[Feedback/Bugs] EA 0.6.1-a12-7606

I create a new thread because of the hot fix (see previous thread here - I believe most feedback is still valid). I immediately run into a game breaking bug [video] and day 1 glitch of enemies appearing out of nowhere does still exists [video]. I also noticed when you keep hitting q repeatedly for rotating the camera, in my opinion it turns unexpectedly.

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I played second time and I must say the current version is sadly unplayble. Again I run into a game breaking bug which ended my play session [video]. And not only that, this version of the game has most probably a memory leak issue [video]. And finding a fix for that might take a few days...

Ok. Smaller, but annoying issues:

 - Why an enemy is carrying ammo that are not for the gun he's using. It's a little strange. [video]

 - I still don't like that when I end my turn with a merc (let's say Buzz), the turn starts with the first merc (Agent 47). Not only this, but this is especially annoying with interrupts. You can see an interrupt behaviour here. Shouldn't work like this.

 - In situations like this the need of manually looking is annoying. Free shooting would be better.

 - When I equip gear, I want to put helmet directly to the head. Not first to backpack [video].

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Third play try also ended with the game breaking bug when shooting at the enemy. While playing, I noticed that AP cost shown in gun description is only accurate for the single fire mode.

For the positive things, I want to mention that now the merc portrait has a numbering system how many enemies s/he is currenlty seeing. I also like that the movement stops when a new enemy is spotted.

Game braking bug: Prison sector: Shot all the guys behind the sandbags. I went to the sandbags. Between my merc and the loot backpack is the wall of sandbags. So I can actually click on the backpack but then or when trying to loot, the game freezes. I had this issue before, so can't reproduce now but sure, it is the 2nd time.

Interruption mode problems: What is not working for me now, that there is no interruption when you come from real time mode. So you sit behind a house and an enemy walks around you corner and attacks  you. Now you see him, you have positioned you mercs to get an interrupt as in JA2. But here, in JA:F with the new system, you can't get the interrupt as you can't toggle the interruption mode as you were before in real time mode. There is no button. So the old system should apply in those situations. automatic interrupt if luck, experience etc is calculated. 

• Also we need to leave the interrupt for more than one round alive, when my MERC does nothing than covering. This is important stuff for the next update =)
• 2 crouched mercs in a line. The last one shoots and HITS 1st merc (friendly fire). I mean in some positions this is possible on long range, but in a standard position were both are sticking together near to each other? How stupid can a merc (here MAGIC) be, with his markmansship he should shoot above the shoulders of his friend. Don't know how you will fix that.
• But vise versa it is hard to shoot enemies in front of you (1 tile away) while proning. The merc then walks around on the floor (laughing) looses APs until new position is taken. Now he shoots and most likely will not hit. Also the whole prone-animation stuff is not fixed yet or is this the final state!?
• Grenades: The red indicator isn't that nice. Also it does not give information on how far I can throw. In JA2 the cursor showed you, that you are now out of range. Then you could throw to get it near you target (which is great) because there was this little chance of the grenade to get bounced on the ground.
• Also what nakano wrote, but it is ok that enemies additionally have ammo without a proper weapon. That is what you do also =)

Day 2 of testing. Didn't face a game breaking bug today. The game is still eating a lot of memory though.

 - Regarding to Archo's comment of my comment. Sure enemies can have ammo without a proper weapon. Maybe the soldier had forgotten his AK47 somewhere. If these were professional soldier then I am not sure how often they carry ammo for weapon they don't use.

 - There are a few times when multiselection of mercs broke. 1) When you talk with someone (I have mentioned about this earlier) and 2) When an object is completed [video].

 - There is one thing I don't like about the transparency / movement. When you press for example the button for reloading and you do not need to reload, the merc moves to that position.

 - Annual meeting of enemies in the rain. If only I had a grenade ;) [video]

 - One merc cannot pickup the backpack, but the other can [video].

 - On the strategy overview, the balance doesn't update when you buy a merc. [video - see my money shows to be $6300 (it's not, but seems so) when I hire Vicki]

- Enemy and my merc ends up to be in the same space [video].

- Shouldn't I be able to shoot the enemy? I even move closer [video / video2]. Notice also that the smaller quickslot is showing a grenade. It probably shouldn't be visible there. 

 - In a few sectors (farmer one and one other), my mercs do start from the different areas [video].

