If there is one thing I want to know in advance, it's what cool surprises await me.
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Game News Hammer & Sickle demo on 3DGamers
- Thread starter Saint_Proverbius
- Start date
"Hammer & Sickle, gamers assume the role of a Soviet commando sent behind enemy lines in Western Germany. However, in Hammer & Sickle's manual, he's billed as a "top Soviet spy" who "attempts to prevent a nuclear showdown between the world's superpowers." Not only does he not do any spying in Hammer & Sickle, he has no option but to blend in with the locals and wait for orders after his intelligence center is hit by terrorists."
WTF? He's not a spy - he's a saboteur. He expressly states that at the beginning of the game, and also voices surprise at him being assigned at this mission... unless it was cut out or something, or, more likely, that retard just skipped all the dialogues.
Also, I cannot recall anything about 'nuclear showdown'. WWIII? Right. But it does not mean it will be fought by nuclear bombs only.
Russia had enough tanks an other conventional weapons in Europe to pose more then simple threat to allied forces, and nuking Europe to get rid of them is, well, not exactly smartest move, so no easy victory for US there (if that was the case, I'd be speaking English now... wtf? I already speaking English! heh, but that would be my first language
If I’d be born, even.).
I guess that line in the manual was added just for extra pompousness and shit.
Oh, and this reviewer is dumb one too.
4 Classes? No 'spy'?
'Scout' is, actually, synonymous to 'spy' in Russian.
So, it's a perfect class for it... if it will not make your character a 'real' spy anyway (see above).
Also, there are 'medic' and 'engineer' classes, you can take them if you will select 'custom' character, not one of preset ones. I guess he missed that option... I wonder what's up with reviewers nowadays, looks like they getting blind (and dumb).
And for 'playing aging, fat woman' - is he being sarcastic, or unspeakably dumb?
He expects Russian saboteurs to employ old women, or negros? In fact, it was possible to in SS, but intentionally taken out in H&S, for above reasons.
About skills - "Rambo" allow you to run with heavy weapons in hands in TB mode. In fact, it's really useful perks if you favor HMGs, and they are rather useful when dealing with crowds of enemies.
Btw, he indeed suck as a player - I, like I said, completed the game, and had loads of fun, with nearly 'hard' settings.
Yes, including 'no saving in combat', too, maxed out enemy damage (mine too - I love weapon realism) and no boosts to our team's stats whatsoever. And I cannot be called an 'expert' too, really.
And, again, I see he failed to understand that this game is nonlinear - I see he only finished the game the shortest and 'dumbest' way - by starting the WWIII.
An other idiotic review. Next!
WTF? He's not a spy - he's a saboteur. He expressly states that at the beginning of the game, and also voices surprise at him being assigned at this mission... unless it was cut out or something, or, more likely, that retard just skipped all the dialogues.
Also, I cannot recall anything about 'nuclear showdown'. WWIII? Right. But it does not mean it will be fought by nuclear bombs only.
Russia had enough tanks an other conventional weapons in Europe to pose more then simple threat to allied forces, and nuking Europe to get rid of them is, well, not exactly smartest move, so no easy victory for US there (if that was the case, I'd be speaking English now... wtf? I already speaking English! heh, but that would be my first language
If I’d be born, even.).I guess that line in the manual was added just for extra pompousness and shit.
Oh, and this reviewer is dumb one too.
4 Classes? No 'spy'?
'Scout' is, actually, synonymous to 'spy' in Russian.
So, it's a perfect class for it... if it will not make your character a 'real' spy anyway (see above).
Also, there are 'medic' and 'engineer' classes, you can take them if you will select 'custom' character, not one of preset ones. I guess he missed that option... I wonder what's up with reviewers nowadays, looks like they getting blind (and dumb).
And for 'playing aging, fat woman' - is he being sarcastic, or unspeakably dumb?
He expects Russian saboteurs to employ old women, or negros? In fact, it was possible to in SS, but intentionally taken out in H&S, for above reasons.
About skills - "Rambo" allow you to run with heavy weapons in hands in TB mode. In fact, it's really useful perks if you favor HMGs, and they are rather useful when dealing with crowds of enemies.
