Neuromancer
Member
I'm enjoying the game so far (beat the first mission with Richter) but I'm about ready for the tutorial stuff to end and for the game to just let me play. I can see that stuff getting real old on a 2nd playthrough.
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Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars |OT| Ghost Recon meets Advance Wars
- Thread starter Seda
- Start date
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
Neuromancer said:
It doesn't repeat the tutorial stuff on the harder difficulties when you replay missions at least.
Shoogoo said:
It definitely gets harder, but I haven't gotten to a point where I'd consider it especially hard yet on veteran. I just finished the third act, and I've failed a couple times due to getting a guy swarmed and some bad die rolls. I just finished the final mission of act 3 by the skin of my teeth due to
an unforseen timed objective and having my squad way out of position when shit started going down. I managed to make it under the timer by the skin of my teeth and spending all my command points on the final turn.
Veteran is pretty forgiving and "playable," meaning you can usually get through the missions without knowing what's coming. Elite can be pretty tough at times even if you know what's coming, and a few missions are probably near impossible without foreknowledge.
Neuromancer
Member
Oh that's good to hear.A Human Becoming said:
storafötter
Member
Shoogoo said:
It is a very easy game, I am playing it on the hardest difficulty and its doesn't happen too often that I fail a mission. However there is still challenge to be had. But the difficulty is no near close to fire emblem/advance wars difficulties.
I found the training missions/skirmishes to be more challenging due to it having set conditions. However I haven't played those much ever since the campaign missions got more interesting.
I'm really surprised at the quality of this game. The story is whatever, but the strategy gameplay is really solid. Also I'm very impressed with the 3D effects, especially on the 2D elements. I especially like how when a notice screen comes up, you can still see the 3D playfield below it, but it actually looks like something is overlaid on top of it. Kind of like looking through a glass table. It's really something.
AstroLad said:
You have to remember very far back to remember X-Com.
While you only have to remember back to GameBoyAdvance and the NintendoDS to recall they all had some sort of SRPG game at or near launch.
Aeana said:
Yeah, the 3D while not contributing anything provides a neat effect. I think it is something that could really be used for strategy games to convey the movement of pieces on a map. The HUD effect is nice. One thing I really like about this game is how intuitive everything is. It's like riding a bicycle. You can pick it up and figure out all the intricate mechanics fairly easily.
Maybe it is because I've played a lot of X-com, but I was figuring out how to check Movement range, line of slight etc of enemy units with minimal tool tip help. And the tips all appear steer you in the right direction and does so unobtrusively and it's not the annoying Microsoft Paperclip type of help option that's in your face
AstroLad said:
Jagged Alliance was big on PC but had less of a memory than Xcom. But I think that genre as a whole is dead a dodo on the PC and there's been at least a decade where gamers who came in after those games stopped being published would have no idea that PC games were once that awesome.
And RebelStar was seen by some as a flawed attempt at X-Com. And you can tell either due to market or publisher pressure, Gallop anime'd it up quite a bit. I can see how someone could see it was a western rip on Advance Wars theme based on a tactical squad play rather than moving military units around.
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
Aeana said:
That and phone lines are the most impressive uses of 3D in the game IMO.
Got this last night, pretty fun so far. I like that early on it's not trying to overwhelm me with stuff. Sometimes I feel like I don't have the energy required to play in depth tactical games, but so far this is really clicking with me.
Nice subtle use of 3D. It's not 'tiring' on my eyes like Pilotwings can be.
Nice subtle use of 3D. It's not 'tiring' on my eyes like Pilotwings can be.
The reason people compare Shadow Wars to Fire Emblem and Advance Wars is probably just because they're easily the most prominent SRPGs on Nintendo handhelds (Fire Emblem has a decent console presence too). X-com is a PC series which hasn't had much public interest in a long time.
I was looking forward to this game before launch and it's deffo not disappointing me! The 3d effect looks really good imo, nothing outrageous, but even at a low depth, has a noticeable effect. As a fan of the Advanced Wars series I couldnt say yet whether this game will stand up or not, the characters are no more annoying than AW and I cant really compare stories because I dont care about either very much.
