Jagged Alliance 3

Yes is very good no bugs so far reminds me of Old Jagged with better graphics. The Ukrainian girl is a great starting sniper. Warning some vulgar language in case children are around. Would be nice for a profanity filter maybe there is and I havent found it.

Jagged Alliance 3, the highly anticipated sequel to the legendary Jagged Alliance 2, has finally arrived, and it is an absolute triumph. Building upon the foundations laid by its predecessor, this game takes the tactical turn-based strategy genre to new heights, delivering a truly immersive and engaging experience that will captivate both new and veteran players alike.

One of the standout features of Jagged Alliance 3 is its unwavering dedication to preserving the essence of its predecessor. Fans of Jagged Alliance 2 will be delighted to discover that the game retains the same core mechanics, while introducing a range of improvements and additions that breathe fresh life into the franchise. From the intricate mercenary management system to the complex strategic planning required to liberate territories, every aspect of the game feels like a loving homage to its predecessor.

The developers have clearly poured their hearts and souls into creating an authentic and compelling world. The attention to detail in the game's environments is astonishing, with beautifully rendered landscapes that transport you to the war-torn regions of Arulco. From dense jungles to dilapidated urban settings, each location feels unique and brimming with life, making exploration an absolute joy.

Jagged Alliance 3's gameplay is a true masterpiece. The tactical combat encounters are incredibly satisfying, requiring careful planning and execution to succeed. The game offers a diverse roster of mercenaries, each with their own distinct personalities, skills, and backstories. Building the perfect team is an addictive challenge, and the level of customization available ensures that no two playthroughs will be the same.

The strategic layer of Jagged Alliance 3 is equally impressive. The liberation of territories and resource management mechanics provide a deep and rewarding experience, giving players a sense of agency and the ability to shape the world around them. The game strikes a perfect balance between challenging and accessible gameplay, offering something for both hardcore strategists and casual players.

In conclusion, Jagged Alliance 3 is everything fans could have hoped for in a sequel. It pays homage to the beloved Jagged Alliance 2 while introducing new elements that enhance the gameplay and immersion. With its engaging combat, strategic depth, stunning visuals, and a faithful nod to its predecessor, Jagged Alliance 3 sets a new benchmark for turn-based strategy games. Whether you are a longtime fan of the series or new to the world of Arulco, this game is an absolute must-play. Prepare to be captivated and embark on a thrilling journey that will keep you hooked for hours on end.

It might miss a few pieces, but it's a blast to play. Tactics are deep enough, even if controlling your squad feels tad clunky at times, personalities are great. Closest thing to Jagged Alliance 2 in two decades.

Good game, but still, I am a little miss Eliot the Idiot, and I wish I can send something to the major, something like flowers.
Oh, almost forget the most important part. How could I reach Bobby Ray's website?

Yes, this thing is good.
I sank good times to play this.
Performance wise, if you turn the Reflection HIGH, the battle will run 45 fps at Ryzen 7600, RTX3060Ti, 1440p. It is around 85 at MEDIUM. Also it includes XeSS which is more superior to DLSS2.
Maybe it went Ray Tracing or something at high? Idk.
Less shiny at Medium, but i'll take it.
And oh i'm using ultra texture.
The map design of the game is a masterpiece.
It is a work of art.
You can't see better shiny dirty slum which makes you sad and happy at the same time at another game.
You're looking to a dirty puddle on the dirt road. It is raining down.
You can see reflection shining from it. It is dirty, a lot of trash in it. Idk, it is beautiful.
Usually the game like this, like X-COM, or Troubleshooter doesn't have much detail on the map.
The camera however is finicky. It forced us to see the 1st layer, and have to rotate a lot to find hidden objects.
For you're asking, this feels Jagged Alliance to me. Pretty much.
I've played some titles from JA2 onwards.
If you just ignore nitty gritty from the loyalists of the old.
It is not just about the game mechanics. But the feel, atmosphere.
As an epic western RPG.
The BGM is also epic, i love it.
As for the weapon, i think most people will stick to Sniper rifle right now.
Not actually a sniper rifle that thing doesn't exists, but a good precision rifle.
So if you see a weapon with high single target damage, that's probably it.
Ammo is scarcity and most of the time, burst fire doesn't do you justice to match the ammo.
Only Machine Gun will still justiable, kinda not because it burns ammo, but because it has fantastic overwatch performance.

I wasn't sure about this one, but Haemimont Games did a real good job! Many popcultural references, good shootouts and i DO love the "not-showing" of percentages.

Full mod support, relatively well polished game at release, great characters, nice mechanics, even coop is possible even tho i didn't try it yet.

Pay them (respect), play their game. you won't regret it.

- NO PAUSE. Remember in JA2 you could place Shadow in bush behind one guy talking to other, order your sniper shoot one and order Shadow to slice others throat in one simultaneous action? Forget it, no such planing is available. You can't pause the game, issue orders and enjoy the show.

- NO AMMO. You can't buy it. You can't loot it. You can craft it with explosive perk in some villages... IF you somehow manage to loot gunpowder. Good luck with that.

- UNBALANCED ENEMIES. Local thug that can take half of machine gun belt into his bare chest is not fun. After that he run half of the map toward you and mince you with a knife. Impressing, can i hire him? This kinda force you to play meta - give everyone silenced Gewehrs with +3 aim scopes, sit in one place and headshot them one by one, while they run to you.

"Major" boss fight got me frustrated. Bunch of enemies can't be gased with mortars or teargas, can't blinded with flash bangs... Really? You can't make fight balanced any other way, so you made enemies immune?

