Jagged Alliance from Sir-Tech is a role-playing, combat/simulation that puts you on the South Atlantic island of Metavira where it has been discovered that the sap of the fallow tree has immense medicinal value. The father and daughter team that are working there are under oppression from a former associate of theirs, known to us as Santino, who wants to take over operations himself and clean up on the financial side of things. Of course, it is up to you and your team of mercenaries to set things straight on the island.
Gameplay begins with you organizing your team of mercenaries from the massive roster of AIM, the Association of International Mercenaries. You are given a budget, and you'll have to manage it carefully û good mercenaries aren't cheap. Each character is rated in characteristics like stamina and marksmanship. Once you purchase the mercenaries you want, you outfit them with the gear you have and the gear they brought with them and then it's off to the island.
In order for you to afford the mercenaries for days at a time, you have been put in charge of the sap production. The map is divided into 60 sectors, each with a certain number of trees. A few of the sectors also have the production facilities needed to process the sap. You have to hire the workers to get the sap from the trees, as well as guards to protect the workers. All of these people cost money, so the more sap you process the more workers, guards, and mercenaries you can buy. You can also bring in a little extra income by accomplishing certain missions along the way.
The game is divided into days within which you have missions to accomplish. If you are operating within one of the sectors that you control, game play is in real time. You can move your characters around the sector and have them explore buildings and inspect items. It's all controlled very easily through a smooth point and click interface.
Combat mode is where the real strategy lies. Whenever you enter a sector that is not controlled by your forces, you enter the turn-based combat mode. According to your character's attributes they are assigned action points. These points determine how much your character can do during one turn. All actions û moving, shooting, crouching behind a tree, etc. û use up some of your character's action points. When all of his action points are used up that character's turn is over. Then the enemy moves in the same manner. (Nothing incredibly new there for anyone who's played Breach 2 or X-Com.) While in this mode, your character can sneak around quietly, crouch down so he won't get hurt and such. This turn based combat was pleasantly surprising in its execution. In too many games, if combat is real time it is awkward to deal with and if it is turn based it is clunky and boring. This system is smooth, easy to work with, and fun.
Throughout the game your characters have opportunities to pick up better weapons and other items, like different types of body armor, bombs, etc. There are also non-weapon items that'll help you, like the metal detector and the wall microphone. Although there are missions outlined for you, there are a myriad of ways in which to accomplish those missions through different team tactics, weapons and fortune.
Because of all of the features used in Jagged Alliance you'll definitely want to read through the manual. There are quite a few things you'll have to do in JA and there are many different things your characters can do that only the manual can tell you. But the manual was written in a very easy to understand manner and, best of all, with a real sense of humor. Not just a joke here and there but there are running jokes through the manual. It makes getting to know this game that much easier.
All in all Jagged Alliance is one of the finest games to come across my desk in a while. The designers have seamlessly fused together the best features of role-playing, strategy and combat games. You can tell that there was a lot of attention to the basics, like an easy to deal with interface, and there was also a lot of time invested in game design. The way that all of the features of this game blend in with one another is very impressive. This is one game that you won't regret putting into your library.
