Does Silent Storm look like a good time to you? Then help out our channel by buying the Gold version of the game (which includes both Silent Storm and the Sentinels expansion) through our GOG Affiliate link: adtr.co/e7HbYe Welcome, new subscribers! Just in time for the end of Stratember, we've got a detailed look at these two hidden strategy classics! Got any good memories of Silent Storm or Sentinels? Drop us a comment!
When I played Silent Storm for the first time, there was this situation that really stuck in my mind - enemy machine gunner sent a burst toward my soldiers - one bullet hit previously opened door and fiercely slammed them shut :D You could feel the energy of that shot, no other game achieved that. Physics and destruction system of Silent Storm is on another level even today. And everything was so meticulously animated (and varied, like snipers unique aiming poses).
Oh man, I'm glad some still remember Silent Storm. Played and replayed it so many times back in the day. Hammer and Sickle is quite a bit different. It's a spy thriller with more emphasis on RPG part, your dialogue choices and disguises actually matter. Plot progression is also non-linear, even if you mess up a quest, or kill a person of interest, instead of it being game over, the game will shift you into a different questline. IIRC the bad end one features an entirely different set of maps. There are secret missable party members, and locations they can lead you to. The difficulty curve is way steeper, since you start alone and really have to scrounge for guns and ammo in the first half, while the game keeps throwing tons of enemies at you. You also have only a vague objective in the beginning and have to figure everything on your own. Tons of fun if you can deal with some jankiness here and there.
@@2HeadedHero The jankiness of Hammer and Sickle stems from the fact that it was, originally, a mod for sentinels which added day/light cycles (and time) and tried to make more sense from clothes mechanic. And the plot was also made by fans of the series/modders.
As a native german speaker, "Panzerkleines" doesn't literally translate to "walking tank", but rather "tank small", which is a bit weird given that "Panzer" in german is also the name for a turtle's shell, so if you want to garble an already garbled translation, you could call them "tiny turtleshells". Generally speaking a fitting german name would be sth. like "Panzerrüstung" (translates to "tank armor".)
Oh, Silent Storm. I remember i played it, and think "Wow, his is great! So many features. I wonder how cool new tactic games will be in the future." And now, in best case scenario, new tactical game is x-com clone. Even Jagged alliance. Oh well, at least there are new games. As far as i can tell, Hammer and sickle started out as mod for Sentinels. Later picked up by Nival. Also there is Night Watch / Day Watch, witch i hear is decent. As for obscure descendant, there is one game called Жесть (roughly translated: "Hardcore" a.k.a. ungoogluble in both language). Its basically video game based on film. A very strange film. No idea why is was created, but there is wiki page about game, thou it's in Russian.
Found some info on the Night Watch game while researching this one but it didn't look too compelling. But yeah - so strange that nothing like this or JA2 has been made in the last couple decades! The technology is here, we're long overdue for it. Phoenix Point and the new XCOM games are about as close as it gets now
@@2HeadedHero Of all games based on Silent Storm engine, both Silent Storms, Hammer&Sickle and both Watches were released in Poland, as video games magazines add-ons too. The latter are based on a series of books written by Vladimir Vasilyev and Sergei Lukyanenko (1. I heard comments from other eastern writers saying that the former was the originator of the series, but as the latter is the greatest of Putin's supporters among Eastern SF&F writers, he haven't got any problem in acquiring the rights; 2. Vasilyev wrote some really cool short stories about postapo Witcher also). The differences are magic and the second (spiritual) plane in which heroes can move and fight, and no possibility of destroying buildings. But these games are dedicated to book fans and may be less virulent to others, especially if they were hoping for another Silent Storm game. As to new games - new generations are dumber with every year and game producers see that. Also, it's a way easier and cheaper to make great graphics that great AI or complicated game engine. That's why we are flooded with XCOM clones. I don't even dream about it, that I will have the opportunity to play a new game as good as JA2 (as an exemplary of TB tactics game) or games made on the Brigade E5 engine (the best RealTime tactics games ever).
I remember buying Hammer & Sickle. I thought that it was a more story-based, smaller scale version of the game. You didn't get nearly as many clothing options, and you had to go undercover in several missions. I don't think I beat it though. I also remember playing Nightwatch (or was it Daywatch) briefly. It wasn't very good, and it was really buggy.
I own these boxes: Silent Storm (2003) Silent Storm: Sentinels (2004) Hammer & Sickle (2005) And i love em all :) Sadly overlooked games. Nice that you guys takes up these gems.
I have all three games on CD-ROM. Great stuff, Silent Storm and Sentinels are games that I still replay today every now and then. Hammer And Sickle had a much more RPG-like approach, and while the fights played much like S² and S³ it had much more realistic consequences - like police showing up when you start a firefight in a village, as the game is set during peacetime. Sadly, the game never _tells_ the player about these consequences, making it really hard to avoid dead ends in the branching story. I have played through the different story arcs, but was only able so by using a guide. If you follow the intended story path, it is actually a nice game with more serious character development, something the older games in the series did not really offer.
