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UFO+Jagged Alliance2+Cyberpunk+3D=Paradise Cracked.

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  • UFO+Jagged Alliance2+Cyberpunk+3D=Paradise Cracked.

    Lemmy, Tuberski, as I promised I start a thread describing my experience with "Paradise Cracked".
    First of all. I was mistaken, it isn't a cool game as I said earlier. It's a GREAT game. Since I bought it I didn't sleep more then 5-6 hours a day. It consume all my free time.
    Lemmy, you asked how much RPG it is. I don't know how to answer it. It isn't a RPG and it is a great RPG at the same time. Technicaly "Paradise Cracked" ('PC') is a strategy, tactictical squad based TBS, but obiviously it is RPG too. Because when you play it, you playing a role, a role of young hacker and you have a great adventure in cyberpunk world.

    Back to beggining.
    Because 'PC' is more TBS then RPG there is no character generation at the start of the game. You have only one character to begin- Hacker. Hacker it's a name. In intro you can see that he downloaded some kind of very important information and found police knocking at his door. The game starts with only one character. Later you will add other characters to your party, but if you lose Hacker, the game will be over. The party may have up to six memebers. Each character has 8 main characteristics: Strenght, Accuracy, Dexterity, Intelligence, Reaction, Mechanics, Sight and Health. Also it has: resistance to shok/electricity/fire damage, carry weight, total number of action points, morale, current level, experience and amount of experience needed to gain new level. As you see, there is no skills, perks or classes. But beleive me those 8 stats enought to create "unique" character. Because:
    - Almost every weapon and equipment in game could be used by character only if he/she have enough INT or STR. Heavy weapons like machine guns or grenade launchers demand high STR, sniper and energy rifles demand high INT and so on.
    - When you gain new level, you are awarded by only small number of imrovment points to increase your stats (6-10 points, different for different characters). So, you can't create very strong and very intellegent character at the same time.
    -Strenght determinate how much weight you can carry. Weight is determinate how much action points you have. The more you loaded, the less AP you have.
    So, if you want to make sniper, then this character should be of moderate strenght, with great accuracy, great sight and moderate or good intelligence.
    If you want to make assualt trooper, then this character should be very strong and have a good dexterity, to be able to carry heaviest armor and still have many action points Accuracy is not important in this case, because it's hard to miss burst from minimal distance. Also it's good to have good reaction to avoid "interupt" or to interupt enemies. INT is not important for assault troopers, because heavy guns don't demand high INT.
    Your hacker should have maximal INT, and good STR and DEX. Because, there are a lot of things in game that cuold be hacked: doors and safes to gain new equipment and passages, computers to gain information, cash mashines to gain $$$, police and security drones, police cyber-spiders to gain strong allies on battlefeild, etc. Each of those things have minimal INT requirements to be hacked. If you don't have enought INT, you'll never hack it. If you have, then game display your chances to successfull hack. So, the higher the INT, the better.
    Driver, should have maximum Mechanics, because every vehicle in game require certan level of Mechanics to drive it. If you don't have enough Mechanics, you'll never drive this car.
    Curently, my team have one hacker, two snipers, two "walking tanks" (a guys armed with heavy machine guns and missile launchers) and one driver.
    To improve your characters you have two ways:
    1) When you gain new level, you are awarded by imrovment points, you could spend to increase your stats.
    2) Each member of your team have 8 slots for implants. You may find or buy various implants and install it to increase your stats, make your characters more resistant to damage or give them regeneration ability. Once installed, implant can't be removed, so you must choose carefully.

    Gameplay:
    If you spend a lot of hours playing UFO or Jagged Alliance you know what to do in Paradise Cracked. I don't need to say something more. I just want to add that there is MUCH more weapons and MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more ammunition. Such amount of weapons and ammo you never saw before. Standard, improved, shok, fire, electrical, special, sniper, explosive, painfull, light, heavy, etc, etc, etc.

    Engine:
    Absolutely 3D. 1024x768, 32K with all visual effects turned on, on my Geforce3 it looks very nice. Camera is absolutely free. You can move it as you wish, you can rotate it as you wish, scroll the mouse wheel and you'll zoom in/out as you wish. Every object can can be destroyed, windows, doors, barrels, etc. After showdowns with use of automatic grenade launchers street reminds Stalingrad. Animation is great, last time I saw such "bloodbath in details" when I played Fallout 2.

