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[Punished Miku]

I finished this today and had so much fun and appreciation for the game I had to give it its own thread. I've barely heard anyone talk about it so my hope is more people give it a shot someday.

The game is set in an alternate version of the 1930s. You get recruited by an mysterious and wealthy man to do a series of jobs gathering intel and sabotaging various occult groups operating in the shadows. I wont spoil any of the story but its just such a cool setting, and cool lore. It combines the best of Indiana Jones with a large cast of interesting teammates to recruit from all over the world. All the villains are neat and the backstories on their abilities really surprised me with just how cool it was at times. All the voice acting is pretty good too. Your main mission giver is Michael Ironside (Splinter Cell, Total Recall).

The star of the show though is the gameplay. This game is basically the fusion of Metal Gear Solid 1 with X-Com. Its one of my favorite battle systems of all time. You can scout out detailed maps like in Shadow Tactics / Desperados 3, and dispatch enemies with real time take downs. This keeps the pace up much faster than X-Com. But then, anytime you run out of takedown charges or need to truly fight, just hit right trigger and you jump into complex tactical SRPG battles that really demand your attention and makes you strategize in cool ways. Between all the character combinations, it never got old over 65 hours for me.

I settled this morning on a 9/10, but since then I've just had the game and that world on my mind all day. I got the OST on Apple Music. I knew it was fantastic, but it didnt completely floor me until I listened again on my nice headphones. Its phenomenal. The whole thing was recorded at Abbey Road with 50-80 musicians and every sound is just flawless.



My vote for best OST of 2023 went to Starfield, but this easily would have come in 2nd place. Some of these themes literally make me emotional, they're just so damn good. Really sucks me back into that world. Every track is just layered with phenomenal melodies, interesting time signature changes constantly and top tier sound quality. And they all change up after a few minutes. Reminds me a bit of Sands of Time meets Starfield

If you're a SRPG or stealth fan (or ideally, both) I highly recommend it.

 

[JayK47]

I like turn based games and it does look interesting. But some of the negative reviews on Steam are concerning regarding poor controls and bugs that will never get fixed. With so many games to play, I would really need to be into the setting or something to give it a try. I really enjoyed some of the developers past games though. So maybe I will wishlist at least.

 

[Punished Miku]

I like turn based games and it does look interesting. But some of the negative reviews on Steam are concerning regarding poor controls and bugs that will never get fixed. With so many games to play, I would really need to be into the setting or something to give it a try. I really enjoyed some of the developers past games though. So maybe I will wishlist at least.

Xbox reviews at launch were talking about erased saves. I didnt experience any glitches or save issues personally. Not sure what got updated

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Was interested in it, looked really cool. But reviews weren’t positive so ignored it.

Guess I will get to it at some point.

A lot of these games you have to play instead of depending on consensus.

Also check out Wasteland 3 if you haven’t already. Its a better coop experience than solo, but should be fine I think.

 

[Punished Miku]

Was interested in it, looked really cool. But reviews weren’t positive so ignored it.

Guess I will get to it at some point.

A lot of these games you have to play instead of depending on consensus.

Also check out Wasteland 3 if you haven’t already. Its a better coop experience than solo, but should be fine I think.

Yeah I still need to play that. Havent played any Wasteland games.

 

[reinking]

I am having a hard time finding something to play. I am going to give this a shot.

 

[Rentahamster]

You make a compelling case, OP.

Jesus, I just looked and I have 1000 hours played in XCOM2.

 

[ZehDon]

My wife played a good amount of it on Xbox via Game Pass, and really loved it - but she ran into some pretty horrendous bugs, including having her entire save file deleted. She dropped it there after reading online that the developers has basically dropped support.

 

[RavageX]

My wife played a good amount of it on Xbox via Game Pass, and really loved it - but she ran into some pretty horrendous bugs, including having her entire save file deleted. She dropped it there after reading online that the developers has basically dropped support.

Everytime I've tried to play it, it crashes or some other nonsense at some point and I have to start over. Hard to enjoy a game like that.

 

[Roberts]

Yeah I still need to play that. Havent played any Wasteland games.

It's marvellous. A notable improvement over the second game and my favourite game of 2020. As much as I love Fallout lore, the mix of seriousness and wacky political satire is handled here in more fascinating ways. Without spoiling anything, there is a whole subplot regarding a certain real life US president and it is a hoot. Also, one epic battle is scored to their own version of Battle Hymn of the Republic and it is probably one of the most weirdly epic moments in all of gaming.

Back to the topic: You inspired me to install it again and sink my teeth into it. I liked the game but was hoping the would release the patch to make the performance a bit more polished.

