An obscure little game by the name of Hammer and Sickle.

[Cholo]

Terrific RPG, and in a few ways a superior tactics game to the two Silent Storms. It has a fun CYOA feeling and provides an interesting Russian perspective on the early Cold War. It's significantly ambitious in that it tries to tackle both a reactive / branching C&C heavy rpg story and a dense turn base tactical system. Sort of what Wasteland 2 should have been but evidently was not. More folks should try it out, it may scratch an itch you didn't know you had.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

H&S can be a bit of a shocker if you expected a straight follow up to the previous SS titles.

Yes, very much this. I played SS and Sentinels many times over and had a hard-on the size of the Eiffel tower when I got my hands on H&S, yet I didn't get far in it. It felt too scripted and story driven for my liking.

 

[Fenix]

Interesting, I have heard about that game but somehow missed it.
Took a note about it!

 

[laclongquan]

Hammer & Sickle is quite punishing if you compare it to S2 and S3. You can think of its core gameplay as optimization. You need to do the most within the timeframe you get given, and in actual combat you are going to do it very tight or bad thing happen unannounced.

The limited time window can be quite wide if you already have a checklist of shit you are going to do: train your shooting, hand2hand, 1st aid, throwing, etc... if you are creative you can even manipulate events to your liking.

To compare this with JA2: JA2 give you more option in combat, from sniper position to mortar. Some battlefield can be wide open. But Hammer Sickle, in a sense, is more action movie, hit straight to your gut. You can even watch your guys get into shooting stance.

 

[Xathrodox86]

From what I understand in H&S you should avoid open combat and do it full on stealthy? I've played S2 and S3 and really liked the multi-aproach to various combat scenarios.

 

[Goblino]

The thing about hammer and sickle that hooked me was that it's almost a realistic espionage simulator. You should definitely be as stealthy as possible, but that doesn't always work out. You should play by ear for the first couple playthroughs and do as much as you can not to look up a guide. Only savescum where you really need to or when you lose somebody you love.

 

[laclongquan]

It's a stealthy spy game, so it's rewarding and easier if you do that approach, plus you are not that strong to do frontal. On the other hand, you can do frontal assault in lots of battle without story consequence.

Example, the second to last battles, both open side and tunnel side, can do that way. You can stealthily sneak in, cut a few throats and get out, repeat ala assassin style. But you can open fire at extreme range just for shits and giggles.

The briefs should show you where stealth can help you, give you stuffs for storypoint. Otherwise you are free to choose your approach.