Six years ago in one of the texts I compared Jagged Alliance with a sample of ancient art, an artifact inherited by careless us, contemporaries, from our great ancestors. They say that everyone understands its importance and significance, but no one really knows what to do with all this. And in general, it seems that the ancients prudently cursed their masterpiece and everyone who touched it. The scary thing is that all this is still relevant today. Jagged Alliance 3 has not yet been released, although attempts have been made several times, and all remakes, games based on (sometimes even under a cult brand) and other clones, as a rule, only cause a negative reaction from the very picky public in this case.

The developers from the Austrian studio are familiar with this firsthand Cliffhanger Productions – they are the ones responsible for the not very successful Jagged Alliance Online, the name of which already makes all fans of the cult series tremble. However, the Austrians do not give up. The curse in this case apparently worked in such a way that they somehow ended up forever associated with this brand, and we are forever doomed to watch the attempts Cliffhanger Productions still getting closer to the unattainable. A new such attempt was Jagged Alliance: Rage!

Partisans against their will

Everything here seems to be in place and in the same spirit. Even mercenaries with nostalgic names and nicknames are present – Ivan Dolvich, Shadow, Fidel, Sova and some others. The plot mess was stirred up by the same crazy bomber Fidel. 20 years after the events of the first Jagged Alliance he got into trouble over some tropical island and directly from the side of the falling helicopter sent a signal for help to his colleagues in A.I.M., promising, of course, not only verbal gratitude for the rescue, but also a tidy sum of cash.

We select two mercenaries from the available list at the start and go to the rescue. We are immediately captured, run away and find out that we will again have to fight against the local tyrant (also a drug lord), who is terrorizing the civilian population. He is opposed, as usual, by partisan rebels, whose leader (a girl, of course) soon gets in touch and asks for help. There is nowhere to go – Fidel, who we saved, did not have any money on him, and his native agency A.I.M. instead of a helicopter for evacuation, he can only send one more mercenary to help us – we choose who exactly.

So we have to act together with the partisans, who promise to help us get off the island: liberate prisons, villages, seize reservoirs where they are trying to poison all the water, storm fortified camps, from where patrols regularly go out onto the global map, and so on. By the way, in order to delay these same patrols and calmly get across the map to the location of the mission, without being distracted by firefights with pursuers, you can call rebel detachments and ask them to detain the enemies at one point or another. This is especially useful when our wounded squad needs to stop and set up camp on the map to rest, recuperate, repair armor or make weapon modifications.

What makes the plot particularly specific is the fact that the tyrant and drug lord in one person uses some kind of experimental drugs to zombify the population and force people to fight against their own relatives. After some time, our fighters will also be able to use these substances and manipulate their enemies.

Past again?

Jagged Alliance: Rage! it is very easy https://casinokaramba.co.uk/withdrawal/ to scold or, as it is fashionable to say now, “hate”. The world is empty – there are no settlements where you need to communicate with local residents, complete their tasks or hire someone. There is also no division into sectors that need to be protected. Maximum militia can be dressed in cooler equipment. In battles you cannot climb onto roofs and there is no destructibility.

No money, trade and economic system. Just as there is no full pumping. Yes, our fighters do not develop in any way – except, again, due to the ability to remove from a corpse or find more powerful weapons and armor in boxes. It’s just that initially each mercenary has his own characteristics. Some people are better with machine guns and shotguns, while others are better with bladed weapons or prefer to hit with their fists. One receives bonuses from firing bursts, the other shoots single shots more effectively. Ivan Dolvich, due to his size, can serve as a kind of shield for the allies, Fidel, of course, is strong in explosives, and Sova is a born sniper. Well, and so on. But as you progress, these abilities do not receive any development.

The images of the mercenaries themselves are poorly developed, at the level of periodically throwing out specific remarks – and even those are voiced in places almost at an amateur level. The graphics are kind of sloppy, the maps are too small at first, and the enemy AI periodically glitches, not noticing the corpse of an ally a meter away from itself. And the battles themselves seem too easy at first: having acquired a sniper with a silencer or a crossbow with silent arrows, you can mow down soldiers in droves without making a noise or a single scratch.