- NO EQUIPMENT ON MERCS OR ENEMIES. "We put a lot of work into characters design" - Oh, shut up! You either lazy, or you could't reliably implement dynamically changing characters models, and started inventing excuses. If i could see that enemies wearing armour i could plan my actions, prioritise some enemies, e.t.c.

Seeing my mercs evolve from tank top and swimsuit wearing trash to kevlar encased killing machines... or enjoying same "character design" whole game dozens of game hours?

- ENEMY AI. One situation git me confused. While cleaning Fleetown, i hid all my mercs in a closed shed on the edge of the town, and went with my best sniper killing enemies one by one from the stealth from the opposite edge. Obviously thugs knew direction they get shot from, and moved toward my sniper. But on third round they by some miracle knew where my other team is hidden without them moving/shooting/doing anything. WTF?

- NO LOOT. I already talked about ammo, but overall loot system is pure crap. Developers replaced looting attachments with shitty crafting, so no more reason to loot tons of guns. Lootable guns are rare, good lootable guns almost non-existent, so you ended up running with shitty guns that mercs arrived with first third of the game. And you can't buy guns. No online store, and local marketplaces sucks hard.

I am loving my time in this game, it scratches the same itch as Divinity: Original Sin 2. The turn based combat is really solid, the out of combat exploration and resource management is excellent, the dialogue is funny and well voice acted.

The only issues I have with the game are some minor quality of life things, like not being able to sort/auto stack your inventory. Needing to keep opening the UI renew contracts on mercs/no auto renew option (which starts getting annoying when you have 12 or more mercs)

Overall, great game!

I loved JA/JA2 and this is a noteworthy successor with one excepting. There is zero realism. Six kneeling mercs fire 8 times at less than 30 feet and none hit the standing target. A merc sneaks up behind an unaware for 'take down'and instead swings and misses three times and then baddies sounds the alarm. Buns shoots a baddie for 78 points he doesn't die or even go to almost die. A slave master boss had to be shot like 15 times because he never took more than 4 points of damage regardless of range accuracy aiming .... all of these factors takes away from the commando tactics it should be and leaves it as a broken random and frustrating chain of failed game mechanics. Of Kayle shoots from one level below hits the guard one level up and somehow shoots that single shot through the guard it levels off and strikes a barrel 20 feet behind him, it explodes and kills one of my mercs. Zero realism...

I try to "sneak up on my enemies like a tree falling in the forest." However, they spot Steroid's "magnificent physique", every time.

So many lovable characters with their hilarious and sometimes unpredictable stereotypes. It's a breathe of fresh air that we can still not take ourselves so seriously as one human race.

Very oldschool (I mean this in the most postive way)..and lots of fun..Is it perfect..naa..but it is still really really good considering the pressure those guys are under..so buy it..and relieve your teen days

+ addicting and fun tactical combat
+ quirky cast of characters with diverse interactions and very good voice acting (not only your mercs, but other NPCs too)
+ great music
+ fun references
+ different event outcomes based on your choices
* overworld map mechanics - managing money, mercs, training militia, crafting is OK
- stealth mechanics are lacking, merc coordination on combat start is difficult/impossible
- could use a QoL/UI pass (sometimes clicking on things is difficult, issuing unintended commands due to inconsistent UI in some cases, ..)

Took me about 45h to see credits (solo game, didn't try co-op) and I solved most (but not all) of Grand Chien problems. Will probably do another playthrough later, especially if we get more "stuff" with mods.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in JA3 and can recommend it to anyone that likes turn-based tactics games.

It's the Jagged Alliance that is most similar to Jagged Alliance 2 to date even though there are still a lot off differences.

What I like about it: very fun combat this time around. Still tactical but with more fun elements like the Run and Gun. Different weapon loadout offers different abilities. Different mercs also offer different abilities. RPG elements and a lil bit of crafting.

What I don't like: no online gun store! Come on, man! Also gun mods don't change the guns visually. Hopefully mods will change this in the future. The writing is also lackluster although the combat outweighs that.

Some of the default settings are questionable, the camera is glitchy and Fox talks too damn much. But with those sorts of fairly minor flaws set aside, it is a worthy successor to JA2. The fact it is moddable is enomrous.

JA3 fully deserves the "3" in its name. It is a true successor of the original JA2, delivering a similar gameplay experience and emotions while heavily modernizing graphics and combat to 2023's standards. Speaking of the latter, the combat mechanics moved toward XCOM - which I consider a good transition. I like XCOM combat, but I'm not a fan of its alien theme. JA3, on the other hand, merges XCOM combat into the JA2 theme - and that's the perfect combo, in my opinion.

This is an early review when I haven't finished even half of the game yet. But so far, so good. The game runs nice and smooth, looks good, and plays fantastic. I'm experiencing the same excitement as when I first played JA2 - more than twenty years ago.

Keep up the good work, Haemimont Games!

Absolute success! I'm a big fan of JA2, was playing whole childhood and replayed it multiple times during the years. There never found a game that was quite the same, tried XCOM 2, Devinity 2, but they didn't work for me. Over the years there's been multiple attempts for some "sequel", but they were so bad, that I had lost all hope that we see a successor. But this game truly is continuing the tradition. It has some really good novel ideas and mechanics compared to JA2, some things were reinvented/added, like perk system, but good old core stayed the same. There are minor minuses like inventory management and etc, but overall it's the game I've been waiting for 24 years.