Btw, he indeed suck as a player - I, like I said, completed the game, and had loads of fun, with nearly 'hard' settings.
Yes, including 'no saving in combat', too, maxed out enemy damage (mine too - I love weapon realism) and no boosts to our team's stats whatsoever. And I cannot be called an 'expert' too, really.
And, again, I see he failed to understand that this game is nonlinear - I see he only finished the game the shortest and 'dumbest' way - by starting the WWIII.
An other idiotic review. Next!
Oh, and an other idiotic bit I've missed:
As for the actual role-playing aspects of Hammer & Sickle, there's little to engage the hardcore stat nerd.
Notice that 'roleplaying' for him == stats.
Authors, kill yourself against a wall.
As for the actual role-playing aspects of Hammer & Sickle, there's little to engage the hardcore stat nerd.
Notice that 'roleplaying' for him == stats.
Authors, kill yourself against a wall.
Jinxed
Liturgist
I played SS a lot and I say every skill can be useful if used correctly, of course, there are more useful ones, like auto critical, but those are at the end of the table.
Lets say that the manual does indeed state you as being a spy... He thinks spy is an actual class, rather than a role which you can play. The fact that spy and scout in russian are the same does not say anything in it's favor. They are totally different things in reality. A scout is a recon unit, with high dex. Not high int charismatic talkie character. See, this is where the limits of SS overshadow the game. If they created new classes, ones that fit an actual RPG, it would be cool, but this way you cannot escape some degree of confusion.
Scout, soldier, sniper, grenadier - all of these are strictly combat based characters. I want to see what the less combat oriented characters have to offer in their skill trees. Say bonuses to speech etc.
Even though he comes off as stupid, I think he does have a small point in mentioning the poor stat system of hs. Face it, the game was made for a tactical combat game, not a real RPG. The signs of this are all over the place.
You only have a handful of stats where guns for example, are thrown into one category, SHOOTING. You have a skill tree which is plentyful, albeit limited because of a lack of levels.
The thing is, you don't really need all that to have fun, that's why he states "there's little to engage the hardcore stat nerd"
While the system gets the job done, it's far from stat heavy. It's simple and combat oriented.
Lets say that the manual does indeed state you as being a spy... He thinks spy is an actual class, rather than a role which you can play. The fact that spy and scout in russian are the same does not say anything in it's favor. They are totally different things in reality. A scout is a recon unit, with high dex. Not high int charismatic talkie character. See, this is where the limits of SS overshadow the game. If they created new classes, ones that fit an actual RPG, it would be cool, but this way you cannot escape some degree of confusion.
Scout, soldier, sniper, grenadier - all of these are strictly combat based characters. I want to see what the less combat oriented characters have to offer in their skill trees. Say bonuses to speech etc.
Even though he comes off as stupid, I think he does have a small point in mentioning the poor stat system of hs. Face it, the game was made for a tactical combat game, not a real RPG. The signs of this are all over the place.
You only have a handful of stats where guns for example, are thrown into one category, SHOOTING. You have a skill tree which is plentyful, albeit limited because of a lack of levels.
The thing is, you don't really need all that to have fun, that's why he states "there's little to engage the hardcore stat nerd"
While the system gets the job done, it's far from stat heavy. It's simple and combat oriented.
Oh, that... Well, there is shooting, sniping and burst fire skills, and for individual weapons we have 'habit' value. I can hardly say that it's very 'simplified'.
And for 'no speechraft skills' - well, it's indeed SS legacy.Yet again, it's not 'classical' RPG in strict sense, like I said already- but you'll have plenty opportunities to roleplay your character, just not only in dialogues, but with your actions and inactions, and not simply by 'kill the bad guy with grenade or sniper shot', but by choosing where to fight and where to flee, disposing of incriminating evidence in harsh time constraints, etc.
Oh, and the game (like you've seen in the demo) does check your intelligence sometimes, it serves like charisma and speechraft stills.
Anyway, having H&S using SS engine is better then not having it at all, right?