 

[Wildebeest]

Is this a pure stealth game? The thing I read about it said how combat seemed brutally unfair when stealth was broken.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

It's marvellous. A notable improvement over the second game and my favourite game of 2020. As much as I love Fallout lore, the mix of seriousness and wacky political satire is handled here in more fascinating ways. Without spoiling anything, there is a whole subplot regarding a certain real life US president and it is a hoot. Also, one epic battle is scored to their own version of Battle Hymn of the Republic and it is probably one of the most weirdly epic moments in all of gaming.

Back to the topic: You inspired me to install it again and sink my teeth into it. I liked the game but was hoping the would release the patch to make the performance a bit more polished.

Never had as many disagreements with my coop partner as Wasteland 3. Their writing is truly great and choices are meaningful.

 

[PanzerCute]

I played it on Gamepass and found it very good also. Loved the setting and art direction, very different compared to other SRPGs.

Too bad they made no effort for marketing resulting in the game bombing extremely hard.

 

[StereoVsn]

Was interested in it, looked really cool. But reviews weren’t positive so ignored it.

Guess I will get to it at some point.

A lot of these games you have to play instead of depending on consensus.

Also check out Wasteland 3 if you haven’t already. Its a better coop experience than solo, but should be fine I think.

Yeah, apparently support for the game has been dropped and there are still a bunch of remaining bugs and issues still remaining.

I am not going to give Paradox money for this sort of game support. I am still bitter about Imperator.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Yeah, apparently support for the game has been dropped and there are still a bunch of remaining bugs and issues still remaining.

I am not going to give Paradox money for this sort of game support. I am still bitter about Imperator.

Damn thats a shame.

I find the art style and concept the game intriguing.

 

[Chukhopops]

Xbox reviews at launch were talking about erased saves. I didnt experience any glitches or save issues personally. Not sure what got updated

At launch the game was completely broken on console, it would soft lock because enemies tried to go down ladders but had no animation for it, or it would run slower and slower until it would crash.

Once it was fixed I actually played it to completion and liked it a lot.

Really a shame what happened to HBS in this story.

 

[GHG]

Saying all this about this game when it came out in the same year as Jagged Alliance 3 and Shadow Gambit is a war crime.

 

[Hudo]

Harebrained Schemes (ex FASA Studios) are really underrated. On one hand, it's good that they're finally free from fucking Paradox Interactive. On the other hand, Paradox have just before letting them go laid off a lot of people...

But I hope Harebrained Schemes can recover and move forward. Fuck Paradox.

 

[Punished Miku]

Is this a pure stealth game? The thing I read about it said how combat seemed brutally unfair when stealth was broken.

Its stealth, but then turns into X-Com turn based SRPG and you seamlessly switch between the two. It can be pretty challenging at times but the only thing I'd call unfair is the final boss fight. Felt like I barely survived it. Most everything else in the game worked exactly as I expected. When I ran into a few difficulty walls, I tried a totally different strategy and it worked well. Lots of stages I was able to ghost completely, even stealing items unseen from half a dozen guards. A lot of other stages I'd complete the objective then mad dash to the exit laying down staggered cover fire. You have to be willing to try different things.

 

[StereoVsn]

Y

Harebrained Schemes (ex FASA Studios) are really underrated. On one hand, it's good that they're finally free from fucking Paradox Interactive. On the other hand, Paradox have just before letting them go laid off a lot of people...

But I hope Harebrained Schemes can recover and move forward. Fuck Paradox.

Yeah, their Shadowrun Dragonfall and Hong Kong games were great. And Battletech was also quite good.

Paradox are scummy AF for their treatment of HBS.

 

[Punished Miku]

The small screen where you pick gear has no business sounding as good as a core Final Fantasy theme. Sounds ridiculous at high volume.



Ridiculously good boss theme.

 

[Punished Miku]

Looks like they're still alive. Day 1 for me, whatever GRAFT is.

Harebrained Schemes teases GRAFT, its new game

The developer of The Lamplighters League and BattleTech is back with GRAFT, teasing its new game ahead of a full reveal.

videogames.si.com

 

[Hudo]

Looks like they're still alive. Day 1 for me, whatever GRAFT is.

Harebrained Schemes teases GRAFT, its new game

The developer of The Lamplighters League and BattleTech is back with GRAFT, teasing its new game ahead of a full reveal.

videogames.si.com

That's good news. I was afraid that they were about to shut down. Happy that they carry on!

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I think this is/was on GP but never bothered. Maybe the gameplay is good, but the art style is among the worst I've seen in a modern day game.

It's like the entire game is based off the look of a cardboard box.

 

[Punished Miku]

I think this is/was on GP but never bothered. Maybe the gameplay is good, but the art style is among the worst I've seen in a modern day game.

It's like the entire game is based off the look of a cardboard box.