I need competent and cogent opinions on this one

[Pisolo]

Is it worth it? How does it compare to Silent Storm? Anyhing good in it?
Is modding required? Is it bugged?

Thanks

[Arok Dragoon]

I can only Speak for the German retail version this on has many crash bugs and problems with the AI because of these problems I have not tried mods.
If I express it in film language Silent Storm is a AAA Movie and E5 / 7.62 are B movies with pretty good story and good ideas but bad technical implementation.
Only my personal opinions.

Sorry bad Englisch
Greatings from Germany

[Pisolo]

Originally posted by Arok Dragoon:

I can only Speak for the German retail version this on has many crash bugs and problems with the AI because of these problems I have not tried mods.
If I express it in film language Silent Storm is a AAA Movie and E5 / 7.62 are B movies with pretty good story and good ideas but bad technical implementation.
Only my personal opinions.

Sorry bad Englisch
Greatings from Germany

Thanks a lot. I appreciated your insight.

[Chad S. Chillington]

I got this game soon after first release. And yes, early version was pretty buggy, but all the major troubles where fixed in later patches. About Silent Storm comparsion - it's hard to call it better or worse, cause those games has a big differences in mechanic, plot etc. IMHO "Brigade E5" is the best successor of JA series.

[Pisolo]

Originally posted by Lexen:

I got this game soon after first release. And yes, early version was pretty buggy, but all the major troubles where fixed in later patches. About Silent Storm comparsion - it's hard to call it better or worse, cause those games has a big differences in mechanic, plot etc. IMHO "Brigade E5" is the best successor of JA series.

Do you know by any chance if the Steam version is a patched one?

[Chad S. Chillington]

Originally posted by Pisolo:

Originally posted by Lexen:

Do you know by any chance if the Steam version is a patched one?

Don't know for sure, but I think that international publishers should have a latest version.

[harmless]

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but for anyone wondering: the "Immortal Badass" mod (see http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=24941 for a download link) works with the Steam version of E5. This adds a ton of guns to the game, fixes most scripting bugs, and makes the game more challenging overall.

As to how good the game itself is - this is a very rough diamond of a game. The pathfinding in particular is attrocious. If you are looking for a deep RPG or a meaningful story, look elsewhere. On the plus side, the tactical gameplay is very good, and the inventory modelling / weapon customization is second to none except its sequel, 7.62.

[Pisolo]

Originally posted by harmless:

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but for anyone wondering: the "Immortal Badass" mod (see http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=24941 for a download link) works with the Steam version of E5. This adds a ton of guns to the game, fixes most scripting bugs, and makes the game more challenging overall.

As to how good the game itself is - this is a very rough diamond of a game. The pathfinding in particular is attrocious. If you are looking for a deep RPG or a meaningful story, look elsewhere. On the plus side, the tactical gameplay is very good, and the inventory modelling / weapon customization is second to none except its sequel, 7.62.

Thanks a lot!

[Battleseed]

Originally posted by harmless:

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but for anyone wondering: the "Immortal Badass" mod (see http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=24941 for a download link) works with the Steam version of E5. This adds a ton of guns to the game, fixes most scripting bugs, and makes the game more challenging overall.

As to how good the game itself is - this is a very rough diamond of a game. The pathfinding in particular is attrocious. If you are looking for a deep RPG or a meaningful story, look elsewhere. On the plus side, the tactical gameplay is very good, and the inventory modelling / weapon customization is second to none except its sequel, 7.62.

Have had this in disc form for many years and what he said is spot on. I advise you play on easy mode your first time and learn the mechanics. Just turning on adrenaline can be enough to pull your hair out if you do not know how to deal with it. GL

[DedZedNub]

It's very hard to recommend this in the same conversation as Silent Storm Gold Edition. Seriously, no.

It's not that Brigade E5 is bad even, it's just not quick enough paced. The camera and view isn't as good. Destruction of the terrain is not the same. Silent Storm has more rpg to it, clear character and class development, in my opinion. This game requires a lot of walking around just to get info in the towns. So finding a quest or information, it just eats up a lot of time. It can be enjoyable, and I didn't play it very far in. But the interface is radically different. The manuals and information outside the game are hard to find or inaccurate. It's just a chore to get into the game.

Now if Jagged Alliance Gold 1.13 didn't exist, if Silent Storm didn't exist, if a whole lot of other games didn't exist, it would be a whole different bag. There are very few experts on this game readily available to talk too. Look at the whole internet and it is hard to find much information on the game. It isn't impossible, but most pages are relative dead-ends.

So when you say does it compare to Silent Storm Gold. No way in heck. It might be able to in some way, but not out of the box.

Silent Storm has clear options, everything is readily accessible. The least clear moment is the beginning of the game, when you are lucky to have a club and a chance to kill a guard. That's the worst moment, although entertaining if you succeed. Silent Storm also has those crazy ubermachine suits or whatever they are called. Big whoop! You can either play with them or not, it's not a disaster. Your graphics are overall better, customization is better, gear is better because the stuff about the gear is clear, intuitive and works. Stealth is clear. Missions are clear, random missions exist, so experience is easy to acquire.

