Soldiers: Heroes of World War II Demo help

[Feath]

Could someone please tell me what the hell I'm meant to be doing in this demo? All that happens is that I just die. Mostly after stumbling around trying to pick up ammo and weapons before the German attack comes.

I'm getting really annoyed at demos which don't have a training mission in them. Ruined so many demos for me.

 

[Tinneth]

You select your units and attack the enemy.

 

[Feath]

In fact, I could write a book about the state of Demos nowadays.

In the old days you used to get a training level and then the first two levels. Nowadays you get stuff like these:

Aforementioned S:HOWWII. Suddenly thrown into a mission with hardly any clue on what to do, little or no hints about what you are meant to do. Even after reading the readme file it took me ages to figure out how to examine stuff.

Deus Ex: Invisible War. Right, the first Deus Ex had a deep story, which was one of the best things of the game. So why in the demo of its sequel you start off somewhere you don't know, with someone you don't know messaging to tell you to find someone else you don't know, so you can pay off his debts to someone else you don't know.

Farcry: How nice of them to put you in a few levels into the game then just give you a pistol and no armour. I can't understand why the developers didn't give you armour, it would've made the first run in with some enemies more survivable. Because, no doubt, players of the full game will have had experience and probably a lot more choice of weapons.

The use of mid game levels in demos is extremely annoying. Especially in story driven games, they don't draw you into a game. Are you just meant to go "Ohhh, pretty" then buy the game?

I like getting the style of play of a game. I didn't know how to play the Farcry demo at first, whether it was a shoot everything style or a completely sneak around style. The first few levels of the game would probably have gotten me into this, but instead I had to try many times before I got into the rhymth of play.

 

[Feath]

You select your units and attack the enemy.

God knows why I even tried to get a helpful reply out of a forum on the internet.

 

[Zapp$ter]

Aforementioned S:HOWWII. Suddenly thrown into a mission with hardly any clue on what to do, little or no hints about what you are meant to do. Even after reading the readme file it took me ages to figure out how to examine stuff.

It tells you the what you're supposed to do in that mission(which by the way is a bonus challenge mission in the full version). FFS a cutscene plays telling you, you need to defend against the attacks and rescue the colonel. What more do you want? While I agree that the controls are not explained in the demo, I had no problems with finding out what I was supposed to do in the mission. It took you ages to figure out how to examine stuff? I found it rather easy as the cursor changes to an "eye" icon when there is something to be examined(this was on my first play through the demo) again it's not rocket science. The demo is definitely difficult.

What I normally do is drive the tank down the road and park it at the crossroads on the map(or a little to the left where the grassy area is). By this time your tank will have run out of fuel. I leave one guy in the tank to shoot down incoming enemies, I put one guy on the little cannon thingy, outside the house where the colonel is. I set them to fire at will and they pretty much take care of most of the enemies themselves. I take the third guy to the far left of the map(stocking up on grenades found in the box at the back end of the colonel's house). When the first tank arrives I take direct control of my parked tank and try and get a shot off to the side of the incoming tank. Basically try and neutralize it as soon as possible. Usually by this time I find that there's very few enemies left so I just mop up the stragglers. The time on the clock is usually about 10:30, I then take the third guy on the far left of the map into the area with the two garage doors, shooting both of them out to retrieve the car(Be careful of germain soldiers in the windows of houses close by). I then drive the car back to the colonel's house so that objective gets completed.

IMO it is imperative to get the colonel out of there as soon as possible, so that you don't have to worry about him getting killed in the latter stages of the mission, by the Nebelwerfer. This also then gives you free reign with your own guys to take out the rest of the enemies on your own. Another thing I think is important is to neutralize the big german tank that comes in the second wave(Sneak up on it from behind and throw a grenade or two up it's ass), then repair it using the repair kit found in your own tank(Examine it and put it into your soldiers hands, then the cursor should change to some moving gears, then click on the tank to repair it). Get the guy who was on the cannon thingy to jump in as well, so you've now got two people in the tank. I usually leave the third guy hidden somewhere in case something goes wrong, so that at least you don't fail the mission straight away if the tanks gets blasted apart.

