izigame.me

Jagged Alliance was a minor hit from the mid 90s. Offering an eclectic mix of tactical and RPG elements, it was able to carve up a modest following and start its own franchise. It was the second numbered game in the series though, Jagged Alliance 2, that made it a household name among gamers of that generation. Rightly so, it was nothing short of one of the greatest games ever made and is a perennial personal favourite. It also proved a tough act to follow. Throughout the years since, various companies came to own the rights to the franchise and several spin-offs were released ranging in quality from passable to abysmal. For the longest time it seemed like the series was just wasting away in limbo. Until about a week ago, at long last, a full 24 years since the previous numbered sequel, Jagged Alliance 3 came to be. Let's see if it manages to live up to its fabled predecessor and breathe new life to this venerable franchise.
The premise will be quite familiar to veterans of the series. The country of Grand Chien, a small African ex-French colony rich in diamonds, is in turmoil. A mysterious warlord known simply as "the Major" has kidnapped its president and a civil war is looming. The president's daughter, aided by a corporation interested in the diamond mines, hires AIM, the renowned mercenary company, to help restore order. The player is tasked with picking and leading a group of those AIM mercs in a guerilla campaign to rescue the president and topple the Major. In the true spirit of the series, the player will have to manage the finances of the campaign, navigate the strategic map to capture cities and most importantly mines in order to bankroll the expedition, as well as lead the mercs in turn-based tactical combat and through RPG-lite missions and exploration. Oh and there was no mistake, no, the country is indeed called Big Dog in French. In other words, as is tradition, the game doesn't shy away from humour and satire.
The primary gameplay focus is on tactical combat. That's what most of the game revolves around. In that respect the game is rather reminiscent of the modern XCOM series by Firaxis. I wouldn't say it innovates all that much. The options on offer are certainly more limited when compared to Jagged Alliance 2. The game has fewer weapons and fewer items. It also suffers from a rather obvious lack of balance and finetuning. Several weapon classes like pistols or SMGs have almost no practical use, while LMGs can dominate the battlefield but consume too much precious ammo that can't be easily replaced, all this makes the stealthy sniper approach almost mandatory. Twice so by the endgame when enemies annoyingly get increasingly spongy. Whatever shortcomings there may be though, this is a proven formula and the game does employ it with success. Combat is fun to play and looks good in the process too. It retains a good balance between positioning and engaging with enemies for example, an often problematic element in such games. The highly destructible tactical maps themselves are another highlight, offering excellent verticality and interesting layouts. Few things are as satisfying as firing a rocket at enemies hiding behind a wall and watching as half the building comes crashing down on their heads.
The strategic aspect of the game will also feel quite familiar to returning fans. Its focus is on navigating a map of the region, setting targets for merc squads and managing finances. It's an excellent aspect of the series and it's great to see it return. Some of the new additions like diamond mine shipments that can be ambushed for extra money are more than welcome. Unfortunately though, there are limitations here too. Coordinating attacks between squads for example is very unintuitive. Additionally, the game limits the number of mercs that can be hired at once to merely 15. Why? Does AIM not want my money? That gives the player only 2 full squads of 6 mercs, which further restricts strategic operations. The lack of a proper equipment shop is another palpable omission. And then comes one of the most surprising choices. The diamond mines, all of them, run dry fast. The game does not warn you that this is the case and conceptually it makes no sense. The whole plot revolves around controlling the production of diamonds, yet the moment the player touches them *poof* they go. Sort of like a reverse Midas. This means the game does not allow you to ever form a stable income eliminating a number of previously valid playstyles. I hope the developers realize just how daft this design choice was and at least make it optional in a future patch.
Core gameplay aside, anyone who knows anything about this series will tell you that the heart and soul of Jagged Alliance is the mercs. This lovable, dysfunctional and diverse group of rogues, weirdos, sycophants, action heroes and psychos. Each of them oozed personality. Their relationships with one other, their likes and dislikes, it provided the series with incredible depth. It appears that the developers of this sequel loved those characters and understood their significance also. Certainly there are many mercs missing, but the ones that do return are lovingly recreated. I enjoyed simply staring at their renders from time to time. Even the voices are for the most part great. I had long thought that nothing could ever come close to the voice overs of Jagged Alliance 2, yet those here are not only faithful but absolutely serviceable. Some, perhaps, are even better. This is a veritable cornucopia of fanservice. If I had to nitpick, I'd say it's too much. The mercs can come across as flanderised with their most prominent character features exaggerated. It made me wonder at times if the writers didn't have the chops to develop them properly and had to resort to, admittedly entertaining, fanfic. Either way, that's nitpicking. For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the game.
To conclude, does this sequel truly manage to live up to Jagged Alliance 2? Well, maybe not, but it does get close enough to breathe new life to the franchise. I'd argue it gets closer than anything has so far and close enough to a legend, sounds good enough to me. Indeed, this is a very respectable effort and I certainly recommend it to all fans of the series, but also fans of tactical games and classic RPGs in general. It does lack some polish and it does need to be better balanced in a number of areas, I do hope the developers will not abandon this game but nurture it via patches so that it can fully realise its great potential. With any luck, they will also reintroduce some of the missing mercs at some point. I'm really looking forward to that possibility, even in the form of paid expansions. No matter, the point, folks, is that Jagged Alliance is finally back in action. For real this time. That's reason enough to be content. At least for a while.