Yes, you read that right. ‘Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Demo’. We know, we know, reviewing demos is a little poor form, especially if they’re the kinds of demos that just show up out of thin air. But this game looked interesting, and the demo was the only thing we could afford to play.
Because it’s free, you see.
This is a reference to how poor we are.
Player3:
This is indeed what Jarenth reviews. I, player 3, however, am not afraid to get my hands dirty and got my hands on the full version. For the great purpose of enlightening our well respected audience (actual opinion may vary from person to person), of course. Back to the ongoing waterfall of words.
Waterfall ‘o words:
For those of you not in the know, Jagged Alliance: Back In Action is the third and latest, recently released title bearing the Jagged Alliance name. Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, the Internet tells us, is supposed to be a remake of Jagged Alliance 2, except it does away with grid-based, action-point-based, turn-based combat, instead preferring a pause-and-release real-time system. As in, you can control your mercenaries in real-time, or you can pause, queue up orders, then un-pause and let the orders carry out in real-time.
For those of you completely not in the know: Jagged Alliance: Back In Action is a game in which you lead a band of mercenaries to depose a despot in the fictional country of Arulco. You hire, train and equip mercenaries, then send them on missions around the country in order to capture resources, destroy enemies, and do anything else mercenaries tend to do.
The Jagged Alliance: Back In Action demo features a tutorial mode and one mission wherein you control a four-man team to conquer a strategic location of sorts. Jarenth and PlayerIII both played this demo, independently-though-colocatedly. They weren’t very good at it, which may have coloured their responses a little.
Jarenth is not a stealthy man. This game makes him look even worse.
A joke about PlayerIII’s review goes here. Alternatively, his review.
“…to set the behaviour of this mercenaries…”
You mean the guard mode? I could’ve sworn that was covered by the tutorial.
But it didn’t cover sneaking properly (so you can instakill/knockout without any weapons? Nice to know now), using guns in an efficient manner (you can aim at the head or feet) or anything else that would feel important in an actual mission. Just the very basics and then off you go.
I did aim for the head, usually; that was explained. It’s just that it never felt very effective, what with our enemies remaining alive and all.
It was? I recall it only covered “shooting at a wooden board”, which didn’t have heads, torsos or legs.
In Jagged Alliance 2 I once shot a man in the head. After I ended the turn he bled to death. Felt effective, I wonder what went wrong with BIA.
Also: I have to note how wrong it feels that someone can use up a part of a medkit and fail to get anything done. What did he do, exactly, that this happens? After all, if he has a higher skill than others it would imply appropriate training. I’d understand if there would a be possibility of healing less than usual every now and then, but not that it fails completely. It feels unnecessarily binary.
I hope you appreciate the effort that went into tracking down this comic.