Jagged Alliance

Jagged Alliance is a series of turn-based strategy computer games. All games are for the PC. The first games in the series were for DOS. From Jagged Alliance 2 on, the games were developed for Microsoft Windows using DirectX.

Description

Jagged Alliance's gameplay centers around running mercenary squads who fulfill various missions, such as freeing countries from oppressive dictators. Some describe the game as "X-COM with personality." It features a unique mix of turn-based small arms battle simulation and roleplaying. Sharp humour via character comments is a trademark of the series. The character of the individual mercenaries ranges between eccentric and obviously disturbed, and their spoken lines give the games a cartoon-like quality.

Many fans claim the turn-based combat system is the best that has ever been created in a 2D isometric environment. They feel that from both viewpoints of tactical depth and practical playability, especially the second part of the series, the series is still the yardstick of the genre.

The Intellectual Property

The Intellectual Property (IP) for Jagged Alliance has been bandied about a great deal. The series and IP were created by Sir-Tech with the original game and its add-on. The second game, Jagged Alliance 2, was also started by Sir-Tech by Sir-Tech Canada, which changed its name to TalonSoft. By the time Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business was released, Sir-Tech was out of business and the game was published by Infogrames (now Atari). Subsequently Talonsoft went down in the cold and silent grave, whence no traveler can return. Now Strategy First owns the IP and published Jagged Alliance: Wildfire and is extending the series with Jagged Alliance 3D and Jagged Alliance 3.

Titles in the series

Jagged Alliance

Released in 1994 for DOS this first game of the series tasks the player with freeing the land of Metavira. The player must recruit mercenaries as they explore, capture, and hold new territory. The natives harvest the valuable trees from which a revolutionary medicine can be extracted. The more trees the player holds, the more income they make. Income can be used to hire native guards or hire more mercenaries to take the offense and clear sectors of enemies.

This game featured a top-down perspective of the game field for battles, with character portraits framing the view on the left and right sides. A separate map view showed the entire country broken up into bite-size conquerable sections.

Jagged Alliance : Deadly Games

Released in 1995, Deadly Games was a DOS sequel to the original game. It featured a different format, however, and therefore is considered by many to be more of a spin-off than a sequel. This game featured the same top-down perspective as the original game.

In Deadly Games the player takes a group of mercenaries through a series of missions. The ordered missions are not geographically linked as in Jagged Alliance or Jagged Alliance 2. The most innovative aspects of Deadly Games include a wide variety of mission types, new weapon types, multiplayer capabilities and scenario and campaign editors.

Jagged Alliance 2

This game was released in 1999 for Windows, but was later ported to Linux. The mission of this second official game of the series is to free the country of Arulco from its evil dictator Deidranna. Gameplay is similar to the original Jagged Alliance, but featured higher-resolution graphics and an isometric view of the battleground. Mercs in this version line the bottom of the screen instead of lining the sides.

User-made mods

• Deidranna Lives
• Urban Chaos

Jagged Alliance 2 : Unfinished Business

This 2000 release is a somewhat short, more mission-based sequel. The mission's brevity was somewhat balanced by its increased difficulty. Nevertheless, a number of very good user mods add a lot of replayability. The release added some tweaks to the enemy AI and the combat engine, as well as a scenario editor.

Most notable mods

• Vietnam SOG'69
• Rubicon
• Shady Job

Jagged Alliance 2 : Gold edition

This release features improvements ported from Unfinished Business to the original game and includes it in the package. This title may be the best deal to get the whole game, but is out of print like the rest of the series.

Jagged Alliance 2 : Wildfire

Originally a user mod, Wildfire was released in 2004 as another official add-on by the new publisher. It features a campaign that is decidedly less of a cakewalk than other user mods. The game's sourcecode was also published in the package, albeit under a slightly restrictive license.

Jagged Alliance 3D and 3

Strategy First and Game Factory Interactive announced in June 2004 that Russian developer MiST Land South would develop the next two game in the Jagged Alliance series: Jagged Alliance 3D (JA3D) and Jagged Alliance 3. Details are as of yet unclear, but apparently, though a full game, JA3D will be used to test the 3D engine which will be used for Jagged Alliance 3. MiST Land South will also be developing an unrelated title for Strategy First, Disciples III, for their Disciples series of games.

External links

• Official Jagged Alliance website (http://www.jaggedalliance.com)
• The MobyGames' entry on the Jagged Alliance series (http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,159/)
• Press release on new Jagged Alliance games (http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/DisplayArticle.asp?sLanguageCode=EN&iArticleID=3043)

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