Recent reviews by flashbackflip

some perspective:
1. I finished UFO and then XCOM, all Jagged Alliances (#1 + #2) back in 90s
2. my favourite genre is TBS and i played (and still playing) ALOT of them on hard difficulty (best of all is Battletech with BTA3062 mod by the way))
3. I LOVE challenge
4. I bought this game long ago to support devs but waited for the campaign to play it
5. I have no problems with understanding all the mechanics (finished all tutorials + have read the Wiki)
6. I have no problems neither with UI nor with 'multiple clicks' others complain about
7. I started the first campaign on 'normal' difficulty expecting it to be easy and thinking I'll restart on 'hard' soon

BUT...


- 'firing patterns' is just ATROTIOUS solution (thankfully fixed in the recent update)
- amount of enemies is overwhelming even on 'normal'
- enemies are bullet sponges - ALL OF THEM apart from a couple of lesser ones
- the result is just FRUSTRATING - i could not finish the first stage of the first campaign mission after retrying for several hours altering skills and loadouts - NOTHING helps - those bullet sponges just keep coming and overwhelming your 6-9 guys


STAY AWAY and observe from the distance if this gets fixed if you are interested in the genre - it has potential, but is UNPLAYABLE in its current state


if i may - i'd probably recommend several things:

1. to alter the behaviour of the enemies so they do not come at you ALL at once - maybe they should have some radii of the telepathic connection - so they get alerted not all, but in batches based on their locations
- i.e. if the battle starts with the one group - the other group, being somewhat far - stays unalerted
- this could help with the 'overwhelming' part

2. also, i'd ditched the ability to heal just by moving over remains of the killed units (now as they pass over the green goo left from the killed creature - they regenerate - which is just plain weird IMO)
- this could help a bit with the 'sponginess'

3. maybe - just maybe (as it needs testing) i'd cut the movement of some units a bit - so my team has some space to breathe as now instead of moving forward i have to tactically retreat and considering i get attacked right after the drop - there's not much space i can retreat to (and after they corner me - acid spitters begin to affect several of my guys at once, which leads to very fast casualties)
- this also should mitigate the 'overwhelming' effect

4. i'd definitely lowered the armor of the enemies - after all - WHY they are armored in the first place?? Some of them - like the ones that look like the aliens from "Aliens" movie (and maybe insect-like flying ones) - should have armor (they are visually hard-shelled). But others - like the ones crawling and the ones spitting look soft and squishy - so their armour feels illlogical, frankly
- dividing enemies by the armored/armorless types will not make the game easier IMO but adds tactical choice - i should decide if i should kill 3 unarmored ones in my turn or focus on 1 armored creature

5. don't throw at the player EVERY possible type of enemy at once!! Link the variety to the Global Turns (or something similar i don't remember the exact term). The point is let the player to deal with easy ones first (even in great numbers) and add more dangerous enemies as the campaign progresses
- this way you'll help with scaffolding (gamification term)
- also - this way player will be surprised on every game stage - from early to endgame

6. i scanned the hex - it said there's NO DANGER - i dropped - and got 40 bugs in my face! WTF!!??
- just FIX IT - this is plain stupid not to show a player REAL data on the situation before the drop!!!


as for 'attacking from the back' - it is just impossible as to attack ONE creature from the back i need to position my guy in the middle of the group of 4-8 enemies making it a suicidal tactics (remember - they are hoarding my team)

as for 'which types of enemies felt particularly unbalanced' - i can't say for sure as all of them seem to be very well armored and/or having so much HP that it FEELS (and i stress this 'feels' word because on paper it might look different) that all of them equally hard to kill - so, as i wrote above - i'd play more with the armour/HP values to give each species different time-to-kill FEEL.

on a side note - i must say that the diversity of the enemies is GREAT and it would be very interesting to fight against them IF i had time/space to actually FEEL their difference

ok - HEAR ME OUT, brothers!

I've read ENOUGH of reviews from people with distorted perspective on this GEM.

