While we wait...what's there to scratch the itch?

[Wigen]

1 hour ago, SWi74 said:

Just found out about TactiCon... Never heard about it until now, but seems on topic.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Tacticon2023

And among so many games there was no room for Jagged Alliance 3? Sad.

EDIT: oH! And now I know why 🙂

Edited May 12 by Wigen

[SWi74]

6 hours ago, Wigen said:

oH! And now I know why

Do share? Because it's not out (or close to) yet?

[MateKiddleton]

Darkest Dungeon 2 and Wartales. And with Baldurs Gate 3 and Diablo 4 coming out, I think I'm good for the next few years.

[Stuurminator]

X-COM Apocalypse is definitely underappreciated, though not unjustifiably. It was highly ambitious (a lot of Julian Gollop's plans for Phoenix Point had its roots in his plans for Apocalypse), but had to ship before they could realize it. This resulted in a game that has a surprising amount of depth, but that depth is almost invisible and largely irrelevant to the player experience.

I honestly feel a little guilty for being as lukewarm about Apocalypse as I am, since my biggest problem with it is a very superficial one: the graphics. I don't consider myself a graphics snob; dated graphics are fine, so long as the art direction is solid. Apocalypse's art direction is just hideous. Your units are ugly. Your enemies are ugly. The items are ugly. The environments are ugly. The colours clash. The animations wish they could be as good as kids trying to pose action figures. The font is fucking Arial! - which actually was entirely acceptable at the time, but looks amateurish in retrospect.

Now, let's balance that negativity out with a suggestion of my own. Here's one I think much of this forum would overlook based on its art, but I implore you to give it a chance: Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/

Yes, I know it looks like a JRPG, but looks can be deceiving. It's actually a KRPG! It's also a tactical combat game that mixes ranged, melee, and various other effects. The meat of the game is in its character building system, which has more depth than the Mariana Trench. It's a bit slow to get started - the game has a lot to teach you and it eases you in gradually - but eventually you're going into battle against dozens and dozens of enemies with a half-dozen of your own units, each of which you've painstakingly hand-crafted to optimize their own abilities or synchronize as a team.

It might not fit everyone's taste, but I guarantee you, there's enough meat there to at least sink your teeth into.

[Solaris_Wave]

Just like my previous post about X-COM: Apocalypse, it was the graphics that really let the game down more than anything else. The original Enemy Unknown game went for a kind of Marvel and Manga crossover (especially with the first armour suit you create). The aliens, the commandos, UFOs and robot tanks all had a cool look to them.

Apocalypse was okay in its buildings but everything else looked so unbelievable. That whole 1930s Flash Gordon look took me right out of the immersion. It took me some time to get round to liking the game, due to the art and I had to constantly ignore the art design as I played. The aliens often looked awful, the weapons and suits looked camp and whoever decided on designing the UFOs and X-COM ships needed to be fired into the sun.

[Elite77]

Jagged Alliance 2

[Povok]

Any thoughts on Phoenix Point?

I'm considerig grabing it until/before this releases. 

 

Also Hard West was on my to-play list. 

[Stuurminator]

2 hours ago, Povok said:

Any thoughts on Phoenix Point?

A lot of people will tell you Phoenix Point is complete trash because they played it on release (when it was complete trash). I tried it again shortly before it came to Steam, just under a year since its release, and it wasn't bad, but I'm not sure if I'd say it was good.

It suffers from a common problem: the battles start to get repetitive after a while. Jagged Alliance avoids this by having a large number of handcrafted maps and its gear progression system, but in Phoenix Point, you'll hit a point where one haven defense or alien colony attack feels the same as any other.

This isn't helped by how frequent the battles are. The timescale is compressed in a weird way. You'll get research projects that will be completed in, say, three days, which will make you feel like you're making good progress until you realize you'll have a dozen battles in those three days.

2 hours ago, Povok said:

Also Hard West was on my to-play list. 

Hard West isn't very tactically deep (by JA standards, anyway). Most battles are more of a puzzle than a tactical simulation. It's fun, though, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

[Grim]

On 2/10/2022 at 12:49 AM, GODSPEED said:

While I am not the GREATEST all-time fan of the Warhammer universe, WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR II  was among my favorite small squad tactical games.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters has kind of caught my eye (Steam store page link).

