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Ixamyakxim: Oh and HBS - MAKE ANOTHER MECHWARRIOR!!! Holy crap did I love that game. Seriously, even if it's just a reskin of the first game with a new campaign I'd be so in! Everything about it was bliss for me, from upgrading pilots to finding scraps of my next mech on the field and jumping around the galaxy while tricking out my dropship. More of the same is a win here! ;)
They can't, Mechwarrior is currently in use by Piranha. Now, Battletech, MechTek or Comstar's Breakfast Club, maybe they could convince [checks notes] Topps or Microsoft to licence one of those out.
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tremere110: Lamplighter's League had plenty of issues but being in the same genre as XCOM wasn't really a major one. Going for a cartoon art style for 1930's pulp adventure wasn't really doing them any favors - the entire pulp theme itself doesn't seem very popular nowadays. The entire melding of real-time stealth and turn-based combat isn't a draw at all - people usually lean in one direction or the other.

Programming was lazy too - the monstrous enemies in the game used the standard grunt voices (the zombies will scream "Help! We're under attack!" instead of the expected gutteral groan). You have a little waif of a girl who is a bruiser that tackles up to three enemies twice as large as her to kill them - everyone else who can do that is large and muscular. Could've had an animation where she snaps their necks with kicks like her Onslaught ability but nope!

The Alexandrite. Non-gendered, which is fine since pulp *occ-ultists are eccentric. However, the use of pronouns in that way was definitely not a thing in the 1930s. It's rather jarring immersion-wise.

For the record I enjoy the game. The mashups are something I find fun but it's really niche. There was never going to be a big audience for this game even if was released in a perfect state. If you don't enjoy all of the presented themes then the entire game falls apart.

*occ-ultists spelled correctly is a banned word ::sigh::
I've seen various comments on reviews with opinions that in effect relay that the game is a "hidden gem" and didn't deserve its poor sales. But I'm not certain that I believe these individuals. The in game screenshots look pleasant enough, but taking one look at the UI; that client seen in the link above; the graphical style; etc, it all looks very insipid, banal, and uninspired. Almost as if an attempt at poor imitation was made five years ago that that failed to capitalise on the success of others without adding anything new. Then the years passed but the duplication remained, making it look oddly outdated and flat. But how accurate are these accusations? You say you enjoy the game, but what's the game play like?

The world of the Shadowrun games made sense to break biological gender norms and have any pronouns for anyone, given how one's body could be augmented and altered, the variety of races, the implications of adopting a digital persona if your character entered their digital world, the magical abilities, and so on. It is a shame to see that the developlers here didn't stay more true to the setting of Lamplighters, where having this makes little sense. I find it difficult to ignore such flagrant immersion breaking as that.
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SultanOfSuave: I've seen various comments on reviews with opinions that in effect relay that the game is a "hidden gem" and didn't deserve its poor sales. But I'm not certain that I believe these individuals. The in game screenshots look pleasant enough, but taking one look at the UI; that client seen in the link above; the graphical style; etc, it all looks very insipid, banal, and uninspired. Almost as if an attempt at poor imitation was made five years ago that that failed to capitalise on the success of others without adding anything new. Then the years passed but the duplication remained, making it look oddly outdated and flat. But how accurate are these accusations? You say you enjoy the game, but what's the game play like?
The game absolutely deserved poor sales. It's far too expensive at its base price. I'd say the current sale price of 50% off is still probably still too expensive unless this is exactly what you want. It still has issues that will never be fixed - Paradox at fault for gutting HBS.

The game is essentially a cover-based tactical game much like Shadowrun Returns or XCOM. Each agents you can have on your team is unique in terms of character and ability. They all seem viable too although some are clearly better than others. It's extremely important to have a team that synergizes well together as not all combinations play well together. I did leave a review on the game page that I'll repost here:

This game is for those who enjoy both tactical combat and stealth elements. It's not like Xcom2 where the stealth is there to set up positions before going loud, you want to sneak by most encounters in this game. You are often heavily outnumbered and limited uses on takedown abilities mean you'll have a hard time thinning out enemy numbers by the time you go loud. So you need to sneak around, maybe take out some critical guards with some takedowns, grab your target and get out. Run for the exit instead of fighting as defeating enemies in this game is rarely worth the benefit with the exception of a house scion, maybe.

There's no base building in the strategic layer, but you have to pick missions against one of three houses and send single agents to gather resources/intelligence/allies. Doing a mission reduces a threat for a particular house but the other houses complete their tasks and increase their threat becoming more powerful at certain thresholds. Doing a mission with a scion present puts a powerful boss enemy in the mission. Fortunately the scion patrols in a way that often leaves them isolated where you can draw them away and/or ambush them alone. Defeating a scion reduces threat heavily.