And for 'no speechraft skills' - well, it's indeed SS legacy.Yet again, it's not 'classical' RPG in strict sense, like I said already- but you'll have plenty opportunities to roleplay your character, just not only in dialogues, but with your actions and inactions, and not simply by 'kill the bad guy with grenade or sniper shot', but by choosing where to fight and where to flee, disposing of incriminating evidence in harsh time constraints, etc.
Oh, and the game (like you've seen in the demo) does check your intelligence sometimes, it serves like charisma and speechraft stills.
Anyway, having H&S using SS engine is better then not having it at all, right?
And for spy with high int...
Well, playing role of one would be BORING as heaven.
Working undercover, collecting all kinds of seemedly minor facts, passing loyalty checks... that's what being a spy is, not that Bond crap.
Anyway, 'combat orientation' or main character is explained at the very start of the game anyway, like I said.
Well, playing role of one would be BORING as heaven.
Working undercover, collecting all kinds of seemedly minor facts, passing loyalty checks... that's what being a spy is, not that Bond crap.
Anyway, 'combat orientation' or main character is explained at the very start of the game anyway, like I said.
No, not really 'timed quests'.
Dunno if it's 'better or worse', but you may have to take out a few enemies and dispose of evidence before reinforcements will arrive, etc - not simply "you have 3 days to complete this quest".
On the other hand, such situations can be possible too...
Yet, it should not turn you down. Mostly (I have not vitnessed any such situations, at least) you don't 'lose the game' if you'll fail a timed quest.
Your quest will go different (and not nessesarily 'worse'... anyway, what's better or worse is really subjective) way, you may face more challenges - yet, usually, it's not 'do or die'.
Dunno if it's 'better or worse', but you may have to take out a few enemies and dispose of evidence before reinforcements will arrive, etc - not simply "you have 3 days to complete this quest".
On the other hand, such situations can be possible too...
Yet, it should not turn you down. Mostly (I have not vitnessed any such situations, at least) you don't 'lose the game' if you'll fail a timed quest.
Your quest will go different (and not nessesarily 'worse'... anyway, what's better or worse is really subjective) way, you may face more challenges - yet, usually, it's not 'do or die'.
Gnidrologist
CONDUCTOR
Although the game is still more a squad tactic (aka Jagged Alliance with kombat being equaly fun) because of amount of time you will spend battling towards the time roleplaying, it is a better cRPG than a lot of ''true'' cRPGs like Fable, DS and... well, Borrowind.
H&S is somewhat short and there are only lke 7-8 locations in the whole game, but for a product that started as a mod it's sure a classy piece of software.
The best par is nonlinearity and branching storyline which gives or rather forces player to choose from different actions/dialogues through out the whole game instead of just giving an option to be bad/nice or choose whether to kill or join the BBB at the very end of the game.
I played through 2.5 times already and probably will give two more walkthroughs when I feel like it as it was clearly obvious that the plot has some more alternatives I haven't tryed. In fact, H&S is maybe the Nr.2 place game after Fallout iftaking into account pure nonlinearity and replayability of the same story (albeit very short). Even Arcanum had less meaningfull choices to make and those were mainly attached to sidequest while in H&S these are changing the whole main plot.
The ''intelligence check'' thingie is bugged though. And it's really a bugger that spoils roleplaying a bit. I played with very intelligent sniper (9-10) the first time and wasn't able to prevent the jewish guy to kill a shopkeeper who was selling some looted stuff from deathcamp victims, but could persuade to spare the bastards life next time when I was powerfull grenader with intelligence of 6. It seems that ''intelligence check'' is absolutely random and you could get it to be successfull even with dumbass and fail using charismatic genius. Just keep reloading.
All in all this is very enjoyable game and one of the few RPGish ones that I really liked since Bloodlines. Very good replayability especially for the JA type game junkies which I am too.
H&S is somewhat short and there are only lke 7-8 locations in the whole game, but for a product that started as a mod it's sure a classy piece of software.
The best par is nonlinearity and branching storyline which gives or rather forces player to choose from different actions/dialogues through out the whole game instead of just giving an option to be bad/nice or choose whether to kill or join the BBB at the very end of the game.