I think objectively it deserves 8 out of 10, but personally for me it's 11 out of 10, since I'm a JA2 fan and I'm really happy with the game so far.

this is my favorite game release of 2023. BY FAR. i havent had any performance issues personally and the game's resolution is great, the user interface is perfect (imo) and above all, the devs did a really good job in making a fun game. they didnt ruin jagged alliance. one of my favorite old school games out there. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST PLAY! LIBRARY THIS BEAST NOW!
/beginrant
i will admit i lost a bit of respect for the devs when they used the word "jaggendary" in a steam post. its disgusting. just say legendary itd be more epic than making up a word and having it turn out like that. jaggendary? really man? cmon. /endrant

Great game - definitely captures the feel of previous jagged alliance games. A lot of dark comedy throughout with heavily stereotyped action heroes and characters. A lot of memorable quests, cool weapons and encounters. Keep up the great work developers! Thanks for bringing this classic back!

So, as this is meant as the third game in a series, even though there's been over two decades of time between the last game and this, some comparisons are in order. The game has both streamlined and made simpler some of the game mechanics, for both good and ill. You are still a mercenary company working to take over/liberate a small nation for a client, and you still hire mercs based on income from a resource site, but there (so far) isn't an Internet site to order weapons from nor is there as much to do on the Internet as the last game.

The turn-based combat meanwhile is better in a lot of ways, though harder to understand at first, as the UI is quite different. Gone are the overly long turns from Jagged Alliance 2, the weird interrupts, the overly slow pace of movement, and instead we have an X-com-like with several layers of complexity. How you build your squad affects your playstyle quite a bit.

The music is great, the sound as well. Graphics are pretty standard fare for a Unity game.

As for negatives so far, I can say that some of the UI is still obtuse, the tutorials are not as helpful as they could be, there's some slight performance issues at launch and the game can drag a bit at times (could really do with a speed-up on animations once you've played a bit).

But overall, a great and fun continuation of the old games for new audiences.

Just finished first playthrough! What a blast! Certainly worth waiting for 20 years, let hope expansion is in the works already! Excellent game, unfiltered humour, violence and no handholding in the story line, everything that modern games lack. I would highly recommend buying and playing the game at least once, but given the dynamic story its probably worth playing more than once.

Thanks to everyone involved in making this masterpiece!

I don't remember playing game such nostalgic as Jagged Alliance 3. You can truly feel the developers love to the orginal installments in the series and care to bring the joy to next generation of gamers. Of course, there are some mechanics that differ (however I liked some modernizations made) but feeling of the game is very close to my beloved Jagged Alliance 2. It's time travel to early 2000's and I feel like 15 year old again in front of CRT monitor, with Warren Zevon's "Roland the headless thompson gunner" playing in the background with some junk food all around.

What's really great is character design - they're exaggerated, lines are cheasy and everything has this unique flavour of 80's and 90's action movies. However it might be hard to swallow for people who don't like the genre. Gameplay is hard and pace is slower than in modern approach for turn based tactical game. I had a great time combating one of the snipers in second battle of campaign - it was tense, long and I was constantly reloading the game. It's hard game but at the same time you're only punished for your own mistakes. Kind of "you made it wrong, try again" approach. At the same time, there are many ways of achieving goal of the mission.

If you loved Jagged Alliance 2, there is a chance that you will like this game. If you never tried it and you're into hard tactic games and you can handle specific sense of humour and writing - give it a try!

P.S. in case you wonder - it runs great on Steam Deck, however I'm not a fan of official controls.

Something feels off-key, in every aspect of the game. Biggest gripe is the AI acting like in XCOM with enemies scattering everywhere at the first phase of combat and Lack of customisation in the Merc and enemies model. The only way to know if your shirtless gun toting opponent is really shirtless is an icon when you fire on him, only way to know which armour is on your Merc is to open the inventory. And so many details here and there makes it rather un-enjoyable once the "Yeah New Jagged Alliance" honeymoon phase is gone.
I'll wait a patch or two before trying to get to the "1 euro per hour of game time" mark.
The good thing is that it reminded of how fun was JA2 so i've reinstalled it.

If you like turn-based tactics, managing a crew of mercenaries, juggling money, equipment, and ammo, and enjoy the sort of gameplay where RNG factors in but where you still have a good deal of control in shaping things, this game delivers.

I played the heck out of the original JA and JA2, plus JA2 1.13. This game IMO is a solid spiritual successor. It maybe tries too hard to recreate the humor and vibe of the originals, instead of doing its own thing more attuned to the times, but the core of the game is a respectful homage to the classics. Do I wish the barks were less frequent, and less sophomoric? Yes. Does that stuff bug me enough to prevent enjoyment of the game? No, but YMMV.

After over 20 years I think we finally have it: A game worthy of the title Jagged Alliance.

Jagged Alliance is a franchise I've loved from its very first game back in 1995. The first game is one of my all time favourites and my mind was blown away with the sequel back in 1999. The games that have followed since have been a mixed bag ranging from complete garbage to kind of "meh."

I'm happy to finally say it. Jagged Alliance 3 is good. It's really good.

Jagged Alliance 3 retains its familiar style of hiring mercenaries to fight for a cause in a remote, third world location. This time we're saving a captured president only a year after freeing Arulco from the grasp of Deidranna's iron fist.

The mercs you hire are a colourful bunch. They are delightfully quirky. Almost all the fan favourites are still around and some new faces too have entered the fray. Needless to say, just like in the previous games, they have tons of character, every single one of them and you'll quickly find which ones you'd prefer to have in your team over the others. It's just a shame that the amount of mercs is noticeably smaller than in the previous game.

Every character has a bunch of statistics such as wisdom, strength, dexterity, marksmanship, medical skills and so on. All of these stats measure different things the mercs can do and affect how well they do it. Dexterity helps you move further, sneak and aim better whereas wisdom has you noticing hidden goodies and learning faster on the field.

