Söldner : secret wars

[Leveler 0]

Quote[/b] ]The sound leaves a lot to be desired, all I can hear is me walking and breathing - no atmospheric rain (even when its tipping it down) or birds singing or trees rustling - nothing!

Oh come on now! You can't tell me you feel like a manly soldier of fortune when your player makes that pathetic grunting noise after he lands from a jump.

"Ennngh!"

Hahaha!

Anyway, a new patch is out for those who still cling to Soldner. For me it is over and the worst thing is I couldnt take it back to the store (their return policy had expired, something with CD keys). Total waste.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Where do you live, I returned my CD of New World Order 3 weeks after I bought it. I told the store "Media Markt" (Germany) that the promised Patch was not published and even I had the right Specifications the game was basically unplayable. They took it back and gave me the opportunity to get a different game instead. That CD-key problem is theirs not yours.

Söldner has had good scores in most pc magazines in the past cause the ideas looked promising... (crates, fully destroyable buildings, weapon variety). But because of the embarassing mistakes and bugs that are still to be found in the final version they have now lowered their score tremendously.

OFP was full of bugs too, I agree.. but in contrast to söldner it was a revolution in gameplay and graphics. Those bugs didnt stop me from saying WOW, WOW, WOW.. this is the way planet earth looks.

But in söldner I started thinking: okay the graphics are somewhat simillar to games you expect to find in a Kellogs-box but maybe the gameplay is great... I guess it isnt!

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

Oh the feeling of playing ofp for the first time. I doubt any other game will give that.

(I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Ofp2, Mafia2 and GTA though   )

[TheRedBaron 0]

I know soldner comes no where near close to being another ofp but it is fun online which is what I bought it for and what it really is designed for.

[Leveler 0]

Where do you live, I returned my CD of New World Order.....

I live in Greece but I bought the game in Edinburgh where I am studying two weeks before my vacations. The store had a 10 day return policy but it got cancelled, apparently people would buy a game, copy it and its cd key and then return it.

The only similarity between OFP and Soldner is that they both left me with my mouth open (not for the same reason though ) . Have no fear though ! the devellopers will release a patch every month where they will add new ''features'' (ie calibrations) in the game. So by the time OPF 2 arrives , it will already be obsolete from Soldner

[shadow 6]

So by the time OPF 2 arrives , it will already be obsolete from Soldner  

I don't get this.

Söldner is already absolete compared to OFP1. How can OFP2 be absolete compared to Söldner when OFP2 will build upon what OFP1 already has?

[Leveler 0]

I don't get this.

Söldner is already absolete compared to OFP1. How can OFP2 be absolete compared to Söldner when OFP2 will build upon what OFP1 already has?  

Notice the .

Like I said earlier, Soldner is a rushed up piece of trash, lazy and full of bugs. It could have been something a lot better though. It doesnt compare to OPF. (now I sound like an apologetic boyfriend )

[baff 0]

because ofp2 is likely to be dumbed down for xbox

[Billabong81 0]

I got this a while back for $40....I returned it later that day, no joke . The graphics on the boxart are nowhere close to the real game. The game lagged heavily even on the lowest settings. It was a terrible game from the begining! I highly do NOT reccomend this game !

[king homer 1]

yep i've selled the game just 1 week later..for same price lol

it was shit

[Billabong81 0]

Your lucky Homer....I only got $25 for it ! Complete waste of money unfortunately .

[Milkman 1]

Your lucky Homer....I only got $25 for it !  Complete waste of money unfortunately .

Did you install any patches?

[Billabong81 0]

As I said, I returned it the day I got it. They didn't have a patch out when I bought it (or at least it wasn't on the soldner site).

[Milkman 1]

Well, now they have three patches, and the gameplay has improved alot. But its your money, your decision.

[Billabong81 0]

Well, now they have three patches, and the gameplay has improved alot. But its your money, your decision.

Oh well, I still have OFP . As long as I have OFP, I'm happy

[MSpencer 0]

Soldner: An honest review by an honest military advisor

by MSpencer (mspencer@nova-studios.com)

Nova Studios (Powered by Echo Hosting) www.nova-studios.com

First featured on the Nova Studios forums (http://www.nova-studios.com/forums/showthread.php?t=554)

Soldner is absolutely awful. I read the reviews giving it a 4.9/10, I have to disagree and give it a personal 1.5/10. To be totally honest, it was a good idea taken way out of proportion as far as release dates go.

