Spoiler alert…will be discussing the game as I see it in detail, so if you haven’t played and don’t want to see details of the game you should stop reading now. If you are interested in the game, I’ll just say this…be prepared for a tough game and lots of reloading.
Anyone tried it out? I ended up getting it pre-order on Steam and took a laptop with me on my current trip to try it out. So far it’s been a pretty frustrating experience, reminiscent of my memories of Stronghold 3. Basically, it’s involved a lot of re-loading as my squad is wiped out over and over again by a seemingly endless stream of bad guys. I really like the game concept, with the various towns, cities, mines and what have you being dynamic. Taking one doesn’t mean it’s cleared for good, as the computer constantly tries to take them back, especially the high value mines. The trouble is that the computer can apparently hire endless (and increasingly tough and well outfitted) mercenary hordes that wear you down with their constant counter attacks. Attempts to create additional squads (which is the strategy I’m trying) to defend the key territories have been pretty unsuccessful, as I don’t have the money to buy (highly expensive) new mercs AND outfit them with decent gear, especially armor (I have plenty of fairly decent weapons from the hordes of well equipped enemy that continually attack). My squad is being worn down in the constant fights just to keep the territories I already had won (I have to take them back constantly, since they get attacked several times a day). I’ve bought some decent (high priced) armor for most of my first team, but that gets constantly worn down too, and afaict there is no way to fix it (you can repair weapons, but I see no way to repair or even maintain armor…and every fight your guys are going to get nailed and that armor is going to get worn down). I’ve gotten to the point in the game where I simply can’t go forward because I’m spending most of my resources just trying to maintain what I have (if you lose a mine you lose the daily income from it, which is pretty vital to maintaining your squad in bullets and grenades, not to mention that armor stuff).
Granted, some of my problem here might be an RTFM issue (I didn’t). I’ve figured out a few tactics that are successful sometimes (such as the heavy use of night attacks and grenades…grenades, grenades grenades!), but even when a plan goes off without a hitch (which doesn’t happen very often), I usually end up reloading at least once, as the enemy units seem to be able to shoot a hell of a lot better than my own guys.
Anyway, is anyone else playing, and if so, what are your thoughts?
I played the demo and liked it. But with my gaming backlog already as long as it is and Mass Effect 3 coming out in a couple weeks, I decided to wait until the Steam summer sale to pick it up.
I was a big fan of JA2 and have been following the reaction to the new game on the gaming forums I frequent. The feedback has been pretty positive with the general conclusion being that it’s a bit easier than JA2. No one has mentioned encountering serious difficulties, so I suspect that something about the combat just isn’t clicking with you?
It might just be me. The game started off fairly easily for the combat, but increasingly I’m being worn down by better and better opponents, and having a tougher and tougher time dealing with them. My best merc who is a sniper specialist and has the best sniper rifle I’ve found so far is routinely killed in gun duels against opponents with everything from handguns to something like an AK (not exactly known for it’s superb accuracy :p). And I’m spending most of my time just taking back facilities I already took…I haven’t been able to even attempt to take the next facilities out, because in addition to the constant attacks the garrisons there are huge (12+ mercs in most, and my biggest team is 6).
For a while I was able to use sneak attacks using massive grenade volleys to win battles relatively painlessly (even then I’d get smacked around), but even that isn’t working as well as it did, and I’m generally having to restart a battle several times to get through.
In the first two games, once you seized a territory, you could train the locals to defend it for you. You can also assign some of your mercs to train the locals once you’ve armed them, so they’re better able to stand up against the tougher enemies you encounter later in the game. I haven’t played the new one yet, so maybe they dropped that, but my understanding was that it’s basically a remake of the second game. In JA2, fully staffing a territory and maxing out the training was a pretty good guarantee that you’d be able to repel any enemy assault with slight losses. Of course, you’d need to run someone back there to train replacements, or the territory would get worn down eventually.
Well, I still haven’t read the manual (or played through the tutorial), so I might be missing that part. There are NPCs that walk around with like a fist icon over their heads, and if you mouse over them it says something like militia, but I’ve never noticed them offering to help…I don’t even remember a dialogue box popping up when you click on them. I’ll have to check it out though, as I have tons of extra guns and ammo.
I guess there just aren’t a lot of 'dopers playing this one (that seems to be the norm for games I play :p).
I played a fair bit of Jagged Alliance 2 back in the day, so I was pretty interested in this Back in Action. Got the demo to check it out. I was fairly enthusiastic about the change to pausable-real-time.
All I got from the experience was JA2 reinstalled. BiA took an awful lot out of the game without adding anything of particular value. The lack of fog of war is, by itself, a dealbreaker for me, but they left out an awful lot of the sort of controls and feedback you need for realtime…it managed to be -more- micromanagement than turn-based. Bleh.
In the previous games, raising militia was something you did from the strategic map screen. Might be different now, though. Also, you don’t need to provide them with guns and ammo - their equipment comes as part of the cost of training them.
The original games are all available for download at GoodOldGames.com, incidentally.
It’s a bit different (I figured it out after an earlier posters suggestion). Basically, the guys walking around with fist icons over their heads are potential militia. If you give them a gun (you don’t have to give them ammo…you could give them body armor though and helmets if you have spare) then they will defend the place from attack. They don’t seem to be very good at it, and there aren’t all that many, but it helps a little. I haven’t noticed any additional costs.
I’m still basically where I was when I started this thread (I haven’t played all that much though since I’m back on travel this month)…barely holding onto the first town I got, 2 roadblocks, a water pumping station and a single mine. I periodically lose one or more of these, but can usually get them back (the mine is the most important structure since it generates the revenue). If I could capture another mine I think I’d be set, funding wise, to equip a second squad fully and start making inroads on moving forward, but so far it’s just fighting over and over again for the same territory, with funding just barely keeping up with supplying my first team group with armor, ammo and grenades. Lots and lots of grenades.
This thread led me to download the game over the weekend. I like the new combat system. They have clearly put a lot of effort into redesigning that aspect of the game and I would say it flows a lot faster than the old system. Unfortunately, the camera control, while nice to have, is very difficult to work with, for me anyway. And so far the story is exactly the same. The voices and images are not as good IMO but I will reserve judgement until I meet Mad Dog again.