Your mercs improve their skills by doing activities involving them. Spending time moving around improves their health and agility for example and tinkering with devices and maintaining gear improves the mechanical skill. As they gain new experience levels they become more effective at fighting against the enemy soldiers, but unlike the previous games, this time around they also gain perk points which you can use to further customise them. You can for example improve how far the characters can move for free each combat turn and remove penalties to movement from wearing heavy body armor.

Some people might not like this new system, because the combat is balanced around having these new perk point enabling special abilities and it in turn changes the tactical gameplay towards "gameyfied" version of the old Jagged Alliance formula, but trust me on this: It just works!

It's clear the developers took a long hard look at the modern XCOM series and decided it's the spice that'll make for a fun game, but they put their own little spin on the formula. The game, from the outside, looks like XCOM, but it really isn't like XCOM once you play it. JA3 offers a lot more freedom in your approach to combat instead of making every fight a puzzle you need to complete.

The turn based combat favors the intelligent use of weapon specific actions such as "Run And Gun" where your merc moves forward and fires at the closest enemy on each step on the way or "Pinned Shot" which will mark a target on the field and then put a bullet in their brain next turn. Some weapons inflict bleed for example and others pin them down.

Different bullets cause different effects such as bleed or expose the enemy for further attacks and it's vitally important to know which body part you aim for. Shoot the legs of enemies with short ranged weapons and in the arms if you want to reduce the accuracy of their shots.

Getting wounded is less punishing than in the previous games for sure, which can take a while to wrap your brain around if you're so used to how Jagged Alliance 2 worked, but the new system brings with it a tactical element that was almost lacking from the older titles. It's simply put tons of fun to play if you can manage to suspend your disbelief just that little bit. It even allows you to build ridiculously fun character builds such as a pure melee fighter who is a beast with a knife. Something like this just wasn't possible in the previous games and you were shooting yourself in the foot if you tried playing a knife expert for example.

In the strategic map you still manage multiple squads of hired mercenaries, assault enemy positions sector by sector and capture mines that provide you with income. Just be careful as there's a limit on how long you can run one campaign, as the diamond mines that produce that vital cash flow for your operation will run dry over time. This forces you to push forward in a reasonable manner. If you take it too cautiously, you'll run out of money, which will seriously hamper your ability to successfully complete the game. It is not however impossible to do so with just one merc.

There are tons of gun for you to find and use, ranging from your standard browning pistols to rifles like M-14 or FAMAS. Almost every single one of them can also be modded to hell and back. There are no shops this time around where you can buy weapon attachments such as scopes and as far as I'm aware you'll not find them on the field either. But you can find already modded guns and equipment from the enemies you kill, in loot piles or you might buy them from NPC merchants.

There's a resource called "parts" which you get from dismantling weapons and gear and exploring the world. It's an abstraction of all things that you need to build new stuff. These parts are needed to build weapon modifications, bullets and also to maintain worn out gear. Some modifications require special parts such as micro chips for electronic devices, lenses for scopes and metal pipes for barrel enhancement. It's a simple system, but damn I like the simplicity. It allows you to mod any weapon on the fly as long as you're not in combat.

Guns have different statistics and modded parts further add new effects to them such as higher aim bonuses, longer effective range, lowered action point cost for shooting the gun and increased accuracy while prone or when the weapon is mounted. They can change the reliability of a gun, increase the magazine/clip size, change the way you want to spend action points while shooting the weapon etc. etc.

All in all the things you loved about the older games are there, but in a different way. The game is somewhat less simulated, but in doing so, becomes more flexible. Though there are some things I'm not so hot about.

For example, the animations are in some parts really pretty to look at. The enemies have great dying animations, the violence is there and the characters move beautifully as they rush from cover to cover, sliding along the mud or rolling over obstacles. But the same care hasn't been put towards other important visual aspects.

Out of combat mercs run like somebody lit a flame under their arses, like spooked ducklings and there's no way to tell them to slow it down unless you tell them to crouch. They always move in break neck speeds and I can't count how many times I've accidentally ran too close to the danger because of it. The throwing animation for knives is laughably bad as well. And there's no reaction to explosions. No knockdowns or anything like that.

There is no automatic pause for stage hazards either. If your merc spots a mine on the ground and says "Hey, I've found a mine!" he will then continue running directly into it like an idiot. The game doesn't pause so you could give a new order to avoid the mine or maybe even disarm it and it doesn't make the merc automatically avoid the mine either.

Enemies are also psychic and always seem to know where your team is hiding even if there's no way for them to know.

Then there are all sorts of little bugs and issues and various QOL issues that the devs need to address at some point.

Overall though, the game is the best Jagged Alliance has ever been outside of 1.13 mod for Jagged Alliance 2 and well worth your money if you like this type of games.

TL;DR - An old friend with a fresh coat of paint and a new cowboy hat, paying a visit with a case of cold beer.

Having played both originals at release I can tell you this game is a labor of love, this is without a doubt a direct Jagged Alliance sequel in every aspect from ambiance to lore.

They nailed everything:
Merc personalities are hilarious,
The game itself is complex, deeply tactical and difficult.
The oldschool no hand-holding, and "Ironman" mode has me constantly fumbling is panic, just like the originals

10/10

Wow, Excellent Game! Day 1 Mod support also. Runs smooth, memorable voiced characters, challenging combat. I remember playing the first Jagged Alliance in the late 90s, this is a very worthy successor.

