Jagged Alliance 3
Grand Chien, a nation of rich natural resources and deep political divides, is thrown into chaos when the elected president goes missing and a paramilitary force known as “The Legion” seizes control of the countryside. Now, the President’s family has pulled together all their resources, including an arrangement with the powerful Adonis corporation, to hire a group of skilled mercenaries tasked with finding the President and bringing order back to the country.In Jagged Alliance 3, select from a huge cast of mercenaries all with their own unique personalities, quirks, and backstories. Then go out and explore Grand Chien as you meet new people, earn money, grow your team, and ultimately make your own decisions that will decide the country’s fate.
FEATURES
- Engage in rich, tactical turn-based combat
- Recruit from a large cast of unique mercenaries, including many familiar fan favorites
- Loot, salvage, and customize an arsenal of weaponry and equipment
- Choose from a wide array of special perks to customize your mercs as they level up
- Decide the fate of Grand Chien in an open RPG structure
- Control territory, train the locals, command multiple parties, and defend against enemy forces in an alive, active world
- Experience the campaign with friends in online co-op mode
Steam User 460
As a person who got his start in this series on a demo disc from Computer Games Strategy Plus Magazine for JA1, then who bought and played through the first multiple times... and then sunk countless hours into Deadly Games (we could crouch now OMG). As someone who revisits the VANILLA version of JA2 (the mods remove a lot of the goofy charm of JA and try to make it... something else) on a pretty regular basis on his crappy old laptop (just recently got it on steam)... I think I can say that I'm a pretty big fan of the series.
Thankfully I avoided the ones that came after, although I almost bought RAGE until I learned that it was 4 mercs only (like seriously guys... that's like gutting side quests from Skyrim) so I have no hands on knowledge of those...titles.
What I can say though is this game freaking slaps... Sure there are a few things that are different, but that is literally video game evolution. If I wanted JA2...then I would play JA2. One thing is for sure though... There are a lot of systems in this game that seem either unfair or missing entirely (ambushing being probably the most common one I've seen people complaining about) but the fact is... most of them are in the game but the game does a very poor job of communicating how to use them.
I do long for at least a tactical pause during real time mode though... trying to get 6 mercs into position while the enemies are all walking around is a pretty huge pain... also the intractables are sometimes finicky when the camera isn't facing the "right" direction.
But those are by and large my biggest complaints. Once you figure out ambushes, get reacquainted with sending your mercs to prone as much as you can, and also TAKE YOUR TIME... then the game becomes pretty manageable.
The amount of weapons so far has been staggering and I literally only left the first island. The amount of armor, gear, tools, and grenades has also all been surprisingly varied. You only really have 2 enemy types on the first island, but as soon as you hit the second... I mean I ran into at least 4 new ones in the first sector.
Speaking of enemies... this game warns you that it's gonna be a war of not only gunfights, but also of attrition... and it isn't lying. I would recommend most players play on the default difficulty with the "To the bitter End" turned on. This makes combat a bit more lax (but by no means simple), and also makes some choices permanent, unless you want to restart the entire encounter.
This game really needs the good reviews because it is a GOOD game. But there is a pretty vocal group that I feel, no matter what, would never be happy with anything short of a perfect copy paste of JA2 1.13...which to me is just silly. This game is not a "X-Com asset flip", literally five seconds with the game will tell you that (literally one feature, the "enemy reposition", and the cover shields is all it has in common)
Well, I'm done. TLDR: 40yo man says JA3 good... and also that the internet is horrible.
Steam User 150
Hello young 'uns! Old fart gamer here.
I played the original Sir-tech (RIP) game when it first came out. I took 2 days of sick leave when Deadly Games got released. (ah the days where you live on Coke and Mars bars on no sleep!)
After 28 years - and the endless search for turned-based heaven, Haemimont has released a worthy successor to the crown.
Played all the series and all the dog doo-doo in between when the licence went around like a football, but these guys have managed to recapture some of the JA1+2 magic here.
For the uninitiated, it's part rpg, part chess, part table-top gaming with 80s non-PC (ok it's pretty mild here) humor and story-telling thrown in. I'm first to admit that it's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a serious gamer you should try it once. if it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger. if it does, well, then reload the game.
In this new era of more polygons, more realism, freemium, gacha gaming, I'm glad the developer has delivered something that focuses on giving you back that lost "feeling" of being a gamer instead of a consumer without being too indie.
Is it perfect? No, but it comes close. Enjoy!
Steam User 203
Q: What is the game like?
You manage a group of mercenaries, each with their own attributes, traits, perks, and inventory. The playground consists of global and tactical map, like in many other games. On global map there isn't much to do except moving from one region to another. Tactical map is where the actual game unfolds - turn-based combat, quests, loot, cutscenes, dialogues, etc
Q: Is it challenging?