- In this sector mercs can still walkthrough the locked doors [video].

 - I was thinking whether selecting a higher accuracy for autofire has any effect. It does show a higher hit%, but it costs as much AP as the least accurate mode. Anyway, the firing system is probably seeing some changes soon.

 - I want new hotkeys: 1, 2 and 3 for switching between fire modes. [EDIT: I just noticed that it's possible to select a merc with these. Good! But still a custom hotkey options for fire modes. Not sure if I would rather use numbers for selecting the fire mode.]

 - Wishing improvements for interrupt mode (mentioned in the previous thread about permanent on/off i-mode and Archo has comments above I agree too) and a hotkey for entering the i-mode.

 - Need sector inventory for looting!

 - Needs a feature of retreat from hostile sector.

 - Would bigger dialog font be better when talking with NPC? There seems to be room for that.

 - Lets end this with a positive comment that I like that the mercs are commenting a lot more and the feature of hand-to-hand combat (it's more deadly than guns, but that's ok for me because getting close and staying exposed without a cover is risky).

If you have one special weapon (buy/found/received as gift) and you don't find any ammo? Yeah, don't know how the random container loot is handled but in JA2 you have to find and collect ammo. The fights without ammo were the toughest in JA2 and could only be won by using holes in the AI like rooftops in combination with grenades, doors and interrupts. The thing is, the fallen enemy could have a second weapon in backpack or it didn't drop as you game progress level (that is how it was calculated in JA2) is not high enought to receive these guns!?

- need buttons in tactical map to toggle between map view (city, mine, milita & movements, roads like in JA2)

- need sectory inventory button

- need terrain level button

- need to see before moving on the map, how much time it needs

- commentaries like "I heard something" with the noise indicator are great, but not if you hear it every move repeated. The indicator is enough and the comment should only trigger one time in a round and only 1 time per 3 rounds, if the sound source is the same. So the indicator is most of the time sufficient. Balanced comments are hard to get but important.

- need balance sheet for daily income overview

- need to see which gear a merc has, before taking the deal

- The fixed dialogue boxes are bad with fonts get smaller to fit it. I agree, nakano, this needs more than tweaking. In JA2 you had the portrait pop-up in the screen and the text was divided in sections that appeared in different length to the right. So there is always enough space. Also you could trigger the next sequence by pressing ENTER. That is all worse now, is there a new "dialogue UI" coming which is more flexible and better readable?

- headphones missing which should be necessary to hear noice behind walls (sound indicator). Now every merc is an expert in hearing?

- glases, sunglases, night googles

- light sticks for night attacks missing

- doctorkits missing (only bandages)

- wire cutter + animation 

- need to jump over small hurdles (sandbags) (animation)

- hotkey to ending turn

- hotkey for zooming in and out

- settings for sound, effect, background noises (too loud)

- moral bar and mechanics still missing, never heard if it comes back. Death of mercs influence moral as well as wounded, flee, loss of city/milita. Good standing of cities give more income.

- hiring screen: need a "next" and "previous" button and sortable mercs (cost, markmanship, experience)

- How will boby ray be replaced? Phone order? You just phone someone like hiring merc via sattelite phone and get a list of supplies to order from.

- I really miss the email features JA2 had. Perhabs we CAN replace it with telegrams which were used in world war too. So it feels like mail and should be in tactical screen!

 I am also hoping the possibility to jump over small obstacles. There is a hotkey for ending turn. The default is [return], I switched to [f].

thx, nakano. How can you see, if an object contains itmes I can loot? Which itmes can usally be opened? In JA2 stove, cabinets, locker, etc.

I don't know whether you asked from me or Full Control, but to be honest I haven't tried to pick up anything else than enemy backpacks. I am not aware of if there is something else lootable yet.

Played a little more.

 - Auto-save failed. If you watched my previous play session from day 2, you noticed that I liberated the sector. Now when I continue, it's not liberated [video].

 - I kinda like the smoke grenade, but it may be overpowered [video]. But I am not complaining the hide and seek in the smoke ;) Still the free shooting mechanism would help a lot to try to estimate where the enemy is. In addition, a gas mask could help seeing something through the smoke if you're inside of it (lets say 2 tiles ahead).

 - Just a note: Are fist more powerful than a knife?

 - Playing with squad inventory leads to a game breaking bug [video].

