Hidden & Dangerous Action Pack

Man, this is one of my absolute favourite series. But this is one hell of a glitchy game. When this first came out, I'd still have rated it 5/5 despite all the glitches or pure bad-lucks (as to hitting auto-save instead of auto-load) with all the map restarts. But given that it is rather glitchy and the AI is truly poor, I have to be fair now, I'd like to give it more than 3 stars. I still have tons of fun with this game yet. However: unless you're looking for a nostalgic treat knowing you will also play H&D2 I would totally recommend skipping straight to H&D2, That is a true original.

I finally completed this game some eighteen years after I originally purchased it on CD/ROM... except that I didn't technically complete the game! Having toiled through the campaign, enduring the terrible AI and intolerable UI, on the very last mission with the map cleared and only one objective remaining, a key NPC would not exit a vehicle to conclude the mission. Stuck. Soul destroying. Watched the end video online. Some things really are best left in the hazy fog of the past.

I'm a big fan of GOG but in this case they've really dropped the ball - they've dropped the ball into a bath of acid situated on the planet Jupiter whose gravity ensures said ball will never be retrieved... 1. H&D Deluxe was released as Freeware in 2003. Re-selling this is slightly immoral. 2. The Freeware is at version 1.51 - while yours is still at 1.3. 3. The Freeware comes with the H&D Editor. 4. The Freeware is one game with the addon Fight For Freedom as a Menu option - yours is two separate game directories each containing the full game. 5. The Freeware install is 272MB - due to point 4, yours is 930MB... ever hear of bloatware? 6. The 2003 Freeware works perfectly in 1600 x 900 on a 2024 Win11 64-bit machine. Yours does not (see 7-10 below) 7. I tried several different graphics options (V-Sync, Triple Buffering, etc) but on startup, your version has a bad flicker and other graphical anomalies on the Main Menu H&D graphic. 8. On the Main Menu screen of your version, I can't see the 'Start Game' or other text - hitting these is blind trial and error. 9. By trial and error, I managed to enter a profile name and start a game... the campaign selection screen shows OK, but as soon as you move the mouse it turns into a totally tripped-out kaleidoscopic nightmare in which you can't see which option you are selecting. 10. By trial and error, I managed to start the cutscene for Campaign 1 and the cutscene froze. I'm not giving your version 4 Stars, but the game deserves to be played. This is an incredibly atmospheric joyride from start to finish. I'm dropping one star because the squad AI works well, but not perfectly - the 'Hold Fire' command (given first-person or by the map ) doesn't work. Otherwise this is a great game BUT... get the freeware version.

This is undoubtedly one of the finest squad shooters ever. I wouldn`t go as far as to call it a simulation in the vein of ARMA or R6 RVS(fuck what came after), but boy does it press all the right buttons. SAS theme makes for a perfect selection of mission themes, there will be a lot of sabotage work, POW rescue, snatching VIPs from the crumbling fronts, river raids and always absolutely crazy exfiltrations. Inventory and personnel management is actually important, your plane carries a limited amount of cargo, there is no support whatsoever, and you`d damn better have some dynamite and AT weaponry once on the ground! The game, as every good game must be, is a journey: you`ll visit every significant theater of war in different time periods, and some even after. Visuals are of course dated, but it`s not so bad, and certainly very atmospheric. There is almost no music, save for the main theme and some set pieces when you gloriously escape the horrible odds. Ghost Recon wishes it was half as good as H&D is. And I mean first GR, not the later abominations.