I think this game got a bit of a slating before release because of the graphics and while their not great, they are completely serviceable imo. Right now the only things I can think of that Ive found lacking is having the command power button and next turn button on the touch screen as well as make it scroll smoother around the battlefield.
All in all, Im really enjoying it and hope it sells well enough for Ubi to bring out some sequels or a similar quality as AW.
I think this game got a bit of a slating before release because of the graphics and while their not great, they are completely serviceable imo. Right now the only things I can think of that Ive found lacking is having the command power button and next turn button on the touch screen as well as make it scroll smoother around the battlefield.
All in all, Im really enjoying it and hope it sells well enough for Ubi to bring out some sequels or a similar quality as AW.
dvolovets said:First US-released Fire Emblem that I didn't beat, and it's probably due to the shitty story. Not a very reassuring comparison.
well for both i still enjoyed the main game a lot. i didn't get too far into shadow dragon's story before i started skipping it. same with shadow wars. i just wanted to get to the strategery.
storafötter
Member
dvolovets said:First US-released Fire Emblem that I didn't beat, and it's probably due to the shitty story. Not a very reassuring comparison.
The shitty story shouldn't be in the way for the awesome game play. It was very addictive to play on the hardest difficulty. The horrible presentation put me more off, in comparison to the Advance games. There was less joy to watch as you hit critical.
AniHawk said:
Honestly yeah
I was expecting Shadow Dragon to be just like... uh... Sword of Flame I guess it's called? But nope, the story (and characters, oddly enough) were almost total bunk. Still marginally more interesting than Ghost Recon's though.
Still, solid, solid gameplay. I must admit this still feels like a stopover between a new Advance Wars and a new Fire Emblem, even if neither one even exists yet.
Gouty
Bloodborne is shit
Man I wish I could get into the Fire Emblem games like I did this one, Id be in heaven.
The story is unbelievably terrible. The bad dudes escaping EVERY FUCKING LEVEL is hilarious. Its less hunting down ruthless war criminals as it is oh noez, the hamburglar escaped Ronald McDonald and the McKids once again. Well get you next time!
Though shes still incredibly useful, Banshee is no longer MVP. Once you get Mints
, its like having three characters rolled into one.
Checked out my first skirmish map. Depending on how the rest are, maybe this is where the challenge is.
The story is unbelievably terrible. The bad dudes escaping EVERY FUCKING LEVEL is hilarious. Its less hunting down ruthless war criminals as it is oh noez, the hamburglar escaped Ronald McDonald and the McKids once again. Well get you next time!
Though shes still incredibly useful, Banshee is no longer MVP. Once you get Mints
drone and regenerative health
Checked out my first skirmish map. Depending on how the rest are, maybe this is where the challenge is.
storafötter
Member
I wouldn't underestimate the other classes that aren't to Mint/Banshee. On later story missions the drones become much more annoying and threatening. I have a much harder time fighting them when I don't have they weapon heavy guys. That one mission were you are surrounded by drones/enemies, and have to enter the center in the west and activate 4 drones was very challenging (keep in mind I'm playing on the highest difficulty). Hardest level so far, as it kept me on my toes on every turn opposed to every level before.
I underestimated Duke to begin with, but ever since he got the missile launcher. He is more useful at getting rid of the Drones than the other people. When you get further into the game, you need to distribute the abilities more evenly as you get caught under crossfire easily. Richter is a nice human shield/return fire beast, I've always relied on him to cover due to high health and good damage.
Haze has a hard time giving damage, but thankfully he hits drones very well so he is still useful.
I underestimated Duke to begin with, but ever since he got the missile launcher. He is more useful at getting rid of the Drones than the other people. When you get further into the game, you need to distribute the abilities more evenly as you get caught under crossfire easily. Richter is a nice human shield/return fire beast, I've always relied on him to cover due to high health and good damage.
Haze has a hard time giving damage, but thankfully he hits drones very well so he is still useful.
UncleSporky
Member
Well I just beat the main story mode of Ghost Recon Shadow Wars! The activity log shows 21 hours 12 minutes and my completion rate is 27%. This is from playing through completely on easy mode, with a couple major flubs that resulted in playing a few missions over again, and doing a couple missions on hard mode to see what it was like. I still need to do all the skirmish/challenge missions and replay the game in hard mode.
