The Jagged Alliance remake is coming out soon. I'm skeptical, honestly. With information lacking and a demonstration video showing this one guy who sucks at it, it's hard to say whether or not it'll be good. The question on most fans' minds is whether or not it'll live up to the original.
I think that's a bit of a loaded question though, since most of these fans are the same people that have modded the game to hell (like Oblivion). v1.13 and beyond are all fan creations, and are very different games from v1.12, where the developer updates end. This modification, while fun and entertaining, leads to some seriously skewed views about what the game actually was. I can't comment on the quality of v1.13 and various other fan mods, but I have played the steam release which is 1.12.
You start by getting a lump sum of $45k from a deposed ruler named Enrico Chivaldori, to use in hiring mercenaries to take back an island republic called Arulco from his evil wife Quen Deidranna. You can create your own merc, and hire either a lot of decent mercs or a few good ones. You'll need to fill gaps, like having shooters, a medic, a mechanic, and so on.
However, who you hire won't really matter so much as how well you can use them tactically. Early on, with little armor, even the dinkiest handguns can do a lot of damage. Taking damage means you start bleeding, and eventually you'll bleed out if you don't patch things up. Even after you patch a merc's wounds, they don't actually heal until given a few days. If the merc does die, they don't return. It's entirely possible to lose every single merc in the game, the only real lose condition besides having no money to hire anyone. In other words, mistakes are punished severely.
This is compounded by the lack of any sort of real tutorial. No way to learn the interface or the commands exists in the game itself outside of the edit controls menu. While the progression of difficulty is fine itself, it starts comparatively high to other games. The mildly useful tactic of climbing onto building roofs eluded me until I noticed one time that a new button buried in the interface had mysteriously lighted up. I didn't know where exactly supplies would show up when I ordered them.
Another difficulty is that the game doesn't tell you the odds of a bullet hitting someone. It depends on the level of aim, angle of the shot, obstructions, visibility, the gun itself, and the merc's marksmanship. This is fine since over time you'll get an idea of what will hit and what won't.
As a turn-based tactical game, it's naturally slow. Each merc gets action points dependent on their agility, current health and current encumbrance. If an enemy walks into a merc's line of sight, they might be able to interrupt.
While the tactical elements themselves could constitute a good game, Jagged Alliance 2 also features a territory control game. Your mercenary company has to take over cities and towns, induct citizens into the militia to protect your captured assets, and get the citizens to fund your military efforts by turning over mine proceeds to you. You'll also need to take down SAM sites to allow a helicopter pilot you can gain to fly you around more effectively. You also have to take over an airport to get supplies from off-site, and maintain a supply chain to keep your front-line mercs equipped.
I decided to name my custom mercenary Boss Man. He was a good shot, fast and wise, a night ops expert (I guess answering that Barney should be hung from a tree and shot on the personality quiz gets that result). Not good for much else. I also hired Grizzly and MD. After we were airdropped into the island, we were quickly attacked.
My team died, naturally. I had no idea at the time I could adjust aiming, or even crouch. I reloaded my last save.
This time, after lots of control fiddling, I managed to get my team to crouch behind sandbags after getting into an open shootout. Grizzly caught a bullet, but MD patched him up and he took it like a champ. I wandered around aimlessly, talking to the locals and showing them a letter Enrico told me to give to the rebel leader Miguel. They hooked me up, and Miguel foisted some New York humanitarian-aid-worker-turned-rebel woman named Ira on me. I pursed my lips as she told me she was basically useless. I guess she'd be a decent meat shield.
Miguel told me I should head to Drassen, and get the priest there to agree to supply the rebels. Little did I know that this would entail murdering everyone in an orange wife beater and green pants in town. Seriously, that's what all the enemies looked like.
I talked to the mine leader, who said he'd give me the mine earnings if I'd overthrow the Queen. Since I was going to do that anyways, I automatically accepted and proceeded to hire more mercs. More manpower would make this easier after all!
This took about a week. I got an email from Enrico telling me that he knew overthrowing his ex-wife wouldn't be easy, but that I should hurry my ass along.