I think this may be the best strategy game with action points and action points. My only real complaint is how PKs have way too much health. (Such as shrugging off rockets sometimes.) There are a bunch of other games on this engine but sadly they have starforce DRM (which bricks Modern Systems) and one of them, Hammer and Sickle, was a more stealth focused game in the same universe as Silent Storm.
Star force was basically like installing malware onto your hard drive 🤣😂 This and Jagged Alliance 2 are probably the most fun strategy RPGs of the era!
Really wish this game got a Remaster, same with JA2. Just a pure and simple remaster. Graphical & quality of life upgrades, but no changes to the game mechanics.
I found yesterday the box with the game; great channel guys! BTW: I remember this was the first video game where you could use sten smg ammo in mp40 smg and other were realistic mechanics. Quite an achievement for the time rarely seen in any game.
S2 and S3 are great. *Great!* ... _Except forrr..._ 1) Short campaigns, especially S2, as pointed out elsewhere in the comments; 2) Some nasty bugs and minor glitches that should've been caught in playtesting; 3) Kinda dumb A.I., as seen during the demo-mode battles; 4) There's a Random Encounter in S2 that can be leveraged to make your whole team nearly unstoppable for the rest of the game (which can also be fun, but...). Still, great games, and great video. Cheers. :)
Most advanced and fun game. Genius aiming, destruction, skills, weapons, levels... Especially Silent Storm Sentinels - it tweaks some gameplay. Hammer and Sickle is fantastic but it is VERY difficult/buggy. My favored game series. I still play it :) but i have problem with corrupting save game. Disable AI for saving game is helping. Perhaps modern processor is problem...
This brings back memories! I finished S2 in various ways but dang! S2 Sentinels and Hammer&Sickle is a whole different level. They are so challenging and enganging in every aspect. Definitely my favorite TBS franchise next to the Heroes of Might and Magic series.
This is one of those games that randomly grabbed my attention when browsing through GOG a few years ago. I had never heard of it, but it looked cool, so I bought it. Now, I don't know how it's percieved by people that played it from childhood when it was new, but I absolutely loved it as a very late newcomer.
Hello! I am from Russia and have lived here all my life. Since childhood, I have adored the X-COM series; and one day I came across a description of this game in a Russian printed gaming magazine. On the same day, I ran to a local video game store to get this disc, and bought it - despite the seller's warnings that the game would most likely slow down on my old PC at that time. She was slowing down. But it worked! I have left impressions for the rest of my life, I still sometimes put it on my modern PC and replay it. What is my surprise now, when I find this video, that the game was not only released outside of Russia, but judging by the comments under the video, quite a lot of people from different countries played it. I have always believed that the games from this small Russian studio are unknown to anyone. By the way, "Night Watch" is also a great game, but it is shorter than S2 by about 2/3. And to understand "what's going on here at all", you need to know the plot of the trilogy of books :) Thanks for the video!
thank you guys so much for mentioning etherlords :D ive been looking for that game over a decade now because i wanted to play it again and ive had no luck because i could not remember its name T-T and it never turned up in my searches. so again THANK YOU!
i liked this game but when i played it, it had a nasty bug where recruitable characters were leveling up faster when they were sitting at hq rather then from action.
Every year, I search TH-cam hoping for a big youtuber to play this game so I can re-live the nostalgia of discovering this gem for the first time. And that's how I came across this video. I dare say Silent Storm is even better than the XCom series. That's how good it is. Unfortunately, it would take a miracle for any developer studio to remake or remaster this game.
anything is better than xcom series, nothing ever came close to ufo the first one is just a reskin of ufo, the second is real time trash, then third person action and spacesim, after which dogshit ios tablet games
Wonder why 3rd game (Red Storm / Hammer&Sickle) wasn't released in digital stores? It was same engine, but gameplay was different. Spy behind enemy lines, zero handholding and a lot of hidden options , also choices and consequences
I've wondered that as well. Maybe it got buried by the publisher or dev due to quality concerns? Or just felt like it wasn't profitable to release digitally? Or, most likely, it came down to a rights issue. Prey 2006 also remains hidden from storefronts to this day for rights reasons
Hammer and Sickle was a project that was started by the fans of the previous two games. Remember that at that time digital distribution was not a thing. If the games from that era are being sold digitally, it means that they were added in digital stores after the fact, usually by the rights-holder publisher and as a package ("Hey, there is this Steam thing raising its head. Let's make some extra money. So what titles rights/code/content do we have and can find easily enough that can be bundled and sent in the same Steam application process? Hey Boris, you handle it!". After which intern-Boris tries to handle the mess and attempts to get easy (low-effort) extra money for his company by organizing the mess of 10-15 years old games he never heard of before. I am sure that H&S wasn't released because of a trivial reason like "was forgotten", "not deemed popular enough to warrant minimal efforts researching who it belongs to", "couldn't find the code and assets, or had issues running the game on Boris's hardware".
