Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Ghulgothas]

Working through it right now, about done with the tutorial island. The first few sectors there are pretty bad when it comes to constrained environments, but the Final Fort is a pretty neat little vignette of possibility, planning and set-up.

Eager to see if there's more setpiece environments like that in the game proper.

 

[Wilian]

How cool it would be if we could get "Slava Ukraini" DLC with M.E.R.C competitor called "International Reddit Legion". After capturing comms facility/military base we could use "Send NAFO" interaction to lower morale of enemy troops in the sector or cause them to move to other place preparing for fake invasion!

Problem with that DLC is that the enemy AI would be so horribly incompetent it'd feel like playing with cheat codes.

 

[Beowulf]

Yes, the first sectors are pretty small. The engagements happen on longer ranges than shown in the trailers, though, so it's not that bad.

Overall it's really good. Even merc's voicelines are more entertaining than annoying. I'm enjoying it so far.
But there is a lot of small issues with audio, enemy alertness and this combat start with first turn going to the enemies is ridiculous at times. Certain video settings don't work or reset as well.
Some design choices are also baffling, like accuracy penalty for difference in XP levels.

 

[geno]

Btw for those who used I.M.P., how is character creation in this game?

Exactly as it worked in 2, as expected.

 

[Alienman]

I like it so far. I'm actually surprised at how fun the combat is. The AI is a little bit suicidal it seems. Like if you hide, they all come running, which is nice for ambushes, but it makes the game kinda easy. Maybe the soldiers get better later on. Many things in the game make my mind go back to Ja2, and that is a nice feeling. However, there are some stuff I dislike, like ammo sharing. I just find it weird, and there seem to be no restrictions on the amount of weapons that can be carried. My Steroid has an mg42, a Kar98, an AK47, a pistol, and other mechanic stuff.

He is basically this guy:

But I'm happy with the purchase so far. I see many hours of tactical fun ahead of me.

Edit: If anyone can figure out how to force turn-based mode when in stealth, I will be a happy man. I had a chance to re-enter stealth while in TB, and it made the sneaking so much better.

 

[bobocrunch]

Tutorial island really was tutorial island, pushed onto the Cote de Azure after and almost got Hitman killed with a bad overwatch position. Playing on hard / ironman and it's enjoyable though certain weapon types and builds seem a lot better than others. Kalyna's been working as my sniper and doing surprisingly well saving people's ass with headshots

 

[cvv]

Not that it matters too much to me but gotta be honest, this looks like shit, graphix-wise.

Washed out, bland, generic and positively 2015.

Then again Surviving Mars looks 2010 at best and it's grate so yeah.

 

[Raghar]

How is weapon lethality? When I watched streamer, these high powered rifles caused low powered damage.

 

[Harthwain]

Xenonauts 2 couldn't pick a worse time to release tbh. Only 4 days after JA3, unless they have insider info that this game is so short, that people will beat it in 4 days and will yearn for more of similar stuff.

Is it actually interesting. Because if it's just a Xenonauts mk2 and just a rehash of few other games glued together without theirs own effort. Who would care about half baked game made by people with low programming skills?
On the positive side, just because people would pony money for JA3, that doesn't mean they wouldn't pony money for Xenonauts 2.

Just game development should be about art, and about making games that developer wants to play. If this is just made to earn money, who cares.

Frankly, Epic would have as promo Murder by Numbers for free at that time as well. So, that would be also competitor. OK main character is brownie, there are people with weird rainbow hair colors. But, it's for free so why not try it. Xenonauts... Well, if you played 1 is there any innovation or some reason to play 2?
And with JA3 is there sex drugs and violence, or is it just a cash grab that uses names of previous games to earn bigger profit?

Xenonauts was a response to XCOM. Straight comparision of either to Jagged Alliance is a bit of a miss.

 

[Tyranicon]

Anyone else getting the constant audio skipping?

