Hidden and Dangerous 1/2 are available for purchase again!

[sic-disaster 311]

After SWAT 4, GOG now also has the Hidden and Dangerous games! 2017 is already so much better than 2016 ever was :)

 

 

 

https://www.gog.com/game/hidden_dangerous_action_pack

 

https://www.gog.com/game/hidden_dangerous_2_courage_under_fire

[jeza 5416]

Luckily have both still installed from disc, but this is great news. Swat 4 now this, hopefully rogue spear to follow :)

[jw custom 56]

Loved the first H&D game

[Tonci87 163]

So, what is so special about these games? I never played them....

[sic-disaster 311]

Well, Hidden and Dangerous came out around the same time as the original Rainbow Six and so is basically like a second mother to the tactical shooter genre as far as I'm concerned. Nowadays H&D1 feels old, but H&D2 took it's concept and expanded upon it greatly and really holds up well today.

 

Basically, you have a 4 man team, open maps, you can climb stuff, cut holes in fences to create your own entrances, there's even the ability to dive (though I think only 1 mission uses it, so they basically added a feature for just that mission), gear has weight and affects your stamina, there's 4 different movement speeds (sneak, walk, jog, sprint), there are a ton of maps with very varied objectives, and spread across the world: wintery Norway, France, Italy, Eastern Europe, North-Africa, and even Burma where you fight against the Japanese Imperial Army. Characters have various statistics, much like R6 and GR, but they will improve them over time as they use perform actions throughout a mission, but only very incrementally. For example, your medic can increase by like, 1% if he heals a lot during a mission. The campaign is seperated into mini-campaigns, for example the first mini-campaign is 4 maps in Norway that are all connected. Before you start a mini-campaign, you need to select the gear you want to bring along, and that is what you will have available to you for the remainder of that mini-campaign, unless you scavenge more from the Germans. Also, if characters die, they stay dead. If three guys get killed in the first three missions, you'll have to take the fourth mission on with just one character. But once you go to Africa, you can bring new guys along.

 

A while ago I made a let's play series for H&D 2, playing the first mini-campaign in Norway if you want a better impression. Here's the first one, though there are four video's in total and I definitely want to do more. Just the fact that they re-released H&D2 makes me want to get back into it again. Just so much love in my heart for that game:

 

 

[dmarkwick 261]

19 hours ago, Tonci87 said:

So, what is so special about these games? I never played them....

I won't double-up on the above description :) but another unique feature of H&D2 is the pseudo "multiplayer-with-a-single-player" gameplay. There are 4 units to your team, and you can switch between them. More than this though, you can set up instructions to all of them using a timeline, so one unit will go to position X and will cover in direction Y, another will set up a machinegun overwatch in position Z, another will throw a grenade to position XX to provide the distraction/bait etc. All of the actions can be slid along the timeline, and actions can be based on the completion of other actions, so soldier A won't move until soldier B has reached his position etc.

[Tonci87 163]

Thank you guys. I think I really should look into both games. Unfortunately at least the second one was released during a time when my PC was simply not good enough, that is why I have missed them so far. Got some catching up to do :)

[sic-disaster 311]

I decided to do a let's play series on the original Hidden and Dangerous as well :)
Interestingly enough it does support widescreen resolutions, and you can even play it in 4k... Unlike H&D2 :(

 

 

[bad benson 1733]

oh my god the flashbacks. can't remember which one came first. but H&D or rainbow six/rogue spear demos from magazines i bought when i was a kid was what got me into tactical shooters.

 

how was H&D 2? for some reason i never played it. jsut a demo maybe but i can't really remember playing it fully. probably caught the ofp bug by then already. not sure about release dates.

 

i was also randomly reminded of project IGI the other day. was thinking arma could be a great platform to bring tha back as a mission. much better and modernised of course.

[jeza 5416]

@sic-disaster managed to get H&D2 Widescreen by messing with the registries thingy from a tutorial I found. Works see below 1080
 

@bad benson One of the finest squad based tactical shooters of all time, right up there with rogue spear original ghost recon ect.
Great settings, harsh AI and a nice little story to go with it. Great selection of weapons also. The expansion pack also is huge and this is all before talking about online where be it TvT or Coop are great experiences. Also look out for plenty of mods if you want a change after a play-through, that said they really are not needed.