@@2HeadedHero It was started as a hobby/fan project, but the development went so well, that Nival picked in for commercial distribution (the same thing happened to my RTS game Talvisota: Icy Hell, which was developed on Blitzkrieg engine). Remember, that Nival was not only a developer, but was also a publisher of many foreign games (localized) and did a lot of cooperation with other companies like Kranx. So Kranx was not Nival, but its own separate company from Kaliningrad area. Krank, the legendary guy behind Kranx, died very recently. :( I also worked in Nival and my name can be found in Silent Storm's credits. :)
@@MachoMaster that's really interesting! We plan to do a review of Hammer and Sickle since a fan sent us a copy of the game, would it be possible for you to reach out to our email in case we have some questions? 2headedhero(at)Gmail(dot)com
Looks like there was some press coverage on the games, but not all of it was good 😂 This was definitely one we found in the bargain bin, but what a great find!
My brother was remembring this game last week. Specially because of destroying the walls and making the building collapse on top the people that you were supposed to save 😂
Great and funny review! One of my favorites, and i thought Sentinels just made it even better. Another great retro game (that now sprungs to my mind) that warmed me nicely, was Disciples 2. Just lovely.
Hey thanks for watching! Never tried Disciples 2, but going to look into it. Sentinels was very fun despite the jank, and it definitely feels more feature complete in some ways while lacking in others. Good games for sure though!
@@2HeadedHero Yeah. "Disciples 2" is said to be similar to "Heroes of Might and Magic III". I haven't played any of the HoMM's, so there you go. But Disciples 2 is something special in my book. The art direction is really awesome, creative, powerful, dark... It adds a lot of the game and to the combat. The music is good, and the gameplay too. Disciples have smaller battles (in unit sizes), but i think they are rather strategic. There's a good chance Disciples 2 might leave you with a long good impression. But, there's only one way to find out...
you can't play any strategy rpg game because they do not exist, unless you count warcraft 3 because the heroes gain levels sometimes and wear loot. no dialogues no branching choices no nothing.
In my first few playthroughs I didn't appreciate grenadiers that much either. But the amount of carnage they can perpetrate is truly awe inspiring. I always load about 2/3rds of their inventory full of different types of grenades. The very light ones for long distance sniping. Regular frag ones for demolishing groups and about 4 really big ones, when you want the building to disappear. You can do 1 bazooka shot per round. You can throw 3-4 grenades. What really makes the lategame kind of meh, is the PK's. These days, if I play through this game. I don't bother using PK's, because I don't like them. I just get that xcom laser rifle and a couple of very high powered sniper rifles to take care of enemy ones.
Sure, but considering the rest of your guys can all carry and throw grenades I never ended up needing their specific skilltree - just seemed to be a bit underbaked as a class. All the classes are fun anyhow though!
@@2HeadedHero Sure they can, but their throwing range and accuracy are not nearly as good. Grenadier does throw much further just as a class feature. Without needing to use any skillpoints.
I do agree with a lot of the video. But the grenadier and medic having underpowered skills is simply incorrect. Grenades are a lot of the times better than rocket weapons. They can be thrown over obstacles and further away, you can throw multiple ones in a single turn (unlike the rocket weapons, which pretty much require the careful shot) and don't take a whole turn to reload. If you aren't save scumming a lot, medics are very strong. The 1 x 1 bandages don't really help if half your head is missing. They aren't just good against critical hits, they can also heal you to full health.
I recall getting Hammer & Sickle, but not installing it when I realized that it had DRM - Starforce, I think it was? Briefly checked my closet, seems like I tossed the game out. Anyhow, two bits of old gaming revived by fans as remasters: First off, King's Quest IV Retold has no graphical changes, but reworks the interface to no longer be parser-based. Instead, you use icon interaction. While this reduces the overall freedom a parser offers, it also makes the game much more approachable. Second item: Lemmings is a puzzle game that was made by Psygnosis/DMA games, also known as Rockstar. The green goofs follow the anti-social practices embraced by the GTA devs, in that they are utterly without survival instinct and apt to die terribly. Neolemmix remakes the game engine of the OG Lemmings, and is bundled with a huge level pack. Lemmings Redux is a campaign that combines the levels of Lemmings PC, Amiga, Genesis, Oh No, Holiday, and...(many names). Even better, there are no longer duplicate levels that just reduce the number of resources - every level in the pack is an unique incarnation. If you were into Lemmings as children, this is a rather lovely package.
Starforce DRM was pretty much the same as shooting viruses all over your system files, super problematic with the games that used it iirc 😆 Definitely more interested in the KQ IV mod since adventures are more our taste than puzzlers, but Lemmings was a pretty fun little timewaster - think it was included in some demo disc or other way back in the day!
