Jagged Alliance 3 is the perfect blend of good ol’ military hoohah and some much-needed chaos to cut the tension.
Video games are probably the most successful forms of escapism and they allow us to do what we can’t do in real life. Escapism is not just daydreaming about wearing shiny uncomfortable armor and slaying dragons; it can also let us experience some of the more serious issues in the world, such as global conflict and warfare, of course, without the extensive training and much needed body armor.
Many games over the years have played into this fantasy, the most notable example being the Call of Duty franchise. While those games play in the heroes’ fantasy, the Jagged Alliance series takes a similar but more tactical approach, as seen in their most recent release, Jagged Alliance 3. The games are developed by the somewhat infamous developer, Haemimont Games, which many of you may know for being the developers of Tropico 3 and Tropico 4. The studio began in 1997 and has mainly focused on games of the Strategy and Simulation genre.
The setting of Jagged Alliance 3 is set in the fictional war-torn country of Grand Chien, which roughly translates to “Large Dog” in French. This seems to be referencing the mercenaries that intend to profit off of the conflict. You will also need to hire these Mercs as you fight against the Legion, a militant group that is currently occupying Grand Chien. Much like the previous entries, in Jagged Alliance 3, you will need to access the A.I.M database where you will find all the different mercenaries that you can hire.
Mercenaries come in a variety of different ranks, and these ranks also dictate how strong the mercenary is and what level they are. These ranks are Recruit, Veteran, Elite and Legendary, one thing to keep in mind is that the higher the rank, the more expensive the Merc is since you will be paying for their experience. Another thing to also keep in mind is that when you hire a Merc, you don’t keep them around forever. Meaning you will only have them for a limited amount of time, but if you want to keep them around, you can simply extend their contract, if you have the money, that is.
However, there’s a lot more to hiring Mercs in Jagged Alliance 3 than looking at a Mercs experience and dumping a bunch of cash on them. You see, you need to build a team. Lucky for you, mercenaries also come in a wide variety of classes such as Mechanic, Doctor, Marksman, All-Rounder and many more. The wide variety of classes does mean you have quite a large selection pool and you can compare the different mercenaries’ classes to cover their weaknesses. However, you are sadly limited in team size based on how much you can afford, so you need to choose wisely.
Once you have your lovely team of gun-toting mercenaries picked out, you will now need to plan out your Operations through the Sat View. Operations are essentially everything you need to do outside of battle. This includes healing up mercs, renewing contracts, as well as fortifying and repairing the various towns you visit on your quest to fight off the Legion. You will use Operations to train Militia and Scout surrounding areas.
Once you have everything sorted out on the Operations Menu, it is now time for Battle!… Almost. Before your mercs ride into the heat of battle, you will need to choose their loadout, such as what weapons they will have access to, the amount of ammo they will have and of course, medical supplies. However, what weapons you use will change as you will be able to swap out your weapons with the ones dropped by enemy units.
When in combat, you will have two different types of attacks, Overwatch Abilities and Single Shot abilities. Overwatch abilities allow you to target enemies in a radius and any enemies caught in that radius will get hit. This is great if you want to hit multiple targets at once, not so great if you want to be precise.
That’s what Single Shot abilities are for. Single Shot abilities allow you to target the various body parts of enemies to deal varying amounts of damage. However, both abilities require you to use Action Points (AP) as is standard with most games on the genre, which along with Team Morale, are your most vital resource to manage in Jagged Alliance 3.
Once you’ve finished battling and have freed a town from the Legion’s control, you will now have a chance to walk around and chat with locals. Doing this allows you to gain further intel, as well as obtain optional side quests. Now, these aren’t like your typical side quests, as depending on how you handle them also has an effect on the main story. A good example of this is when you have to convince a man’s son to return home after he’s joined the Legion and depending on how you handle the situation, it will either make future encounters much easier or harder.
Side quests aren’t the only missions where you will need to make difficult decisions. Most of Jagged Alliance 3 missions will have you make some serious decisions that will also have equally as serious consequences. Even the most seemingly inconsequential choice can have a serious impact on the game’s story later down the line. These choices also can influence your various mercenaries’ loyalty to you and whether they will still fight for you after the decision has been made.
Jagged Alliance 3 at first glance just seems to be your generic run of the mill turn-based strategy game but it has many more layers to it. You can’t simply just rush into combat and instead have to gather and gain intel before heading out. You actively need to plan out your next attack and need to make sure your current team actually works together. The game can be a bit difficult to grasp at first and may take some getting used to, especially if you are a newcomer to the series or genre.
As mentioned earlier, games are often used as a form of escapism, and the biggest reason why is because of immersion. While Jagged Alliance 3 features some seriously beautiful environments that make you feel as if you are actually out in the jungle, the same cannot be said about the soundtrack. The soundtrack tries to make you feel as if you’re an uber serious “war is hell” military badass, and it does…. A little too hard that is. The overly serious soundtrack in fact, achieves the opposite of what it intended on doing and just comes across as trying too hard.
Overall, Jagged Alliance 3 may come across as your standard military strategy game that tries to take itself a little too seriously, and it is, but the game has a lot more layers to it. The game gives you many choices that impact the story and offers players plenty of variety on weapons, mercenaries and playstyles. Pity about its soundtrack.
