I meant more depth in control and what you can do like trapping doors an localized damage

Breaking news - you can do that in JA 2 as well. SS was a meh-tier experience, gud for what it is, but comparing its depth with JA 2 is simply wow.

When it comes to tactical combat by itself, SS has more depth than JA2. JA2 has technologically inferior destruction/cover system(those 2 are linked for obvious reasons), by mid-game you'll just snipe your way through every sector, SS has more mission/objective variety etc. etc. The only thing that is inferior to JA2 is that maps seem to be smaller.

Where JA2 wins with SS is the fact that the tactical combat is just one of the parts of JA2 where for SS it's basically it, you have some of traversing through the map but it means nothing at all. In SS you hardly manage anything. Health? Back to base after every mission. Ammo? Always plenty of it, unless your whole team is composed of let's say soldiers, using the same calibre weapon on full auto whole the time. Medical supplies? I've never ran out of them. The only thing that I was ever short of were grenades. Economy isn't here unless you play Sentinels, and even then it plays lesser role than in JA2(to be fair after you capture 2-3 cities you can bathe in money in JA as well but at least it matters early).

Imo. it's very good game, but install faster leveling and remove/nerf panzerkleins mod for sanity.

 

[Goblino]

I meant more depth in control and what you can do like trapping doors an localized damage

Breaking news - you can do that in JA 2 as well. SS was a meh-tier experience, gud for what it is, but comparing its depth with JA 2 is simply wow.

When it comes to tactical combat by itself, SS has more depth than JA2. JA2 has technologically inferior destruction/cover system(those 2 are linked for obvious reasons), by mid-game you'll just snipe your way through every sector, SS has more mission/objective variety etc. etc. The only thing that is inferior to JA2 is that maps seem to be smaller.

Where JA2 wins with SS is the fact that the tactical combat is just one of the parts of JA2 where for SS it's basically it, you have some of traversing through the map but it means nothing at all. In SS you hardly manage anything. Health? Back to base after every mission. Ammo? Always plenty of it, unless your whole team is composed of let's say soldiers, using the same calibre weapon on full auto whole the time. Medical supplies? I've never ran out of them. The only thing that I was ever short of were grenades. Economy isn't here unless you play Sentinels, and even then it plays lesser role than in JA2(to be fair after you capture 2-3 cities you can bathe in money in JA as well but at least it matters early).

Imo. it's very good game, but install faster leveling and remove/nerf panzerkleins mod for sanity.

That's kinda where H&S gets it right. In H&S there's more scarcity and there's no missions or base level, just a farmstead where you can store items that you have accumulated, and try desperately to heal your teammates with what you've managed to steal along the way.

 

[spectre]

H&S can be a bit of a shocker if you expected a straight follow up to the previous SS titles. It plays more like an adventure game with branching storylines and a focus on stealth an espionage that unfortunately gives you little feedback as to how and why did you just fuck up.
And from what I remember, it's very easy to fuck up irrecoverably in this game, triggering a "bad ending", never really realizing there's more to the game. It's actually one of these rare cases when I'd argue that a game could use a bit more hand-holding. Because very often you are required to progress exaclty as the designers envisioned.
I can recommend this game, but only if you put yourself in a right mindset and know what you're getting into. Myself, I enjoyed SS and SSS more because H&S felt much too linear and I hate timed events with a passion.

 

[Goblino]

For me the appeal was being almost completely in the dark and underprepared. It's unintuitive nature does a lot to leave you feeling like an agent sent across the border and disowned by his homeland. I won't deny that the edges are rough, but this game deserves some serious attention, as well as ss/s

 

[laclongquan]

JA2 is story-lite but Hammer&Sickle is story-heavy.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Yes and it's quite good. Got it with a gaming magazine.

The atmosphere is excellent. It's JA2 with SPY LARP and it does it well. Recommended without a doubt, in fact, I'm gonna reinstall it now.

 

[Xathrodox86]

I meant more depth in control and what you can do like trapping doors an localized damage

Breaking news - you can do that in JA 2 as well. SS was a meh-tier experience, gud for what it is, but comparing its depth with JA 2 is simply wow.

SS mechanics and physics were great. However the story, interaction and RPG elements of JA 2 are much, much, much better.

Still loved the SS tough. Altough I've heard that Hammer & Sickle was a step backwards, when compared to SS.

 

[DrowningHarvey]

H&S is rough along the edges and very unforgiving, but definitely worth a try. I'd love to see a similar style game with bit more polish.

 

[bozia2012]

H&S is good shit. Totally unpolished and buggy, but has a few nice features. Plot was progressing with time, not only with your input - in some events you could have an upper hand by arriving earlier, some events could be totally missed. You had to make clean runs - wounds were almost impossible to heal (not enough time) and leaving bodies and mess resulted in bad ending (IIRC the last objective was explicitly a false flag operation).

 

[Gnidrologist]

Still loved the SS tough. Altough I've heard that Hammer & Sickle was a step backwards, when compared to SS.

It was, in fact, step forward as it actually introduced rp elements, c&c n stuff, which were absent in mission based SS, which was more like Fallout Tactics. It's only flaw is that it's very short, because it started out as a fan made mod. For any fan of squad tactics a must play game.

 

[Goblino]

I'd say that being short is a plus. There's enough different possibilities and companions that you're supposed to play it over and over. Like way of the Samurai except nothing like Way of the Samurai.

 

[Suicidal Meat Slapper]

Loved Silent Storm, but never got a chance to check this out. Would like to see this on GOG just to be able to see how it is.

 

[Goblino]

Vote for it then. Or get a copy new off Amazon. Nobody bought that game so they're still cheap and buying it will be easier than a torrent because nobody is seeding it. Also it comes with a bigass manual and a nifty 50s commie looking box. There's no wondering why this sat in a Texas GameStop for about a decade before I got it