Jagged Alliance 3 — Back in Black

Review

Jul 13, 2023

Online. Back in Action. Crossfire. Flashback. Online: Reloaded. Rage! No other series has survived this many underperforming entries in the 2010s. And that came after a whole decade in the tactical limbo of the 00s. Jagged Alliance simply refuses to die.

Turn-based squad strategy games in the 90s were meticulous, and the challenge and level of detail of their systems endured in spite of the technical limitations of the time. Jagged Alliance 3 preserves that complexity and difficulty with different modes and adjustments without sacrificing what made it an enduring series. Haemimont Games, developers of Tropico, Surviving Mars and other strategy games and city-builders, swear by their love of JA2 and wanted to develop a proper sequel. This review is based on a pre-release version before the day-one patch announced by the developers.

If you are new to the series: you hire mercenaries with detailed stats, lead them into turn-based combat against several types of henchmen, and take over diamond mines in the fictional land of Grand Chien. Everything is a parody of itself in Jagged Alliance. Action heroes, villains, henchmen, civilians—all of them are part of the camp in some way or another. The fact that your squad joyfully mows down hordes of African men in every single battle should tell you something about Jagged Alliance 3.

Caveats for Grognards

If you believe JA2 v1.13 is the be-all and end-all, forget it. This is not it. It’s not a niche game; it’s not “incline,” as some say, but it is also not another XCOM clone. Instead, it retains several mechanics of the originals—different stances (standing, crouched, and prone) and a well-designed action points system with body part aiming and improved accuracy at the cost of extra action points—all the while minimizing time-wasting stat micromanagement. Line of sight works well on all different stances, making the battles more complex as you blast through destructible buildings, materials, junk, exploding cars, and various minor details in the handcrafted level design.

Weapon range engagement is lower than the original, as they already explained in dev logs, and as I understand it has to do with the size of levels, which they tried to make more realistic in scale from isometric to 3D. In my experience, the element of uncertainty in distance for snipers in particular made the gameplay more compelling, even on the lowest difficulty. Weather elements also added more dimension to visibility and overwatch, though hardcore fans might protest some of the choices.

The developers decided to limit each squad size to six mercs, probably to avoid overloading levels, but you can have two squads of six in the same battle, and a total of 15 mercs at a time. I know that JA2 allowed more, according to some sources up to 32 with v1.13, while the maximum number of militia, enemies, and civilians could go up to 64. I wasn’t able to find out exactly what these numbers are for JA3, but I noticed a lot of civilian movement in some battles, and I have faced up to 21 enemies with a squad of six in one single battle, and some battles with two squads of six.

Mods might be able to support bigger battles, but this is a PvE game and it’s tailored for it. AI could easily destroy players in any turn-based game, having dominated chess for decades. It’s more of a challenge that is still within the grasp of the average player, with some jagged edges to hold on to. I also found that some big battles had very poor framerate, especially when weather effects like rain are on.

The squad management system has its pros and cons. Some ammo is sometimes hard to find and you do have to watch your bullets, since all ammo goes into a shared pool, even during combat, instead of each merc’s respective inventory, and some weapons overlap. The strength stat determines the number of inventory grids, and the ammo weight is not factored in. There are also ballistic systems and weapon modding with several different options depending on crafting materials. Some fans of the originals won’t approve of these choices, which seem fairly standard in contemporary CRPGs.

Shell Shock Deadlock

The first learning moment for me happened as my mercs holed up in a building, only to have a blaster man shoot his RPG-7 obliquely through the open door and collapse the floor. I was testing the game’s response systems, but I really didn’t see that coming the way it did, and it was rewarding and frustrating at the same time. The solution was simple: I just had to close the blast door from the inside and the blaster goon’s AI couldn’t find another way in. I didn’t experience the same problem after that.

My experience with the dynamic cover system and the overwatch mechanic with different stances was as though it’s not a game of chess with calculated moves but a game of chicken as the merc and the henchman lock onto each other pointing their guns. It reminded me of the scene in Kill Bill where they have a whole conversation while pointing shotguns at each other. Jagged Alliance 3 makes overwatch feel like these encounters could last five seconds or five minutes, but we only see the shots.

A screenshot of the game Jagged Alliance 3 from top-down perspective, showing a blast and the resulting debris and smoke in a building after an attack by a blaster man enemy. — Oof.