I put countless hours into 1 and 2 and I think 3 is definitely a worthy successor. The mechanics are similar enough to the old ones and it wasn't a very steep learning curve for me, but I go back and play the old ones once in a while every few years so that might be the difference. The humor is on point, Kalyna is precious and must be protected, and I've run into a few great easter eggs so far. I'm having a great time, honestly. Definitely recommend.

It's a dumbed down version of JA2 without none of the strategic depth. The combat mechanics are out of whack, squad movement/selection it even more minimal than JA2, using the strategic map is frustrating, weapon variety and ammo management is disappointing... I could go on but it's not a horrible game. It creates some moments of fond nostalgia. They were on the right path but it seems the devs goal was spruce up the graphics (they're OK), add zero innovations and reboot JA2 just enough to make a release and some bank.

I was watching this game cautiously with some slight excitement/ interest & when the game dropped and got a lot of negative reviews, I was disappointed.

After playing ~20+ hours for myself, I have to say that most complaints are being very extreme. The COOP was fixed in the first day and I have not experienced any problems connecting with my friend. A lot of people want this to be an exact copy of JA 2 which doesn't make sense. This isn't a remaster, it's a successor that wants to go it's own way.

I've enjoyed pretty much every moment of this game so far, from the cheesy story / dialogue to satisfying gameplay. I'd give it a 8/10 if I had to give it a number. It's a solid game, especially if you crave sort of a Xcom-esc game with COOP.

THOUGH, That's not to say that there isn't a bit "jank", because that's how I would explain it.

- Playing COOP, when your friend does an order or clicks in a menu, your menus closes which can be slightly annoying but you get used to it. It has however killed a merc TWICE because I'm about to click to shoot, but then my HUD disappears and I use all my AP to move out of cover. Beware lmao
- Can be near impossible to see Overwatch / retreat areas sometimes. A lot of the UI can be iffy overall ngl
- Things aren't always explained in great ways. Like income, trait numbers or what would cause overwatch or reaction shots to trigger etc

I'll update this with more jank as I remember & find it but so far It's a recommend from me!

this game makes me mad. It has serious potential, but is very unbalanced.

I consider myself an average player, the normal difficulty was really easy, then I turned it up a notch and it is just rediculous. Enemies move twice as far as my guys, do twice the damage (what the hell kind of pistol does the legion have in the starting area? 30 damage without crit WTF?) and still get to shoot, and on top of it most of them have some stupid skill that allows them to shoot back at you when you hit them.
Which leads to enemies running in your face, shooting you, and when you want to kill them they give you a few more shots in the face.

Kind of defeats the whole action point concept, no?

It's ok, but it could have been so much better. It's like JA2, but it's not a JA2 replacement.

Negative imho:
- Sectors are too small. Every sector is just one instant battle as all enemies are on to you after the first shot.
- There's a lack of ammunition, why is there no webshop for ammo & weapons?
- The in-game help is lacking
- Stealth is broken
- World could be bigger
- Hitting enemies does not seem to reduce their movement range? Unsure about this, but quite often I almost kill butchers only for them to run across half the map to slash me with a knife.

Positive:
- It has the basic JA mechanics
- It feels like JA2
- Graphics are quite nice
- Mercs are fun. I keep Fox and Buns just to enjoy their hateful remarks about each other
- I like goofy but serious storytelling

Positive rating because it's fun to play, but it really needs some adjustments.

It's really good.
Are there a few things that could be a bit better? Yes of course, almost every game has it.
If you enjoy the old JA or new XCOM titles, this is the game for you.
I'm by no means very good at these types of games but on the normal difficulty its nicely challenging and I'm already planning on checking out the higher ones, whenever I'm done here.
The story and characters have the right amount of pulp and don't take themselves too seriously. On the other hand, parts of the story do show gruesome storylines/characters. So it fits right in the with the heyday on 90s action flicks.

Graphically it's completely fine for what it needs to be.

A few small issues:
Optimisation: i have a fairly powerful PC and on high I end up around 72FPS, on all maxed sub 60. That shouldn't be the case, but is also no deal breaker as the graphics on high are fine. Hoping it get's better in that regard tho.
Multi-Floor fights can be quite confusing and sometimes it switches to a worse floor again after selecting a Merc. Ends up in me needing to use the keys to switch floors more than I would like.
A few times i "missclicked" what i wanted to do, due to wonky hitboxes (and me being stupid). I. E. closing/opening doors instead of positioning next to them. Clicking on a merc instead of the hackable device etc.

Regarding the "Chance to hit" issue some have. It took me a few fights as well, but now I can only agree with the developers, you get all the info you need from the mercs (although would be nice to trigger it again, in case you missed it) and i really enjoy the way it's implemented.

Can't wait to see where full mod support and the general future will take this gem. Finally JA2 got the follow up it deserved.

TL;DR

If you like tactical roleplaying strategy management ish games (did i miss something?) with a dash of pulp fiction, go buy it. :)

Man, where do I start? I had a friggin' blast!

I am a die hard fan of the franchise and have put many hundreds of hours into JA2 1.13. I have just finished my first playthrough of the game and I can say without hesitation that this game finally takes the spot as a true successor to JA2.

It's not without it's problems, I have a laundry list of quality of life wishes and I know a lot of people are annoyed at the simplification of the mechanics and the smaller maps but as a fan of both the old and new X-com series, I get why. Also once you get to know many of the mechanics, I find you can still do a lot of tactical things with them.

All in all the writing is action movie cheese and superb, every merc has a fantastic personality and their interactions with each other were always great to listen to. The story was great and the variety of side quests really added to the feeling that you're striving to improve things in Gran Chein. Oh! And the soundtrack is wonderful!