Although it does come closer to the modern xcom which I am not the biggest fan of, I find it is fitting for that type of game/world.

 

I got this one in the last humble choice. I had some fun playing it, however it reminds me what I didn't like in the new XCOMs : the enemy pods, spawning enemies when the game decides you have LOS on them, and forcing you to make little steps with your group. And their content getting stronger while time passes, forcing you to the arms race.

Other than that, quite enjoyable.

[Flowable]

i came acros this:

Classified: France '44 op Steam (steampowered.com)

looks nice, haven't found any gameplay footage yet, just the screenshots

[Povok]

Oh, I forgot to add one of games I greatly enjoyed: Partisans 1941

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227530/Partisans_1941/

It's more like commandos, but it has some nice added perks. Like choosing which characters to take on missions and equipping them with weapons (and selecting skills/proficiencies they have).

There's also an interesting mode to survive as much waves of enemies as possible, which is for single-player and could be great for co-op but unfortunatelly it's not going to be added.

[LoboNocturno]

Just finished playing JA2 Wildfire, must admit it was way harder then the OG JA2 where you felt like in every sector are at least 20-25 enemies, though you can close the gap as you get better weapons even early in the game but still, i just started playing JA2 Vanilla few days ago and i conquered already 3 cities and thats on hardest difficulty, back in the original JA2 you have in each sector (at least so far in Drassen, Chitzena & Cambria) only few enemies (10 or 15 max).

 

Since January 2023 i played JA1 2 x times (once in normal & hard), Jagged Alliance 2 Wildfire (it took me 3 months to finish the game, takes a lot more time then JA2 Vanilla imo) and now am playing JA2 Vanilla, guess which i will finish within a 1 or 2 weeks. After that will write also a review of both (JA2 Vanilla & JA2 Wildfire).

 

Then finally start playing Jagged Alliance 3.

Edited June 2 by LoboNocturno

[ShadowMagic]

On 6/1/2023 at 9:19 AM, Flowable said:

i came acros this:

Classified: France '44 op Steam (steampowered.com)

looks nice, haven't found any gameplay footage yet, just the screenshots

Good find.

Basically JA3 but with a more realistic approach and better art style (less goofy like JA3). Also, the WW2 setting is always interesting to me.

[Solaris_Wave]

There seems to be a few WWII turn-based squad games in development right now and I am getting them mixed up. They all tend to look fairly similar, being WWII.

Forgotten But Unbroken is one of them. That had a Kickstarter that didn't quite make it. I wasn't aware of it until later in time but backed it any way. The game is still in development but due to lack of pledges, will have to take a different approach. I am not sure why it didn't meet its target because it looked good from the made up screenshots and the description.

The Troop is another one but looks to be more focused on vehicles, or additionally so.

Headquarters: World War II is another. This is by Slitherine Games, so could be a virtual successor to the Battle Academy series, more than anything else.

As a side note to Battle Academy (which is definitely not JA or X-COM in style but is WWII, turn-based and less strategic level), there is an upcoming WWII game based on the Winter War and beyond (Finland vs. Soviet Union). This is called Strategic Mind: Spirit Of Liberty.

 

I think that Forgotten But Unbroken, The Troop and Classified: France '44 are the three I get mixed up with though, because I added them all to my Steam wishlist at exactly the same time and all were still in development stage.

[Lunokhod]

20 hours ago, Solaris_Wave said:

There seems to be a few WWII turn-based squad games in development right now and I am getting them mixed up. They all tend to look fairly similar, being WWII.

Everything looks just terrible. 😑

[ShadowMagic]

It's hard to come up with anything original these days in gaming world.
Everything has been done already.

And now that most game developers lack any imagination, they go back milking classic games. Mostly done in a horrid way (with some exceptions). 
 

[D13]

My suggestion for passing the time until release is the $5 ebook "Jagged Alliance 2" by Darius Kazemi.

It's full of interesting insights into JA2 development - it explains the reasoning that went into game mechanics, but also why certain decisions were made. I find it funny to see parallels with today (like JA veterans being JA purists while developers try to innovate). I think that makes it a good read for today as we wait for JA3.