Barely into the game and there's so many performance issues and general roughness.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Thanks for all of you who participate early performance issue finding/ bug squashing.
You know who you are.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Pre-ordered after Midnight to get that 20% discount, will likely start playing later today or tomorrow.

 

[Stavrophore]

Inconsistent framerate and indeed DLSS2 decreasing framerate. This game needs a day 1 patch for sure.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Come home, Slav man. The Bulgoids spent too much of the budget on getting African niggers to fuck their wives for "research", the real JA3 was released years ago.

 

[Raghar]

Yes, the first sectors are pretty small. The engagements happen on longer ranges than shown in the trailers, though, so it's not that bad.

Overall it's really good. Even merc's voicelines are more entertaining than annoying. I'm enjoying it so far.
But there is a lot of small issues with audio, enemy alertness and this combat start with first turn going to the enemies is ridiculous at times. Certain video settings don't work or reset as well.
Some design choices are also baffling, like accuracy penalty for difference in XP levels.

Congratulation for not missing IMP web button. Not many streamers were as lucky.

 

[Tyranicon]

Game is okay so far but...

That stupid ass free-move so your enemies can get in cover is the most asinine, unrealistic, 2023 pro-gamer thing they could've added.

I was wondering how it plays out, and it's literally all your enemies scoot into cover as soon as they detect you.

At least your starting squad doesn't miss 90% of their shots beyond 5 meters, so at least there's that.

 

[Alienman]

Thanks for all of you who participate early performance issue finding/ bug squashing.
You know who you are.

Runs fine for me on ultra, hovering around 100-120 fps. The only issue is the audio ducking when music plays.

 

[Lemming42]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

 

[Modron]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

So that game journalists switch to easy mode instead of being unable to complete the tutorial on normal.

 

[ArchAngel]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

Because 90% of gamers are pussies. And they want to get fucked by bears.

 

[Tyranicon]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

No this is a legit concern since mouth breathers will review your game negatively because it's too hard, etc. Colony Ship had this problem IIRC.

 

[Jarmaro]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

People misunderstand that older games are considered 'hard' because they were made in a specific way to create a specific challenge, but it became a cultural meme in gaming circles that the 'classics' were 'hardcore', and now midwits that think themselves superior want to play 'hardcore' games to maintain their self-image as hardcore gamers. Some people need to have the game suck their dick just for playing it and be called a good boy for winning.

 

[Hobo Elf]

65 damage headshot. Enemy doesn't die. Attacks me like nothing had happened.
Game is OK. Nothing too special imo. Mechanics are about as subpar as I feared. I think the main problem is that enemies have HP bloat and so the flaws of the combat mechanics rear their head too much. If combat was more lethal / faster then maybe some of the simplifications wouldn't matter too much.

 

[Stavrophore]

Played two missions, it's basically a an XCOM lite mobile game with JA2 merc flavor on top. You dont even get grenades or abilities at first, very boring.
Melee extremely OP so far. I think i might play it if im truly bored, right now i will give it chance to the end of tutorial island and see how it goes. It doesn't look promising, unless its the one of those games that have poor upfront and good backend.

 

[Readher]

Why does every damn game these days start with a little "Our game is hard. You will get fucked to death. This isn't a game for Pussies. You're a pussy? Use Pussy Mode. This is a rock hard game" notice?

Games aren't supposed to pose a challenge nowadays. They're interactive movies where the gameplay session are just dopamine doses that make normies feel good, since they feel like they accomplished something. This is especially true among millennials and it's why they insist every game is single-player/co-op, as PvP makes them face actual challenge and unmask them as low skilled faggots.

That's not to say I don't like single-player or co-op games as I'm literally in a thread about game that is both, but you'd be surprised how mad people on plebbit can be that a game includes PvP. Hunt Showdown recently had a new peak concurrent players record, and half the comments were crying that they wish it was pure PvE instead. Literal mental illness.