The german tank is really useful and it has tons of fuel so you don't need to worry about that. I usually drive the tank straight through the road, with the row of houses on each side(i.e. straight on at the crossroads). Until you come to the end where there are a few houses facing towards you. I can't remember the exact time I think it's at about 4:00 that the Nebelwerfer comes in. This thing is mean, it rips apart tanks like nobody's business. However because of the tank you just parked near the houses, you can pretty much blow it up as soon as it arrives on the map. After you've taken care of that, you just got to mop up the rest of the enemies.

 

[adulus]

That demo is really f*cking hard. I beat it once on easy, and i almost beat it but the nebenwerfaer *can* blow up your tanks if you leave them standing still.
I beat it like like this. I take all 3 guy up the road with the tank, and leave it to the left of the 57mm cannon.I leave one guy in the tank, i have one guy load up the 57mm with ammo, and i have one guy take either the bren gun from the boxes, or the mg42 out of the tank. I set the cannon and tank on hold fire to save ammo. Then i put the machine gunner a lil bit in front of the tank and cannon on fire at will.

When the first tank come, my tank can usually blow it away, then i commandeer it with the mg guy, and defend a lil more. Meanwhile, i take a guy and set up some AT mines in the road right brfore the crossraods, taking oout any incoming tanks. then i flankl the stranded tanks and blow the bejezus out of them. Finally i take out the Nebelwerfer. But i've tried to beat the demo again like 10 times, and haven't dont it, so i deleted it and am not goig to buy the full game.

How do you eliminate a tank with just grenades, BTW?

 

[Zapp$ter]

How do you eliminate a tank with just grenades, BTW?

I usually throw grenades up the tank's backside(where it's armour is weakest). It may have been my imagination but that did damage the tank enough, so that the crew bailed out. Thus effectively neutralizing it.

 

[simmo]

I bet none of you are at 1337 as meh

http://www.s1mmo.co.uk/simmo.jpg

 

[Feath]

I wasn't confused as to the objectives, just confused as how to go about completing them.

As for the examine, the main problem I had was that you just select one guy. That was my problem with the demo, I was confused about how to go about doing things within it. I was expecting something more akin to a traditional RTS.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, even if some of it was a bit... can't think of the word. Nevermind. I was doing some of the things you said anyway (moving the tank and manning the guns) but it didn't work out. I just thought I was doing something completely wrong.

I think I'm getting the hang of it now.

My main complaint is that demos through you into the deep end too often, I suppose it's more rewarding if it's more difficult, but that's not the way I like to play games.

 

[simmo]

Oh btw, I was on IRC with one of the devs a while ago, he said that the demo level is probably one of the hardest in the game.

 

[adulus]

Then why put it in the demo? When i saw the trailers i was gonna see if i could get the game. Then i played the demo. Kinda turned me off to the whole game. I liked the premise though.

 

[Shakermaker]

Then why put it in the demo? When i saw the trailers i was gonna see if i could get the game. Then i played the demo. Kinda turned me off to the whole game. I liked the premise though.

In the case of Soldiers it's fair to have a hard demo, coz the whole game is hard. If it was the other way around (easy demo, even harder game), people might be put off. A demo is supposed to give you an idea of what the game will be like. A tutorial couldn't have hurt tho ...

 

[Zapp$ter]

In the case of Soldiers it's fair to have a hard demo, coz the whole game is hard. If it was the other way around (easy demo, even harder game), people might be put off. A demo is supposed to give you an idea of what the game will be like. A tutorial couldn't have hurt tho ...

Agreed, if the demo had been easy then people would have complained that the full game was much too hard and that they were fooled by the demo, wasted their money etc.... At least the demo gives a fair representation of the difficulty of the full game, because then people can decide that they just don't want to buy it because it's not what they're looking for in terms of difficulty. I think a tutorial should definitely have been included.

 

[Feath]

Agreed, if the demo had been easy then people would have complained that the full game was much too hard and that they were fooled by the demo, wasted their money etc.... At least the demo gives a fair representation of the difficulty of the full game, because then people can decide that they just don't want to buy it because it's not what they're looking for in terms of difficulty. I think a tutorial should definitely have been included.

How about a mid range demo mission? I doubt anyone would've complained if the demo was easier. Not unless the game is really hard from the outset.

Anyway, why not a tutorial mission? I wouldn't mind a difficult demo as long as you start off having some sort of clue about how to play the game.