Enlarge (credit score: THQ Nordic)
The primary Jagged Alliance recreation was printed 9 months after X-COM: UFO Protection, regardless of being developed at almost the identical time, in the identical style, with neither understanding concerning the different. X-COM took the throne because the progenitor of turn-based ways video games. Jagged Alliance offered okay and have become a minor cult basic however just isn’t talked about in even a fraction of as many histories or ranked lists.
Jagged Alliance 2 was a richer, cruder, funnier, much better recreation. The sequel extra absolutely meshed ’80s motion film tropes and stereotypes with the peculiar enjoyable of micromanaging a jungle gunfight, whereas additionally managing a forged of actual characters. Like Soldier of Fortune journal, or dozens of VHS field covers from the “Motion” part, it is solely real looking at a look. As Darius Kazemi places it in his great e-book on the sport: “It doesn’t matter what a war-themed online game claims to do, it inevitably simulates the cultural fantasy of battle and by no means battle itself.”
Like its predecessor, Jagged Alliance 2 had exponentially extra developer cred than gross sales. It racked up editors’ awards and excessive evaluation scores, however its most notable nod was a nomination for “Greatest Recreation No one Performed” in 1999. No one anticipated a real sequel 24 years later. However right here we’re, with a Jagged Alliance 3 that feels very direct in its sequel-dom.
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