 

 

 

 

Played a couple of hours :

Lots of improvements, but still a fair amount of bugs and missing functionalities.

In addition to what has been already mentioned :

• Bounty hunting quest : the information are lost since the talker's backpack is usually full. I found two baddies just because I remembered where they where.
• Line of sight issues : sometimes a merc can't shot despite a clear line of sight.
• Must close the hiring window if a merc refuses, re-open it and then you can hire someone else.
• Strategic map : objectives are scrambled if too many are active.
• Sometimes mercs can't change stance (real time), you need to click on others mercs first or leave the tactical map.
• Often mentioned : to have to look first toward a baddie before shooting him, that's rather boring. Like JA2, just add the required AP.
• Two much rain IMO. Rainstorms are fun but shouldn't occur that often. Lower the probability.
• Overwatch must be automatic otw it becomes quickly boring. AP left when ending a turn -> go overwatch.
• It has been written already but really make sure that interrupt do not change the controlled merc.
• No way to stockpile or merge ammo boxes.
• Already said by Shanga, please a 360 view in a secured area! NPCs are painful to spot otherwise.

Management of squads is at a very early stage, a sector inventory is definitely urgently required. The save system is not ready for a release, needs a quick save/quick load with at least 2 slots in rotation (like Silent Storm) and named slots. Inventory management is painful at the moment and must be reviewed, you must put a weapon/armor in the backpack for it to go in a slot, some grenades can't be put in a quick slot ...

About the gameplay, I share what has been written by others. In addition heavy armors are coming much too early, and honestly SWAT like armors requiring 5 to 7 AK 47 shots to kill, come on, on a poor Caribbean island? It doesn't fit at all. Keep them for the late game when the player faces elite defenders. Even a light Kevlar armor should be considered exceptional, let alone Lynx's SVD!
You should put at least a bandage in every merc inventory at start. If you add a new squad, the new squad starts without any bandage. Any critical wound, the merc is dead. Put more in the maps when containers will become open able. Some maps give absolutely none at the moment.
Melee weapons should be more effective against armors, they shouldn't suffer the same penalty. A blade can cut polyamide fibers more easily than a bullet.

As said by others the UI blue background looks too modern (too much like XCOM), perhaps a brown background would be enough to make the UI less modern looking.

I am confident but beware of initial critics if you rush it too much, make sure that the fundamentals are properly set and tested.

Automatically going to the interrupt mode at the end of turn might be for the best. We could get rid of the button altogether as I don't know what's the benefit of not being in the interrupt mode at the end of turn or what's the benefit of being in the interrupt mode during the player turn. If there is some benefits, then at least a merc specific setting for going automatically to interrupt mode at the end of turn.

I played some more today.
 - When a weapon is out of bullets, I would like to be able to reload it with mouse click. It could work like this: If I am out of bullets and mouse is targeting an enemy and the cursor is showing the reload icon, I could reload with left click (similar to when shooting at the moment).
 - It would be great if mouse cursor could show the fire mode. When firing with burst, the icon should be slightly different. I think JA2 has this feature. I don't always remember to look the weapon image when I fire and I accidentally shoot with burst.
 - Shanga mentioned about infinite loop for sector K8 elsewhere. I haven't gotten that far, but sector H9 gives similar symptons [video].

- Moving between sectors. Is it possible to avoid moving through town? [video]

- My 6th merc died in battle. Now battle is over, but I think I should be able to hire the 6th merc without moving first. The functionality doesn't seem to be available [video].

Noticeable improvement over previous build, but there is still much left out. In fact, so many crucial elements are not implemented, that I'm afraid October release date would be a crippled game. I'm almost certain that reviews will be merciless, perhaps as bad as Back in Action. Catch 22: no time nor budget to include important features, which means less money for improvements. But in the end, it's like playing for 2nd place. Here are my 2 cents: 1) UI is awkward and not intuitive. Enemy drops look like moth cocoons. Why not make dead body searchable? Also, picking up items and equipping should not be a chore. JA1 did it great, never mind JA2. Why reinvent the wheel? 2) One should be able to rotate the map freely. Keep FOV, tilt and zoom as they are if there are performance issues with Unity, but free rotation should at least be optional. 3) That movement overlay that tells you how far one can move should be optional. Again, why not just include the number of action points it takes at the cursor. And it would be nice to create way points instead of shortest path. 4) There have to be better controls. Press "L" and cursor changes to look, then point and click where you want to look. Same for AIM, or look with weapon drawn Walking backwards, sidestepping from behind corner are cornerstones of tactical combat. Never mind that moving while crouched should exhaust your stamina. 5) While I understand "It's just a game" mentality, it should at least be logical. Things like enemies carrying ammo for different weapon than theirs. Facing AK-47 and fully armored enemies from the get go is not fun. I really hope that was just part of alpha testing and not design decision.

