Hammer Sickle Unofficial Patch description
Hammer & Sickle is a tactical RPG based on the Silent Storm universe.

Hammer & Sickle is the story of a secret agent of the Soviet military intelligence, who is operating alone on enemy territory trying to unveil a fine web of intrigues by various special services and agencies. In April, 1949 a group of Polish underground Resistance members who were fighting with the Nazis until the end of the war, .

They were believed to be dead for quite a while, and their emergence and attempts to make contact worry the Soviets. An experienced field agent who worked with the group during the war, is sent over to the British-American occupation zone. At the beginning the operation seems to be just a walk in the park; however, the hero soon realises that something is wrong…

This job is no picnic…
Moscow Headquarters doesn't have time for you - you'll have to get out of the hot spots all on your own. Obtaining information by whatever means possible, you'll need to analyse the situation and decide on your next steps, taking into account possible consequences of your actions. There will be very few limitations on your choices - you'll lose the game only if the main hero is killed.

A Bavarian holiday
The game world is an area of a few thousand square kilometres, in Southern Germany. You'll be operating in a city, in townships, forests and even in the Third Reich's secret underground complexes. You'll always need to be careful, in each case thinking over whom you can trust, and how far. And you will have to trust somebody: after all, you'll need a place to sleep, weapons, papers, clothes to move around without attracting undue attention. You'll also need to find partners to hire for your team. And to do all this you'll need money, which must be obtained in some way: by honest work or by force.

The cold spring of '49
The game world will be changing in response to aggression according to the actions you take. Think over every step you take, and carefully: a shoot-out in the middle of the city can not only bring about the local law, but prompt the military commandant to send out patrols. The local parer will report the event, which will make your life in the area even more difficult. And if you go too far, American occupation authorities may decide the USSR is resorting to all that sabotage in preparation for an all-out attack, and then the USA might decide to strike first - and the war will begin…

Here are some key features of "Hammer Sickle":

· Thrilling non-linear story: not just the outcome but the whole course of the game depends on the player's choices, including availability of new maps and characters.
· Detailed characters: their biographies and personalities might affect the game events and the atmosphere in the team. Some characters might even decide to leave the team, or go against it.
· Integrated game world: the player will be able to move around all game zones freely. Events taking place in one zone might affect developments in others.
· Integrated game time: like in real life, time is the most important and irreplaceable resource. The passage of time significantly affects the game events. Characters' mood and general state depend on the time of day, and so do combat conditions.
· Clothes and papers: characters' clothes not only change their appearance but affect the gameplay: a Soviet commando fighter's suit will attract undue attention while an American uniform will help to go unchallenged in many situations. Proper ID papers might come in very handy in certain situations; these can be bought from a skilful forger.
· Reliability rating: "Inadequate Behaviour meter" will count all cases of armed clashes with authorities or violence against civilians; if it reaches a threshold value, the war becomes unavoidable.
· Non-linear dialogues: the player's choice of line or even tone of voice might radically change the balance of forces, and affect relations between the groups.
· Economic relations: money is one of the key tools of a secret agent: it's weapons, equipment, hired soldiers, information - and even a chance to buy your way out of trouble with criminals or police.
· Authentic weapons: you'll have access to about 90 various weapons of the WW2 period and the recent experimental designs, including APS and MAT49.


Requirements:


· Minimal:
· Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0
· 1000 MHz Pentium III / Athlon
· 256 MB RAM
· 32 MB 3D videocard GeForce2 MX/ Radeon 9000
· DirectX-compatible sound adapter
· 3 GB hard disk space

· Recommended:
· Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0
· 2,2 GHz Pentium 4 / Athlon
· 512 MB RAM
· 128 MB 3D videocard GeForce 3 / Radeon 9700
· Dolby Surround 5.1
· 3 GB hard disk space


What's New in This Release:

· Gaffburg location, the battle with the second wave of attackers with the preliminary draft of allies. If the enemy attacked in a fistfight, sometimes the allies became hostile to the main hero. Fixed.
· The plot branch with ambushes, ambush in Gaffburg, the player looses the radio. If after the combat but prior to exit to the global map Siegfried died there were no further plot progress. Fixed. Now with the next exit to the global map there is a video with the group execution and a 'Game Over'.
· Final combat on the Highway location. One of the groups of enemies could be placed the way when one of the units was inside the wall. As a result he lost an ability to move and was hard to find and therefore to finish the combat. Fixed.
· In the Smith's house it was possible to open both a safe with documents and a mine-studded bureau. This got the player confused because the documents from the safe and from the bureau had different date of the terror acts stated in them. Fixed. Now opening one container leads to automatic deletion the documents from the second container.
· If the player had visited the Prison location prior to his meeting with Gunter, Gunter didn't react to the request to forge the ID. Fixed.
· When fulfilling the quest with Fidel after the ambush activation on the Forest location, the game could get 'hung' while trying to hire Fidel, as he tries to talk to dead Forester. Fixed.
· Some incorrect parameters of the weaponry fixing tools are fixed.
· Some texts spelling is fixed (thanks to David Marchand).
· Some other cosmetic changes have been implemented.