[bad benson 1733]

man it always blows my mind when old games like that create such an immersive environment just with good proportions, composition and textures. i mean look at it. there are no materials or shaders except basic lighting. and still that level in your video looks really convincing. i wish more games would get THAT right first before adding all the shiny technology.

 

so you are saying one could play PvP on that? interesting. probably no one doing it at this point though.

[jeza 5416]

Only Vietcong and R6 originals and we are about perfect. Bless the gog!

[dunedain 48]

For people who want to play H&D2 multiplayer on wide resolution without the HUD cropped follow these tutorials.

 

rprclan.com/index.php/news/10-hidden-and-dangerous-2/2-play-online

gog.com/forum/hidden_dangerous_series/widescreen_support_for_hd_2/post8

[jeza 5416]

On 3/4/2017 at 0:42 PM, dunedain said:

For people who want to play H&D2 multiplayer on wide resolution without the HUD cropped follow these tutorials.

 

rprclan.com/index.php/news/10-hidden-and-dangerous-2/2-play-online

gog.com/forum/hidden_dangerous_series/widescreen_support_for_hd_2/post8

Yup works just fine and up to 4k as well, thanks for the find.

[dmarkwick 261]

I had quite forgotten the joy of pinging some guy's helmet off :D

[Deathstruck 375]

YES!!!

 

I remember playing the Normandy demo over and over again, and then bought the retail as well. The final mission in Czechoslovakia where you have to fend off the Soviets was pretty suprising, but yet also my favourite. (And the manual had some nice WW2 SAS reenactment photos by the dev team.)

Unfortunately, I cannot play the retail anymore because it has the dreaded Starforce, which doesn't let me play in Windows 10 (nor is there any way of removing it without going into the.. ahem, ahem.. more illegal spheres). Therefore I am now more than happy to see this gem on GoG.

 

Now the only thing I need is Mafia 1, Chameleon and the Vietcong series making an appearance on Steam or GoG as well and my Illusion Softworks/Pterodon collection will be complete.

[_Hawkeye_ 43]

OMG I was litterally @ GOG like maybe 2 months ago looking for this and now here it is! Dunno if I was somewhere in the OFP, RB6 (Raven Shield) or yes BF 1942, MOHAA relm when this came but the atmoshere of this game is probably what played a huge part in me being where I'am today. Playing shooters lol. Man if they'd remake this with current tech or maybe someone(hint hint) would make a ArmA3 mod for it(kinda surprised nobody has yet). Very awsome find!!! I also got MOHAA on GOG(offtopic).If you love the ArmA/OFP squad play slowed down even slower than ArmA you should try this game!

 

[chrisb 196]

Memories, but its past now. Good at the time.

[jw custom 56]

1 hour ago, chrisb said:

Memories, but its past now. Good at the time.

 

True, and as with many many good games, they were awesome at the time but not so much anymore.... even the same concept doesn't seem to work anymore.

[sic-disaster 311]

Seriously? At the time? H&D2 has mechanics that you don't even see in most modern games, and seamlessly integrated too. The whole thing just works. Good fairly open maps that are welld designed and filled with detail, good objective variety, doesn't just focus on a single theatre of the war, decent AI (bastards can get very sneaky in CQB), atmospheric graphics that still hold up well (except for lack of better resolutions). Only thing I don't like is the MP, but SP is solid gold to this day. Many innovations too, like I think it was the first game to have variable speed with the mouse wheel, good vaulting mechanics and plenty of options to use it, a very rare opportunity to capture enemies and take over their shit...  How has any of that lost it's shine?

[chrisb 196]

4 hours ago, sic-disaster said:

Seriously? At the time?

Yes seriously.. Forget the graphics, they mean little to me, not sure about others, its the game play that matters. So yes, all these early graphics are great to me, I started playing SL/ASL, which is 'in your mind graphics'.. So anything visual, is great..

But these types of games (H&D etc) died, 'for me', when this series came along and I'd learnt to manage the editor. The editor with all its possibilities. When some really good ai mods came along soon after, it just cemented that feeling. Never looked back at any of these games after that.

 

So yes, for me, a good game for its time. Good memories, not many, but there were some.

 

 

 P.S. When I say early graphics, these are really late graphics (for me I suppose) and stand very well, but i'd play any really early game (lets go back decades), if the game play stands up..