Me being who I am, I sat at the mine letting the mercs practice fighting guns, and fill out the militia until the game told me I hit the arbitrary cap. Two weeks later or so, I received a vaguely threatening email from Enrico saying he was 'unhappy with the lack of progress.'
I decided to stop being lazy and spoke to the priest, who apparently is attracted to Ira. I took a moment to revel in her discomfort as the fat priest agreed to help us. I went back to Miguel, who foisted another of his rebels on me, Dmitri. Dmitri is dumb. Seriously, he sometimes forgets commands and you have to reissue them. He also likes to say 'I MAKE PROUD.' He works for free though, so I turned him into a pack mule.
I found that fighting at night with Boss Man alone was very effective; his expertise in night operations meant he could see and hear further than enemies could, and thus shoot them without fear of retribution. I continued to exploit this as my team made their way to the next city, Grumm.
As usual, I attacked during the night. But now, I had a new problem. Chain fences. They blocked off paths, and such. I had Boss Man crawl around to the front, which was naturally guarded. He fired off shots, and killed one of the guards. When the enemy turn came, they chucked something at Boss Man.
It only did one hit point of damage. The ground lit up around Boss Man, but nothing seemed to happen otherwise. I shrugged, and ordered Boss Man to continue firing. The enemy turn came again, and this time five soldiers shot at Boss Man until his little profile icon grayed out and became a skull.
I would later find out that further along the game soldiers had chemical break lights. Or rather, Glo-sticks. I was defeated by damn raver paraphernalia. But I learned my lesson. Run like a coward until the enemy loses you in the darkness.
I took a break from the game for a while after that. It's been very fun and interesting, and I keep returning to it, but I like to break it up between less involved and quicker-paced games.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Mount & Musket
There aren't too many games based in the 17th-19th centuries. Europa Universalis, Napoleon: Total War, and Empire: Total War are pretty much the only examples that come to mind. Maybe there's a History Channel game in the works for it; I know they've got one for the Civil War. It'll suck, but at least it'll fill a niche!
On a more basic level, I have to question the need for this mod when Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword exists. I mean, both have old muskets and flintlock pistols, cavalry, and so on. I can't honestly say without having played WFaS online though whether this assertion is grounded in something that bears a resemblance to reason.
I can say with confidence that the guns are much less usable in M&M (which I shall now call Eminem) because they're so damn inaccurate. Unless you're a skirmisher class character with a rifle, you won't hit a thing unless your target is in ten paces.
However, this is a good thing. Since most guns kill in one hit, battles would become sniping duels in the vein of the Counter Strike AWP arenas. This gives cavalry and other classes a chance to be useful.
There's lots of little things that make this mod entertaining. First off is the inclusion of flag bearers and musicianship. You can play as a guy that holds your army's flag, or as a flutist/trumpeter/drummer. I've seen many musicians proudly stand their ground, continuing to play even though they know they will be cut down. Flag bearers however, tend to be jerks that just block attacks for as long as possible.
For a mod based on a time where people stood in lines to fire guns at each other, no one actually does this. Unless you join a clan that does line battles, everyone just runs off to do their thing. As a result, melee tends to be extremely important, and a single guy competent in melee can change the course of a round.
For example, I saw this one guy who went by the name of SAVAGE. He was the last Russian soldier on our team, fighting ten Frenchmen. He proceeded to go into a frenzy, and with his bayoneted musket skewer 8 soldiers in a row until he was finally felled. It was a beautiful and awkward thing to watch, see him spin around like crazy while slowly stabbing people. Next round, I used the cheer button to say some incomprehensible Russian phrase that sounds kick ass. Certainly better than the British's "HURRAH FOR OLD NOSEY!"
One of my gaming groups decided to form their own line battle clan, which I joined. We began to do training exercises on the basics of making lines; marching, firing in volleys, etc. I mostly spent the time using the kick button to interrupt my comrades' aiming. And they thought it'd be a good idea to appoint me captain.
I was quickly replaced.
On a more basic level, I have to question the need for this mod when Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword exists. I mean, both have old muskets and flintlock pistols, cavalry, and so on. I can't honestly say without having played WFaS online though whether this assertion is grounded in something that bears a resemblance to reason.