Funny enough at times, Brigade E5 comes across as more of a quest game. I mean if you are careful and playing like this is Jagged Alliance 2, you will be in a city for hours and find out that yep only that guy standing there and only that one door matters usually. Or that to find that one guy that matters will take hours, so you start sprinting around, in a potentially hostile town -- is that immersion? Come on.

Anyway, it can be fun otherwise, it just requires a whole ignorance of other options and the will to play it. It is, I suppose, closest to Hired Guns: Jagged Edge, which when patched was actually better graphics and like Jagged Alliance: Back in Action in look. But Hired Guns had a near impossible start mission to succeed and other weaknesses and oddities. It seemed to play like Brigade E5 in combat though.

All these games would be satisfactory overall if there were no other options. I'd like to try that mod for Brigade E5 at some point, but I do have a life. The problem is that unless you are very heavily into Brigade E5 how are you going to know the improvements etc. In Silent Storm not only do you not need to go search for mods, you know that any mod is just a choice or an option, it isn't a major improvement.

Anyway, some random thoughts. I have Brigade E5 from Gamersgate and 7.62 , but unless I really have months straight to put into it, I don't intend to revisit it soon. Silent Storm, when you get into it, you can play a bit each weekend, it's not that hard to get back into, because it works right. Brigade E5 is just a unique frankenstein. It takes effort to forget it should be human and is instead a flesh golem. I like some of its features, when I figure it out. But unless I write these down in a copybook somewhere, I'll never remember what to do when I come back a month later. Part of that is undocumented, unfinished puzzle of a game. Part of it is interface and bugs not allowing one way of doing it or making sense.

Does that help any?

[Pisolo]

Originally posted by DedZedNub:

It's very hard to recommend this in the same conversation as Silent Storm Gold Edition. Seriously, no.

It's not that Brigade E5 is bad even, it's just not quick enough paced. The camera and view isn't as good. Destruction of the terrain is not the same. Silent Storm has more rpg to it, clear character and class development, in my opinion. This game requires a lot of walking around just to get info in the towns. So finding a quest or information, it just eats up a lot of time. It can be enjoyable, and I didn't play it very far in. But the interface is radically different. The manuals and information outside the game are hard to find or inaccurate. It's just a chore to get into the game.

Now if Jagged Alliance Gold 1.13 didn't exist, if Silent Storm didn't exist, if a whole lot of other games didn't exist, it would be a whole different bag. There are very few experts on this game readily available to talk too. Look at the whole internet and it is hard to find much information on the game. It isn't impossible, but most pages are relative dead-ends.

So when you say does it compare to Silent Storm Gold. No way in heck. It might be able to in some way, but not out of the box.

Silent Storm has clear options, everything is readily accessible. The least clear moment is the beginning of the game, when you are lucky to have a club and a chance to kill a guard. That's the worst moment, although entertaining if you succeed. Silent Storm also has those crazy ubermachine suits or whatever they are called. Big whoop! You can either play with them or not, it's not a disaster. Your graphics are overall better, customization is better, gear is better because the stuff about the gear is clear, intuitive and works. Stealth is clear. Missions are clear, random missions exist, so experience is easy to acquire.

Funny enough at times, Brigade E5 comes across as more of a quest game. I mean if you are careful and playing like this is Jagged Alliance 2, you will be in a city for hours and find out that yep only that guy standing there and only that one door matters usually. Or that to find that one guy that matters will take hours, so you start sprinting around, in a potentially hostile town -- is that immersion? Come on.

Anyway, it can be fun otherwise, it just requires a whole ignorance of other options and the will to play it. It is, I suppose, closest to Hired Guns: Jagged Edge, which when patched was actually better graphics and like Jagged Alliance: Back in Action in look. But Hired Guns had a near impossible start mission to succeed and other weaknesses and oddities. It seemed to play like Brigade E5 in combat though.

All these games would be satisfactory overall if there were no other options. I'd like to try that mod for Brigade E5 at some point, but I do have a life. The problem is that unless you are very heavily into Brigade E5 how are you going to know the improvements etc. In Silent Storm not only do you not need to go search for mods, you know that any mod is just a choice or an option, it isn't a major improvement.

Anyway, some random thoughts. I have Brigade E5 from Gamersgate and 7.62 , but unless I really have months straight to put into it, I don't intend to revisit it soon. Silent Storm, when you get into it, you can play a bit each weekend, it's not that hard to get back into, because it works right. Brigade E5 is just a unique frankenstein. It takes effort to forget it should be human and is instead a flesh golem. I like some of its features, when I figure it out. But unless I write these down in a copybook somewhere, I'll never remember what to do when I come back a month later. Part of that is undocumented, unfinished puzzle of a game. Part of it is interface and bugs not allowing one way of doing it or making sense.

Does that help any?

Wow, wow, wow! Calling this exhaustive and informative would be an understatement. You couldn't have been more clear. As far as I'm concerned, you gave Steam's forum a whole new meaning. Consider me your brother from now on. Kudos and so many thanks.

[Petrothian]

get both. this feels more sandboxy than silent storm. but silent storm is more of awsome.

[baddoggs]

In a word no, In 2 words FU*K NO.