Nice, I’ll give it a whirl. Thanks!
I would rather they just release a new expansion in the old engine (or 1.13 if possible). The last JA game I bought was Wildfire in 2004.
What’s missing in most of the recent JAs is the dynamic world map and RPG flavor.
Unfortunately, I am a sucker and bought/tried every iteration in the JA series so far. I firmly believe vanilla JA2 is still the best; however I do appreciate what The Bear’s Pit is doing with 1.13.
Unlike Bateau, I liked the Firaxis XCOMs, especially WOTC, but I realize they fall short in some ways to the original games.
I am not sure what THQNordic is trying to do with this. This concept seems really outside the spirit of Jagged Alliance. It seems on one level they are trying to make a more approachable game, but then again it seems like they are trying to add some Darkest Dungeon to it.
I cannot fathom this being a good iteration based off the website and video. I do hope they prove me wrong.
Based on the description in the article, it sounds like the aging thing is almost entirely flavor.
I guess Darkest Dungeon is a reasonable reference. It sounds kind of like they’re trying to expand the characterization via gameplay modifiers. Another example would be the Potential system in Valkyria Chronicles, where e.g. a Sniper might have the “Lone Wolf” attribute and get an accuracy boost if there aren’t any other soldiers nearby.
Below are examples of why I compared it to Darkest Dungeon. Aging is fine, Gus Tarballs was a bad ass and I think he was in retirement age. The traits are a strange thing to add in my opinion. I think they dropped the humor part of JA2’s dark humor.
From Ivan’s bio:
“The lack of mercenary business has made Ivan an addict, and he requires alcohol on a regular basis to function”
Also, Shadow had Leukemia from exposure to a gas grenade thrown by a friendly. Raven lost her hubby. Grunty has a bad ticker (not on the site, but I think PCGamesN shared that.)
Jagged Alliance: The Expendables
Good grief, how can someone be old enough to be a massive fan of JA2 yet still behave like an irrational 14 year old. Embarrassing.
“And we don’t know old.”
This may appeal to us 50+ year olds refusing to “go gentle into that good night.”
Hand me my running shoes, arthritis meds and garrote wire.
You had to deal with worse in JA2. Do you remember the crazy Mel Gibson lookalike and his Ed Gein inspired buddy? Sure you loved them.
Thanks @JD - Alec Meer was following up on RPS and commented that these are the guys behind Jagged Alliance: Online.
So definitely in the wait and see territory.
LOL! I should clarify that the Xcom comment was less about building the depth of JA2 and more about the general thought that all JA’s sequels have been horrible and buggy; I think the Xcom team could build a reasonably functional piece of software.
True, at this point a well made (which the new Xcom games certainly are) game with a sizable budget behind it, even with heavily abstracted combat systems, would certainly be better for the franchise than what we’ve been getting so far.
Alec Meer penned a follow up on the announcement
Polish, polish, polish. That’s what Jagged Alliance needs most of all. Not more finnickity options, not the wholesale removal of the against-tradition, titular ‘Rage’ super-abilities (earned by dealing or taking sufficient damage), not anything that would make it more like 1999. We’ll see what the final version and long-term play bring, but Rage, for all its low-budget shonk, does feel so far as though it’s laid real groundwork for a modern Jagged Alliance rethink, after all those earlier mis-steps.
Making a stronger emphasis on the “survival” aspects of the game - JA1 was SO much harder than JA2 on this respect, or at least that’s the way I remember it - is an interesting take. I am afraid, though, that Alec’s plea above will fall on deaf ears.
They’re trying to release it this year. It’s hopeless.
I see they “streamlined” the gameplay but apparently left tedious corpse looting in the game. That’s the opposite of what should’ve been done.
Though I’m not as hard core dislike as you, I have feelings of reservation about the XCOM remake as well. I haven’t purchased the second one because of them. The failed in two key aspects.
First, never dumb down a beloved game as part of a remake. The economic and base building aspects were key to what made XCOM replayable. You were given freedom to really try to game what you were doing, and that could easily escalate your doom if you managed things poorly.
Second, never take a key part of the game and, well, over game it. Turn-based tactical games were never many in number, but the big ones seemed to balance planning, effort, strategy and randomness with great skill. The new series turned all that on it’s edge with scripted drop-ins, “oh but wait, you aren’t done yet,” annoyances, and, “let’s make this even more annoying with a timer,” craziness.
It “over-gamed” what old timers like me were searching for, a modernized XCOM that still had the nuts and bolts of X-COM. Perhaps I wasn’t the target market at all. But perhaps if you are going to take the name of something great, you could at least attempt not to dumb it down.
And I felt the same way about the last round of Jagged Alliance, it missed a lot of things. I don’t have high hopes for this one, but if a miracle happens, I wouldn’t hesitate to play this if it reviews well.
I clocked in about 80 hours on XCOM because I was really wanting to play a challenging turn-based tactical game, annoyances and all.
I got XCOM2 too and I have barely played it. They turned those annoyances you describe to the “11”… the worst offender being the strategic layer. I literally felt like the game was taking me by the ear whenever I wanted to do something else than what the script demanded.
I’m glad you told me that, because despite me -not wanting to play it-, every single time it goes on sale I reconsider. “Was the first one really that bad. I mean i had fun, right?”
If I could add you to my Family Library on Steam I would and save you the $$$.
How about Xenonauts? Is that any better as a successor?
Haha, I have both XCOMs (1 & 2) sitting on the backlog AND Xenonauts. Getting there…