What I appreciated the most about combat in JA3 is that it is nonlinear, allowing the player to arrange and set up each merc before taking their shots, whereas turn-based RPGs in general tend to rely on an initiative system that often feels arbitrary. Being able to move a merc out of the way, take a shot, and then return to the merc you moved so you can set him up for his shot makes all the difference with the challenge in line of sight and friendly fire that happens in most turn-based tactics games.

I found the level design solid and engaging throughout. I remember getting frustrated with some of the large levels in Wasteland 2 years ago, so I found JA3 to be more sparing and straightforward, with just enough level design to reward exploration. The problem with large levels is that the player is constantly having to wait for the squad to walk back and forth, climbing ledges, leaping between gaps, and so on. JA3 seems intent on respecting the player’s time, so levels are tightly packed but not sprawling.

A screenshot of the game Jagged Alliance 3 from top-down perspective, showing a desert and some ruins where mercenaries have found a treasure under a pile of bones. — Rewards of exploration and curiosity.

Hearts of Darkness

The developers got the spoof elements right, and the writing is often sharp and funny. That said, I worry about the reception when it comes to ethnic representation. The writers show a lot of respect for the African setting and some of the African characters are round and complex, though not every single one of them. At the same time, most of the enemies you have to kill are African men in weird apparel with the usual bright colours of African fashion. There are also white NPCs who are morally questionable or ambiguous, but you rarely fight them.

The whole series is about spoofing action movies from the 80s and 90s, which often had ethnic villains and henchmen to foil the hero. Several merc heroes from the original games are available to hire: Vicki, Fidel, Steroid, Grizzly, and others, which adds more representation. But there is this tension between the humanity of African people and their flaws, superstitions, and political conflicts. When you spare one of the African characters in the first act, he goes on to be enslaved in one of the diamond mines, then tortured and tormented by a slaver who also happens to be African.

A screenshot of the game Jagged Alliance 3 showing the map and a dialogue line on the radio from a character called Slave Master Graaf, saying: "Major, we got the new arrival you promised! Hehehe... He will regret disappointing you, boss!" — Sparing a character will send him to this lovely guy.

The character writers didn’t shy away from these tensions, and it made for some compelling questlines. Some of the quests are timed, so players might miss out on them since they don’t appear explicitly timed on the quest list. For example, I failed one of the M.E.R.C. side quests because I didn’t know it was timed, though the game did imply it was urgent. When I was able to reach the spot indicated, the quest was already failed on the list. It was rather frustrating, and I remember having the same experience with some quests in Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

The Major, the mysterious antagonist who comes up on the merc radio after major events, is like a composite character: Colonel Kurtz meets Hans Gruber. It’s in line with the action movie spoof, and it’s competent enough to drive the narrative. But there are also other minor villains and morally ambiguous characters who are not African, so you could argue that there is a balance between what the writers are trying to explore with the African setting and the narrative rather than just tokenizing.

A screenshot of the game Jagged Alliance 3 showing an African man wearing a leopard suit and heavy gold chains around his neck. The text says: "Boss Blaubert: I see you are very interested in my property, but I am afraid that it is not for sale. Now, my associates will escort you out of it and show you the sights. Please be aware that some of those are laser sights." — This is what he said when I managed to sneak into his mansion undetected.

The Test of Time

The formula of Jagged Alliance is timeless and it’s enough to engage the player throughout, even though some have preferences for combat mechanics ranging from casual to aggressively fastidious. Even a hardened veteran might fail often. The game allows you to fail and suffer miserably, even on the lowest difficulty, but if you pay attention, listen to the NPCs, and explore instead of simply bullrushing with optimized stats, the learning curve is less steep.

In some ways, it reminded me of Phantom Doctrine, an equally intricate turn-based squad strategy RPG with a complicated development history. I love the complexity, the depth of tactical systems, and the customization options, even though I don’t need all of this. Or rather, I don’t have time for it. What I need is a reason to keep playing and failing other than making the numbers add up. Jagged Alliance 3 challenges the player just enough and clearing the map is not a chore but a discovery process.

Worst-case scenario, this may turn out somewhat like Pathfinder: Kingmaker in that it might appeal more to diehard grognards, but we filthy casuals can also enjoy it as this rugged individualist game from the 90s made more accessible while retaining its roots. Haemimont Games proved their love for the series by keeping it as faithful as possible but also sparing players of time-wasting minutiae. This is not a life-sim strategy—it’s a game, and it should be equal parts fun and challenging.

Disclosure: Jagged Alliance 3 was reviewed on PC with a Steam key provided by the publisher over the course of about forty hours of play time. All screenshots attached were captured during the review process.

Rating: 9.0 / Essential.

The Good