Been a JA fan for a while but really longed for a similar game but more modern and updated. Hired Guns fits the bill...partly.

Out of the box HG was pretty sad. Buggy, line of sight issues and some crashes.

The game has largely improved with the latest 1.08 patch and is now decent fun but still not near the JA3 that I'd like.

Cons:
Few vocal comments from characters hence makes game very lacking in the personality department.
Lack of weapons/items so game lacks diversity as compared to JA2.
No night time is weak.

Pros:
Graphics, user interface and animations top notch.
Controls are decent. (but could be improved yet)

I really long for a true, modern, polished Jagged Alliance game that so entertained like the first 2 did. <sigh>

Hired Guns............... meh !

This game is now selling for $10 at GameStop. For that price, I figured it may be worth a shot. Man I was wrong. I knew this game would be bad, but this game is awful to the sake of not even being remotely enjoyable.

I played Brigade E5 in 2007, and I played through 7.62 with the BFX mod last month. Both were bugged out of the box, but could be patched and modded to a playable state. As bugged and soulless as those games were, they were decent games in their own right. Hired Gun does absolutely nothing well, except for teasing the player with some blatent rip offs of JA2.

I could go on for pages about however seemingly everything in this game is wrong, but I think most of it has already been covered in this thread. The big dealbreaker though is that its tactical engine is utter crap. Yes, it's turn-based; but it fails in so many ways.

First off, during combat, the camera doesn't jump to the shooter or target but instead stays glued exactly where you left it. Hence you actually have to manually scroll and find where gunfire is coming from.

Second, line of fire checks don't work. You'll try to fire prone from a hillside and spend about three turns figuring out that your rounds are all impacting a rock 10 meters in front of you. The inept camera doesn't help this problem (see item 1.)

Then finally, NO INTERRUPTS/REACTION FIRE. Seriously, every turn-based engine since 1994 has had interrupts as a key feature. Playing with any sort of tactical sense is impossible without them. When I realized this, I lost any hope for this game.

Bottom-line: Forget this game ever happened.

So would you advice to get it or not?

At $10 , yes ! Just don't go thinking it'll be JA3D.......

Ouch, got burned on this one!

Found it by accident before I pulled out my JA2 from closet and found the Bears Pit.

What a waste of time.

JA2 v1.13 pretty much makes JA2 the best ever.

Kind of bad, in my opinion...

Reading these reviews again , after some hours playing ( my version 1.08), the buggyness hasn't reared it's ugly head so far , graphics are really good , sounds are superb, difficulty IS hard (even playing on Easy to get a real feel for game)still , I would urge you guys to try it cheaply , persevere and it will be worth a few bucks , but it ISN'T as good as JA 1.13 for options and no modding capability .

With 1.08 patch and considering modern times that lack proper TBT games I'd give this game 7/10 and definite must buy (cheaply, steam had it for like 6$)

P. S. What kind of ammo is OC? I've edited my post with same question in other HG:JE topic so not to double post but noone noticed

Sorry , didn't see this .
Umm , offhand , no idea wth it stands for

Tried the demo back in the day and didn't like it at all. After finishing JA2 once more I decided to pick up this game anyway as it's now a bargain (7-10€ digital download and boxed as well).

Story and characters are shallow and merc voices and music are mostly annoying. User interface is shitty and doesn't scale well to higher resolutions.

However combatside of things is quite entertaining after you mod the game a bit.

I'd recommend the following:
1. Patch the game to 1.08
2. Install fine tuned mod V 1.7 from Matrix games forum: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2099797 ..among many other things this prevents AI throwing nades a mile away with superhuman strenght and accuracy.
3. Change camera configuration to allow further zoom-out and viewing the map from lower angler, this is important as there is no Line-of-sight indicators in the game

Copied settings from der_baer_fm post in this forum (Thanks!)

edit the system.cfg

r_hcamera_acceleration = "200.0000"
r_hcamera_auto_camera = "1"
r_hcamera_border = "10.0000"
r_hcamera_border_enabled = "1"
r_hcamera_deceleration = "200.000"
r_hcamera_fov = "0.540000"
r_hcamera_inertion = "1"
r_hcamera_max_angle = "2.00000"
r_hcamera_max_height = "50.0000"
r_hcamera_min_angle = "0.010000"
r_hcamera_min_height = "0.50000"
r_hcamera_mouse_invert = "0"
r_hcamera_mouse_speed = "100.000"
r_hcamera_rot_speed = "2.00000"
r_hcamera_speed = "100.000"
r_hcamera_zoom_acceleration = "900.000"
r_hcamera_zoom_deceleration = "900.000"
r_hcamera_zoom_speed = "0.950000"

My boxed game did not have anykind of manual. You can download the manual from steam store page, it contains, among other things keyboard shortcuts. Had to get the manual as it drove me nuts that I couldn't throw grenades 'blindly' if the enemy was not seen. (Hold ctrl to force throwing grenades to desired place).

I've yet to finnish the game, but as 7h30n said I'd recommend the game if you can get it cheaply.