I can say with confidence that the guns are much less usable in M&M (which I shall now call Eminem) because they're so damn inaccurate. Unless you're a skirmisher class character with a rifle, you won't hit a thing unless your target is in ten paces.
However, this is a good thing. Since most guns kill in one hit, battles would become sniping duels in the vein of the Counter Strike AWP arenas. This gives cavalry and other classes a chance to be useful.
There's lots of little things that make this mod entertaining. First off is the inclusion of flag bearers and musicianship. You can play as a guy that holds your army's flag, or as a flutist/trumpeter/drummer. I've seen many musicians proudly stand their ground, continuing to play even though they know they will be cut down. Flag bearers however, tend to be jerks that just block attacks for as long as possible.
For a mod based on a time where people stood in lines to fire guns at each other, no one actually does this. Unless you join a clan that does line battles, everyone just runs off to do their thing. As a result, melee tends to be extremely important, and a single guy competent in melee can change the course of a round.
For example, I saw this one guy who went by the name of SAVAGE. He was the last Russian soldier on our team, fighting ten Frenchmen. He proceeded to go into a frenzy, and with his bayoneted musket skewer 8 soldiers in a row until he was finally felled. It was a beautiful and awkward thing to watch, see him spin around like crazy while slowly stabbing people. Next round, I used the cheer button to say some incomprehensible Russian phrase that sounds kick ass. Certainly better than the British's "HURRAH FOR OLD NOSEY!"
One of my gaming groups decided to form their own line battle clan, which I joined. We began to do training exercises on the basics of making lines; marching, firing in volleys, etc. I mostly spent the time using the kick button to interrupt my comrades' aiming. And they thought it'd be a good idea to appoint me captain.
I was quickly replaced.
Terraria
Yes, yes, Terraria is a lot like Minecraft, what with the building, and the monsters at night, and the Poké and the man and the guy comes out and he oh BOH BAW BAW BOH. Cosby impression aside, Terraria is more about fighting monsters and purifying the world of corruption than it necessarily is about building fortresses and other impractically ornate landmarks.
One thing that's a huge letdown is that there's no simple building mode. You can't shut off creeps, goblin invasions, or just give yourself whatever equipment in a sandbox mode. The 2-dimensional building style is not as impressive as Minecraft's 3D world, although the Terraria creators try to compensate by including fluff items to place in rooms and requiring more specific objects to build things (such as a loom to make cloth).
That said, it does have adventure game elements where Minecraft doesn't; health and magic can be improved. There are also guns, a welcome addition in a game with several flying enemies, along with other weapon varieties such as lances, boomerangs, and the Tron lightdisc. Perhaps most fun of all is the inclusion of a hookshot-like weapon and flying abilities. No minecart shenanigans, sadly. You can also customized your avatar, but frankly I didn't care much for most of the options, particularly the hair styles.
Connecting in multi-player is irritating. I don't mind connecting via IP, but I shouldn't need an application like Hamachi to just be able to connect to other players. The chat line is also limited to a single line, which is bothersome when you need to explain things that take more than a terse sentence.
That said, playing with friends is still a lot of fun. I got hazed by my online group, via my murder the moment I joined the server. After calling them assholes, we proceeded to build forts.
One of my buddies then decked me out with hacked gear: Wings, the Hamdrax drill, the Megashark, and Excalibur. Suddenly everything died in a one or two hits, and I could demolish the terrain at high speed. This was awesome, since my starting equipment took 20 swings to kill even the lowliest jelly monster and 15 seconds to cut trees down. Yes, those starting times were unrealistic to begin with, shut up. It's still boring and tedious. I went out and downloaded the inventory hacker on my own, giving myself 10,000 dynamite sticks and other equipment, like armor and the grappling hook.
I then proceeded to blow up the world, one dynamite stick at a time. It was entertaining to watch all the dirt blocks fall progressively further downward. This is also a very good way to mine ore quickly, although if you're going to hack your inventory to get the dynamite, you might as well just hack in building materials too (because I like to push laziness to the EXTREME). Although I quickly lost interest in this destructive activity, I have heard tales of people draining the ocean into hell.
