Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Hands On

Developer: Coreplay / Publisher: Kalypso / Played on: PC / Release Date:  February 2012 / ESRB: RP

BUSINESS IS BOOMING

Visually and mechanically updated—but still faithful to the series’ perspective, artistic style, and general approach—Jagged Alliance returns to the tactical RTS battlefield this February with Back in Action. While the entire franchise is rebooted and rebuilt with a snazzy 3D engine and highly detailed character models (a stark contrast from the breakout 1994 PC release), this return to the roots is still very much the old-school strategy experience you may remember at its beating, mercenary heart.

Speaking of which, keeping the various mercenary hearts still beating is what this top-down strategy game is all about. You take thorough control of a small, constantly-morphing mercenary army, with the ultimate mission of wresting control of third-world Amulco Island from the greasy hands of a ruthless, pisspot dictator. The challenge entails Business every bit as much as bullets, and requires you to take back the island yard by yard in a series of tactical battles. That’s while personally supporting, equipping, directing, and enhancing their rag-tag band of have-gun-will-travel warriors with a system of RPG-style character development that more than borders on a business management software suite. If that sounds fanciful, consider a database of suitable soldiers to hire, accounts payable/receivable transactions, and the crude yet charming audio presentation of an old-style modem pinging for connection, a nice touch; also, some of your potential fighter-employees just plain don’t like each other, so personality conflicts can be a factor.

Prior to picking and conducting your war plan (on both the strategic and tactical levels), you’ll cherry-pick squads to the finest detail—the men who’ll work together, the specific weapons and supplies they’ll carry into battle, and of course the vital medics who’ll hang back and (hopefully) keep your strike teams bandaged together long enough to achieve victory.

One big thing to keep in mind: This is hardcore. Old School territory conflicts are key, and if one of your unique, carefully cultivated veteran mercs does something stupid and contracts a fatal case of lead poisoning, he’s gone, and that’s the end of that, no videogame ‘extra lives’ about it. Care must be taken to tackle (and staff) various missions, weighing the immediate value of putting your most uniquely skilled men in harm’s way against the risk of losing forever the ability to insert them into future missions.

You can execute island-wide, simultaneous control of multiple combat squads on the strategic-level map (additional resources can be acquired by taking and securing enemy-held mines and encampments), but the real military meat is at the tactical level. Back in Action introduces a new so-named Plan & Go gameplay scheme, an alternative middle-ground approach between traditional real-time strategy mechanics and classic turn-based tactics. Imagine, in broad strokes, the UI of a video-editing suite, wherein users place a stretch of video, drop in specific sound effects precisely here and here, and then insert a montage of quick images starting…now.

It’s a little like that—you can do the expected real-time tactical commands of ordering your point-man gunner to take cover and lay down fire while your sniper waits for an ideal shot, and your most mobile guy scuttles flank side to check what’s lurking behind a nearby building (and/or your medic hangs back to see what fresh carnage ensues as a result of all of this)…but with the Plan & Go scheme, you can fine-tune and script these coordinated actions, letting your soldiers cue off each other as they follow their pre-planned moves; maybe you don’t want one segment of your team to attack or act in any way until another segment has executed its orders.

The scheme allows you to occasionally interrupt/pause and re-tweak the sequence as the tactical situation changes (of course, if the op suddenly and completely turns to shit, you can always suddenly switch over to a more traditional, real-time strategy mode at any point and try a blind, last-ditch, desperate Zerg-rush; hey, sometimes it even  works, and not everybody in your squad necessarily dies.)  Or, if clearer-thinking heads prevail, you could always pause the action, clear the orders that have lead you to this point, and issue new ones that might have a chance of salvaging the situation.

The majority of the levels and content culled from Jagged Alliance 2 and expansion material have been given a new graphical makeover—and not only that, all the game dialogue has audio (as your characters, individuals all, will interact with game events and have things to say about them). As with that aforementioned old-style modem sound-effect, there’s a lot of rewarding detail and personality here. That’s even after a failed mission—unless the developers go back in and change things from when we got our hands on the game—where the mission-fail screen slaps you with a curt, helpful, insult-to-injury assessment of your tactical failings: “PUSSY!”) Again: Nice touch. Further, Back in Action will offer an actual tutorial this time around, something JA‘s earlier incarnation sorely lacked.

So balance your paramilitary budget, keep an eye on your potential-hire roster of soldiers, study the guard/patrol patterns and field-of-view cones of the enemy combatants before committing to an assault, and try to keep your medics alive as you take the enemy’s territories one hard-fought tactical clash at a time. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action will kick it old-school this February, and may the toughest solider (with a Bachelors in Small Business Management) win.

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