In the combat system, special emphasis is placed on stealth (now everyone has learned to hide in the grass), which in some places we are actually simply forced to do – there are always more enemies, some of them raise the alarm at any opportunity, call for reinforcements, or, for example, begin to shoot prisoners, which threatens the failure of the mission. Therefore, you have to quietly sneak up on them and knock them out – preferably from the back (this will allow you to kill the enemy with one blow or throw of a knife, and then drag him into the grass). All this is good, but what we get here is not turn-based tactics, but some kind of stealth simulator.

Stealth for good

However, if you give Jagged Alliance: Rage! If there is a chance and you don’t have to cut straight away, you can also find positive aspects in it that will allow you to get some pleasure from the game. The maps are gradually becoming larger and more complex – as are the battles. Enemies dressed in more powerful equipment can no longer be taken down with a sniper rifle alone – their armor can even block a point-blank shot from a shotgun.

In such a situation, stealth, which allows you to lure out enemies by whistling, is no longer perceived as an imposed “feature”, but as a vital necessity. Moreover, the skills of some mercenaries are also “tailored” to it – for example, Shadow uses grass as a full-fledged shelter, and Ivan Dolvich, due to his size, can hide only if he is sprawled on the ground.

In addition, the further we go, the more often unusual extreme situations arise when, for example, after capturing a radio tower or after a conversation with the rebel leader at their base, superior enemy forces begin to attack us from all sides with the support of some berserker monsters. Here you can’t get away with stealth alone – it’s very hot and difficult even on the standard difficulty level.

Additional complexity is introduced by the time of day factor (range is reduced at night), as well as wear and tear on armor and weapons, which can break and jam at the most inopportune moment.

Mercenaries get sick too

The game also benefited from the new rage mechanics. When receiving damage, our mercenaries boil with overwhelming adrenaline – this opens up the opportunity to use special skills. For example, Fidel fires suppressing fire without spending action points (AP) or insults his teammates to raise their rage level, Owl fires particularly accurate shots, Dr. Q transforms rage into additional AP, and so on. This is really useful in many situations. And even the fact that increased adrenaline is harmful to the health of some fighters (can cause a heart attack) looks like an interesting “trick”.

Finally, the survival elements fit well into the general outline. In addition to the level of rage, health, action points and armor, all mercenaries now have indicators of thirst and immunity. While moving around the map, it is believed that time is passing, and therefore our charges begin to ask for water. If you don’t drink, your immunity decreases, which increases the risk of catching some kind of infection.

The same thing happens if you don’t remove the fragments from the wound in time and if you drink alcohol (partially quenches thirst, but reduces immunity) or dirty water. And an infected fighter who has not taken antibiotics has his maximum health reduced. This, of course, is far from a full-fledged “survivalist”, but we must admit that such elements add spice to the gameplay and return the time factor to the game, which needs to be monitored. And the search for clean water itself is a separate intrigue.

Yes, having overcome the initial skepticism, in Jagged Alliance: Rage! It’s quite possible to play and get your dose of adrenaline. And yet, in general, Cliffhanger Productions again it turned out to be “undershot” – especially against the backdrop of the one released at the same time Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, where, in addition to stealth, there is also leveling, trading, and the ability to climb onto roofs, and Overwatch works much more usefully. However, progress is obvious, and there are interesting ideas. It’s a matter of "small" things – implementation. So we are waiting for the next attempt by the Austrians on a given topic – perhaps there is a phrase Jagged Alliance the title would really be justified.

Pros: there are some really tough battles and situations; survival elements and new rage mechanics fit well into the usual gameplay; many different weapons and equipment.

Cons: much less depth compared to Jagged Alliance 2; The AI ​​is sometimes downright stupid; poor character development; Unconvincing graphics, voice acting and physics.

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