I'm definitely going to come back for more playthroughs, and I hope through modding and further development I'll be able to tailor my next playthoughs exactly to my liking (ala games like Kenshi)

My wishlist:

- Sector stash inventory filtering/ordering/automatic stacking
- More reliable stealth kills, a stealth run is only viable if you save scum (Hire Shadow for some real fun knife times though)
- Fixes to the UI, especially when it bugs out and covers up your aiming menu
- PAUSE TIME OUTSIDE OF COMBAT! Setting up an ambushes could be so satisfying with more control
- Bobby Ray, for those of us who like to shop, make it overpriced so it's less useful in the early game, or maybe give us a hard mission to take control of an airfield for deliveries mid game (I had over $1.3 million by the end of my playthrough and I had most of the Elite mercs on the payroll!)
- *Slightly spoilery* give us a better idea of what triggers a certain plot twist in the game, or fix the trigger (it felt way too early for me) so I can finish off the quests that are locked away after that stage in the story.
- A better way to transport mercs? Vehicles or something. It's a bit of a pain when different squads move at different speeds
- Customising mercs, as flawed as Back in Action was, I utterly loved dressing up my soldiers in matching uniforms :D

I do hope a number of these are addressed in up coming QoL patches or from the modding community.

For now, I still say this is a must buy for fans of the franchise or fans of the genre!

I do hope a number of these are addressed

Had a really good time playing this game. Can definitely recommend it. Only the late game was way too easy and boring. After you get a couple of fully upgraded sniper rifles with silencers, combat becomes a walk in the park. Up until then the game was challenging and fun, much like JA2.

The game is a disaster!

This game, despite all its claims to be a successor of the Jagged Alliance franchise, the only thing that represents Jagged Alliance in it is A.I.M and I.M.P.

Jagged Alliance was a squad simulation that tried to bring squad combat as close to real life as it was possible at the time. This game is anything but nothing even close to reality.

In general the game looks and feels like being developed by children.

Character:
Stats in most are copied from the original Jagged Alliance franchise with one change - Explosives. Explosives stat determines mercs ability to use any device that can explode. In reality grenades and explosive devices can be easily taught to be used by anyone. Any soldier or mercenary knows how to use the absolute majority of them. It should have been just by default that all mercs know all that. Explosives stat should have been (like in original the Jagged Alliance) responsible for manipulating/changing existing explosive devices as well as creating new and improvised devices.

Strategic:
Very small in comparison to Jagged Alliance 2. Few little towns while Jagged Alliance 2 had 8. Small towns as well as some bigger cities. It has many extra locations.

The UI is huge which makes it cumbersome. Also anything UI related opens to cover the whole screen. This creates a bad user experience by detaching the player from the game. Jagged Alliance 2 had a neat UI that was nice and never removed the player from the game except where it made sense - laptop. Be it strategic map or in sector, UI was integrated into it keeping the player in the game.

Having crafting and repairing as operations does not make sense. They are just not operations. They should have been done as assignments.

JA v.1.13 did a good job about this and not only. 1.13 really represented what JA fans want - realistic squad simulator. Why on earth did developers decide to ignore it and create some childish game of nonsense?

Annoying is that time starts playing after you set a destination for the squad or start operation. In many cases you have to click the stop button right after it if you plan some other actions or operations. Time should be managed manually by the player.

Tactical:

Sectors are very small.

Sneaking. Never saw anything as foolish as sneaking in this game. You put mercs in sneaking mode and they can pass right in front of the enemy. Merc and enemies have no sight cone or something that would make it realistic. They see in all 360 degrees. No need to position you merc and cover different sectors to avoid being flanked. This also affects sneaking as the enemy sees you from behind. You kind of have limited time to kill the enemy.

In the original Jagged Alliance there was no such nonsense as sneaking. It was realistic. There was a mode you can turn to make mercs to try moving quietly. But that would not make them invisible or something foolish. If the enemy sees them he sees them. Success of being not heard by the enemy depended on agility and dexterity. But there was always a chance that merc would make noise and would be detected by the enemy.

Also, sneaking occurs in real time making it very cumbersome. No way to coordinate 2 or more mercs to take down 2 or more enemies.

In JA2 enemy and mercs had a sight cone. Distance would also affect how well the enemy or merc can detect opponents. That would depend on stance (standing, crouched or prone) plus obstruction. Enemies as well as players would use natural environments like trees, bushes, tall grass to hide and attack while being hidden and avoid detection as much as possible.

Cover system in this game continues a simplified mechanic invented by XCOM that has nothing to do with reality. Enemies or mercs would simply stand or crouch behind the cover and jump out to make a shot. In some cases they would stay behind the cover if the game decides that a shot can be made without leaving the cover. This is the only difference here and a plus.

In reality, one hide behind the cover all the time even when making shots. Only expose yourself as much as needed. That being some small parts of body, arms and head to greatly reduce a chance of being hit. You only leave a cover to make a shot if that is safe and you need to move out of cover to be able to have line of fire.

Also, because the cover is low does not mean you cannot fully hide behind it. If the cover can hide your whole body when you crouch it offers no less coverage and protection as high cover when you can stand. The difference here would be that you get tired and take extra effort to stick out when you need to take a look or make a shot.

Cover body coverage should be based on its ability to hide the whole body regardless if you have to crouch or stand.

This is what should have been improved properly since the original Jagged Alliance did not have proper mechanics when it came to some covers. Legacy of that time.

