Candles
Danes from the studio Full Control Today we were in the role of the hero of the Russian folk proverb “not on the Senka hat”. And all because they were not just about to release a continuation of a cult tactical strategy Jagged Alliance, but also publicly promised to make the best game in the series. Call them them Jagged Alliance: Flashback Until the tongue is turning ..
The island of Nonvoboda
And after all, unlike the authors not at all canonical Back in Action And Crossfire, Developers Flashback Everyone seemed to be doing the right thing – apparently, they understood that the people who supported them on Kickstarter, no dubious innovations and deviations from traditions would not forgive.
And above all, the Danes retained the spirit of the original game. Again, the 80s, a small island suffering from a tyrant’s yoke, again we act as mercenaries, whom local resistance representatives ask to help, overthrow, release and so on. This time, a smuggler and an illegal supplier of weapons, nicknamed the Prince, who seized power on the Caribbean island of San Germanos, acts as a tyrant.
Again, we start with partisanism, the search for coherent and establishing secret contacts with those who know how to reach the right people and how to get to the fortress of the prince. And after some time we are already capturing whole sectors, cities and mines that bring a certain income, train the militia there and protect strategically important points.
But at the same time, no one interferes simply to explore individual locations, communicate with the population and perform different side tasks in order to increase their popularity among local. Moreover, in addition to some standard assignments (to free the farmer’s daughter from prison, to neutralize the dangerous criminals for whom the award is announced, to destroy the gang, the terrorizing city) there are more, say, original situations. So, in one of the cities we came across a man who offered to sleep with his wife: they say, he owns a bar and is so busy with business that he physically does not have time to give a married debt, from which the wife is immensely suffering.
In general, there are enough surprises here. Exploring the card, you can stumble upon a huge cage with a bear, around which some people crowded;Performing a quest to search for allegedly lost weapons, you are ambushed;Riding the boxes and cabinets in search of weapons and equipment, no, no, and you will find some porn magazine, a bottle of beer or a funny plush toy. And the leader of the aforementioned gang will tell this, after which you will clearly have questions for those who wanted to destroy it – you will have to decide on whose side you are. And in all this, the spirit and atmosphere are felt Jagged Alliance.
High -Moral maniac
In principle, according to external signs, all Flashback – One continuous nostalgia. We still call free mercenaries (some are temporarily inaccessible), pay them for a day, a week or two. At the same time, among the “soldiers of good luck” is full of old acquaintances – there is a shadow, and a fox, and a flamberry cubic fidida, and the harsh Russian Ivan Dolvich.
On a familiar strategic map, we form units, we send someone to train the militia, someone goes to capture a new mine or it remains to rest-in this case it is better to determine the wounded to treat the wounded, and the other to repair the equipment. The main thing is that there are appropriate tools and skills.
“Medicine”, “explosives”, “mechanics”, “stealth”, “shooting”, “close battle” – all skills “pump” as they use as they are used. But the main characteristics (“physics”, “coordination” and “intelligence”) will automatically grow up when a fighter receives a new level. In addition, everyone has also congenital “perks” that give different passive bonuses – they increase, for example, critical damage in close combat or reduce the chance to accidentally get through their own. And the same Ivan Dolvich has the “Maniac” skill-it allows you to release two additional bullets when shooting a submachine gun.
Forming your own hero with whom you start the game, you, as in Jagged Alliance 2, You can go through a test, answer funny questions and thereby determine its psychotype and starting “perki”. The questions, of course, have changed, and some feel what is called fashionable topics. “What will you do the first thing to do when the zombie apocalypse begins?” – says one of them.
Finally, the authors left a practically untouched battle mechanic, adding to it perhaps the system of shelters from Jagged Alliance Online. Your subordinates spend valuable strokes to change the position of the body and aimed, with a certain chance of hitting, shooting in the head, body or leg. You can also order them to “bate” a certain point and ambush, turning on the interception mode. At the same time, in battle, you need to monitor such indicators as fatigue and morality – otherwise the wards will refuse to move or, in theory, they will be like a younger.
The roof was demolished ..
That is, everything seems to be in place. No blasphemous innovations and dubious experiments. But more modern graphics and atmospheric weather effects were added-often in San Germananos there is such a rain that you myself want to yell under an umbrella. Moreover, in such weather, your “soldiers of good luck” see worse, hear and shoot.
The problem is that, having preserved the main external superstructures, the authors could not at least convey depth Jagged Alliance 2, Not to mention the fact to do something better. The strategic map is less, personal sympathies/hostility between mercenaries disappeared, there are no modifications and body kit for weapons. The new trading system is perplexed: it is implemented through a dialogue with a merchant, and in the process you do not even see the characteristics of weapons and armor.
But these are all the little things. The main thing is that the game has become easier. Already at the start you are given a decent amount of money to form a powerful detachment or even two. The sectors are easily transferred to your control, the green militia independently reflects the enemy’s attacks and “pumps”, the money regularly drips to the account, there are no problems with finances and new mercenaries.
And the enemy AI only occasionally exerts a really serious resistance in battle. Enemies can
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change their body position, sometimes they even try to get closer to you, but this is the maximum that their silicon mind is enough for. Throw a grenade or get around the flank, surround – this is if it happens, then it is extremely rare. As a rule, it all comes down to the fact that the enemies just stand still and scorch in your fighters. And with such a “tactic” it is easier for us to give out sniper rifles to all and shoot bastards from a distance.
The game was generally tactically impoverished. Climb the roof and shoot the guard, blow up the wall and get into the building not at all from the front door? Forget – neither roofs nor sane physics of destruction in Jagged Alliance: Flashback No. As well as a normal stall, which allows the fullest to use camouflage, the environment and the time of the day for disguise. And the moral of your subordinates does not seem to be reduced, even if two comrades had just died before their eyes.
Jagged Alliance: Flashback really had every chance to become the best in the series. The Danes had money, support for players, a license, the opportunity to turn to the experience of previous parts, modern technologies, finally. They regularly reported on how they listen to the wishes of the workers and what they want to add. But either it was only a bluff, designed to maintain interest, or the developers did not have enough time, desire, resources, and maybe talent, in order to actually convey the depth that the series is so famous for. Flashback Looks like a participant in a parody show: appearance and voice seem to be similar, and the special effects are beautiful, but the original is still better.
Pros: The spirit, atmosphere and the main mechanics of the original are preserved;Purous weather effects.
Cons: The battles were tactically impoverished;weak physics of destruction;sluggish AI;unfinished stealth;No weapon modification system.
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