@@2HeadedHero As a German speaker: While "Kleinpanzer" could be "small tank", "Panzerkleines", being in the wrong word order, might as well translate to sth like "Panzerly" or "Tankerly", as in, adding a suffix that makes the word "cuter".
the campaign of this game is so weird. you spend 90% on foot and when you think the game is really going to take off once you get the robot suits its over all of a sudden. you dont really get to use the robots which is a shame
Oh i used to love that game, but i totaly hated the those robot suits. So i remember strating new campaigns and enjoyed playing the same missions over and over again until those things started to show up.
it's not. it's extremely popular and got extremely high scores from the press and it's basically the best game in the genre it's THE PEAK of the genre itself, it's all downhill from here mobile xsom games for tablets, and before it are the nightmare gui ultrahardcore dos games
I really, REALLY wanted to like this series...but could not. It was too clunky, too buggy and had all of the other flaws of its contemporaries that were (just) better (ex. like Jagged Alliance 2).
This game obviously is a clone of the Jagged Alliance series.......and I love it!!........thou I preffer anytime a real time strategy rather than the original JA and JA2 with the turn based version......The grampa of all this game is of course the COMMANDO's series (which will get its 4th game very very soon by Kalypso Media).......I honestly think Jagged Alliance Back in Action and Crossfire are the next level of strategy games after Commandos.....and I also think JA Back in Action did not got praise by the fans because it changed from turn based to real time, and the original players found it confusing..........if you would change its title to "Commandos: Back in Action", that game would have been the best selling strategy game ever.
none of them are strategy commandos is a separate new subgenre, turn based tactics are ancient, like even pool of radiance has tbt combat. bia is not confusing it's just dog sith, one of the worst ungames ever made. and it literally is not like commandos at all. they are both real time but so is dota
@@2HeadedHero from the first doom, warhammer shadow of the horned rat, jagged alliance, fallouts to freelancer, games lost something without its talking heads
![PASULOL รามเกียรติ์ ตอนที่ 4 นนทกพบรัก [Ramakien Ep.4: Nonthok in love]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tMUQgmZzf_A/mqdefault.jpg)
Does Silent Storm look like a good time to you? Then help out our channel by buying the Gold version of the game (which includes both Silent Storm and the Sentinels expansion) through our GOG Affiliate link: adtr.co/e7HbYe
Welcome, new subscribers! Just in time for the end of Stratember, we've got a detailed look at these two hidden strategy classics! Got any good memories of Silent Storm or Sentinels? Drop us a comment!
When I played Silent Storm for the first time, there was this situation that really stuck in my mind - enemy machine gunner sent a burst toward my soldiers - one bullet hit previously opened door and fiercely slammed them shut :D You could feel the energy of that shot, no other game achieved that. Physics and destruction system of Silent Storm is on another level even today. And everything was so meticulously animated (and varied, like snipers unique aiming poses).
The physics really seemed impressive back then, and even now there's not many games that have this level of interaction!
Man I really hope this channel grows and gets more recognition. Absolutely top tier content from these 2 gentlemen.
Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the channel!
So glad you coveted this game. I remember loving the mechanics of spending more AP to get a better aim as sniper.
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it and welcome to the channel!
Oh man, I'm glad some still remember Silent Storm. Played and replayed it so many times back in the day.
Hammer and Sickle is quite a bit different. It's a spy thriller with more emphasis on RPG part, your dialogue choices and disguises actually matter. Plot progression is also non-linear, even if you mess up a quest, or kill a person of interest, instead of it being game over, the game will shift you into a different questline. IIRC the bad end one features an entirely different set of maps. There are secret missable party members, and locations they can lead you to.
The difficulty curve is way steeper, since you start alone and really have to scrounge for guns and ammo in the first half, while the game keeps throwing tons of enemies at you. You also have only a vague objective in the beginning and have to figure everything on your own.
Tons of fun if you can deal with some jankiness here and there.
Fortunately a fan sent us a copy of H and C so it'll be an episode in the future!
@@2HeadedHero hope you like the game. It's definitely acquired taste.
I wish my copy would run on modern machines.
@@2HeadedHero Wow, i just watched a vid. Looking forward for this!
@@meeoo7856 glad to hear it!
@@2HeadedHero The jankiness of Hammer and Sickle stems from the fact that it was, originally, a mod for sentinels which added day/light cycles (and time) and tried to make more sense from clothes mechanic.
And the plot was also made by fans of the series/modders.
As a native german speaker, "Panzerkleines" doesn't literally translate to "walking tank", but rather "tank small", which is a bit weird given that "Panzer" in german is also the name for a turtle's shell, so if you want to garble an already garbled translation, you could call them "tiny turtleshells". Generally speaking a fitting german name would be sth. like "Panzerrüstung" (translates to "tank armor".)