Well, the truth is this is NOT an RTS in a familiar way - this is more like Desperados or Space Marshall series - Real Time Tactics/Puzzle

But instead of locking you with 5-6 characters this game gives you brilliant meta-game of managing and upgrading every unit - from skills to equipment so you can kit out your army the way you like.

You can go with a handful of elite guys (the less you have the more kills each of them gets the faster they lvl up the less resources they burn + disbanding units and vehicles give you more resources). Or you can rollout with the horde of less proficient troops - YOUR CHOICE!

If you look at the game from this angle - you understand that 'save scumming' and 'tactical pause' are absolutely legit FEATURES and not an oversight!

This game is deep AND wide. Perceive it right and you will get alot of fun!

peace to all death to machines!
and if you are reading this - YOU ARE THE RESISTANCE ✊

PS/edit
✅ this game runs perfectly on Steam Deck OLED!
check the community layouts - i shared one there for you 🙂

doesn't work neither on my Deck OLED nor on my PC (5900x+rtx3070+32gb ram+ssd)

it just freezes on the menu screen :steamfacepalm::steamfacepalm:

absolutely infuriating!!

developers should develop straight hands for themselves and be banned from making games until then

such an underrated game it hurts me!!

this is a beautiful soul successor to Chris Roberts' PRIVATEER - one of the best space sims ever made

this one has it all:
- not-so-serious attitude
- beautifully stylized grafix
- great explosions
- funky flight model true to 6DOF
-option to turn off stability compensators allowing to fly in one direction and shoot another
- and everything else what you would expect

that said - the controls are a bit odd BUT as it turns out - they suit gamepad style of flying MUCH better than the 'usual' ones (like in Everspace2 for ex.)

:hssbnotice: another great thing about this game - it suits STEAM DECK perfectly (although being marked as unsupported) - just check the simple way to make it run on youtube!

it is so great - i bought it twice _ on GOG and here on Steam without any discounts - worth every cent :coolstar2022:

don't get me wrong - i like pixel grafix and colony sims (Space Heaven is a very good example of it done right) BUT these ugly pixels are made specially super-ugly and messy so you'd NEVER understand what's going on - i REALLY tried to like it (well.. frankly - just to see before liking)) BUT it is just ugly to the point of "WTF is going on in this ugly mess"
- disliked
- deleted
- sadly hasn't refunded

- started the game
- followed tutorial
- got a ship assembled from junk
- went to a derelict to scavenge (following tutorial)
- got scanned by some bozo who appeared to be a sec officer
- he asked to dock with my tug - so i undocked from the derelict
- he boarded and appeared he wanted to fine me for scavenging
whaaaat? i was following what i was told to do man!
- so i kicked him in the bollocks
- we were fighting for 15 real time minutes
- i was barehanded (and skilled in unarmed combat)
- he had a gun and tried to shoot me 4 times (missed)
- i looked at the floor and saw he dropped a police baton
- took the baton and was hitting him until he dropped coughing blood
- dragged him back to his ship docked with mine
- noone else was there
- i broke his transponder so his frends could not find us
- was looting his quality stuff for several days (in-game ones)
- left some O2 for the poor bastard to breathe (he was still passed out)
- undocked and flew back to the base
- sold the loot and payed for ship credit (also - for fuel, air, docking time and whatnot)
- now i'm gonna go back and check how is the poor bastard (also - to finish looting thrusters 'cos i found the tool i need to break the walls)

100 scraps from 10!!

PS
THIS is the experience i was (and is) expecting from Star Citizen!
This game proves uglly pixels and great gameplay loops always win over next-gen and no gameplay...

PPS
oh yeah! GET the HACKING skill - it opens all the doors (and crates) for you

DUDES!!!
I'm just an intro mission in - and done ALOT of dialogues, legwork and lurking around my teams skills - and i must say - THE GAMEDESIGN IS INCREDIBLE!!!

I was anticipating no less than incredible, but I am still surprised at every turn!
Every new layer - from skilltree to leverages to 'under the thumb' feature - just BLOWS MY MIND!