All in all, a nice, cheaper version of Minecraft with a clearer sense of goals (for now, considering the way Minecraft updates are going) that will appeal to suckers for 2D styled games.
One thing that's a huge letdown is that there's no simple building mode. You can't shut off creeps, goblin invasions, or just give yourself whatever equipment in a sandbox mode. The 2-dimensional building style is not as impressive as Minecraft's 3D world, although the Terraria creators try to compensate by including fluff items to place in rooms and requiring more specific objects to build things (such as a loom to make cloth).
That said, it does have adventure game elements where Minecraft doesn't; health and magic can be improved. There are also guns, a welcome addition in a game with several flying enemies, along with other weapon varieties such as lances, boomerangs, and the Tron lightdisc. Perhaps most fun of all is the inclusion of a hookshot-like weapon and flying abilities. No minecart shenanigans, sadly. You can also customized your avatar, but frankly I didn't care much for most of the options, particularly the hair styles.
Connecting in multi-player is irritating. I don't mind connecting via IP, but I shouldn't need an application like Hamachi to just be able to connect to other players. The chat line is also limited to a single line, which is bothersome when you need to explain things that take more than a terse sentence.
That said, playing with friends is still a lot of fun. I got hazed by my online group, via my murder the moment I joined the server. After calling them assholes, we proceeded to build forts.
One of my buddies then decked me out with hacked gear: Wings, the Hamdrax drill, the Megashark, and Excalibur. Suddenly everything died in a one or two hits, and I could demolish the terrain at high speed. This was awesome, since my starting equipment took 20 swings to kill even the lowliest jelly monster and 15 seconds to cut trees down. Yes, those starting times were unrealistic to begin with, shut up. It's still boring and tedious. I went out and downloaded the inventory hacker on my own, giving myself 10,000 dynamite sticks and other equipment, like armor and the grappling hook.
I then proceeded to blow up the world, one dynamite stick at a time. It was entertaining to watch all the dirt blocks fall progressively further downward. This is also a very good way to mine ore quickly, although if you're going to hack your inventory to get the dynamite, you might as well just hack in building materials too (because I like to push laziness to the EXTREME). Although I quickly lost interest in this destructive activity, I have heard tales of people draining the ocean into hell.
All in all, a nice, cheaper version of Minecraft with a clearer sense of goals (for now, considering the way Minecraft updates are going) that will appeal to suckers for 2D styled games.
Mount & Blade: Warband
Mount & Blade is perhaps one of the goofiest looking games I've played. It aims for realism but the graphics just aren't up to snuff; the blood is just red color over the armor and skin textures, the blocking animations draw attention to the wiry arms, none of the swinging animations look like they'd actually hurt someone due to their slowness, and the death animations are reminiscent of Goldeneye, where people fall dramatically to their knees and make a faceplant. The faces on characters never change beyond a blank but alert stare, and more often than not their lips seem puckered up like they've eaten something bitter. At least you can have an amazing beard or mustache, or both (if you're into that kind of thing, weirdo).
In spite of all that, this game is a lot of fun. After creating a short and totally irrelevant history for your character (to determine starting stats), you go around adventuring, working for lords, noblemen, and village leaders for gold and loot. The more you kill, the more you get experience, and you level up to increase skills like weapon mastery, horse riding, and leadership. Learning how to block is a fun and integral part of melee combat, and horseback archery You go around recruiting soldiers to work for your mercenary force, eventually taking part in bigger battles, up to laying sieges on castles, and perhaps becoming king or queen.
Not that you need to become ruler of all the land; I was more than content just pillaging the peasantry. They're extremely pathetic, those peasants. By myself, I was able to destroy a village of around 200 of them, just by circling around the massive mob on horseback, shooting my crossbow. It took 2 hours, but think about; I just slaughtered an entire village alone. No army, no backup, just me, on my horse. I'm like Sauron, but I don't need a stupid magic ring. Those puny rocks and wood clubs were nothing to my superior circling abilities. Counter-Strike taught me circle-strafing bunny hopping well.