As an example, let me quote two paragraphs from the book:

Quote

Despite core Jagged Alliance fans clamoring for “realism” in the lead-up to JA2 , Ian Currie was already growing tired of its constraints. Ian Currie, Co-Designer: "For JA2 we said we’d [be more realistic], but at the same time I was already yearning for a little more escapism in the game. JA1 wasn’t a runaway success, nowhere close to X-COM, and I thought maybe it’s because there’s not enough escapism in the game. You come home from work and you want to play fantasy or sci-fi, right? Who wants to see anything realistic? I mean, playing mercenaries is an escape from your real life. But I got convinced that I needed more escapism, and that’s what was behind the sci-fi mode."

[...]

By adding the Crepitus to the game, the team hoped to provide a refreshing change of pace to the JA2 experience. When the team released the demo of JA2 almost a year before the full game’s release, the Crepitus were included in a secret basement area. Fan response was not positive, and in the end Currie decided to convert the entire set of Crepitus-related quests, enemies, items, dialogue, and NPCs into a “Sci Fi” mode that can be toggled on or off at the start of the game.

 

Edited June 13 by D13

[ShadowMagic]

40 minutes ago, D13 said:

My suggestion for passing the time until release is the $5 ebook "Jagged Alliance 2" by Darius Kazemi.

It's full of interesting insights into JA2 development - it explains the reasoning that went into game mechanics, but also why certain decisions were made. I find it funny to see parallels with today (like JA veterans being JA purists while developers try to innovate). I think that makes it a good read for today as we wait for JA3.

As an example, let me quote two paragraphs from the book:

 

As for the Sci-Fi mode in JA2.. I find it adding little to nothing and more of a nuisance really. It only slows down the game since you now have to go down the mines to finish off some creatures which ain't much of a challenge when having a full squad of Mercs, armed to the teeth.

Perhaps that is, that I make thankful use of the quicksave and quickload options in game now and then (hell no any of my elite Mercs get to die) 😄 

Never got the urge to play the ironman version for some reason either. Probably because I don't have the patience of doing everything carefully step by step but rather rush in with a few skilled Mercs and clear the sector already 😐 

[Dirk_BVB09]

Hello chaps, my first posting here... greetings from Germany!

 

I remember a lot old games, even have some old PC game lists.... you know us Germans, eh?!

But one game that wasn't that much known in Germany, but one of my fovourite ones, was "Mission Critical". Nice atmoshere, and even a nice message at the end...

And for sure this round based thing like Battle Isle... Made in Germany

[Dirk_BVB09]

So, here some more stuff:

Age of Empires, Civilization, Anno..., Settlers

Call of Duty

Commandos

X-Wing, Tie Fighter... B-Wing, Wing Commander

Red Baron 1&2

Duke Nukem

M.A.X.

Pirates

688 Sub, Falcon 4.0, F-19 Stealth Fighter

Armored Fist, Panzer General

Battle Zone, Dark Reign

Shadow Warrior

Timeshock

Elite

XCOM

... to be continued

[M1k3K]

On 6/1/2023 at 11:54 AM, Povok said:

Oh, I forgot to add one of games I greatly enjoyed: Partisans 1941

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227530/Partisans_1941/

It's more like commandos, but it has some nice added perks. Like choosing which characters to take on missions and equipping them with weapons (and selecting skills/proficiencies they have).

There's also an interesting mode to survive as much waves of enemies as possible, which is for single-player and could be great for co-op but unfortunatelly it's not going to be added.

Thanks for the tip, Partisans 1941 looks really great, just grabbed myself a copy. 

For everyone else, who might be interested, I found Partisans 1941 in the extended edition at GOG for just 10€ compared to the 44€ at Steam.

https://www.gog.com/de/game/partisans_1941_extended_edition

[Uncle Nick]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2907796312

Yeah, trying to finish up my campaign mod in Ukraine, before JA3 drops.

[Hendrix]

This showed up in my YouTube feed.

 

[Claypl]

Arthur: Knight's Tale

Different vibe but very decent TBS with a bit of base management

40% off on Steam right now

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1157390/King_Arthur_Knights_Tale/

[D13]

Another reading suggestion would be this playthrough, which I found to be beautifully written and hilariously funny at the same time:

https://lparchive.org/Jagged-Alliance-2/Update 1/