A good portion of the textures were horrible, with immense load times, constant lag, and unbelievably restricted size for a game of the genre. Weapons were in horrible detail, all having the same firing sound and physics. To tell the truth, when I shot a guy with a 7.62, it did just as much as a 9mm.

CQB is buggy at best, unplayable at worst. The camera angles are absolutely horrid, so bad that going down the stairs into a TOTALLY EMPTY 4 story building resembling an apartment complex, someone could have easily shot me from behind, through the stairs. The lack of true leaning or recoil also removed a dimension this would have added. The reason for the SMG is impressive rate of fire in a small package. I could carry an M82A3 in these vastly open expanses as easily as an MP5SD6, and it would do the same damage... nil. When I finally reached the bottom of the building, I was expecting guards around the objective to be extracted. Nope. Nobody. And then I just extracted.

Now how did I get to the building? Well, I strolled right past the 6 tanks outside the front door. That's right, six tanks. And my LAW80 was stunningly ineffective against an M2A2... or an UBERM2A2. Now I will not shroud the details of the ballistics here, but a LAW80 should absolutely devastate an M2A2. Designed to take hits from old, unreliable 40mm RPG7s, not big stuff like the LAW80 which can conquer tanks like the T72 for breakfast. Also, apparently I was carrying 4 LAW80s. Funny. I saw one on my back... oh wait, no I didn't even see one on my back. Odd.

Pistols are... ok let's just say a .50 is about as effective as a pistol... and in Soldner, that doesn't do much.

Tanks are a real piece of work. Armor values are off as noted above, and tanks are vastly underpowered in the hands of the AI. One mission I had an M4A1 and M9. I literally charged a 2S6 Tunguska, firing sporadically at it's turret and driver's compartment. I also would like to point out now that it is impossible to kill someone in a vehicle, even a jeep, with a shot to the head. Of course nobody felt like turning out, so I just kept moving. Funny, why didn't the gunner just tear me apart? Good question. Perfect time to examine Soldner's AI.

The AI is simply the worst I have ever seen developed. No, I don't think we can call this development, I think we can call it degeneration. Not only does the AI constantly miss (As opposed to Operation Flashpoint's 1 shot 1 kill at 400m with an AK47 by a Russian conscript AI), but it shows little to no intuition as far as switching weapons and general knowledge of doors go. Amazing. I simply stood outside a building and shot the guy through the window. Oh yeah, don't expect the AI to figure something out, no. Stick him in front of a window and look at him and he'll just look back.

Vehicle AI is just as bad... nope, worse. The 2S6 that wouldn't shoot at me (I know it's AA but what do you think those 20mm cannons do to infantry?), the many tanks I just breezed past to climb up a ladder with 7 soldiers scratching their heads below me, the many many many times where nobody really cared about killing anyone... how could it get worse, right? Well, it does. It gets very worse. I generate a vehicle for an AI player, specifically generated FOR the AI player. He gets in it, gets his orders and... sits there. With the engine on, sitting there. Absolutely awful.

It gets EVEN worse. Now we have the bugs. Unpatched, I decided after quitting about 8 times because I wanted to write a review much like this one, I decided I'd play till I couldn't anymore, I went braindead, Soldner killed me through it's boring missions by reducing my brainwaves to zero, or it crashed. Oh and it crashed... 6 times in an hour.

That's every 10 minutes. Talk about playability? People said it got playable after the patch... well I refuse to install a patch because Soldner was rushed out the door. It should have come prepackaged with this patch.

I haven't tried MP, and why would I? It's virtually the same as SP. Oh yeah, that's right. The SP missions are simply MP missions ported to single player, and not very well either.

Oh and all Soldner's new features, how could I forget? Customizing a uniform, that's a good joke... only it's not funny. From the choice of about 6 types of BDUs all coming up evenly assorted between the knees and groin (Believe me, you have to wear pantyhose with these), they're really bad. That and the 4 types of IDENTICAL BDU blouses, all seeming to look progressively more like farmer's shirts, I finally settled with a flight suit. Now the color choices... oy. You have your standards, US Woodland, and of course every type of Flecktarn ever made and more. It's made in Germany, just like if it was made in the US you'd see all the US camo's ever. Well needless to say I picked out a gray Nomex to go with my flight suit. Also, for the 4 year olds there are clown schemes and bunny schemes. Wow, so who forgot what CAMOFLAUGE was for? I didn't know camoflauge was supposed to be fluorescent orange with a big red nose and yellow poka dots.

