Jagged Alliance: Back in Action review
A confession: I have never played either of the previous Jagged Alliance games. In 1999 when Jagged Alliance 2 was released, I was far too busy playing Unreal Tournament or Final Fantasy VII to really notice it; a niche strategy PC title from a German developer never really made much of an impact. However, here we are 13 years later and Jagged Alliance: Back in Action emerges as a form of aberration on the gaming landscape. A PC-only RPG-strategy hybrid title set in a modern day guerrilla conflict. If you were aiming for a niche, you would struggle to find narrower.
Being a full remake of Jagged Alliance 2 and its expansion packs, veteran fans will recognise many re-used assets: familiar voice acting (for better or worse), mission structure, weapons, equipment and story are all present here. The story itself is a simple one; the ousted heir of a small island nation, Arulco, hires you as a mercenary commander and tasks you with the liberation of his country and the assassination of his wife-turned-dictator Deidranna. The only contact you will have with your benefactor for the majority of the game is via email through a laptop management screen, in an effort to help immerse you in the role of a paramilitary commander.
Immersion and the expectation that a player will have to use their initiative are strong themes from the outset. After a short tutorial, you’re taken to a map screen, given a budget and expected to get on with it. From there the ball is in your court. The openness of structure is a little intimidating for the unprepared, but this soon melts away to excitement as you realise the control that the developer trusts you with. As soon as you hire two or three mercenaries and retake the islands small airport, the options open up to you. Hire more mercs, fly in equipment, buy supplies from the locals, explore, conquer, you name it. There are missions and objectives to attempt of course, but whether you commit your resources to their completion or not is entirely optional. It’s possible to march your Greenhorns right up to Deidranna’s seat of power by the end of the first day, although I would not recommend it.
The nitty gritty of tactical real time pause’n’play combat is the game’s best asset and worst failing. Movements and animations are fluid, sound effects are immersive (save for the awful voice acting – I can only hope this was left in either for budget or nostalgia reasons) and the game oozes atmosphere. The graphics are lush and attention to detail is impressive and really adds to the experience of combat. Anyone familiar with the likes of the old Commandos series or, more recently, Frozen Synapse will feel at home and pick up the control scheme quickly, but there are a plethora of niggles about the actual play-by-play of combat that can only be learned and countered by messing up and dying over and over again.
Your mercs, especially when new, will not react very quickly. Tell them to shoot someone and it’ll be a good few seconds before they actually respond. Adversaries armed with melee weapons have ample time to rush into stabbing range while your merc stares down the barrel of his gun at them. Giving orders to your mercs in real-time mode will sometimes make them react immediately, sometimes it’ll just add to their command queue, even in real-time mode. You’ll have to remember to cancel all existing orders first, or they may just ignore you. Movement pathing is perfect around terrain, but nonexistent between characters, causing two mercenaries that bump into each other to simply stop moving and dump the rest of their actions.
All these annoyances can be accommodated for with practise and forethought, but there will be many frustrating hours replaying even the smallest of engagements before things really click. Meticulously planned assaults will fall flat, mercenaries will seem to refuse to follow your commands, and your screen will become flecked with spittle from repeated screams of frustration.
Then you will look at the clock and realise its 3am when you sat down at 7. Despite its flaws, Jagged Alliance is one of the most compelling and addictive games I have played for a long time. You’ll die and reload over and over again, sure, but you’ll still want to keep playing. The feeling of satisfaction of a clean kill, or a well planned assault through a hole in the wall blown by your explosives expert, is repeated over and over in each mission. You’ll always have something to do. Earning the trust of the local resistance, capturing a mine to bolster your income, performing supply runs to arm the local militia against their oppressors, there is never a chance for you to think “what now”.
Furthermore, this is one of a few games that carry a rare spark of emergent story telling. Your mercenaries have next to no character, but that doesn’t really matter because you’ll superimpose personalities on to them after a few hours. You’ll care when they get hurt. You’ll fret for them when one has to make a sprint through crossfire to reach a wounded comrade. You’ll go from hating their ineptitude to admiring a single shot kill with a submachine gun from 20 meters. It’s very easy to see how this game managed to achieve cult status 13 years ago.
Jagged Alliance is a flawed title. There is no doubt about that. Whether this is down to poor design decisions carried over from the original or more recent oversights, it’s not going to matter for the average player. There are many things that the developer could have done to improve the overall experience. However, I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys strategy games with a large amount of micromanagement. There is a lot of content here and this game delivers a style of play that can only be found with excellence on PC, and perhaps a good indication that there is still a reason to put out a title that’s not for the masses.