Overwatch is a disaster and should never have taken place in Jagged Alliance. It is a simple XCOM invention to make a very simple combat mechanic to make a game that anybody can play. Simply said to make as much money as possible. That is not what Jagged Alliance ever stood for. Jagged Alliance was a game for players that wanted a sophisticated and realist squad simulator.

While overwatch was tailored in XCOM and others that followed to work well with overall game mechanics, here they changed it so it is just big nonsense. So when you overwatch your merc (enemies as well) would jump out of the cover and stay like that until they run out of all overwatch attacks. This would allow enemies to keep shooting at an exposed merc. In overwatch merc would shoot at any enemy which is foolish. Soldiers choose targets and when to shoot and don’t just shoot at any enemy they see in some cone of overwatch. Also overwatch shots always fire in the type of fire designated for specific weapon. Automatic weapon would always fire burst and you cannot choose a single shot instead. Also, you cannot choose how well to aim. You just don’t have any control as to who and how you merc shoots.

To summarize no realistic reaction system, but instead a disastrous copy of overwatch from XCOM and Gears Tactics.

Weapons stats have nothing to do with reality. Their damage is probably some progression. As you progress you find guns and bullets that do more damage to kill more advanced enemies. Just like any simplified game out there. The Attachments system is ridiculous. You craft them from weapon parts rather than buying or finding them and attaching them. They cannot be removed and attached to some other gun that has proper mounting. Weapon parts are just some generic resource rather than something realistic. You can also craft ammo from that generic resource. Just another copy of crafting mechanics from some simplistic game.

In Jagged Alliance weapon stats were based on some measure that would reflect weapons as realistically as possible. Damage would depend on its and the bullet's ability to do damage and penetrate. This brings us to armor. Armor in this game just reduces damage taken rather than represent realistic protection and penetration. Most armors can withstand only a few hits from decent guns and armor piercing ammo. US latest military armor can withstand in general 6 hits (you can google it). Depends of course on the bullet and its energy. And then that armor won’t offer much protection. Nothing like that in this game. Just foolish damage reduction.

No real ballistic at all.

Enemies are some clowns. Mercs always look the same regardless of what they wear.

I can just go on and on… Game is so bad there’s no end to all bad sides of it.

Jagged Alliance title should have never been sold to anybody so that its memory never got smeared so badly.

One thing I cannot understand is why Ian Currie takes part in all this. Is he really so desperate for money to continually mock everything Jagged Alliance was.

Old school gamer here; like, played JA1 and JA2 when they released, had the original boxes and 3.5" floppies.

That said, I have been a fan since, even 1.13 as recent as a few years ago because the fan base is huge for that.

4.5/5 stars

JA3 has a similar feel to JA2 with some modern amenities. As a vet to the originals, it invokes the same feelings; great mercs, great story, makes you laugh, love all of that. The TBS is there also. It took decades, but true fans and one of the ORIGINAL developers helped create this true sequel.

What I miss(and hope MODs can be made to add these things, or are patched in):

-Bobby Rays. I want to go to a website and browse a catalog of gear to ship to my mercs to use. that Micromanagement aspect of the game I actually LOVE. We need that.

-weight system

-Inventory system remake. I LOVED 1.13 and depending on what you wear, you get extra gear slots.

-more piles of weapons and gear(pretty sure Mods will add to this.. I may make some myself)

If these things are addressed or added, this game is 5/5 for me. As it stands, I am happy with the way it feels, and am really enjoying it so far. For longevity.. adding these "Wants" will make it replayable like 1.13

Not bad.
Not as good as JA2 was, but this one definitely better than / Crossfire / Back in action / Flashback / Rage and other spin-offs

Totally worth it's price

p.s. additional thanks for adding workshop, much appreciate it

Ish...

I am enjoying the game, although it is punishingly hard. I think they do need to give % chance to hit, or some explainers of when you should / shouldn't go for headshots.

Whilst the lack of character customisation initially irked me, I quite like the 80's action movie characters, and they grew on me in the end.

However, I gave up mid-game when the enemies become bullet sponges. I'm reasonably certain that 67 damage point blank to the head with an AK-47 is going to kill someone, or at least incapacitate them! I'd rather the enemies remained normal humans (and not bullet sponges) but were better equipped, had harder positions to take etc. Whilst I can't imagine deploying on a tough mission with only a pistol and a knife, those sort of difficulties seemed more realistic than bad guys with concrete heads. As you can tell by now, that really wound me up!

I find upping HPs on bad guys a bit boring. A human is a human - and a 7.76 round should be as deadly in the late game as it is in the early game.

Meh.. The Famas does the exact same damage and has nearly the same range as an MP5. A Glock 18 does more.

An RPK is a DIRECT irrefutable upgrade to an MG42. Not situational. Completely superior in every way. Pews faster.

Enemies are suicidal.. they will absolutely throw their lives away to inflict damage on you. This feels more like XCom than anything.. but within the genre.. there is no way they can claim to not have used BIA as their reference.

If this was advertised as a direct sequel to BIA.. I'd say that it is a damned good one..but the fact that it used BIA in their promotional campaign, with negative implications towards it.. really seems in bad taste.

I'll switch this to positive when modding support comes out, as long as it is legit.. A good game..but only if you liked BIA or XCom (I enjoyed both)

I'm leaving this negative because steam does not have a neutral review..and though I like the game.. I really don't find it to be enjoyable with this cartoon level of balancing.

As a side note.. Some of the quests 'break' depending on what order you do them in. They still complete..but the dialogue will make absolutely no idea, "Ah yes, I ordered these mercs to go and rescue you." ... No.. You didn't..We've never talked before.

We waited for 20 years and endured countless pretenders.