Just waiting on the mod where all the PKs are turned into turtles now😅😆
Oh, Silent Storm. I remember i played it, and think "Wow, his is great! So many features. I wonder how cool new tactic games will be in the future." And now, in best case scenario, new tactical game is x-com clone. Even Jagged alliance. Oh well, at least there are new games. As far as i can tell, Hammer and sickle started out as mod for Sentinels. Later picked up by Nival. Also there is Night Watch / Day Watch, witch i hear is decent. As for obscure descendant, there is one game called Жесть (roughly translated: "Hardcore" a.k.a. ungoogluble in both language). Its basically video game based on film. A very strange film. No idea why is was created, but there is wiki page about game, thou it's in Russian.
Found some info on the Night Watch game while researching this one but it didn't look too compelling. But yeah - so strange that nothing like this or JA2 has been made in the last couple decades! The technology is here, we're long overdue for it. Phoenix Point and the new XCOM games are about as close as it gets now
@@2HeadedHero Of all games based on Silent Storm engine, both Silent Storms, Hammer&Sickle and both Watches were released in Poland, as video games magazines add-ons too. The latter are based on a series of books written by Vladimir Vasilyev and Sergei Lukyanenko (1. I heard comments from other eastern writers saying that the former was the originator of the series, but as the latter is the greatest of Putin's supporters among Eastern SF&F writers, he haven't got any problem in acquiring the rights; 2. Vasilyev wrote some really cool short stories about postapo Witcher also). The differences are magic and the second (spiritual) plane in which heroes can move and fight, and no possibility of destroying buildings. But these games are dedicated to book fans and may be less virulent to others, especially if they were hoping for another Silent Storm game.
As to new games - new generations are dumber with every year and game producers see that. Also, it's a way easier and cheaper to make great graphics that great AI or complicated game engine. That's why we are flooded with XCOM clones. I don't even dream about it, that I will have the opportunity to play a new game as good as JA2 (as an exemplary of TB tactics game) or games made on the Brigade E5 engine (the best RealTime tactics games ever).
I remember buying Hammer & Sickle. I thought that it was a more story-based, smaller scale version of the game. You didn't get nearly as many clothing options, and you had to go undercover in several missions. I don't think I beat it though.
I also remember playing Nightwatch (or was it Daywatch) briefly. It wasn't very good, and it was really buggy.
I own these boxes:
Silent Storm (2003)
Silent Storm: Sentinels (2004)
Hammer & Sickle (2005)
And i love em all :)
Sadly overlooked games.
Nice that you guys takes up these gems.
Hammer & Sickle is something else man. That game is ridiculously tough.
I didn't manage to complete that one yet 🤕@@robinmattheussen2395
One of my favourite games. It had the best features of JA2 plus a fully voiced main character and a funky story.
Plus big stompy robots!
I have all three games on CD-ROM. Great stuff, Silent Storm and Sentinels are games that I still replay today every now and then.
Hammer And Sickle had a much more RPG-like approach, and while the fights played much like S² and S³ it had much more realistic consequences - like police showing up when you start a firefight in a village, as the game is set during peacetime. Sadly, the game never _tells_ the player about these consequences, making it really hard to avoid dead ends in the branching story. I have played through the different story arcs, but was only able so by using a guide.
If you follow the intended story path, it is actually a nice game with more serious character development, something the older games in the series did not really offer.
I think this may be the best strategy game with action points and action points.
My only real complaint is how PKs have way too much health. (Such as shrugging off rockets sometimes.)
There are a bunch of other games on this engine but sadly they have starforce DRM (which bricks Modern Systems) and one of them, Hammer and Sickle, was a more stealth focused game in the same universe as Silent Storm.
Star force was basically like installing malware onto your hard drive 🤣😂
This and Jagged Alliance 2 are probably the most fun strategy RPGs of the era!
Is Hammer and Sickle for sale anywhere? I've never seen it on any digital platform.
@@AchOwedSadly not and physical copies have starforce drm.
Really wish this game got a Remaster, same with JA2. Just a pure and simple remaster. Graphical & quality of life upgrades, but no changes to the game mechanics.
I found yesterday the box with the game; great channel guys!
BTW: I remember this was the first video game where you could use sten smg ammo in mp40 smg and other were realistic mechanics. Quite an achievement for the time rarely seen in any game.
Thanks for watching and welcome to the channel!
S2 and S3 are great. *Great!* ... _Except forrr..._ 1) Short campaigns, especially S2, as pointed out elsewhere in the comments; 2) Some nasty bugs and minor glitches that should've been caught in playtesting; 3) Kinda dumb A.I., as seen during the demo-mode battles; 4) There's a Random Encounter in S2 that can be leveraged to make your whole team nearly unstoppable for the rest of the game (which can also be fun, but...). Still, great games, and great video. Cheers. :)
The line "Our goose is cooked!" is practically tattooed on my brain from all the time I spent playing this game.