    Music:
    Super. SUPER. SUPER!!!. I love music from this game. It's very futuristic. Always different (sometimes it reminds Fallout, sometimes Ramstain, sometimes Prodigy, sometimes sound track from Matrix), but always cool. And music is changing depend on game situation. If you don't see enemies it's slow and relaxing. When you see a couple of bad guys, the music is slowly mixed to more worry melody. When you find you ass in trouble and surounded by enemies, it turns to very fast and very worry.
    Sound:
    Again, last time I hear such abitient sounds when I was in New Reno in Fallout 2. Gun shots, explosions, street traders offering to buy their hot dogs, preist of New Church offering forgivness (for ten and more sins they offer forgivness with discount), advertesing anouncments in Giga-market, anounsments in spaceport, etc, etc, etc. Those sounds makes this universe alive. Also, each member of your team have it's own opinion about things he/she see. Your NPC have hundreds, yes, hundreds of comments, MUCH more then JA2 or BG2 for example. And those comments don't annoy you, they are different and very funny. After playing almost two weeks, I heard comments I never hear before. Those comments makes every one of your NPC an individual.

    Special note about journal:
    It's combination of Pip-boy, Ufopedia and your personal diary. You can find there info about every subject you found: info about organisations, their key figures, allies and enemies, Types of enemies, their stats, short info about them and their tactics. Data about weapons, ammo, armor, vehicles. etc. Complete data base. Also, your journal contains maps and info about your quests. All quests decribed as Hacker's notes in dairy, and contain Hacker's opinion about every quest. Also, it have few news chanels where you can read local news, often those news conected with your actions.

    Replay ability:
    I guess very high. Since the beggining you have to choose, who will be your freind and who will be your enemy. The world of Paradise Cracked have a lot of factions, most of them in confrantaition with each other. So, in one, single game it's imposible to complete all quests. Some quests depend on your previous actions, some depends on presence of certan NPC in your party. So, replay ability is high. Few hours ago (Damn it I slept only 3 hours because of it) I finished the game and now I'm gonna start it and took different NPC in my party and work for different people and factions.


    P.S. It's a Great game. Until I didn't saw MOO3, Paradise Craked is the game of the year in my list. If you spend a lot of hours playing UFO, JA or Fallout you must have this game. I can guaranty that you will suffer from "one more turn sindrome".

  • #2
    Sounds interesting, but a level instead of skill based game is a big turn off.
    (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
    (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
    (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

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    • #3
      In Jagged Alliance there were no skills too, but it's one of the greates games I ever played. The system of Paradise Cracked is very close to JA2 (almost the same 8 stats) and game play is very similar too.

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      • #4
        I don't really mind levelling, and i like the implant idea.
        So far everything i read here looks interesting, i always preffered turnbased combat over realtime, graphics weren't my priority, but i always wondered how JA or Fallout would look in 3d .

        This definitely sounds like a must have, thanks for the review serb.

        Btw, how buggy is it now?
        Last edited by Lemmy; October 14, 2002, 11:03.
        <Kassiopeia> you don't keep the virgins in your lair at a sodomising distance from your beasts or male prisoners. If you devirginised them yourself, though, that's another story. If they devirginised each other, then, I hope you had that webcam running.
        Play Bumps! No, wait, play Slings!

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        • #5
          Yep, I don't mind leveling too. Forget to mention. All exp. points are divide between party members. Exp. for quest divide between each party member equaly. For kills, 80% goes to person who made last shot and 20% divide between rest of the team. For hacking all exp. goes to person who hacked. So, the more people you have, the slower you grow.

          Btw, how buggy is it now?
          I played it about two weeks, 5-7 hours everyday. During all this time game crushed into Windows 4 times. I didn't noticed any other bugs. As for me, it's not bad (in compare with Morrowind for example).

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          • #6
            When playing JA2, how did you manage to improve your gameplay?

            I played it a bit, but got bored because I didn't understand what I could do to improve my results.
            "I'm so happy I could go and drive a car crash!"
            "What do you mean do I rape strippers too? Is that an insult?"
            - Pekka

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            • #7
              You just had to play further.
              The longer you fire, the more accurate you become. The longer you punch, the stronger you become. The longer you walk, the healthier you become, etc.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Serb
                For kills, 80% goes to person who made last shot and 20% divide between rest of the team. For hacking all exp. goes to person who hacked.
                That sounds like a throwback.
                (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
                (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
                (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

                Comment


                • #9
                  ...in compare with which game?
                  I do not agitate that it's a revolutionary game. It is classic turn based tactical game like games of JA or UFO series, but in cyberpunk universe and made with use of 3D technologies. And I like it more then "advanced", real-time "Fallout Tactics" crap.

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