At last, Jagged Alliance is back! With all of the flavor, the tactics, the humor, and a much better, more usable interface. Plus mod support.

This is going to be a "best Tactical Game" contender for years to come. Might as well get on it now.

Absolutely brilliant game...you can feel the love put into every detail. Although overcoming the legendary JA2 will be difficult, I truly believe they put a ton of heart into this game and it shows. It is definitely worthy of the Jagged Alliance name, moreso than any other entry after JA2 1.13. What's even more amazing is that from the get go, this game has full modding support fully baked in...which means that we will definitely see this game slowly molded into an even more epic representation over time. There's already some great mods out for it now that I am already taking advantage of. The graphics, gunplay, voice-overs, map and systems are well done and thought out. I especially love the mercenaries...they're so much fun. And my favorite has GOT to be be the destructible buildings and objects. Although not on part with the level of Silent Storm, what they have done here is so much fun. I blew the entire facade off of a building to with rocket launchers to get to the juicy goons inside and it was a total blast. Excuse the pun. The fact that they brought Ian Currie onto this is truly a sign of great care and devotion to the franchise. It's definitely a must buy if you are looking for a good time. Well done!

Currently not recommended.

- AI is really dumb, constantly friendly fires it’s teammates (it was a REAL pain to see this in A10, on both sides)
- balancing is REALLY bad, ARs and MPs have a huge automatic fire malus.
- you can stand directly next to one Person and your hit Chance with an AK can be below 50%
- ARs are only useful up to 6 fields
- MPs up to four field
- and even then their hit chance and damage is pretty low
- compared to a SR, which can single shot many enemies
- it’s also dumb in general, soldier’s running around like crazy chickens, using awful skills, they are usually only scary when starting directly next to you
- camera is annoyingly limited, especially at the corners and borders
- hit boxes of items are sometimes impossible to hit
- strategic map usability is straight from hell, though one can get used to it
- inventory management is quite suboptimal
- you cannot pass items between teams
- Sometimes ammunition lands in the inventory of a soldier, instead of their common team inventory

Really have enjoyed the game so far and the few issue that I did have with the game within the first week of launch have been resolved with Mods created. Brings back memories of some of the first pc games I played with Modern Graphics. Also look forward to seeing what other mods come out in the future.

It is fun at the beginning, but quickly the broken AI (i.e. always finding your mercs, no matter if they were involved or even close to the fight), and some dev choices (no ability to sell stuff, etc.) make it, at least for me, a bit of a pain in the ass to play. I am hopeful mods will fix these decisions, but until then it feels like a downgrade.

Very remicent of the Jagged Alliance I grew up with, And Mods are making everything better. Easy to learn hard to master a perfect ablance betweeen challenge fun and humor. So glad to back in action with the likes of Igor, Vickie and Magic. Can't beleived it took so long to get a real "Sequal"

What a blast. Finally a good JA game. Not having the issues some reviews are mentioning about mercs not hitting anything or bad AI. Have had some really good, tense tactical fights and the campaign map is SUPER BOSS. 8.5/10.

This game is such a disappointment; what a wasted opportunity!

Why is it that a game made almost a quarter of a century ago , Commandos Behind Enemy Lines, displays more tactical depth and realism than JA3? In fact, from a tactical perspective, everything you have to do in JA3 is find a high ground or a secluded place with one or two choke points and use overwatch, rinse and repeat. Enemies will rush you in an irrational elan devoid of any sign of intelligence. I played for 12 hours maximum difficulty without a single scratch by using this approach over and over again; laughable.

The game's flaws remind me of Wasteland 3, where you would be exposed to a myriad of weapons and types of ammunition that made no difference whatsoever: JA3 is a vacuous gun encyclopedia with no real tactical content. In a game where enemies have a points-based health, terminal ballistics are irrelevant...

Maps are too small, stealth unusable, combat simplistic and repetitive...by the way, how can you miss when attacking an enemy from behind with a knife? Take a pillow and try stabbing it, see how many times you miss...and you're not a trained merc. By the way, even if you stab them in the neck they might survive, not bleed to death and continue combat.

Also, combat can only be initiated in real time which is bizarre for a turn-based tactical game...not sure I understand that decision.

Worthy successor to the original game, so long as you remember to compare it to JA2 vanilla, and not to the (excellent) modded versions of the game such as 1.13 or AIMNAS. While these modded versions of JA2 will remain the absolute kings, JA3 has the potential to be right up there among them; if the modding scene develops enough for this game. (As of the time of writing, I have not yet checked out any mods.)

Content wise, JA3 is good enough. It introduces its mechanics without annoying tutorials, choosing instead to show you tooltips when you hover over things, and sub-tooltips to explain specific terms or symbols. In my opinion, this is the superior way of explaining your game to newbies. The difficulty is as hard as you want it to be; you can have it as hard as nails as you like or go for one of the lower difficulties and options for a more relaxed experience.

The setting is endearing, with plenty of different environments and stereotypically but not badly depicted characters. Grand Chien feels primarily based on Haiti, with mishmashes here and there.

The merc selection is a little light, especially early on, but the game makes up for that with a LOT more dialogue than I expected. It gives JA3 the sort of A-Team slash The Wild Geese vibe that I'm sure is still at the core of the franchise's inspirations.

All in all... I recommend it. As a diehard fan of Jagged Alliance 2 that hasn't booted up the game because it's a pain to set my display to 16-bit mode just to start a game (ah, laziness, right?), it's good to have a modern game that pays respects to its good predecessors. But as I said before, I want the kind of gun nerdery only JA2 1.13 or AIMNAS could offer, and I hope mods will make this good game reach the heights of greatness it deserves.