The kingdom of the village I pillaged, Swadia, didn't really seem to care. I lost 4 reputation with them, but they were still marked as indifferent. I even went up to the local nobleman in his fort, and he dully noted after I introduced myself that I was the one who attacked Yalibe. I then asked him for a job, and he told me to escort a caravan, offering a a little over a hundred denar. I politely declined.
Unconcerned with petty cash, I raided another peasant village, taking another two hours, and gaining another thousand denar or so. Took another -4 hit to reputation. Easy. Or so I thought.
That jaded nobleman didn't take so kindly to my thuggish behavior. I went back to his castle to see if he had a less-crappy job for me now that some time had passed, but the moment I was in range he came at me with 120 troops, and after dully noting that I had been pillaging (again), he demanded my surrender. No bandit outlaw with a penchant for robbing peasants worth their salt would surrender, and neither did I. After all, if I can kill 200 peasants alone, what's to say I couldn't take out 120 troops?
They had horses.
Suddenly my circle-strafing tactics didn't work. 40 horses, swarming! They were everywhere, and they were faster! I couldn't shake them all, and my horse was cut down. I soon followed, becoming a lance pincushion.
Those rotten Swadian bastards dragged me around for a couple days until I escaped. I expected an instant beheading or hanging, which I thought was a common punishment for a mass-murdering bandit, but whatever. I plotted my revenge. I would need an army.
Getting an army is tough. You have to hire mercenaries, which are expensive, feed them, and keep them from dying in combat. I was in the process of doing that, but then I got distracted with another game: Terraria.
In spite of all that, this game is a lot of fun. After creating a short and totally irrelevant history for your character (to determine starting stats), you go around adventuring, working for lords, noblemen, and village leaders for gold and loot. The more you kill, the more you get experience, and you level up to increase skills like weapon mastery, horse riding, and leadership. Learning how to block is a fun and integral part of melee combat, and horseback archery You go around recruiting soldiers to work for your mercenary force, eventually taking part in bigger battles, up to laying sieges on castles, and perhaps becoming king or queen.
Not that you need to become ruler of all the land; I was more than content just pillaging the peasantry. They're extremely pathetic, those peasants. By myself, I was able to destroy a village of around 200 of them, just by circling around the massive mob on horseback, shooting my crossbow. It took 2 hours, but think about; I just slaughtered an entire village alone. No army, no backup, just me, on my horse. I'm like Sauron, but I don't need a stupid magic ring. Those puny rocks and wood clubs were nothing to my superior circling abilities. Counter-Strike taught me circle-strafing bunny hopping well.
The kingdom of the village I pillaged, Swadia, didn't really seem to care. I lost 4 reputation with them, but they were still marked as indifferent. I even went up to the local nobleman in his fort, and he dully noted after I introduced myself that I was the one who attacked Yalibe. I then asked him for a job, and he told me to escort a caravan, offering a a little over a hundred denar. I politely declined.
Unconcerned with petty cash, I raided another peasant village, taking another two hours, and gaining another thousand denar or so. Took another -4 hit to reputation. Easy. Or so I thought.
That jaded nobleman didn't take so kindly to my thuggish behavior. I went back to his castle to see if he had a less-crappy job for me now that some time had passed, but the moment I was in range he came at me with 120 troops, and after dully noting that I had been pillaging (again), he demanded my surrender. No bandit outlaw with a penchant for robbing peasants worth their salt would surrender, and neither did I. After all, if I can kill 200 peasants alone, what's to say I couldn't take out 120 troops?
They had horses.
Suddenly my circle-strafing tactics didn't work. 40 horses, swarming! They were everywhere, and they were faster! I couldn't shake them all, and my horse was cut down. I soon followed, becoming a lance pincushion.
Those rotten Swadian bastards dragged me around for a couple days until I escaped. I expected an instant beheading or hanging, which I thought was a common punishment for a mass-murdering bandit, but whatever. I plotted my revenge. I would need an army.
Getting an army is tough. You have to hire mercenaries, which are expensive, feed them, and keep them from dying in combat. I was in the process of doing that, but then I got distracted with another game: Terraria.
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