Also 90% of the people who made this game have last names ending in "ev" or "ov." It got to where I was thinking it was a joke as I watched the credits. Made me wonder what they think of a game about Russians going militaristically crazy.
By the end of the game the story had improved quite a bit in my opinion. Still no blockbuster or anything that required me to use my brain at all, but it gets better than "walk across this field and kill dudes" or "protect the town."
The last skirmish mission you unlock is kinda cool.
Toward the end of the game I switched most characters' secondary weapons to EMP grenades or other vehicle-damaging weapons - they become very important. On the subject of the various characters:
Banshee was my MVP. She was useful in the early game but as soon as you get her knife she becomes amazing. Later on you can kill a man with Rapid Strike, kill another (filling her meter again), recharge her, Rapid Strike another man, kill another one, etc. I could send her to take out half the battlefield on her own. Later on she becomes slightly less useful due to more vehicles coming into play (though hilariously you can shank a jeep to death). Still, every time I had a choice, I put her on my team.
Saffron (the healer) goes from "meh, useful" to "holy crap, this is great!" Later on you get a stim upgrade to your secondary medical kit that lets you reactivate people for a second move/attack. This is the point that I stopped healing altogether. It's so useful to have people attack a second time, or simply move quickly to a location.
Duke also goes from "why are you even here" to "oh my god thank you." His heavy launcher is necessary for survival later on against hordes of drones. You can use Wide Burst to take out 3 or more at once and be immediately charged up for another Wide Burst. Eventually I was searching out those green refill crates for him all the time.
Richter and Mint were kind of average/solid team members. Mint's EMP gun becomes a boon later. I always used his turret and not the drone because the turret can lay suppressing fire, which I used liberally all throughout the game, it's nice to be able to lock down two enemies in any given encounter.
And Haze the sniper was actually kind of less-used for me, he's nice but doesn't put out the kind of damage the others can. By the end he can shoot an incredible distance though.
Overall it's a really great game that will last you quite a while.
Also 90% of the people who made this game have last names ending in "ev" or "ov." It got to where I was thinking it was a joke as I watched the credits. Made me wonder what they think of a game about Russians going militaristically crazy.
By the end of the game the story had improved quite a bit in my opinion. Still no blockbuster or anything that required me to use my brain at all, but it gets better than "walk across this field and kill dudes" or "protect the town."
The last skirmish mission you unlock is kinda cool.
Zombie survival! You start with four generic dudes and for every few zombies you kill you earn a command point that lets you upgrade one of your men into one of the Ghost classes. I didn't get far since I started it on hard mode, they take a lot of hits to kill.
Toward the end of the game I switched most characters' secondary weapons to EMP grenades or other vehicle-damaging weapons - they become very important. On the subject of the various characters:
Banshee was my MVP. She was useful in the early game but as soon as you get her knife she becomes amazing. Later on you can kill a man with Rapid Strike, kill another (filling her meter again), recharge her, Rapid Strike another man, kill another one, etc. I could send her to take out half the battlefield on her own. Later on she becomes slightly less useful due to more vehicles coming into play (though hilariously you can shank a jeep to death). Still, every time I had a choice, I put her on my team.
Saffron (the healer) goes from "meh, useful" to "holy crap, this is great!" Later on you get a stim upgrade to your secondary medical kit that lets you reactivate people for a second move/attack. This is the point that I stopped healing altogether. It's so useful to have people attack a second time, or simply move quickly to a location.
Duke also goes from "why are you even here" to "oh my god thank you." His heavy launcher is necessary for survival later on against hordes of drones. You can use Wide Burst to take out 3 or more at once and be immediately charged up for another Wide Burst. Eventually I was searching out those green refill crates for him all the time.
Richter and Mint were kind of average/solid team members. Mint's EMP gun becomes a boon later. I always used his turret and not the drone because the turret can lay suppressing fire, which I used liberally all throughout the game, it's nice to be able to lock down two enemies in any given encounter.
