In the world of turn-based strategy games, it's probably fair to say that we've been waiting a heck of a long time for Jagged Alliance to make its next move. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the last numbered entry in the series, and the many attempts that have been made to recapture its tactical, mercenary magic since then have been mixed at best, and reviled at worst. Haemimont Games, the devs behind Tropico and current custodians of the upcoming Jagged Alliance 3, know this, and their publisher THQ Nordic said as much back in September 2021 when it was first revealed, assuring players they were going to create a game that "really does justice to the Jagged Alliance legacy".
But in an era where turn-based tactics games are now increasingly defined by genre titans such as XCOM and Into The Breach, I'm not sure that legacy means all that much anymore. I've been playing a substantial early chunk of Jagged Alliance 3 over the last week or so, and its decision to pare back crucial information such as chance-to-hit and other modern conveniences has mostly left me feeling frustrated and annoyed rather than daring and excited. The writing also made me cringe so hard at times I think even the neighbours heard my groans of despair. It certainly looks the part of a modern strategy game, its detailed African landscape, top down perspective and interactive objects calling to mind Mimimi's excellent Desperados 3 and Shadow Tactics games, but the rest feels like it's been lifted straight out of the late 90s where we last left Jagged Alliance 2 - and not necessarily to its benefit.
]]>THQ Nordic are celebrating their 10th anniversary by giving away free games via Steam. Surprisingly enduring action RPG Titan Quest is currently free-to-keep, and so is the ancient turn-based tactics of Jagged Alliance.
Then, if you want something a little more modern, the real-time tactical stealth of Desperados 3 is free-to-try for the next three days.
]]>The ranks of the Jagged Alliance series, with its myriad sequels, remakes, expansion packs, mods-gone-pro, cancelled MMOs and unofficial spin-offs, rival only the So Solid Crew in terms of headspinning numbers and impossible-to-remember names.
After a frankly turgid couple of decades, it's back once again for the one-time king of turn-based mercenary argy-bargy. Can Jagged Alliance: Rage score the Arnie-does-X-COM series a critical and/or commercial hit for the first time since 1999?
Announced today, it's due out later this year, and looks like this...
]]>Sound the horns, ye scoundrels. Battle Brothers [official site], the turn-based strategy full of pointless deaths and bad decisions, has emerged from under the pile of corpses that litter the early access battlefield. After almost two years of mercenary mischief, the full release was today. If you’re not familiar with the man-hiring and hexagonal tile-based killing of the game, don’t fret. They’ve got a wee video to show you what’s what, which you'll find down there.
]]>Every Monday we find Brendan sulking in a tavern and recruit him into our brigade of early access mercenaries. This week, the tough, turn-based strategy of Battle Brothers [official site].
The life of a sellsword is not a forgiving one. But don’t take my word for it - ask José the Dog Whisperer, who has just been pushed into a narrow hole by a gang of heavily armoured Orcs and savagely sliced to bits from all sides. Oh, I suppose you can’t. Well, you could ask Fibs O’Hanlon, but no, now that I think about it, he was also stabbed until death. Let’s see, what about Dietrich With No Surname? Yes, he's the one without the head. Oh, oh I see what you mean.
]]>The first part of my conversation with Full Control CEO Thomas Hentschel Lund covered the main mechanical and interface changes that have been implemented in Jagged Alliance: Flashback. Taking Jagged Alliance 2 as its base, the game's alpha has now been released to backers, giving a first insight into the combat mechanics. In this second part of our extensive interview, I spoke to Lund about the pressure of working with a license and living up to expectations, as well as the vital importance of modding in the future and past of Jagged Alliance.
]]>Jagged Alliance: Flashback's first alpha slice releases to backers tomorrow. It's the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone outside of Full Control will have played the game and CEO Thomas Hentschel Lund is excited and, it's fair to say, a little anxious. Since I last spoke to Lund, the company has released its Space Hulk adaptation and the Jagged Alliance Kickstarter crept over the finish line with moments to spare.
In a long and exhaustive conversation, we discussed the huge changes to the game's story and setting since the Kickstarter launched, and the mechanical and interface changes that differentiate Full Control's game from Jagged Alliance 2. I also found time to ask if Full Control had tracked down the original merc voice actors and to begin a discussion of the extensive modding capabilities that will be in the game from day one of Early Access.
]]>As prophesied by the saintly words of the Very Reverend Adam Smith last week, Jagged Alliance is about to make its eighty millionth comeback, this time in the charge of Full Control, they of the new Space Hulk game, and via the medium of Crowdsourcing. I can only advise you to read that interview in the pursuit of fulsome details on the turn-based strategy remakequel, but today the actual Kickstarter goes live. This means more details, and also a video which affords me the opportunity to see the face of a man I have only ever spoken to on the phone before. It's quite a nice face, really.
]]>I've spent most of my adult life waiting for a worthy successor to Jagged Alliance 2 so when Full Control announced that they had secured the rights to the license, I was eager to find out how true the new game would be to the original two. Heading to Kickstarter next week, where it will have a target of $350,000, Jagged Alliance: Flashback is a prequel that will explore the forming of mercenary organisation A.I.M. and cold war tensions. I spoke to CEO Thomas Hentschel Lund and team-mate Andreas to find out if old mercenary favourites will be back, why Kickstarter and the community matter, and the difficulties involved in resuscitating a franchise.
