Hammertime & Sickle - who's played the NA release?

[Avé]

Just curious, how historically accurate is the setting?

Alternate history post WW2

 

[merry andrew]

Each session you play will alter the history of other realities.

Think about that.

 

[Crichton]

only sharing same engine and (to an extent) setting with SS.

Just curious, how historically accurate is the setting?

If it's anything like silent storm, then abandon all hope.

Silent storm made me wonder if they still teach history in russia. It had, just by way of examples:

-women serving as combat troops for all of the great powers (only russia ever got that desperate).

-operation sea lion a sucess, wehrmacht troops are all over britain

-A plane that can be flown into and out of hostile territory apparently without the need for an airfield like the x-men's blackbird.

-Japanese, koreans, russians, persians and finns all serving on the western front.

-Casual day, every soldier wears what they want.

-mixed nationality special commando teams.

-absolutely nothing to do with WWII.

And this is without bringing up the main plot (britain and germany develop super-mecha man-amp iron man robo-suits while a comic-book secret society plots to take over the world with a star-wars laser-armed satalite, laser rilfes and flying super-mecha robo suits)

In silent storm, it's really better to just ignore the setting altogether.

 

[Hamster]

Silent storm made me wonder if they still teach history in russia. It had, just by way of examples:

You know, i've watched the Star Wars movie, and i am wondering, if they still teach anything outside Russia... sound in space! Magic! Jedi! Nothing of it exist in rea life, how this stupid western capitalists can't understand this? :shock:

 

[Fresh]

Silent storm made me wonder if they still teach history in russia. It had, just by way of examples:

You know, i've watched the Star Wars movie, and i am wondering, if they still teach anything outside Russia... sound in space! Magic! Jedi! Nothing of it exist in rea life, how this stupid western capitalists can't understand this? :shock:

Haha haha. Brilliant.

Good reply to a stupid post.

 

[Crichton]

Here's Dmitry “Zak” Zakharov telling us how much "historical atmosphere" the game is going to have:

but we went to a lot of effort to make sure that each location closely resembled whatever country it is located in and of course they are true to the time period. Ultimately, the environments are central to providing the WWII atmosphere as well as supplying a good place to try out all kinds of different tactics.

Silent Storm does have a story that delves into the fantastic, but it offers loads of WWII-era weapons, and plenty of historical atmosphere.

http://www.gamershell.com/articles/688.html

oh wait, here he is again;

RPG Vault: How authentic are you trying to make the game, and what kind of research has the team done?

Dmitry Zakharov: The events and story line are fictional, but the atmosphere and nearly all of the weaponry are deeply rooted in WWII. Everything from the pictures on the walls and furniture to the weapon arsenals and civilian garments were studied in depth. We also brought on a well-known military history expert, gathered and analyzed information on subversive and covert operations of the WWII era, and compiled a database of authentic equipment employed by special forces.

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/456/456046p1.html

They don't mention who this "wel-known military history expert" is, but if he signed off on not only mixed-race, but mixed gender WWII units, wehrmacht patrols in Sussex and extracting agents from hostile territory by plane they should ask for their money back.

Star Wars, you might have noticed, wasn't intended to be set in Dusseldorf in 1943.

 

[Hamster]

Well, they put robotic warriors in the game and this lefts no possibility to claim any historical accuracy, no matter what PR deparment was boasting about.

And it have nothing to do with H&S, as it chief developer clearly stated, that this game is "Agent 007" style historical fiction.

 

[Balor]

Ok, even though Hamster is a right about 'Jedi! sound in space!" , lemme reply:

-women serving as combat troops for all of the great powers (only russia ever got that desperate).

It's much better now. Your main char can be only a man, and there is only one female NPC in the game you can hire, and she has a nice explanation of her being military. (Btw, Russian female warriors were volunteers)
...
Unless there are joinable NPCs I have not found, and I will not be too surprised if I didn’t.

-operation sea lion a sucess, wehrmacht troops are all over britain

Cannot remember about that, sorry.

-A plane that can be flown into and out of hostile territory apparently without the need for an airfield like the x-men's blackbird.

Sorry, no airplanes for you in H&S .

-Japanese, koreans, russians, persians and finns all serving on the western front.

Ok, like it's stated, you can only choose a Russian as you main char, he cannot be a negro for obvious reasons , he cannot be woman, etc.

-Casual day, every soldier wears what they want.

Ingame, uniforms DO play a role now, both in masquerading as, say, allied forces so you can carry a gun in town (besides concealed ones. No, just putting it into inventory will not work - unless it's a sawed-off carbine or a handgun.)

-mixed nationality special commando teams.