Last play test session from this week.

 - When I select Scully he doesn't have full AP as he should when turn based mode starts [video].

 - At least sectors I12 and K11 are missing minimap.

 - This was reported before, but here is a video of game frozing on sector K8 [video].

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Features I may be missing from the full release. So final feature requests:

 - Improvements to the interrupt system - no overwatch button ala XCOM.

 - Tactical artificial intelligence for the enemy.
 - Sector inventory ala JA2.
 - Usability fixes [link] + better indicator to see which mercs are bleeding.

 - Opening and closing drawers and closets.

 - Break lights and night vision to better see enemies in the darkness.

 - Item combinations

 - Wire cutters+animation to cut holes through chainlink fences.
 - Jumping over tree trunks.

 - Lockpicking and crowbars to force through doors.
 - Gas grenades (mercs take damage while in here) + gas masks (to prevent damage and maybe see a few tiles ahead while being in the smoke).

 - A real burst fire animation
 - Shotguns

 - Probably many other vanilla JA2 features too. Anyway during the last development month before release, I would emphasize perfectioning the battle mechanism over the strategic layer functionality.

You know, Jagged Alliance was unique because the game was, in its essence, a mistake. If you follow the dev stories, they really didn't have much of a clue what a military TBS would be like. They knew how to make RPGs and Jagged Alliance was started as a "RPG with guns".

This completely wrong concept, funny enough, turned out into an almost magical essence, that nobody else was fully capable of replicating. That's why, if you set out to make an "isometric ArmA II", you're already failing.

JA:F needs a strong back story that makes the player forget about graphics and UI and everything. JA:F needs something better than a masked CIA agent that randomly hires faces over a dubious interface. Who are those people? Where they came from and why I can press a button to recruit them?

...

You need to get thinking of that thing called "soul of JA" and make that into the game engine. You still haven't told me the story of why AIM came to be. The setting is there, but the story isn't getting through. 

Ok, I go to an island and some woman I never met radioes me to help her kill bad guys because of the revolucion. That doesn't makes me bite my fingers in anticipation. Even Rambo movies have a more exciting script. That beeing said, I begun, this patch, to saw traces of the proper story... Sondergaards being on the island... hope that slowly evolves into something worth playing.

...

I know, there are technical bugs atm that are more urgent and maps to be made and interfaces to be designed. Just make sure you have someone sit down and write you the script properly, the script that on the last mission, in the last scene would make me put aside the mouse, lay back on my chair and go .. ."whoaaa... what a ride... whaaaaat a ride....my mind is blown...."

...

So FC, will you be able to create your own magical mystical completely mistaken essence?

 

Shanga, do you realy think that FC revealed the storyline in steam EA?) And that what we have in this version is not fiction maintenance before the release? You are funny.

What was the special and unique essence of JA? I tell you.

Mainly the mercs and their characters. That is the essence! They are people you care about and there was nearly no other tactical game that brought you that kind of feeling. They are personalities. The funny comments, the great voice acting and of course the perfect animated faces of the mercs. Everything together in combination with a good story and with unique tactical combat mechanics brought us one of the best games ever. 

It's also  the immersion! You think you hire professional killers and they tell you what they like and what not. They talk to you and you can react to their statements.

So whats totally necessary for a good JA title are well written characters/mercs with great written dialogues that bring the game world to life. Sure good gameplay mechanics are also important and must work but without great written dialogues, voice acting and perfect animated portraits there will be no good JA game. And that is the truth!

Shadow, yea, because it was built as an RPG, where characters are all that counts. Role Playing Game, remember? This allowed you to step into the shoes of your soldiers in Arulco and be part of the action.

Right now that feeling isn't there.