I usually zoom-out the (modified settings) camera out to reveal almost whole map when enemy turn starts. This helps a lot.


True, but fiddling around with camera settings file helps this somewhat also. I.e. you'll can see elevatios much better if lower camera angles are allowed.



There are intterups, but not very often.

Well, I noticed that kind of ammo has more bullets in a magazine than another type of ammo for the same weapon (e.g. 9x19 AP has 15 bullets while 9x19 OC has 20). But, the weapon loaded with it doesnt use it all but only how much goes normally.
My guess would be either the ammo is for another weapon and unknown type, or maybe it's "overclocked" magazine with extra bullets that fits weapons modified for extra large magazines. So either I haven't found the weapon for it or I need attachment for a weapon (in example's case, for Berreta 92F I think, I'm away so this is only as far as I know, remember about guns)

Well I've just finished The Pitt in Fallout3 , so will be able to spend more time with this game .

Okay, I got home and fired up Hired Guns.

When unloading OC magazine from my Berreta it changed to a suitable 15 bullet magazine 9x19 OC, so I can assume that magazine is actually for a different weapon. Probably another version of Berreta that supports 20 bullet magazines. (Devs said there are over 150 weapons in the game)


Unfortunately my google search yields nothing about OC bullets... Closest thing would be OWC which are meant for paper targets but I doubt OC in the game is OWC because OC "does +5 dmg"...

OC could stand for Over Charged, where somebody compresses additional charge into the shell creating a more powerful round, however they can damage barrels and mechanisms.

No no, you got it all wrong.


OC stands for oreo cookies!!
Each one you eat gives +5 damage to health, its a sweet&silent killer.

I started playing it last week. By now I've spent fifteen hours on it. Maybe I am not a perfectionist, but I love it.
First of all: Africa. I've grown with "The Wild Geese" and "The dogs of war" (the book) and to me mercs=africa.
Second: the 3D graphics. With a good PC you can appreciate it and I was bored of the outdated graphic of JA2.
Third: line of sight is very realistic. It is necessary to set the value of the camera, but you can find how on this forum or on matrix forum. I read that sometimes a merc see an anemy but can't shoot him. I discovered the reason: he see only part of the enemy. To shoot him you must aim what you see.
Fourth: combats, with the Fined tuned 1.7 mod are very enjoyable.
Fifth: a lot of freedom in the plot.

A lot of criticism I have read about it are true (bugs not idea of cth when you aim to enemy, no night and day cycle, ecc.), but if this comunity could do a quarter of the work done for JA2, I think that this game would become the perfect heir of the second.

hired guns isnt open source i think, so without source code its very very hard to add significant changes.

but i didn't like hired guns that much, I hated the small maps and that you couldn't approach but already have to fight (the checkpoint before the airport...).

Hoi Chummers,

Hired Guns question time. I bought the game and after patching it didn't have that many CTD but when I did the CTD weren't game breakers.

The issue/question I have is I don't know What The Chuck I am supposed to be doing. I have taken about 10 or so sectors (down to the shipyard and across to the base).

What am I supposed to do with the natives on the western side of the map. Met them, have to rescue someone (I think) but have no clue where). I took over a mine/quarry and they had some issue I was supposed to resolve but I had no clue what I was supposed to do (one of my options was to shoot the foreman or something).

Money is another issue. Not sure what I have to do other than to keep taking sectors. I have no clue if doing the sector upgrades are worth it or not (a couple of times my mercs bailed on me because I ran out of moola). I have read some of the Matrix forums about 6 months or so ago and one guy kept scoffing about how easy the game was and how for him and how money quit being an issue after the 2nd or 3rd battle.

Game wise the LOS is tad frustrating but since I have played similar 3D games like Mechwarrior 2 and other Real Time Strategy that use a similar map/control layout I didn't have that much of an issue.

One thing that constantly saved my bacon was when I arrived in a sector the first thing I would do is a quick scan and then quickly get my guys to the higher ground.

I liked how, unlike in JA2, grenades are killers and the terrain affecting where the grenades rolled cool.

But as I said the kicker for me was I didn't have a clue what I was doing except kicking arse and taking names.

Thanks,

Eastwoodaen

I've played this on and off for a year now , it's a decent 3d version of JA , damage is high though ! As for missions , I just swanned about attacking and being attacked . I shall get my head deeper into it some day .

Too bad there is no editor released/enabled with this, to make some Metavira shores now that there's cold outside. Waters of Paradise Island...

Hey Guys

Just picked this up of amazon for a lovely bargin price....its the 107 version...downloaded the 108 patch that asks for cd key???

Only thing in the box was a tropico 3 leaflet.....no where on the dvd case is a code or on the cd?????

seriously dont want a code but have i overlooked something....is it in small print...is it somewhere on the dvd manual?? a file on the cd???

dumbfounded

cheers guys

M

Don't remember having to enter a code , did you get the official patch ?

Hello!


It was the english american patch......found out i needed the smaller english english patch.....doh!!! the english one was a bugger to track down...but all sorted!!!


Now to have a go and wonder about the matrix mod.....anyone know any other mods making it better?

cheers Guys