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I'm a bit off the pace on current games developments now that I'm a Father buy by chance I found out that the Jagged Alliance series has been revived on the PC with a new title Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. I have now play it a few times and thought I'd drop a review here and spread the word a little on what I am finding to be an interesting a nuanced revision of an old favourite.

For the uninformed the original series of Jagged Alliance games put you in charge of a group of contemporary Mercenaries doing a bit of regime change in a isometric skirmish level turn-based strategy against evil-doers. I only picked up the series at JA2 which placed your Mercs against the Evil Queen Diedrianna in the fictitious country of Alrucco. A lovely little hell hole that could equally have been in South America or Eastern Europe you had to oust the Queen and her cronies attacking and controlling sectors on a tactical map generating cash for more mercs and standing militias to defend against counter attacks. The game featured allot of different mercs (40+) to choose from and the rather quirky character generator for your self. I loved this as it posed a number of multiple choice questions which you were to answer "in Character" or as yourself to create the personality and stats for your own Merc.

JA2: not bad for its time, a bit clunky looking now!


It spawned a few expansions/Mods over the years from a very loyal following. Its showing its age now but still fun to play if you can get it to run on Vista/W7.

Well back to the present and the bitch is back. Unfortunately JA:BiB is a rehash of the story from JA2 so once again Prince Enrico is asking you to remove his mad ex-wife who framed him for the death of his father. This is to be accomplished by the application of violence to her minions. Fortunately the game is significantly different to JA2 that the reuse of the story is inconsequential.

Graphic/Sound: For starters we now have a rather attractive 3D environment and sounds to match. It looks nice; you can zoom in on details and enemies and take cover in the terrain. This is nothing new for modern games but an element lacking from JA previously. Contoured terrain is vital here as per real life for cover from fire/detection (rather than just ground level and roof level in JA2), so the stealthy can crawl through ditches and hide in roof valleys and set up a myriad of firing positions. This makes the tactical choices far more varied than the quite limited shoot from a roof or sneak up and throw a knife in the enemies back that will be familiar from JA2.

The overall effect of the visuals really enhances the game from being just an involving strategy to the full package we take for granted these days.

The sounds and its interface with gameplay have also been enhanced. The ambient noises are good, as ever the merc's voices are well done (but annoying repetitive in their mixture of world accents). All mercs now have noise bars that indicate the level of noise the are making as they navigate the battlescape, as well as an accompanying detection one too. If you run too close to an enemy he will raise the alarm, drawing in his mates. This can be good if you have a few rifles or an MG set up waiting but bad if you are unsupported as it is easy to get swamped by the enemy.


Gameplay: At a general level turnbased has been replaced by real time play. The danger here is that the level of detail/choice that is to be expected with a JA title could be lost and replaced with AI reactions, but fortunately this has been avoided through the use of a Pause screen order system, where you hit the space bar and give each merc a chain of orders to follow. This requires some quite detailed planning at times as the orders will time in, but targets can move out of LoS and new ones can emerge and clips can be used up mid fight! Personally the move away from IgoUgo have increase my enjoyment of the game but it is not easy by any means, but it is pleasing when your mercs advance around an enemy position, take cover and using the timed order function open up at the same time. Fortunately the game saves automatically when enemies are spotted allowing you to return to a previous point if you get too mauled in a fire fight; which can easily happen with 2-4 mercs when you first start.

Team selection is an important part of the process too. You start with limited funds but will want to choose a well rounded team to cover as many of the specialist skills as you can, specifically Medical, Mechanical and Explosives abilities. Without a Medic some wounds can not be patched up let alone healed (you can bleed to death if not bandaged despite healing), a Mechanic will help you to maintain you kit (a gun jam is very dangerous in CQB and trying to set C4 will have lesser to unwanted results if Joe average tries to set it.

All mercs come with a range of kit and pleasingly rifles (and bigger!) are more common right from the start. The Barrett .50 cal riffle, LAW66, M79 Bloopers and Minimi/SAW all feature if you can find or afford them. Weapons can be upgraded with a range of real world kit (silencers/scopes etc) and Armour and clothing all have in game effects. It is this level of detail that has always been a big bonus with the JA games for me. The first time one of your team takes someone down with a burst from their MP5/Uzi is really quite nice.

At a more strategic level your merc company is managed by a Tactical map and in-game laptop function where you can monitor emails (briefings and notes) use the web to contact more mercs and arms dealers. This will be similar to JA Vets but is more streamlined and rather prettier than previous titles. This simplification hasn't detracted form the experience and helps to concentrate you on the action.



The only big down side here is the loss of the character generator from JA2, so you lose a free merc that you would have had and the laugh at what the computer makes of your responses to its questions. Finding that it defined you as an unhinged redneck with no discernable skills except hit things with crowbars is an experience I can recommend!

So In summary I can say that it is a streamlined, modernised, prettier and altogether slicker take on the Jagged Alliance experience and one that I can thoroughly recommend for JA Vets and new players alike. While it my not appeal to seat-of-your-pants FPS gamers its definitely one for a more cerebral tactical sorts that loves their gunz.

Available from most PC/Mac sellers and Steam download. There's also as you might expect a host of fatigue/armour/weapon packs available to download (for a price!).

There’s plenty of gameplay trailers on youtube.

[youtube]http://img.youtube.com/vi/KjRcBKtUncA/default.jpg[/youtube]

Notprop rating 8/10.

I note the image size fail, but the work computer limits me a little, I'll try to correct later on or just google the images/vids.