Yes you are right but maybe in the final build when all elements will come together we will have this special JA2 feeling that you are right in middle of the action with your badass mercs. At the moment mainly the lacks of immersion, a really good story and the (deep) merc personalities (animated portraits, comments, voice acting) is what worries me the most. And of course gameplaywise the crosshair based combat and the strategic layer UI/gameplay is still missing 1,5 month before release. 

I'm afraid I have to agree with Shanga and Shadow, right now it feels like a mod for X-Com rather than Jagged Alliance. Total step in the wrong direction. Whoever was in charge of design, it seems never understood the original essence of Jagged Alliance, the harmony of unorthodox cast of individual characters and great RPG atmosphere. Although it helps to have a great setting and storyline, what's more important is having elements that support the story. Metavira premise was pretty basic. Capture trees and get rid of Santino. If all you had to do day in, day out was to capture sectors, it would make for a pretty boring game. What made the game exciting was finding keys to locked warehouses on soldiers in different sectors. Finding scraps of paper in trash and decoding weapon drops. Using stealth to prevent enemies from blowing up bridges, forcing you to fight through snake-infested waters. Getting frustruated with Leech or Fidel when they disobey an order. All these little components add up to a fantastic and captivating experience. Sure with JA2, some things were cut and some were added, but the gist of it stayed the same.

During kickstarter, I was really hoping for that person to be someone who grew up with the original JA and Deadly Games. Someone who saw JA2, that came out 5 years later, as an evolution, not a reboot. Alas, it seems FC followed the Hollywood bible, being a fan of sci-fi genre means one can make new Star Wars sequel/prequel.

To be brutally honest, my hope right now, is that at least the game is fairly open and moddable, so that talented players can take it to the next level, similar to 1.13 team. The way it stands, it's a C- game. Take away Jagged Alliance name and it becomes a bargain bin D game.

No offence to FC crew, from watching dev diaries and interviews, you're a talented and dedicated team. I wish you nothing but best of luck in the future. I have no regrets about supporting this endeavor, after so many years of failed attempts, your campaign gave a real glimpse of promise. Just sad to see it didn't live up to the potential.

I wouldn't say FC doesn't get JA titles. I'll form my opinion later on, the story and character part is yet to be seen. 

But regarding some decision:
For me it is puzzling that there are a lot of design choices and changes compared to JA titles that noone ever asked or wanted. Seems like a lot of time went into fixing stuff that everyone was happy with. The prime examples are the crosshair aiming, UI placement and windows (I never undestood why not just use the iconic and legendary placement of the previous titles, would have even preferred the original JA portrait placement on the sides - game is set before the first one and it would feel retro). and interruption system. I don't know how much time went into designing new ones, but I think it would have been safer to take the old and tweak it. Same goes for the skill and stat system was reworked which was perfectly fine and just needed some tweaking and more options.

Even if it would have basically become JA2 in new skin, I don't think anyone would have been sad with that, because you could build upon it.

But anyway, JAF is still in development and I hope they will extend it.
 

That's what I meant when I said "re-invent the wheel".

I agree with all of you.

I do think however, that FC have not shared the story / character personalities on purpose. And if true, I like that, because the "charm" should be part of the release.

I have my fingers crossed that this is the case.

 

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports...the videos and images are great! 

However, even with video is can be very hard for the coders to reproduce the actual error, so when you encounter critical bugs please send the output.log/player.log to support@fullcontrol.dk

The output.log/player.log doesn't update before you close down the game, so keep that in mind before sending it. It also needs to be sent right after the play session otherwise it is reset.

The player.log can be tricky to find, so you can find more info here (from Space Hulk) 

Win:

steamapps\common\Jagged Alliance Flashback\game_Data

Speaking of Stealth, is that in this update? And if's in, how you can go into Stealth mode?

Also I've done a few test with Muzzle Velocity and to some extent I was able to simulate proper burst fire, but once you shoot targets at farther distance the time between bullet sounds grows back to single shot sounds. So the proper "fix" is to implement burst and auto not as "make Player shoot his gun 5 times" but more like "Make Player's gun shoot 5 bullets per burst in quick succession". And for full auto the math should be "Check Player's weapon for magazine capacity, Fire Player's weapon until magazine is empty, Stop". 

Otherwise burst and full auto will never work properly. And full auto will cause unwanted loops. Yea, of course, doing it like it is now makes it easier to calculate CTH most likely, but it's wrong. 