Oh and the lack of selection of gear is horrendous. Yes, you can choose your cover, but you want to pick your pistol holster? No soup for you. You want to pick your Kevlar? Kevlar? KEVLAR? No soup for you. You want to pick out your boots? No soup for you... ok, you get the high gloss boots that remind me of the SS to go with your short short BDUs... IN NINETY THREE DIFFERENT FLECKTARN PATTERNS!

Obviously, my favorite part, the armory, isn't neglected... ok, it IS. Not only are your weapons horribly skinned, but they're vastly underpowered. CQB people! That's why we have SMGs! Sniping people! That's why we have sniper rifles! This is more backward than human charges on Attu with samurai swords! Awful, especially considering the M82 won't make a nice wall decoration out of someone... nope, it takes a whopping 3 shots to kill someone.

Oh and you think you can pierce the armor of a jeep with you're .50 caliber toy? Nope. Of course not. Mr. Invincible Jeep Driver there got blown up by his own jeep as it got constantly stuck in DRIVE into the tree in front of him. Reverse? No soup for you.

Oh and next part, vehicle physics, fun fun. You thought a helicopter would be easy to fly right? Ok, let's do a comparison to the game this released, $50 pre-alpha was supposed to replace, Bohemia Interactive's Operation Flashpoint.

Now in OFP, I can land an MH6 on a building the size of a postage stamp in about 15 seconds. In Soldner, I hit the building, skid off, flip over, and explode.

Now in OFP, I can drive a HMMWV up to a building, skid, come to a complete stop, get out, and kill people. In Soldner, I don't have to use it as cover, because everyone misses and the tanks sit there and look at me.

Needless to say, what it tried to replace didn't quite work. What it's trying to do is a novel idea, but it's been undertaken once before, and it was executed flawlessly then. Soldner in it's current state closely resembles a pre-Alpha to demonstrate the not so impressive engine with the overexaggerations of performance surpassing all those on the market. Please, spare us. Final tally:

Graphics: 3.0 Nothing new and shiny, horrible detail on weapons

Gameplay: 1.0 Unplayable, it seriously deserves a negative, but I can't do that.

Missions: 1.5 Good ideas, but suffer from poor placement of units and awful AI.

AI: 0 I debated giving the AI a zero, but in my opinion, the AI is nonexistant.

Concept: 7.0 Excellent ideas, horrible execution. This is where all the points in the final score come from.

Storyline: 0 I could write something comparable in about 30 seconds.

FINAL SCORE:

1.5 / 10

Horrible execution of a wonderful idea.

Also, I apologize in advance to anyone that had anything remotely to do with the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld. In my opinion, this doesn't deserve "No soup for you".

[Billabong81 0]

Oh and all Soldner's new features, how could I forget? Customizing a uniform, that's a good joke... only it's not funny. From the choice of about 6 types of BDUs all coming up evenly assorted between the knees and groin (Believe me, you have to wear pantyhose with these), they're really bad. That and the 4 types of IDENTICAL BDU blouses, all seeming to look progressively more like farmer's shirts, I finally settled with a flight suit. Now the color choices... oy. You have your standards, US Woodland, and of course every type of Flecktarn ever made and more. It's made in Germany, just like if it was made in the US you'd see all the US camo's ever. Well needless to say I picked out a gray Nomex to go with my flight suit. Also, for the 4 year olds there are clown schemes and bunny schemes. Wow, so who forgot what CAMOFLAUGE was for? I didn't know camoflauge was supposed to be fluorescent orange with a big red nose and yellow poka dots.

Oh and the lack of selection of gear is horrendous. Yes, you can choose your cover, but you want to pick your pistol holster? No soup for you. You want to pick your Kevlar? Kevlar? KEVLAR? No soup for you. You want to pick out your boots? No soup for you... ok, you get the high gloss boots that remind me of the SS to go with your short short BDUs... IN NINETY THREE DIFFERENT FLECKTARN PATTERNS!

Umm...Mspencer, you forgot one thing. You forgot to write about the Gestapo uniform. Yes I am serious, there is a uniform you can outfit yourself with which is unmistakingly similar to a Nazi Gestapo uniform. I was absolutely amazed when I saw the Gestapo outfit...I'm speechless again .

Thank you for the great review Mspencer. These were my thoughts exactly and is exactly why I returned this horrendous game !

[shadow 6]

I could have use for this review before I wasted my time buying and returning this game at its release day.