I played through 2.5 times already and probably will give two more walkthroughs when I feel like it as it was clearly obvious that the plot has some more alternatives I haven't tryed. In fact, H&S is maybe the Nr.2 place game after Fallout iftaking into account pure nonlinearity and replayability of the same story (albeit very short). Even Arcanum had less meaningfull choices to make and those were mainly attached to sidequest while in H&S these are changing the whole main plot.
The ''intelligence check'' thingie is bugged though. And it's really a bugger that spoils roleplaying a bit. I played with very intelligent sniper (9-10) the first time and wasn't able to prevent the jewish guy to kill a shopkeeper who was selling some looted stuff from deathcamp victims, but could persuade to spare the bastards life next time when I was powerfull grenader with intelligence of 6. It seems that ''intelligence check'' is absolutely random and you could get it to be successfull even with dumbass and fail using charismatic genius. Just keep reloading.
All in all this is very enjoyable game and one of the few RPGish ones that I really liked since Bloodlines. Very good replayability especially for the JA type game junkies which I am too.
Lemon
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2002
- Messages
- 4,858
One thing to note. In the demo there are a few instances where words were improperly used... perhaps translated by someone who is quite fluent on paper but lacked the conversational understanding. It showed up in the dialogue tree selecting questions and answers. The spoken exchanges were fine though.
Jason
chasing a bee
The more Balor defends the game, the more I think its going to suck. And paying full price for a wonky mod doesn't sit well with me, either.
Well, don't trust me - see what Gnidrologist wrote.
*shrugs*
If you think it's going it suck - it will... for you.
I pity you, then. It's a really good game, and if you will spoil it for yourself by expecting it to suck - well, your choice.
*shrugs*
If you think it's going it suck - it will... for you.
I pity you, then. It's a really good game, and if you will spoil it for yourself by expecting it to suck - well, your choice.
Jason
chasing a bee
Actually, Balor, expecting games to suck tends to work in my favor. I played Fallout Tactics and Bloodlines with very low expectations due to all the complaints I read. Both games pleasantly surprised me and Bloodlines is now one of my favorites. FOT isn't one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it enough to play through it 2 1/2 times. You're welcome to pity me all you want, though. It makes me feel special inside.
Crichton
Prophet
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,220
I concur, pessimism is much better than optimism, a pessimist gets only pleasant surprises, an optimist only unpleasant. If I were to buy H&S now then all the garbage translation, stupid plot holes, inconsistancies and historical incongruities would tear at me. But I'm quite sure that when I fish it out of the bargin bin in a month and a half that I'll be quite pleased with whatever good features it has and willing to overlook its faults.
Novik (developer of H&S) posts in this thread if anyone has any questions by the way. Also at the official H&S forums.
Oh, if that...
Well, "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment', indeed
.
However, if you not simply 'expect', but 'convinced yourself' that the game will suck - so you'll only see negative things in it (and, (un)foturtunately, nothing is perfect), and end up thinking that it's a poor game.
But, based on my experience, you'll not get unpleasant surpises unless you'll expect a game like "Ja2 + Planescape:Torment' from H&S... and it's a bit 'too' optimistical, if not outright stupid.
Well, "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment', indeed
.However, if you not simply 'expect', but 'convinced yourself' that the game will suck - so you'll only see negative things in it (and, (un)foturtunately, nothing is perfect), and end up thinking that it's a poor game.
But, based on my experience, you'll not get unpleasant surpises unless you'll expect a game like "Ja2 + Planescape:Torment' from H&S... and it's a bit 'too' optimistical, if not outright stupid.
Jinxed
Liturgist
The game is overpriced. EBgames says 40$
I say it should be priced at 20$ Here's a game that made no illusion about how much work they put into it http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/259601.asp
I say it should be priced at 20$ Here's a game that made no illusion about how much work they put into it http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/259601.asp
Well, I really cannot comment about how overprised it is - it depends on how much you expect to pay for games.
I've payed like 9$ for it, and that's much more then I usually pay for games, even lisenzed ones, yet I don't regret it in the slightest.
I've payed like 9$ for it, and that's much more then I usually pay for games, even lisenzed ones, yet I don't regret it in the slightest.
Jinxed
Liturgist
Would you pay 40$ for it?
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