Lmao totally agree 😂😄
Just trying my best every day to punch as weirdly above my weight class as possible
Big mood
I think that some of the mercenary lines were written by Jagged Alliance 2 writer Shaun Lyng.
Most advanced and fun game. Genius aiming, destruction, skills, weapons, levels... Especially Silent Storm Sentinels - it tweaks some gameplay. Hammer and Sickle is fantastic but it is VERY difficult/buggy. My favored game series. I still play it :) but i have problem with corrupting save game. Disable AI for saving game is helping. Perhaps modern processor is problem...
This brings back memories! I finished S2 in various ways but dang! S2 Sentinels and Hammer&Sickle is a whole different level. They are so challenging and enganging in every aspect. Definitely my favorite TBS franchise next to the Heroes of Might and Magic series.
HoMM is another amazing series for sure!
they are TBT not TBS at all
This is one of those games that randomly grabbed my attention when browsing through GOG a few years ago. I had never heard of it, but it looked cool, so I bought it. Now, I don't know how it's percieved by people that played it from childhood when it was new, but I absolutely loved it as a very late newcomer.
I loved it when it came out, fantastic game.
Hello! I am from Russia and have lived here all my life. Since childhood, I have adored the X-COM series; and one day I came across a description of this game in a Russian printed gaming magazine. On the same day, I ran to a local video game store to get this disc, and bought it - despite the seller's warnings that the game would most likely slow down on my old PC at that time. She was slowing down. But it worked! I have left impressions for the rest of my life, I still sometimes put it on my modern PC and replay it. What is my surprise now, when I find this video, that the game was not only released outside of Russia, but judging by the comments under the video, quite a lot of people from different countries played it. I have always believed that the games from this small Russian studio are unknown to anyone. By the way, "Night Watch" is also a great game, but it is shorter than S2 by about 2/3. And to understand "what's going on here at all", you need to know the plot of the trilogy of books :) Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the kind words and the interesting perspective! Welcome to 2hh!
nival was a giant studio one of the most successful businesses. they were buying up smaller developers
thank you guys so much for mentioning etherlords :D ive been looking for that game over a decade now because i wanted to play it again and ive had no luck because i could not remember its name T-T and it never turned up in my searches. so again THANK YOU!
Maybe that's one for a future episode 😁😄 Glad to help!
i liked this game but when i played it, it had a nasty bug where recruitable characters were leveling up faster when they were sitting at hq rather then from action.
That's incredibly weird! Haven't run into that particular bug but definitely believe that it exists!
I played russian version) those cd disks are laying around somewhere.
Just looked up silent storm and it brought me straight here, keep up the niche and the growth will come
You might also want to check out Jagged Alliance 3 if you enjoyed Silent Storm. Thanks for the kind words! Welcome to 2HH😀
I remember killing a robot pilot with my katana wielding scout... I think I got lucky with that.
That's amazing, not even sure how!
Every year, I search TH-cam hoping for a big youtuber to play this game so I can re-live the nostalgia of discovering this gem for the first time. And that's how I came across this video.
I dare say Silent Storm is even better than the XCom series. That's how good it is.
Unfortunately, it would take a miracle for any developer studio to remake or remaster this game.
anything is better than xcom series, nothing ever came close to ufo
the first one is just a reskin of ufo, the second is real time trash, then third person action and spacesim, after which dogshit ios tablet games
30 seconds in and I know this channel is quality. Subbed and wishing the best
Thanks! Welcome to 2HH!
Wonder why 3rd game (Red Storm / Hammer&Sickle) wasn't released in digital stores? It was same engine, but gameplay was different. Spy behind enemy lines, zero handholding and a lot of hidden options , also choices and consequences
I've wondered that as well. Maybe it got buried by the publisher or dev due to quality concerns? Or just felt like it wasn't profitable to release digitally? Or, most likely, it came down to a rights issue. Prey 2006 also remains hidden from storefronts to this day for rights reasons
Hammer and Sickle was a project that was started by the fans of the previous two games.
Remember that at that time digital distribution was not a thing. If the games from that era are being sold digitally, it means that they were added in digital stores after the fact, usually by the rights-holder publisher and as a package ("Hey, there is this Steam thing raising its head. Let's make some extra money. So what titles rights/code/content do we have and can find easily enough that can be bundled and sent in the same Steam application process? Hey Boris, you handle it!". After which intern-Boris tries to handle the mess and attempts to get easy (low-effort) extra money for his company by organizing the mess of 10-15 years old games he never heard of before.
I am sure that H&S wasn't released because of a trivial reason like "was forgotten", "not deemed popular enough to warrant minimal efforts researching who it belongs to", "couldn't find the code and assets, or had issues running the game on Boris's hardware".
