The days where we got stuff like the "kicking-sand-in-your-eyes"-hard X-COM, which can still kick my ass and crush my spirit to this day.
Would you like to relive those times of "real challenges" and once again spend your time with a game that wants nothing more than to break your will to live? Well, then you're in for a treat with "Jagged Alliance - Back in Action"!
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| "I will devour your soul and make you cry tears of blood!" |
Back in Action follows in the footsteps of the original "Jagged Alliance" from 1994 and the sequel from 2004.
You control a team of mercenaries through a series of missions in your attempt to overthrow the ruthless dictator of the made up country "Arulco".
Missions play out from an isometric 3D overhead view, where you can give orders to your men in real time.
Back in Action also allows you to pause the game and set up a chain of orders for your men to execute, kind of like Dragon Age only more advanced.
Controlling your men with the utmost of military precision is key in Back in Action demo, as the enemies in the demo mission are absolutely lethal and will also summon their equally lethal friends as soon as they catch sight of your merc mug.
I say "military precision", but perhaps it would be more accurate to say it requires completely anal attention to detail.
Now granted, I am not the most hardcore of tactical game players, but I've spent my fair share of time with stuff like the old X-COM games and the "Commandos", which are not exactly a walk in the park. But I found myself being constantly blown to small mercenary giblets in this demo, even when I tried very hard to be smart about my positioning and took down my targets carefully.
Of course the situation is not really improved by the fact that you're unceremoniously dumped into the demo mission without so much as a mission briefing to give you an idea about what the hell you are supposed to be doing.
I gathered that I needed to slaughter all the enemies marked in red on my mini map, but it would have been nice to have a little more context and maybe a recommendation as to how I should approach it. After all, this is supposed to be a *demo* so you gotta take me by the hand here, people!
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| If you think this looks confusing and overwhelming then you're absolutely right! |
The entire presentation of the game is also reminiscent of something from several years ago. The graphics are functional at best, with enemy soldiers often times being very hard to pick out from the scenery, leading to many an unfortunate bullet catching incident.
The UI is also not a thing of beauty, with a couple of instant personal annoyances being that the "Esc" key doesn't bring up the main menu screen while you're on a mission, and there is no "Restart Mission" option, so you either have to save your game right away or go all the way back to the main menu whenever you need to retry (and I had to retry *a lot*).
The bad UI is especially annoying because you will be using it constantly to give orders to your men or rearrange their inventories. Every mercenary has three equipment slots and you'll be switching their equipped gear out often to swap a grenade with a med-kit or a smoke bomb with a crowbar.
If your wet dream of a game involves levels of micro management that would make even the most anal retentive OCD victim seem like a laid back daydreamer. And if you are into heavy gaming masochism (hey, I don't judge, what happens between a grown man and the pixels on his monitor is nobody's business but his own), then I guess you may find that Jagged Alliance - Back in Action is right up your tightly puckered rectum.
If you, like me, enjoy your games with a healthy dose of casual friendly and like your games to look like they belong in the current millennium, then I think it's safe to say that you can give this one a pass.
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