Not to mention the vastness of customisation - from the looks to the guns to the implants

if this is EA - then I can't imagine what will be in the final version))

SO COOL

Now pardon me - I gotta plan my first REAL CYBERHEIST but before that i need to talk to my agent done some 'legwork' and also - maybe recruit a new guy - so many things are happening in NewBoston - no time to chat- see ya on the Net


EDIT [1]

HACKING is very in-depth - it could be a separate game alone. Even though there's no explanations about its basic principles - it is very logical and understandable after a few trials and errors

BATTLE system is perfect IMO - very simple in its basic building blocks which allow alot of freedom in tactical solutions. I tried different approaches - and it works any way - be it stealth, stealth mixed with shooting or just raw bruteforce killing everyone


EDIT [2]

just finished the last heist - some takeouts
1. the game IS DOPE - already - with all its obvious EA flaws it is deep and enjoyable

2. the feeling of being in a MOVIE - is there! It REALLY reminded me such titles as Nirvana (with Chris Lambert), New Rose Hotel and very old Wild Palms series

3. what's even BETTER - the game gives strong vibes of books by Gibson, Sterling, Stephenson and i LOVE it

4. hacking is REALLY FUN - even without any tutorial/ It could be a separate game by itself (in fact i know a similar one on mobile))

5. i backed SATTELITE REIGN some years ago - it failed to deliver its full promise (and it was real-time) - so i'm VERY glad that CK:FP is delivering decent complexity ALREADY, being EA

6. have very high hopes on ProcGen after reading this article https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/cyber-knights-flashpoint-has-a-brilliant-tool-for-spinning-stories - with it being implemented this game can become my 'daily dose' and even replace the pinnacle of all tactics - BattleTech (BTA3062 modded)


EDIT [3]

Now (December 2023) - when guys ironed out tons of bugs and delivered QOL updates (27 updates in several weeks!!) - the game is POLISHED (but not feature complete yet)

Still - THE MOST important feature - Proc-Gen missions just dropped - so the amount of interwoven missions is ENDLESS now!


staying tuned for MOAR content
KUDOS to the Broz - the game amazed me on par with BG3

And if you've read up to this point - what are you waiting for - get the game - it is VERY PLAYABLE already and it gets EVEN better every two days (the rate of the updates)

you've lost me at the same moment as the last time i was trying to like this game - at the missle training

the reason is the COUNTERINTUITIVE experience of laying multiple-waypoint path for tricky missle approach to targets

the 'tactical view' IS A MESS with all those circles and lines that seem to be good until you see that they are not

i am here to PLAY THE GAME - not to STRUGGLE WITH UI

i have no constructive feedback for you 'cos im ♥♥♥ pissed - so i just tell ya - GIT GUD AT YO ♥♥♥ UI

all the best. maybe i will give it another try in a year. uninstalled

- less meaningful customisation compared with previous parts
- stupid difficulty curve change from harmless mobs to unbeatable bosses
- as the result - shallow gameplay - deleted after 5th boss

hey guys!

1. DO NOT believe those whiners that say their calculators can't run the game!
- > IT RUNS JUST FINE (RTX3060 on MAX Settings = stable 60FPS)
2. DO NOT listen to weirdos telling "there's no RAGDOLL physics" DAFK! Every move is CINEMATIC MO-CAP!!
- > your mercs (and enemies) run, roll, slide on the ground and generally behave naturally (including being shot or torn apart with some C4)
3. ATTENTION to the details is just UBER
- > if it rains then there's dirt on the clothes (after rolling on the ground)
4. ENVIRONMENT DESTRUCTION is REAL
- > blow up cars, make holes in the walls, break in through the windows etc.
5. REMEMBER - the MOST important characteristic is INT - you need this so your crew can "pass int test" and understand some important stuff they find during their trip
- > my most INTELLIGENT dude (81) fails to pass that test - so you really want it as high as possible

and YES - this is THE Jagged Alliance we all remember - hard, unforgiving, and so rewarding!!
It's 4:11 in the morning and i'm going to sleep not because i want to - but because coffee doesn't work on me anymore...


--> will be updated after some more gameplay <--