There are bugs and issues that will likely never be fixed. Sometimes when you try to draw a single enemy away they seem to get confused and run to the other side of the map. Drawing enemies away and engaging in combat sometimes draws other enemies in the map into battle despite not being nearby. Savescumming is a necessity for the stealth portions because of how wonky it can be. Stealth is such a heavy focus in this game yet your agents don't have any real way to improve their stealth abilities - no increased takedown uses or more effective stealth.

So if you enjoy stealth, tactical combat and relatively long missions because of sneaking around - this might be a good game for you. If you don't then avoid it, it will frustrate you.
I'll add that the strategic layer is a mess because the doomsday clock for each house is explained poorly. Nowhere is it stated that if a house threat fills up that there is a latch ditch mission to reduce a clock. It strongly implies gameover in the UI if it fills up. As each clock fills up the relevant house takes countries but it is not explained anywhere what effect that has. It seems to do nothing - but elsewhere I've seen online says letting one house take every region on the map prevents the other house from gaining threat. That should tell you how poorly explained it is.

And the UI can be the enemy. Sometimes a camera angle will have objects in the foreground completely block the ideal view which is annoying.

It's also very important to go into recon mode which allows you to read what abilities an enemy has. Enemy variety is pretty good and most of the non-human creatures are immune to takedowns - so you gotta plan around that. Some have abilities that will absolutely take you by surprise if you start shooting without reading them.

It's very important to conserve resources on major missions because the game will throw unavoidable ambushes on you where you need everything you can get to survive.
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tremere110: I did leave a review on the game page that I'll repost here:
Ah. So you did, excuse me.

What a pity. Considering the news featured in this post that the publisher and developer have parted ways, I am skeptical that the fundamental issues which need addressing ever will be. Perhaps I will pass on this one unless it becomes rather cheap, and pay more consideration to Harebrained Schemes newest development, which they likely have greater control over. We shall see.
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SultanOfSuave: What a pity. Considering the news featured in this post that the publisher and developer have parted ways, I am skeptical that the fundamental issues which need addressing ever will be. Perhaps I will pass on this one unless it becomes rather cheap, and pay more consideration to Harebrained Schemes newest development, which they likely have greater control over. We shall see.
You're right. Those issues will never be fixed. HBS is done with the game officially. It will never receive another update:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/the-final-patch-1-3-1.1616862/

Such a shame too. There's so much potential there to be a truly great game.
I don't have an idea on "why?"...

... but...

... I always cringe when I hear "people just really don't like that setting anymore."

Audiences lose interests in every setting (or genre)...

... until a great game in that setting comes along and reminds them how much they love it (same happens in tv and film).

ie Who would ever have told Rockstar to make an Old West "cowboy game?" Nobody.

But audiences lose interest when entertainment in a setting or genre becomes over-saturated or bland. Maybe LL was a bit of both?
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Ixamyakxim: I'd blame it more on... Paradox.

I admit I don't follow gaming sites and such but I have a *general* idea of releases and games that interest me...

... and I had NO CLUE this game even existed until I saw the front page announcement here a few days ago! And this type of game / genre is EXACTLY in my wheelhouse of games I love.
[…]
Ditto, however. I was hardly plugged in. If Gog doesn't publicize its existence in the wishlist alerts I ain't gonna see it.

Yeah, my life changed when I bought Shadowrun almost as much as when I played

@Seberin's Shadowrun Antumbra.

Gotta love a game developer that gives you a box of tools. It's a pity they released so many iterations in those few years.
XCOM-a-like?

Actually, I think the sequel, with the infinite shot mechanic — whilst you hit an undead with the ammunition — was almost what this sounds like.

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Ixamyakxim: In fact Harebrained Schemes is EXACTLY the type of company I love - Shadowrun is one of the games that got me to sign up for GoG all those years ago in the first place (Banner Saga was the one that actually got me, but Shadowrun was like one of my first five purchases). So the fact that I had no clue this game existed is *probably* something Paradox might want to look into "what went wrong" when it comes to marketing PR and such.
[…]
Maybe @Seberin has had some time to make another game? I do like Shadowrun Calfree in Chains, and all three of the base games.

And The Caldecott Caper.

Not bad for a Californian.
:)
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tremere110: The entire melding of real-time stealth and turn-based combat isn't a draw at all - people usually lean in one direction or the other.
JAGGED ALLIANCE 3