It might be at times but once you grasp the basic idea of what to do it's a walk in the park, unless you set challenges for yourself, like not using stealth or sniper rifles
Q: What's the overall quality of the game (graphics, UI, sound design, attention to detatils, game balance, bugs, etc)?
There a few minor annoyances, particularly in controls. The current game balance is easily exploitable, making supposedly toughest fights easy to cheese through. Overall quality is more than good, however. Some aspects are exceptionally well done - the voice acting, the humor, the character design, the attention to details
Q: What's the best thing about the game?
It is old-fashioned in a good way and captures the 90's and early 2000's vibe just perfectly, it's fun to get there for a few hours again
Q: What could stop me from buying the game?
Only it's current not-so-polished state. Or you don't like the genre. Or you don't have time to play. Or you PC doesn't meet the system requirements. Aside from that, there's every reason to give it a shot
Q: So, what would be the final recommendation?
The game has 9.5/10 potential assuming it'll get properly polished in upcoming updates. As for now it's 8/10 yet still recommended. It's likely you'll enjoy every second of it
Steam User 188
First review i'm writing here. My mom bought jagged alliance 2 for me when I was 12.
She orded it directly from sirtech via phone if I remember correctly. Good times.
I guess the only game I put more hours into than JA2 was WoW.
I dont know when I last finished a game, but I just finished JA3.
If you are a JA2 veteran, this is the game you've been waiting for almost 25 years.
Anyways, long story short, just fu**ing buy this game, enjoy it, and by that support these awesome developers who did what most studios don't do anymore: Listen to the fans and put all their heart into a game, to make it awesome! And damnit, awesome it is, thanks to the many, many details the devs put in!
10/10!
Steam User 402
Actually forced to write my first time ever steam review just to answer to the "I played almost 3 hours of this game and I can already tell it's not at all like I remember the first two"-crowd.
So just to be clear: Yes, JA3 is a great game and yes, it captures the spirit of the first two perfectly. I played both of them (for hundreds of hours each) and all of the mostly shitty spin-offs in between. If you liked Jagged Alliance 1 and/or 2 back in the day, grab this one, you won't make a mistake. It's is NOT dumbed down in any significant way. I'd argue that they added depth in a lot of areas.
I've now played about 17 hours with the wife in coop mode (yay to that feature alone) and we're having a blast. Game runs very smooth except for a few sync-error-messages you can simply ignore.
I'll just use the rest of this review to address a few of the espescially funny "points of criticism" I've read here:
- "The UI is too small to read and cannot be scaled!" UI is actually scalable...
- "Mercs can only wear helmets, vests and pants now. What happend to equipping shoes?" You can't wear shoes in any of the predecessor...
- "Enemies don't drop everything they were wearing upon death!" Again: they didn't in JA 1&2 either...
- "You need keyboard-shortkeys to do simple things like crouch/prone/stand up!" Uhh... No, you don't...
- "Game is too hard/easy!" Well, which one is it now? I for one feel challenged/ punished when I do something stupid. If you feel differently: There are plenty of difficulty options....
- "Stealth system doesn't work! Enemies spot my inexperienced/ill-equipped merc in seconds!" I think you can find the flaw in your logic there by yourself...
To sum things up: Some people seem to really have problems to
a. wrap their head around the concept of remembering things differently than they actually were (especially 20 something years later).
b. have a look at the options menu or the UI before posting some bullshit review.
So sad what has become of steam user reviews...
Steam User 103
I have been playing Jagged Alliance for over 20 years and I can quickly tell you two things about this game. One, it's not as good as JA2. Two, it's a great start. If you never played JA before, but you like turn-based games, you will probably like this game a lot. If you played JA2/1.13 it's probably going to disappoint you to some degree, but I think it's a worthwhile entry and a great platform for the modding community and/or expansions to one day make it a truly great game.
Steam User 201
I am an old fan of JA1 and especially JA2, and FYI cautiously hopeful based on what I saw in the few screenshots and videos I viewed before release. I am a fan of many modern (and old) turn based tactical shooter games like the new XCOM: EU and XCOM2, and Xenonauts
Having played 2.2 hours and having finished the first sector I think I can provide a decent opinion for which you to judge if you wish to take the plunge.
In brief, I am quite happy with this game. The tactical engine is quite true to its JA2 roots (AP, stances, adding more AP for more accuracy, body part targeting, simulated bullets (no precentages to be found!) and more) while adding some modern conveniences like overwatch and a consistent easy to decipher cover system (which was a major gripe for JA2).
In addtion, I feel that the mercenaries themselve have been faithfully personified (based on me having old lumenaries Grizzly, Steroid, and Hitman in my starting squad). Their interactions seem quite faithful to their JA2 forebears with voices that competently call back to the originals (though I admit, no one can beat the original voice actors, but such is life).
There has been a sizable amount of skeptism leading up to this games release, but for (and one of) the old guard I attest that this game is a worthy successor to JA2. I highly recommend this game.