I love this game!

[WangChangZhang]

I just finished the last mission...

F*cking great job, Novik!

While some parts/traits of the game are certainly somewhat annoying (I don't need to brag about them again), the story really gets you hooked in the last part and that somewhat Fallout-style ending - just lovely!

 

I must say, concerning story, characters and dialogues it beats S² and S³ by miles. Of course, H&S *is* meant as a tactical RPG, while the predecessors are only tactical games with RPG elements. But still, the way the story is told, the characters, the Baldur's Gate-esque conversations between the squad members, that's really cool.

Is is just me or do the biography files at the end scream "sequel"? I do hope so.

[Danny Elfman]

I just finished the last mission...

F*cking great job, Novik!

While some parts/traits of the game are certainly somewhat annoying (I don't need to brag about them again), the story really gets you hooked in the last part and that somewhat Fallout-style ending - just lovely!

 

Is is just me or do the biography files at the end scream "sequel"? I do hope so.

 

Maybe you had the early and undesirable ending of WWIII. The goal is to avoid that.

 

Oh yes a sequel would be awesome.

[Taargus]

just wanted to respond to an earlier post about the music sucking in this game, i doesn't! the suck metal battle song doesn't quite fit in there but it really gets me pumped for battle. when you hear those derivative riffs start up you know its time party. also i've heard alot of complaing about the main menu theme. are you people f***ing nuts! i would leave the game there an just listen to it. its really a beautiful song if you listen to it and have any musical appreciaton skills. totally off topic but im tired of people putting that song down. the metal thing i understand but damn the main song is good.

[justinstyles]

Three years later, I'm finally playing this game and although I find it quite difficult, it fits my personality to want to explore every option: quite enjoyable.

 

**spoiler(s)**

 

I've been playing for ~two days' equivalent and already had the "very bad" ending (got to Wenzburg far too late because I discovered how to fetch the female uniform too late and couldn't find the route to catch the train) after ~1.5 days. Since then, I've gone back to an earlier savegame where I could re-try and am onto avenging some folks' deaths, as it were.

 

Blunter II's walkthrough has been essential while the chap whose walkthrough is posted on gamefaq is missing some details, but did help me figure out that I'd missed things and the "why" I ended up with the very bad ending.

 

I do fear that I've got a bug with Gaffburg loading (not the "can't leave" bug that I found on another forum, but a "can't enter and see the village"; after the photo-esque loading screen, a black screen appears that never displays the game screen), but am trying a few other methods before in the hope that I can trick the game into loading.

 

The game is running poorly though... scrolling on the map is laborious at best (shuddering / jerky scroll). The non-game screens (map, menus, and sub-menus) are fine and the mouse / cursor moves smoothly, but the game screens have progressively slowed, starting with the Hammer archives map. I've played through the hamlet and am on the forester's map now, but I'm experiencing the scroll issue on all three.

 

Hope that the preceding isn't read as complaints as I am enjoying the game, but playtime becomes severely limited because things are slow.

 

Best regards --- js

 

PS: notebook PC specs... P4 2.1 Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 32Mb ATI Radeon 9200 Mobility, ~5Gb free HDD space. I haven't loaded anything new onto the PC since installing H&S ~2 weeks ago; I only play S2, S3, and H&S on this machine for the past year.

[justinstyles]

Finished two days ago with the "good" ending; really enjoyed HS.

 

**spoiler(s)**

 

(although I couldn't resolve the Gaffburg black screen problem (going directly from archive-looted location to Gaffburg) so I had to go to Gaffburg after visiting the scenes at the Hamlet and the Forest; that was the only way to get Gaffburg to load)

 

After completion of the game, I immediately started a second game to try the stuff that I missed last time (e.g., getting Moshe, following up regarding the rumour about the antiquarian, etc.) and to increase the difficulty. Playing as a medic, it took a few tries to get across the border (kept being detected), which fortunately wasn't an obstacle at all during my first play. Ironically, upon my arrival in Gaffburg, he slaughtered the firing squad far more effectively with a single grenade (medics only receive one) than my first character did with two. The medic only needed one short burst to finish off the last Sentinel.

 

Interesting though that in both play sessions, I couldn't get the "militia" guys to join the fray (I would choose the dialogue for them to pick up weapons and they do, but then they never attack anyone) when the other Sentinels return; therefore, I elected to not have them join and picked up all of the weapons from the initial combat (so that my character responds to Ferdinand that he has no weapons ). Since they still pick up weapons after my character killed the returning Sentinels, I'm not certain what effect, if any, there is or will be on my game.

 

This round I've also elected to kill Peter Klaus and his gang. In the first play, I smooth-talked and he promised to send men to help to attack the convoy, but no one showed up (not that it was hard, but was interested in seeing the outcome). This was a difficult combat since I had two riflemen without scopes; an SMG for my character would've been wiser, but we scraped through it . I suppose I should say that I'm working on improving my character's medical skill .

 

Onto the convoy....

[BlunterII]

I'm glad you are enjoying the game!