]]>JAGGED ALLIANCE! JAGGED ALLIANCE! JAGGED ALLIANCE! It's no good. I just don't have Alec's endurance when it comes to repeating words for any length of time. I do have a remarkable degree of stamina when it comes to dancing though and I plan to spend the next five minutes doing the Snoopy dance in celebration of the fact that Full Control, who are currently working on a promising adaptation of Space Hulk, are moving on to a new turn-based Jagged Alliance game once Space Hulk has shipped. Hope springs eternal.
]]>I had very mixed feelings about Jagged Alliance: Back In Action and not the kind that make for the emotional equivalent of a delicious bourbon-based beverage. This was more like a draught of nostalgic ambrosia that someone had spilled kerosene in. That I still drank it and would do so again speaks ill of my character. The recent patch siphons in something sweet and much in demand though - a 'tactical' mode. That might seem a bit like if Battlefield 3 adding a 'shooter' mode months after release, but at least someone's listened to the complaints and JABIA is receiving decent support. The main addition is that enemies must be revealed through line of sight but there's plenty more. Full change list below.
]]>We are an army of the persistent, the courageous, the savvy, the devoted. We are the few who have liberated Arulco, we sent flowers to the queen and then we blew the doors off her palace. We never quite worked out why we were being attacked by Bloodcats and we mostly ignored the existence of the Crepitus. Many of us learned that cows make for excellent target practice, even if we felt bad about it afterwards. All of us have seized Drassen airport more times than we care to remember. It is only right that one of us should go Back In Action.
]]>Bland headlines, eh? Steam is now host to a demo for Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, so all those people who have been dismissive of the move to pausable real time can see if hats must be salted, peppered and devoured. Similarly, those who have laid out a welcome mat for Colonel Change can see what the blighter does once he's in their parlour, hanging his hat on the coat rack and his coat on the hat rack. Oh, you confounding swine, Change, why must you play with our expectations so? If you're allergic to Steam, here are alternate download links.
]]>When it was revealed that Jagged Alliance: Back In Action would use a 'plan & go' pausable action system rather than the turn-based trappings of yore, I expected the outcry to be loud and shrill. Mine was, until I played the game at which point I was forced to acknowledge that actual hands-on experience is more useful than spurious supposition. Who would have thought? I found something new to whine about when I saw the necessarily clear evidence that the game contains no fog of war. Then I thought it might be added for release. I was wrong, buried beneath crossed wires. Some people seem as unconcerned about the missing fog as they were about the missing turns, so perhaps this gameplay video will help everyone to have contrary thoughts.
]]>Edit: the fog of war info is conflicting and murky. Clarity is being sought.
If you read my earlier impressions of Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, you may have noticed that there was no release date listed. February 9th is the day the game will unlock on Steam and today, news comes that February 14th will see a US retail launch, with information on boxed versions in other territories to follow. Games in boxes! How quaint. Don't leave though, because release dates are as nothing next to the news that fog of war may be present in the game.
]]>I've been playing an early version of Jagged Alliance - Back In Action, the upcoming remake of one of my most beloved games. I keep my copy of Jagged Alliance 2 atop a giant stack of Soldier of Fortune magazines, which stands between an ashtray containing a smouldering over-sized cigar, some satellite surveillance photos of a dictator's villa, a few scattered dogtags (some with bulletholes through them) and a pile of empty shell casings. I don't know why I keep a lot of that stuff but I guess it reminds me how much of a man I am. Can Back In Action do the same?
]]>It's almost December now, and even though I've checked my hard drive thoroughly, again and again, there is no trace of Jagged Alliance: Back In Action on it. Which doesn't make any sense, given the game was supposed to be out on October 18th. Let me just check again.
[Checks] Nope, there's half of an Alanis Morrisette album an ex left on there years ago, but that's all the Jagged I'm getting. Wha'happened?
[Checks]
]]>Since we first heard about Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, one very important thing hasn't been entirely clear. As soon as I see evidence of a new tactical game, particularly if it's based on one I've previously attempted to legally wed, I have one question: are you turn-based, my darling? Back In Action has been coyly avoiding the answer to that question, claiming to be turn-curious but with a strong tendency toward real-time. Well now, it seems, the truth is out with this word from the developers:
The Plan & Go system could be described as an extended “real time with pauses” system. Back in Action essentially runs in real time, but the game can be paused at any time. The player maintains control of the game events even during the pause, and can input more entries which can only be implemented when the pause is removed.
Oh, baby, why can't we take things slow and make our moves alternately in a well-paced fashion?
]]>It’s self-indulgence time in Modland this week as I use my hastily rigged together platform, which runs on the Soapbox Derby engine, to direct you all to spend your weekends playing one of the greatest games ever made. Jagged Alliance 2 should need no introduction, nor should its most infamous and essential mod, known simply as 1.13, being in the form of a super patch of sorts. But does such a bountiful game require any additions? Can it be made even greater?
]]>Pining for something unquestionably PC amidst this recent torrent of sound, fury and pre-rendered chest-thumping? A new Jagged Alliance game should do the trick. Jagged Alliance: Back In Action is a "modernised remake" of the one-time X-COM heir apparent, and it now bears a release date. Somehow, 2011's ended up being a corker of a year for tactical strategy - this, Frozen Synapse and all being well Xenonauts should all be with us before dirty old Santa pays his next visit.
]]>.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "שחרורו של Assassin's Creed Shadows נדחה למרץ כאשר מועצת המנהלים של Ubisoft שוקל מכירת חברה")
