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The search for tactical games: Aliens not necessary.
Snarkman3
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So. X-com is great. No doubt there. Sexy as hell.
But some new flavours wouldn't hurt. What games in that vein could you wise folk recommend me? Excluding all those UFO: AfterX, which I've heard are buggy and not-too-good. Of course, if you have experience with them, it'd be nice to know. Nothing current gen, I don't have that kind of moneys
But some new flavours wouldn't hurt. What games in that vein could you wise folk recommend me? Excluding all those UFO: AfterX, which I've heard are buggy and not-too-good. Of course, if you have experience with them, it'd be nice to know. Nothing current gen, I don't have that kind of moneys
Snarkman3 on
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Silent Storm for the obvious!
And it's expansion (if you can find it).
Because, I could get into that.
The base game doesn't really have it, but the major 1.13 fan-patch does. 1.13 also completely overhauls the gameplay. It's grand.
Jagged Alliance 2, that is.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I remember a great (not great) bug in this game where if you had 2 of your units within 2 squares of one another and someone with one of the big guns of doom, I can't remember their names atm, shot man A at range and had a small % chance to hit, he'd miss all shots, but man B would get hit by 100% of the bullets and die in a bloody mess.
Now the obvious solution to this was not have your mans close to each other, but it was unavoidable in some situations.
If a patch has since fixed this I'd be interested to know.
Anyway, didn't mean for the slight derail
Silent Storm is so good. I didn't make it very far, but there is so much you can do.
and then it is terrible.
Laser Squad Nemesis is absolutely fantastic, has PBEM multiplayer, and is very very niche, unfortunately.
Jagged Alliance 2 is well-loved.
There are no judges in Final Fantasy Tactics. 8-)
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Is Silent Storm on any service?
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear in Overwatch mode. In this mode, you create your plan, assign your teams, hit the go button, then cross your fingers and sit on the edge of your seat. No controlling your operatives. This is a pretty cool mode until you watch your elite operatives get confounded by a ladder. When it works, it's great though. And of course, you can also play it the other way too, but I doubt that's what you are looking for. The only reason I really suggest this at all is that you can probably get this cheap.
There's also the Freedom Force games. Super Hero RPG Tactical goodness. Hugely moddable and fun.
Also, on the Real Time Tactical front is the original Ground Control and it's expansion, available for cheap at GOG. No base building or economy. You choose your troops and gear, load up your Dropships and then wage war. Units are also controlled by squad, not individually. Kind of like Dawn of War.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Wolf is okay, but Buns is funner because "Every day, in every way, she gets better and better."
Also, Fox.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
These both could work with no problems on a laptop, right? Nothin' better than playing this while on an airplane. It's this close to being a fantasy of mine.
Tried JA2. Thought the plot was impressive. Didn't like the gameplay.
Played a good portion of UFO: Aftershock (the second one). Too many bugs, imbalances, and lack of polish got to me. Classes and weapons are pretty cool. The real-time/turn-based tactical gameplay almost works. Almost. Maps/missions are redundant. Strategic side is a huge clusterfuck. Don't regret ditching the game near the end.
I also played halfway through newer UFO: Extraterrestrials, the X-COM lookalike. Again, unpolished. No dynamic gameplay. Missions and environments are pre-generated. Technology scales linearly and doesn't change the tactics. Most of the danger is removed because the game is made around soldiers who can't die.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
So, basically, X-com but boring.
If you're looking into getting the first Jagged Alliance, I'd maybe hold off. It's still a good game, but I don't think it quite holds up to the near-perfection of its sequel.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I have no idea about Silent Storm, but JA2 should run on any laptop that could be considered functional by today's standards.
Silent Storm still had large framerate issues on the same machine, especially when turning and moving the camera.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
It was fairly deep tactically as you could do things such as position snipers in other buildings as overwatch, you could negotiate for a peaceful ending, all the while prepping your men to storm in.
It would be nice to see it married up to a modern engine, especially the UFO After(X) ones as I have found the real time aspect of them to add a certain element to the tactics that I like.
Depends what region, the UK version didn't IIRC.
Also, Jagged Alliance 2 for your squad level tactical needs. GOG.com is the ideal option, especially if you're going to be taking it on the go. No need for a 3rd party client, no DRM so you can install it where you like, and as such no need for an internet connection either.
Well, I mean you need an internet connection to actually buy the thing and download the installation file, but once that's done you can install it wherever you want, whenever you want, and play when you want.
As for the game itself, it's roughly broken into the combat and management.
Management revolves around hiring and firing mercs (generally the more skilled they are, the more they cost), purchasing equipment, and general financy type stuff. You can also set your mercs to different tasks such as training, equipment maintenance, militia training etc. You decide where to go on the overworld map which is separated into grid squares, and in general each squad can have up to 6 mercs in it and you can have up to 4 squads. Each merc levels up and improves depending on how frequently their skills are used, so generally you can either have 4 squads of good merc by the end, or a core team of 6 really tough mercs.
Combat is turn based. The game is real-time until you encounter an enemy, then it switches to turn based. You'll be generally doing things like using cover, flanking, setting up sniper positions and spotters, using smoke grenades and all the usual stuff. Attacking during the night reduces visibility, nightvision goggles help. There are also things like chemical break lights that you can throw to illuminate areas. The AI will do the same to you though, so be wary.
Tis a good game.
UFO: Afterlight at least put the base building and personnel management back in that added the strategic depth to the tactical goodness of X-Com. As an added bonus, it real-time but pausable so that you could issue orders. The controls were pretty decent. The only real downside was, again, all the terrain is pre-packaged, and there isn't a ton of it. I suppose the surface of Mars probably really IS a boring wasteland in real life, but the limited number of tactical maps really drove home that point for me.
I guess it's like Napoleon said, the only constant in history is geography.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tCvvXQPJpk
This.
Skip the 1st one. Its good, but the second 1 is better.
You don't need any of the expansions.
Download the 1.13 fan patch
Hire Shadow
I own 7 copies of Jagged Alliance 2. I do not regret buying it 7 times. I may goto GOG and buy an 8th. It's that fucking good.
The Gold version of Silent Storm (which is what you'll most likely find nowadays) does not have Starforce, by the way.
Also, the dream MMO I've always wanted to make is basically Jagged Alliance combat with EVE-style resource and territory control. I think it could work.
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except nobody likes turn based tactical games anymore. they don't seem to make much money, usually.
A lot of people seem to like Twilight and Sarah Palin.
Popular opinion is not always the best opinion.
There are a loot of good games. But very rarely a game reaches PERFECTION. MOO2 did for 4X. This its mirror in fantasy. Everything, and i mean REALLY everything is perfectly tuned into finest detail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2clnO6zB6J4
Nevertheless, if you can get them, the first Age of Wonders was pretty sweet, if unbalanced, and Shadow Magic is even better.
Tycho talked about the King's Bounty games in his newspost today, are they worth checking out?