And Haze the sniper was actually kind of less-used for me, he's nice but doesn't put out the kind of damage the others can. By the end he can shoot an incredible distance though.
Overall it's a really great game that will last you quite a while.
The_Darkest_Red
Member
The point where this game went from good to great for me was
Also, for reference, I've played every mission on elite so far and right now I'm about 4 or 5 missions into chapter 3. My playtime is about 11.5 hours. If you use in-game saves intelligently the difficulty isn't too bad at all.
the mission where you had to infiltrate the Dead Hand Base (for the second time). That mission is so incredibly awesome because of the constantly changing objectives and the tension it creates towards the end. At the end of the mission you have to protect Mint for 5 turns while he sits in one spot doing some typical engineering work, and there are constant enemy reinforcements pouring towards you with every turn. It was paced so perfectly because you really felt like they were starting to break through and overwhelm you when you finally finished the 5th turn. At that point you have to race your entire team toward the exit while there are probably 15+ enemy units racing after you. I'm absolutely loving this game because of these types of moments.
Also, for reference, I've played every mission on elite so far and right now I'm about 4 or 5 missions into chapter 3. My playtime is about 11.5 hours. If you use in-game saves intelligently the difficulty isn't too bad at all.
JetBlackPanda
Member
I am seriously considering picking this up as my second launch game (I already have pilotwings) I am a little scared of everyone having black screen issues.
JetBlackPanda said:
That issue seems to be related to WiFi, which is useless in this game, so you just need to switch it off while you're playing to avoid it. Otherwise it's easily a top tier launch game and it would stand on its own too. Shame about the really generic setting but the gameplay more than offsets that.
UncleSporky
Member
I played about 75% of the game with wireless on and never got the black screen or a crash or anything. I think the problem is vastly overstated.
And yeah Billychu, you can reload the in-game saves as often as you want, kind of breaks the game if you let it. It wasn't really a problem for me, I just saved once or twice per mission.
And yeah Billychu, you can reload the in-game saves as often as you want, kind of breaks the game if you let it. It wasn't really a problem for me, I just saved once or twice per mission.
UncleSporky
Member
A glitch/cheat has been discovered that lets you level your team to the current maximum at any time.
Not that anyone should really need to cheat, but for those who enjoy being a bit overpowered, have fun.
Star awards are bugged such that if you fail a secondary objective, the mission gets re-saved with one less star. You can then complete the mission again to re-earn the star, which will let you give it to one of your Ghosts again.
So for example, play chapter 1 mission 3 on easy, fail the secondary objective. Play it again and pass the secondary objective. Give the star to whoever you want, rinse, repeat as desired.
So for example, play chapter 1 mission 3 on easy, fail the secondary objective. Play it again and pass the secondary objective. Give the star to whoever you want, rinse, repeat as desired.
Not that anyone should really need to cheat, but for those who enjoy being a bit overpowered, have fun.
Joseph Merrick
Member
The development team is Bulgarian (Ubisoft Sofia), but they report to Ubisoft Romania I think. Heheh. So they're probably not too Russia friendly.UncleSporky said:
)UncleSporky
Member
Yeah, I figured whether they were Russian or not, it might hit somewhat close to home.Joseph Merrick said:The development team is Bulgarian (Ubisoft Sofia), but they report to Ubisoft Romania I think. Heheh. So they're probably not too Russia friendly.
Neuromancer
Member
I'm really enjoying the game so far, just did the first mission with Mint so I guess I'm still at the beginning.
In a perfect world though I wish you could make your own skirmish battles, or randomly generated ones.
In a perfect world though I wish you could make your own skirmish battles, or randomly generated ones.
I'm a few missions in and really enjoying this game so far, but does it get more difficult on Veteran? I didn't want to hop right into the hardest difficulty but it seems like every enemy who isn't a sniper does 1 damage.
Also, had the 3DS crash twice on me while playing already : /
Also, had the 3DS crash twice on me while playing already : /
JetBlackPanda
Member
Well I picked it up, so far I've been playing with the wifi off and I haven't had any issues. The game is great I love the gameplay and the 3d makes it feel like you are moving little figures on a board.