You can certainly have them in H&S. (unless you’d like to solo for some reason) But if you'll happen to have a german and a jew in same team, for instance, prepare for some heavy bickering, that may come to blows and shots.

-absolutely nothing to do with WWII.

The setting is still a bit 'alternate', yet lack panzerkleins and is MUCH more realistic feeling them SS.
Remember - Novik is maintainer of one of biggest Russian forums on military history. It'll must have given him quite a bit of knowledge on military matters and WWII in particular, if even he had no interest in it whatsoever (Yet he does, otherwise he’d not be the maintainer of it).
Oh, yea, and H&S is POST WWII, so it also has nothing to do with it - but it’s about its aftermath, that’s for sure.

 

[sabishii]

Yeah, of course the plot will be alternate post-WW2, but what about all the events that happen prior to the game? I mean, do they build the new plot out of a true historic foundation, or do they fabricate their own setting?

The military expert thing is good, but it sounds like they just focused on having just a realistic-seeming atmosphere ... But are the events that actually happened recognized, etc? Is it realistic solely in terms of military history, or are political, social, and economic history acknowledged as well?

I think I'll play this game no matter what, but I'm just curious because I'm studying the Cold War in school right now. =P

 

[Balor]

Well, "Truth Aes Sedai speaks may not be the truth you hear" .
I mean, what you study in school usually interpreted in favor of current ideology (I mean, when your books you learn from were written), that means same facts may sound compeltely differently what viewed from 'different sides of the fence', so to speak .
Doubt that you'll find something really jarring there, though. After all, we're done with communist propaganda, heh. And it depends where you study your Cold War, means - what country.

 

[sabishii]

We're not studying from a textbook, but from a variety of sources such as paperbacks written by actual historians and of course primary documents.

My question still is, do they actually try to adhere to history (or what they think is historically accurate) or do they fabricate their own ideas for the setting?

 

[Sovard]

No negros? Sign me up.

 

[Elwro]

-women serving as combat troops for all of the great powers (only russia ever got that desperate).

What? You mean there were no hot SS babes in latex? OMG Return to Castle Wolfenstein was not historically accurate!!111!

 

[Balor]

Heh, in fact, one of main chars (if you'll notice her, he-he-he...) is female US army *ahem* ranger, I've noted that.

I'd talk about it more, but that'll be heavy spoilers.

 

[obediah]

You can certainly have them in H&S. (unless you’d like to solo for some reason) But if you'll happen to have a german and a jew in same team, for instance, prepare for some heavy bickering, that may come to blows and shots.

If you have a german jew, will he shove himself in an oven? If you have a Schwarzkommando cannibal, will he then eat the remains?

 

[kingcomrade]

-women serving as combat troops for all of the great powers (only russia ever got that desperate).

What? You mean there were no hot SS babes in latex? OMG Return to Castle Wolfenstein was not historically accurate!!111!

LIES!!!

 

[Balor]

If you have a german jew, will he shove himself in an oven? If you have a Schwarzkommando cannibal, will he then eat the remains?

Unfortunatelly, the game is not historically accurate enough for such advaced features .

 

[Screaming_life]

Some new screens:

http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096483398/


This one has two people firing at the same time!

i thought it was proper turnbased? or does it work differently?

http://images.3dgamers.com/screenimages/games/hammersickle/hs_14.jpg

 

[Fresh]

With the silent storm engine you can set 2 or more squad members to fire simultaneously "within your turn".

 

[Screaming_life]

With the silent storm engine you can set 2 or more squad members to fire simultaneously "within your turn".

Ah ok... i didn't remember that... but why would you?

 

[Fresh]

Partly because you can avoid getting interrupted, partly because its fun to totally annihilate the enemy with multiple bursts of machine gun fire.

 

[Balor]

Well, since the game was rebalanced for greater realism, you don't need that anymore, really, besides for 'fun', but encounters tend to be rather challenging even on easier difficulty levels, so I don't recommend it .

Oh, btw, one of better tweaks that you can only hide in darkness - means either indoors by shooting down all light sources, or outdoors during the night.

 

[Screaming_life]

interupt! of course!



great feature!

 

[Fresh]

Well, since the game was rebalanced for greater realism, you don't need that anymore, really, besides for 'fun', but encounters tend to be rather challenging even on easier difficulty levels, so I don't recommend it .

Oh, btw, one of better tweaks that you can only hide in darkness - means either indoors by shooting down all light sources, or outdoors during the night.

Do shadows affect hiding? Like hiding under a tree for example.

 

[Balor]

Hmm, don't think so.
But your uniform does affect it. For instance, green uniform will be great for hiding in forest, but will suck to hide indoors.