My conclusion about FFF
- Written by Ojokoltsa

Now after I spent my weekend playing FFF, this is how I see the game.

First thing I became aware of were the better graphics. This you will see in many ways. Now the weapons look real great and, like the Tommy gun for example, look like their real counterpart. The weapon view has changed too. This is something I don’t like this much. But it doesn’t matter, I can still aim without the line of fire and cross. Only the Panzerfaust, the anti-tank weapons, are hard to aim now. Also the sound has improved. The weapons now sound - well, great!!! Heavy weapons now sound like such; and having the radio jeep with the big gun as fire support at your six - wow, that makes you feel REAL safe!!! Also, all of the weapons now have their unique sound. So it makes a different sound if you fire a German or an Allied sniper rifle - the last one now sounds real good and now you can even hear, why the body, a second before in your crosshairs, was thrown back bewildered.

Okay, these are some of the graphic and sound improvements. Next I became aware that the enemies now won't hunt you down just with a pistol. They all now use rifles, submachine guns, heavy guns (!) or fixed guns. Oh, and yes, they now don’t wait a second to bomb you out of your hole with grenades if they have some!!!

This really sounds like an improvement in the AI, aye?! Yes, it is! They now don’t wait for you to shoot them down, one by one. If they hear you, they run for you, try to hunt you down. They still just do senseless duck-down actions if they hear you shoot on them. But now you have to look and think twice before you snipe a enemy - surely some will have a look for you!!! I would like to give you an example which really impressed me. I was running over the small paths through a canyon and came up to a place from where I could cover a whole valley from high above. I sniped all enemies, though they tried to run for cover. Then I had a look again and saw two more enemies, one with a machine gun and one with a rifle, sitting (!!!) on a riverbank. I tried to get them into my crosshairs and, by mistake, came into the view of the machine gunner. He opened up fire and I crouched back, thank Gosh, without a single hit. I waited for a couple of seconds and then tried to get them back into my crosshairs again. I found the gunner, running to get a better view of me. He was also dead the moment my crosshairs found his head. Now, feeling secure again, I searched the spot at the river where I first found the two men, surprised to find it - empty!!! Now, cold sweat covered me and fear crept up on me. I knew there was another one... So I searched the whole valley again to pick off the lost enemy - at least I found him, in this moment, ready with an bullet sent through my forehead! He was a sniper and he, the moment he heard the shooting, ran ducked into the riverbank and tried to find another spot from where he could easily snipe me out. I was so impressed by this little scene, I first could hardly believe what happened.

Talking about AI, your men now follow you straight the way you took, no fancy running around. They also don’t leave vehicles or fixed weapons after loading a game or if under fire. They now even make use of fixed weapons and don’t switch automatically back to their primary weapons.

At least, FFF provides you with huge new maps and the mood the game is creating is absolutely incredible!!! Crouching through the fog, suddenly a silhouette draws out of the mist and the moment you afraid make out a German Panzer, diesel smoke rising, he starts his engines, and moves on.

But it would be a dream if this game really came just with improvements, making it really the best game ever. To be honest, loading such huge maps takes time - too much time if you ask me. To get it down with the words of someone else I just read at the Illusion forum before: yes, you can make yourself a sandwich, fix your kitchen and eat half of the sandwich. Also, some of the missions are kind of sluggish. Not unplayable like H&D C3M6, but very sluggish. The well known bugs like the failed-to-load graphics, the then-black parts are all there. Also I now face some problems which didn’t occur before. The sound now crashes and from time to time the whole game. That only happened two times over the whole time I spent in front of my computer. But, as I said, that never happened before. I still can play the game in "Hard". That is okay with me but I read that for a lot of players H&D was too easy.

So I don’t know what conclusion I should come to - Sometimes I would say get FFF. It comes along with stunning graphics, better sounds, improved AI, fantastic missions and a mood that no other game has ever managed to create for me. It’s still the best war game ever, now more than ever!!! On the other hand I would recommend just hardcore H&D fans should get FFF. If you came along with the first bugged game and you still love it (like me!), then get FFF, it will catch your breath! I write this because I don’t want to read more messages complaining about H&D because of they are true! And I feel sorry myself for anyone from whom I know his nerves get killed by uncountable bugs. For me the game runs fine. But my system is not yours. So if you have the chance, get a close look at FFF first. Maybe the game runs well on your machine too, and then after a couple of hours, you wont let loose of FFF until you’re through it!!!

- Ojokoltsa 12/13/99

SOURCE INFO: Text duplicated without modification from the no longer in existence Illusion Softworks H&D Forum.