@@MachoMaster didn't know it was a fan game! Interesting
@@2HeadedHero
It was started as a hobby/fan project, but the development went so well, that Nival picked in for commercial distribution (the same thing happened to my RTS game Talvisota: Icy Hell, which was developed on Blitzkrieg engine). Remember, that Nival was not only a developer, but was also a publisher of many foreign games (localized) and did a lot of cooperation with other companies like Kranx. So Kranx was not Nival, but its own separate company from Kaliningrad area. Krank, the legendary guy behind Kranx, died very recently. :(
I also worked in Nival and my name can be found in Silent Storm's credits. :)
@@MachoMaster that's really interesting! We plan to do a review of Hammer and Sickle since a fan sent us a copy of the game, would it be possible for you to reach out to our email in case we have some questions? 2headedhero(at)Gmail(dot)com
I acctually had found both silent storms and hammer and sickle on a magazine (not at the same time)
Looks like there was some press coverage on the games, but not all of it was good 😂
This was definitely one we found in the bargain bin, but what a great find!
@@2HeadedHero Its a 2003 game and would crush CPUs of the time. It took me 5 years to play the game I bought
My brother was remembring this game last week. Specially because of destroying the walls and making the building collapse on top the people that you were supposed to save 😂
Game is so awesome, glad to see more people are picking it up! The destruction was so revolutionary for its time too
Great and funny review! One of my favorites, and i thought Sentinels just made it even better. Another great retro game (that now sprungs to my mind) that warmed me nicely, was Disciples 2. Just lovely.
Hey thanks for watching! Never tried Disciples 2, but going to look into it. Sentinels was very fun despite the jank, and it definitely feels more feature complete in some ways while lacking in others. Good games for sure though!
@@2HeadedHero Yeah. "Disciples 2" is said to be similar to "Heroes of Might and Magic III". I haven't played any of the HoMM's, so there you go. But Disciples 2 is something special in my book. The art direction is really awesome, creative, powerful, dark... It adds a lot of the game and to the combat. The music is good, and the gameplay too. Disciples have smaller battles (in unit sizes), but i think they are rather strategic. There's a good chance Disciples 2 might leave you with a long good impression. But, there's only one way to find out...
After Silent Storm i cant play any straregy rpg game. It was so good with level destraction, setting and team comments...
you can't play any strategy rpg game because they do not exist, unless you count warcraft 3 because the heroes gain levels sometimes and wear loot. no dialogues no branching choices no nothing.
That`s a great game,i still have both CD`s(with Sentinels too).Even modern games can`t repeat vibe of this series.
Some have tried and many have come close, but even on environment destruction alone it's hard to top Silent Storm!
@@2HeadedHero Nice to see it!
Great game, with brilliant physics engine.
Definitely ahead of its time!
In my first few playthroughs I didn't appreciate grenadiers that much either. But the amount of carnage they can perpetrate is truly awe inspiring. I always load about 2/3rds of their inventory full of different types of grenades. The very light ones for long distance sniping. Regular frag ones for demolishing groups and about 4 really big ones, when you want the building to disappear. You can do 1 bazooka shot per round. You can throw 3-4 grenades.
What really makes the lategame kind of meh, is the PK's. These days, if I play through this game. I don't bother using PK's, because I don't like them. I just get that xcom laser rifle and a couple of very high powered sniper rifles to take care of enemy ones.
Sure, but considering the rest of your guys can all carry and throw grenades I never ended up needing their specific skilltree - just seemed to be a bit underbaked as a class. All the classes are fun anyhow though!
@@2HeadedHero Sure they can, but their throwing range and accuracy are not nearly as good. Grenadier does throw much further just as a class feature. Without needing to use any skillpoints.
Very interested gameplay!
I always thought that the "gore" in Sentinels was hilarious. It basically looked like you popped off the head of a barbie doll.
It was the early 00s! And still we looked at it and went "ooooo, so immersive" at the time!
By the way Silent Storm had hidden hot-seat mode
Oh did it??? How?
@@2HeadedHero its written in Steam Silent Storm guide secttion
Does anyone else remember Soldiers at War?
No! Is it cool?!
@@2HeadedHero if u can still find it! It was awesome. Realistic Jagged Alliance!!!
@@generalyoutubewatching5286 well that's fascinating even though that title is hard to Google! I'd love to see it
I do agree with a lot of the video. But the grenadier and medic having underpowered skills is simply incorrect.
Grenades are a lot of the times better than rocket weapons. They can be thrown over obstacles and further away, you can throw multiple ones in a single turn (unlike the rocket weapons, which pretty much require the careful shot) and don't take a whole turn to reload.
If you aren't save scumming a lot, medics are very strong. The 1 x 1 bandages don't really help if half your head is missing. They aren't just good against critical hits, they can also heal you to full health.