You can see a short demo of my tests here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsLL5KpCuA&feature=youtu.be

Looking at the gambreaking bugs now by the way. 

 

Stealth is in, but only in a basic state, so you're not going in a specific state..just avioiding view cones...elements such as hearing and lOs plays a role. 

AutoFire/Burst: just to let you know, we re-doing the way individual bullets are handled, so we can implement proper burst-fire etc., it is on top of our list at the moment :) so basically afterwards we can calculate (and animate) bullets individually, allowing to shoot more in quick succession or multiple at once. 

Great news about burst! ))) Can't wait to go full auto with my AK :))

Good, Buzz is then able to shoot more bullets than intended =)

Just for the record :

• D6 : the bad guy convo fires, but he doesn't spawn.
• E10 : no minimap (some others sectors as well, but I do not remember which)
• Possible bug : mercs can't can't use their weapons. At first I thought it was related to the weapons got during the bounty hunting quest, but Spirit can't use neither her AK-47 (coming in her inventory) nor a MPL I put on her second slot anymore. Another merc with the same weapons can shoot. Can't figure out what happened.

When can we choose where we start in the sector? Tactical placement of the mercs at the start is very important

The coders just added defend zones and you should spawn from the appropriate side when entering from e.g. East. I don't know about merc placement, some of the sector are fairly narrow limiting the actual placement. 

Has there been a decision on weapon and item degration? Will I have to repair items? A spectra vest on a dead body shouldn't be at 100%. In the UI didn't find a clue.

Yeah item degration will be implemented along with repairing feature. 

Will there be a shop later to buy weapons and to order supplies?

I think somewhere there was supposed to be a base or something....

Shops, weapons smuggler and such yeah..

That is more than JA2 offered and it adds so much...a nifty smuggler, dark voice, who can get you THE weapon and other stuff. But he is loycal to (money, a town). The connections you can build around NPCs in JA are endless. 

What about Tony from San Mona?

For me, maybe just for me, Tony was a kind of business guy, that used San Mona to make a fortune. Don't know his background but a smuggler for me is someone who takes stuff in masses over the border. I didn't get that info from Tony. The guy in Drassen at the airport, could be more like a smuggler.  But you ordered regular stuff from Bobby.  

Funny is, he could be killed and replaced by another guy. 

@FC hope you have an NPC that is annoying and we can get rid off. The is replaced by another NPC. Such great hidden "features" =)

Pablo at the airport was a jerk who deserved a good beating he got for stealing stuff. That was a nice touch, props to whoever thought of that.

I was gone over the last weekend so I didn't really get to play this version yet, but since it was discussed here, I wanted to say something about the JA atmosphere.

This is for me the single element of the game that has to fit. I'm not a fan of the current interrupt system and clearly a lot of other things are far from ready yet, but I can live with all those decisions as long as the atmosphere is working for me.
I don't think your posts about that are fair atm. For now, the only thing we've really seen of that are the messages on the hiring screen, and those fit the bill very well for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akkMtv4kGGo
I've only played the german version of JA2, so I don't know the original voices very well, but those voices fit how I feel about the mercs very well.

If FC keeps the rest of the game in line with those, I think it's gonna turn out alright, maybe even great. A very important part of that is going to be voice acting. The last info we got on that wasn't very clear on who will be voice acted. I think that that will make or break the game in terms of atmosphere. Of course the standard NPCs walking around don't have to be voiced (in fact I almost prefer them not to be), but I very much hope that all the story NPCs, vendors and smugglers etc. will be voiced. You don't get any feeling for a character (or at least not a lot) just from reading a text box.

I know voice acting isn't cheep, but I think it is well worth it if it is at all possible. Of course the game mechanics have to work, so this is of course to be considered first in the budget, but imho the atmosphere is almost more important since that is something that stays with the game forever while game mechanics can to some extend be changed later. However, the atmosphere you get when you first play the game is gonna stay with you forever, even if some things are added later.
If the budget absolutely doesn't allow it, another kickstarter for that is definitely something I would support.

That being said, I am officially in my 50th hour of playing the alpha and beta, so I am confident that I am going to enjoy the game either way, but whether I am going to replay the game over and over again and how excited I am going to be about a successor / improving the game is mostly determined by the atmosphere that is still missing for the most part. Otherwise, I am just gonna keep replaying JA2 once in a while.