Jagged Alliance 3 Review (Letande)
Hold up, hold up! That does not look too convincing to me.
Dangerous, but not convincing.
~Wolf
I don't want to sound like an old geezer, but getting a new game felt heavily different back in the days. Better or worse? Doesn't matter. What matters is that it was different. Nowadays you know exactly what you're getting long before you start playing. Gameplay videos on YouTube, previews, bloggers... Also, let's just admit it – most of the time nowadays we just get more of the same. Indies? Sure. But still, most of the time you know exactly what to expect. Back in the days? It was entirely different story. Picking up another one of those beautiful big boxes was very Forrest Gump experience. You never knew what's inside. Especially since rules weren't written in stone yet and making a game was often more like experiment for its makers. And for consumers? There was sure certain magic in all that.
I still remember the day when I launched Jagged Alliance for the first time. The moment I found myself in a small house with boarded window and laptop on table. Nothing happened. Nobody tried to shoot me, or eat me or kill me any other way, like in the other games. It was just an empty room with a dim light and that laptop. Naturally, with nothing else to do, I turned it on and... my life was never the same since then.
Long story short, JA was a game about mercenaries. We had a big open world island, which some greedy a-hole turned into his own personal fortress, and, well, we were supposed to take it back. By force. To do that, we needed to hire some badasses. And when I say hire? I mean exactly that. Hire. Your guys didn't fight for you because they liked you or shared your views. Those were mercenaries. You got money? You got firepower. No money? You know how it is. That's JA for ya. What's even more interesting – those mercenaries weren't just faceless units that died for us in King's Bounty, Battle Isle and the others. Mercenaries in JA had personalities. Sure, they had different specializations, but they also had different origins, different backstories and even their own unique way to talk. And it felt... awesome!
Time passed. Good ol' DOS was replaced by Windows. And, naturally, a new JA came out. The one that majority considers to be the very best one out there. And I can clearly see why, since tactical part became much more detailed and cool. Personally, I was a little bit disappointed, since I wanted strategic element to be seriously enhanced too (the game is divided between two screens – so-called tactical mode, in which you fight and do things with your mercs, and satellite view, which is pretty much interactive world map), but still, JA2 was an icon.
Unfortunately, soon after that the nightmare began. Sir-Tech, who acquired the original creators, went bankrupt and... Let's just say that at that unfortunate moment the series started to look like a young lady who made some really bad choices. It all started when Strategy First (who ended up with the rights), decided to re-create JA2 in 3D. They contacted GFI. GFI promised them a game and hired russian studio MiST Land, who, at the moment, already made a couple of shockingly rough tactical games for 'em. Thankfully, that JA3 didn't happen. The development process was so messy that at some point MiST Land even announced that their game will take place in real time. Without even asking SF. Naturally, those didn't like that (after all, turn-based combat was always considered as series' selling feature), which led to a pretty long sh*tstorm. After which license was revoked. GFI still released the game (which became turn-based again) under the name Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, but since it was pretty bad and didn't have any connections to JA, nobody cared. All that mattered was that JA3 didn't happen. A lot of publishers asked to produce it. Some actually tried. Nobody succeed. The license moved from one to another until bitComposer decided to (shocker) remake JA2 in 3D. What a fresh idea, huh?
What's funny is that the result was JA: Back in Action. Which was a real-time game. From creators of worldwide Wii hits Crazy Chicken Tales and Fit & Fun. Good Lord... To be fair, though, Back in Action wasn't unplayable. It just... didn't feel like JA at all and had that certain “too much ambitions” aftertaste. You played games like The Fall: Last Days of Gaia? You know exactly what I'm talking about. That and lack of JA feeling led to a very poor reception. bitComposer desperately tried to get at least some income from the name, but no, I refuse to talk about JA Online. Because there's no lower point than browser game. JA: Flashback, on the other hand, is worth mentioning. Just because it was yet another desperate attempt to re-create good ol' JA in 3D. Guess what? It failed too. This time because of Kickstarter and all of the problems with such projects. There was also JA: Rage!, but it's barely worth mentioning because, despite introducing survival elements, it was way too cheap and way too limited.
What's important here is for you to notice the pattern. Now and then, somebody comes and say “Hey, guys! We're going to re-created JA2 in 3D!”. Guess, you won't be surprised to hear that here comes another attempt? This time from Haemimont Games. And it actually does make sense, since it was them who refreshed Tropico series for the new audience. The guys sure knew a thing or two about making peace between old and new schools, so... Yeah. Let's take a look at their attempt.
You know what? The f*ckers did it. They actually did it. OMGWTF how many years later, we actually got ourselves JA2 re-created in 3D. With both views, advanced tactical combat, blackjack and... stuff. Yay! Yay! … Wait just a minute. What? JA2? In 2023? What the fork? Unfortunately, that's exactly the problem with what we have here. JA3 doesn't look like a brand new game. Instead, it feels like something that was lost and found years later. While playing it, I felt a lot like playing Age of Pirates: Captain Blood. Like, “Wow, that's cool! Must be cool to actually get it the year we were supposed to...” By no means JA3 is a bad game. Everything you like about the series is here and it actually works. For a change. The problem is, aside from much more optional goals, non-linear ending, gamepad-oriented UI from Firaxis' XCOM and some minor additions, we've already seen all that. 24 years ago. JA3 comes with similar map that looks small by modern standards, locations are rather empty and often have nothing but scrap for weapon upgrades, etc. Should I say that it feels disappointing?
What I really disliked, though, is the atmosphere. Sure, the first two games look pretty comical nowadays. You know how it is. Video games became way more serious. Just try to compare Wolfenstein 3D with the latest installments and you'll see what I mean. Unfortunately, instead of re-introducing us to A.I.M., Haemimont decided to turn it into a joke. And it feels... bad. Just imagine the new Hitman game making dad jokes about 47 being bald. It's that bad. Seriously, guys, we've got ourselves a bloody Karen meme here! In other words, Jar Jar is strong with this one and, while being a pretty solid gameplay-wise, this game doesn't feel anything like the original.
Still, knowing that after such a long constipation the series was finally able to take a dump is good. Sure, JA3 doesn't provide us with anything really new and feels more like third-party remake than a real sequel. Can't argue with that. But still, it's a start. From here? The series can finally start moving forward. And for the very first time since forever, the future looks bright. I just hope that we'll get the original atmosphere back. Because, spoiler alert, Haemimont, Jagged Alliance was not Tropico and, while having some puns, focused on something entirely different. On the atmosphere of deadly games, which, unfortunately, isn't present here. Dixi.