I recall getting Hammer & Sickle, but not installing it when I realized that it had DRM - Starforce, I think it was? Briefly checked my closet, seems like I tossed the game out.
Anyhow, two bits of old gaming revived by fans as remasters: First off, King's Quest IV Retold has no graphical changes, but reworks the interface to no longer be parser-based. Instead, you use icon interaction. While this reduces the overall freedom a parser offers, it also makes the game much more approachable.
Second item: Lemmings is a puzzle game that was made by Psygnosis/DMA games, also known as Rockstar. The green goofs follow the anti-social practices embraced by the GTA devs, in that they are utterly without survival instinct and apt to die terribly. Neolemmix remakes the game engine of the OG Lemmings, and is bundled with a huge level pack. Lemmings Redux is a campaign that combines the levels of Lemmings PC, Amiga, Genesis, Oh No, Holiday, and...(many names). Even better, there are no longer duplicate levels that just reduce the number of resources - every level in the pack is an unique incarnation. If you were into Lemmings as children, this is a rather lovely package.
Starforce DRM was pretty much the same as shooting viruses all over your system files, super problematic with the games that used it iirc 😆
Definitely more interested in the KQ IV mod since adventures are more our taste than puzzlers, but Lemmings was a pretty fun little timewaster - think it was included in some demo disc or other way back in the day!
I think panzer klein is something like small tank
Don't quote me on it, not a native German speaker! Just going off of what we found thru research 😃
@@2HeadedHero I'm a native Afrikaans speaker and "klien" in both Afrikaans and German means small
Good to know! Thanks!
@@2HeadedHero As a German speaker: While "Kleinpanzer" could be "small tank", "Panzerkleines", being in the wrong word order, might as well translate to sth like "Panzerly" or "Tankerly", as in, adding a suffix that makes the word "cuter".
@@gabriel.knight this is even better, "cute little tank"? 🤣😂
This has been so informative y'all, we love it!
i have a box copy of hammer and sickle
Interesting - does it work on Win10?
@@2HeadedHero yes it works
@@juzzbuzz1 😮 rip the disc!
@@2HeadedHero yeah i will sometime this week
@@juzzbuzz1 Did you?!
I loved these eurojank games (silent storm was barely janky)
Any reviews / thoughts on Hammer and sickle (spin off/ sequal) ?
Got a copy of Hammer and Sickle, so just a matter of getting it to play nice long enough to capture footage of it 😄😁
you didn't brick your computer from the drm ?@@2HeadedHero
nothing is janky
Oh god... So many hours spend playing this game!
So many more were needed to make this video! 😂🤣
Joking aside, it was really fun to revisit these!
Loved this game
Yessss!
great videos
Thanks!
the campaign of this game is so weird.
you spend 90% on foot and when you think the game is really going to take off once you get the robot suits its over all of a sudden.
you dont really get to use the robots which is a shame
You can run em around and just do random fights, but yes- point taken
Oh i used to love that game, but i totaly hated the those robot suits. So i remember strating new campaigns and enjoyed playing the same missions over and over again until those things started to show up.
Aww the big stompy robots are so fun though! There's a mod that removes them completely.
it's not. it's extremely popular and got extremely high scores from the press
and it's basically the best game in the genre
it's THE PEAK of the genre itself, it's all downhill from here mobile xsom games for tablets, and before it are the nightmare gui ultrahardcore dos games
I really, REALLY wanted to like this series...but could not. It was too clunky, too buggy and had all of the other flaws of its contemporaries that were (just) better (ex. like Jagged Alliance 2).
Jagged Alliance 2 came out several years earlier and was filled with bugs too 😂😄
But point taken, JA2 is the superior game overall !
This game obviously is a clone of the Jagged Alliance series.......and I love it!!........thou I preffer anytime a real time strategy rather than the original JA and JA2 with the turn based version......The grampa of all this game is of course the COMMANDO's series (which will get its 4th game very very soon by Kalypso Media).......I honestly think Jagged Alliance Back in Action and Crossfire are the next level of strategy games after Commandos.....and I also think JA Back in Action did not got praise by the fans because it changed from turn based to real time, and the original players found it confusing..........if you would change its title to "Commandos: Back in Action", that game would have been the best selling strategy game ever.
none of them are strategy
commandos is a separate new subgenre, turn based tactics are ancient, like even pool of radiance has tbt combat. bia is not confusing it's just dog sith, one of the worst ungames ever made. and it literally is not like commandos at all. they are both real time but so is dota
The axis in this game are not nazis.
talking heads, todays games need to bring back talking heads, because its charming, motionless character portrait aint charming
Definitely enjoyed the floppy puppet heads, even if they were really cheesy! 🤣
@@2HeadedHero from the first doom, warhammer shadow of the horned rat, jagged alliance, fallouts to freelancer, games lost something without its talking heads
Great vid as I want to play these now but a suggestion, get rid of the stupid voices as it's not funny, just cringey