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It's great to use the crosshair. You might ask why use binoculars?
In fact, if you are in a sniper mood, binoculars are not necessary.
You can shoot cars! Classic ones, sure.
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HnD - Mission into the darkness
- Yugoslavia
I finally played the very much idolized "soldier simulator" Hidden
and Dangerous [H&D]. This is not the first time I write about
the game, as you can see, by visiting the slight reference to it, day 05
July 1999.
The H&D problems I did spot, while playing the demo, are not completely
resolved in the retail version. In fact, your first hours with the game
will be more of a nightmare, than anything else, as you will struggle
to understand the erratic 3rd person camera, and despair to control your
soldiers, in 1st person view.
The 3rd person view, like the one in Tomb Raider, is very unstable,
zooming in and out of your men, when least expected. It's also very easy
to lock the camera, if you corner your current soldier against some wall.
When that happens, your chance is to play in a Doom like perspective,
although your gun will cover too much of the view and make your life
even harder...
After nearly one hour of efforts, just when I was about to quit, I found
that I could turn off the gun's display and activate a crosshair... and
H&D suddenly become a much, much better game!
As I write, I completed the whole of mission #1: Italy. The Italy mission
consists on 4 episodes, that will grow from the very easy "just
cross the bridge" start sequence, to some defying moments. I am
now playing the Yugoslavia mission, and I got stuck on the episode _after_ the "Mission
into the darkness", not because of my lack of skill, but because
the game crashed... giving me a reason to stop playing it :)
H&D is a great game, in the sense that it is extremely enjoyable
and addictive, but it has many classical faults, the greater being many
bugs, that do affect your joy. The most irritating bug is the "sudden
death" thing, when your soldier just collapses, for no reason! Another
frequent game error is the floating soldier: after saving and reloading
your position, it is probable that some your fighters will show up levitating...
Finally, I didn't like the H&D reviews of some gaming magazines...
stating that "one of the more appraised aspects of the game is the
Artificial Intelligence of your rivals"... what a lie! I once watched
a nazi soldier following "Lord Mule" up to the top of some
oil tanks, then crashing to his own death, unable to use the stairs!!
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