Jagged Alliance: Back in Action

Did you play Frozen Synapse? Did you think to youself, "gee, what this really needs is some more South American-style guerrila warfare"?

Behold. The legend returns.



Pre-orders are now available on Steam. Those of you who know my undying love for old-school X-COM action should not be surprised at what I'll be doing shortly.

Did you know that Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games is one of my favorite games of all time? I had one of the voice taunts as my answering machine message for something like 8 years.

I loved JA2 to death, too, of course, and its add-on pack, Unfinished Business. I never finished JA2 itself, though - the logistics of micromanaging the inventory of 50 mercenaries, from items literally scattered across an entire country, laid out on the ground where each merc would have to travel and pick them up, or carry them to their friends for tedious drag and drop trading ... ugh. I'm hoping (though doubtful) that there will be some streamlining on that front.

I read an interesting hands-on for Back in Action, which noted how eerie it is to be using the exact same mercs with the exact same individual comments attacking the exact same airfield, taking cover behind the exact same bushes, etc. as in JA2, but in a fully 3D game with new voice actors and new combat engine and whole new shell generally.

Maybe this means I will finally make it to Meduna this time. I hope you don't have to snipe the elite guard 7 or 8 times in the head to kill them (as I heard you had to in 2).

So yeah, I am looking forward to this sucker. I'm doubtful that it's truly worth a day one purchase though, or even a preorder. More than $20 seems like charity. (Not that I wouldn't give charity to devs of such a noble project if I could afford to.)

Best part of JA2? The memorials to the JA mercs. Shed a tear, I did.

Did a little write-up for Toronto Thumbs now that the gameplay trailer is out:



And, not to overly brag, but I'll be getting a preview build to fool around with before launch day. I'll be posting my impressions over at TT.

So, who likes demos? Guess what! The demo is here! One tutorial level plus one mid-game level.

wth?? Who does demos any more?? That's really ... words fail me. Hurry up, DSL!

aargh download fasterrrrrr

Steroid, MD and Bull made it through their first three encounters of the first level more or less intact. Then they fell prey to a guard with godlike detection and the treacherous light of a lamppost. Quick tip: JA does not kid around when it says light and noise matter.

this looks like fun!

Here you go.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=7268

I know!

I guess the hats will make more sense when I see the mercenaries associated with them, but I feel like as a JA fan from way back I kind of HAVE to get that Merc Medal.

The demo is starting to annoy me. It appears that JAIA subscribes to the "million hit point" theory of game design. If I sneak up behind a guy and empty an SMG clip into his back, he calmly turns around and one-shots me. This does not fill me with confidence.

Yeeikes. I can assure you that in the preview build, mercs get shot in the head just fine with starter pistols. Sure, they still have uncannily good detection at times but they are flesh and blood.

To be fair, when the demo was released, the devs said, and I quote:

Now, WHY they thought it was a good idea to release a demo that would alienate ... like ... every single person who tried it ... is a mystery to me. Frankly, it strikes me as very stupid. But the real game is supposed to basically not be like this.

Also read an interesting comment made elsewhere about how the devs are essentially JA fans and modders who got it together to do a remake. They've probably played JA2 through a million times, and what seems like a fun game to them will probably be a true exercise in masochistic torture for anyone who hasn't. (I never finished JA2, btw. Too much micromanagement near the end.)

I feel less shame now knowing there are others like me.

This game will unlock in approximately 1 day and 15 hours

How is it?

I'm enjoying it. It's definitely not a AAA title; the interface is weird, the pacing can be tiresome, and there are some disappointing omissions from the original JA2. But the combat is really fun, and that's what the whole game is about. Even the inventory management hasn't become a chore yet!

Biggest disappointments: no custom mercenary! In JA2 you made your own guy who kind of took the role of "you" in the field (although he could die like anyone else and the game would continue). Character advancement is on an experience point and skill point system, instead of learning by doing as in all past games (big disappointment, that). Hiring militia is much harder than in JA2 ... you generally can arm like 1 or 2 guys to defend a captured sector, and then 12 enemies come and just take it back. So I'm recapturing the same areas over and over again. (Once I get enough mercs I'm going to post "PC guards" at my borders to hopefully prevent this.)

But really these are all minor gripes. The game gets way more right than it does wrong in my opinion. Of course if you're not a fan of the series, you will be coming in with a totally different set of expectations, so I don't know what to tell ya.