Will the game feature individual mercenary personalities and interjections?

[GODSPEED]

For myself (and many other fans of JA2), what seems to really have hit home in JA2 compared to many other Strategy or TBS games, were the individual personalities each merc came with.

Those individual traits weren't all written down on a spreadsheet for you as a "statistic". These traits, qualities, flaws & parts of what make a "person", were slowly revealed through sublte, but simple, commentary when faced with a particular situation, when seeing something they liked or didn't like. These we're "told" through some mercs quitting on you because they couldn't stand another merc. Or a merc beign flirty with another.

I am really just skinning the surface here, as for each and every merc was his own. They didn't all talk as much as one another, some were deranged, some we're liek soldiers. You had users, losers, nutjobs, professionals, killers and everything in between.

While strategy, tactics and a very nice arsenal or REALISTIC toys played a big role in our appreciation for the game, I assume that these aren't the hard parts to integrate in modern games. What 'gun game' doesn't have a multitude of attachments and tacticool stuff, right?

But having a stiff game without character will take out all the joy and bring another "spinoff" on the JA theme to its knees.

[SWi74]

It's what makes it an RPG. The treatment Xcom got was an amazing revival for the genre, but if done right, this must do better. You are right - JA has real characters and lore.

[Sarin]

It wouldn't be a JA if you didn't have some mercs trying to kill one another, complaining, snitching, making funny remarks about what's happening or praising one another.

[Low_K]

On 9/20/2021 at 7:33 AM, GODSPEED said:

For myself (and many other fans of JA2), what seems to really have hit home in JA2 compared to many other Strategy or TBS games, were the individual personalities each merc came with.

Those individual traits weren't all written down on a spreadsheet for you as a "statistic". These traits, qualities, flaws & parts of what make a "person", were slowly revealed through sublte, but simple, commentary when faced with a particular situation, when seeing something they liked or didn't like. These we're "told" through some mercs quitting on you because they couldn't stand another merc. Or a merc beign flirty with another.

I am really just skinning the surface here, as for each and every merc was his own. They didn't all talk as much as one another, some were deranged, some we're liek soldiers. You had users, losers, nutjobs, professionals, killers and everything in between.

While strategy, tactics and a very nice arsenal or REALISTIC toys played a big role in our appreciation for the game, I assume that these aren't the hard parts to integrate in modern games. What 'gun game' doesn't have a multitude of attachments and tacticool stuff, right?

But having a stiff game without character will take out all the joy and bring another "spinoff" on the JA theme to its knees.

Quoted for truth.

If they fail to implement this, this ain't no JA2 successor!

[Hendrix]

I completely agree!
The interaction between the merc's (and some other npcs) really gave the game a soul I still love to this day.

I remember one of my early JA2 playthroughs back in 1999/2000, and the end of a particulary nasty battle (most because I did not know what I was doing) in some god-forsaken woods between Drassen and Cambria.
Grizzly had taken several hits and things looked dire for him.
Wolf is then able to finish of the 3 enemies threthening Grizzly's life and as the last of the oponents falls Grizzly says:
"I knew there was something I liked about Wolf!"

I still have a hard time playing JA2 without trying to put the mercs who likes eachother in the same squads.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game, however if the interaction and personalities of the mercs are not there, then this will not be a JA game.

[Low_K]

@Hendrix I don't think you need to worry about the interaction and personalities lacking from the game. Other thna the fact this was one of the greatest features of the game, if we trust on the trailer, mercs will react to each other. Take a look at the reaction of Ivan and Vicki, after Fidel throws his grenades.

I too am cautiously optimistic about this game.

[GODSPEED]

5 hours ago, Hendrix said:

I still have a hard time playing JA2 without trying to put the mercs who likes eachother in the same squads.

Oh yeah!

Forming squads is a big part of the fun in JA2. Even after playi,g this game pretty often in over the last 15 years, I think I still have never had every Merc there is.

It makes starting a new game exciting and gives me something to look forward to.. not just the individual merc, but the combinations!