We took a 60 hour boat ride through croc-infested waters to see how good Jagged Alliance 3 turned out. That said, JA3 is friggin MASSIVE, and we've seen far from all there is to see. Expect an even more comprehensive vid on the game in the future. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: patreon.com/2HeadedHero TIP US on KO-FI: ko-fi.com/2headedhero Support us by buying the game through our GOG Affiliate Link: adtr.co/VhxVDH
Jagged Alliance 3 feels like Jagged Alliance. They definitely nailed the feeling of the game. I did install the Active Pause mod and I do have some complaints about the UI/inventory, but overall, the game is a worthy addition to the franchise.
Aye. I stop picking up weapons and just focus on clearing the mission. I see this game as a brain stimulator where you solve a map puzzle by using a mixed of melee and gun fight. I just clear the Good Place without taking any damage once I know the map layout and my enemies. It just make me happy. I just found a counter to clear the underground prison with no damage. I got a video up if anyone interested in the Good place where I one punch the Jackhammer 😅
I agree. I'm a big fan of JA 2, it's one of my favorite games... I remember my feelings and emotions from it... and JA 3 causes me similar emotions - this is something that no game in the series that came out between 2 and 3 parts failed
If you want a fun fact I think I've got a cool one for you guys. The Jagged Alliance 3 | Feature Trailer's language was tonally based off of your Jagged Alliance 2 video.
I feel like it's appropriate that Haemimont, a developer mostly known for making what is essentially Sim-Third-World-Dictator, is now making a game about ousting a third world dictator. Waiting for the crossover where you can take your Tropico save and use it to generate a Jagged Alliance campaign. Yes, I know it will never happen.
OK, you made a sale. I watched your Jagged Alliance history and you two really *understand* what made the series iconic. Thus, when you say this is a worthy sequel, I'll listen and front up.
My god they did a great job with the destructible terrain and multi level maps; something the JA titles after JA2 struggled with. At the Haunted House Barry took out about 6 enemy in one shot by blowing up the upper floor with a single stick grenade. They also did some real justice to the character details and relations. Another primary facet of the JA experience that recent titles haven't quite gotten. I played 400+ hours of JABIA, with the Rebalancing mod it was a whole lot of fun, but the canonical stuff was a bit half-a$$ed. This one had some changes but this JA owns its roots and celebrates them. I miss some of the JA2 mercs, but it was kinda the same when JA2 came out and dropped some of the JA mercs. I'm hoping they do well enough with this release to do some DLCs or sequels.
I see this game as a brain stimulator where you solve a map puzzle by using a mixed of melee and gun fight. I just clear the Good Place without taking any damage once I know the map layout and my enemies. It just make me happy. I just found a counter to clear the underground prison with no damage. I got a video up if anyone interested in the Good place where I one punch the Jackhammer 😅
I just got my hands on it and I say it’s good. At first I thought the AI was gonna be really dumb then after a while I went up sgainst a big squad with a leader and moved one merc up a little too close. Every single enemy took appropriate cover and overwatched him that made me happy. The thing I really didn’t appreciate is that they removed the online store.
16:50 hate to um actually you guys, but loyalty really only has an effect on some dialogues, and mine income. if you hold your mouse over the shields on the camps, you can use intel to find out what the objectives are. when you complete an objective, you remove a few soldiers from the camp. in your playthrough, you got bastien to bugger off, so the camp was missing a shield.
@@2HeadedHero otherwise great review though. What were your thoughts on (early-mid game twist after helping biff)? I think I went to go help them early, and it threw off the pacing entirely for me.
Great review. Sorry some people have to virtue signal instead of laugh. But the way they kept the tone of the franchise, updated the gameplay without dumbing it down, and implemented stealth CRPG elements (along with the timeline, they remind me of Expeditions: Rome) make this a game worthy of the name. I've played with the Active Pause Mod and without. When I replay this on Ironman Commando difficulty I will turn it back on. Because taking a permanent character death because I took .1 sec too long to click stabbie stab isn't my idea of fun. But for a regular playthrough, with all the autosaves, RT stealth is fine. I had no stuttering or technical issues, and the framerate lock is an absurd 240fps on Ultra settings. I knew the Devs of Tropico would make a game that looked and sounded beautiful. So that's no surprise. The rest is...a very, very good surprise.
Honestly, I say otherwise. Earlier games in the franchises had more options despite AI issues. Played the “back in action” specifically to 90% and it was enjoyable, despite how melee worked. Stuck on Console now so whether this more basic title comes to my platform will be in question
@@TheWarlock97 How can you judge Jagged Alliance 3 when you have admittedly not played the game? Back in Action is a fine title, I enjoy it very much and often re-play the game. It is not better than JA2: Wildfire, but it is good. I could easily see some of the real-time-with-pause elements from BIA being added to JA3. That is why mods are vital. Customization. I literally just finished my first JA3 play-through and I stand by my statement. Jagged Alliance 3, best game in franchise.
My only complain is the stutter that happens when there are a lot of neutral units and you start combat. The actual gameplay is pretty good, a worthy successor to vanilla JA2 and JA,
The game is SO GOOD that I wouldn‘t want to go to bed for the first four weeks playing it! 3 months in and I exclusively play this game! THIS is finally an actual GAME and not just an interactive movie with gameplay interruptions. It is smart, it is funny, it has intelligent humor, with super likable characters and has loads of pop culture references from Twin Peaks, the band Korn, or Schwarzenegger movies that always make smile big time. It is well balanced, and demanding- but fun demanding and never frustratingly hard. I just love it!
Good news @gidon147, there IS one! It's called Fallout Tactics and came out around the same time as FO1/2. You can find it on GOG for less than ten dollars: adtr.co/OEdW07
@@2HeadedHero is it hard to make an animated character portrait? you do it in your channel, ive seen older games like front mission and metal gear solid, they only make 5 lips variant max
Loved this ..im one of those who's been waiting for JA3 for +2 decades (im 59) and yes thers a few things that i wish they would fix BUT MY GOD.. it is all i wanted and then some.. btw you guy's missed a golden oppotunity to prove how g'dam over the top brilliant the dialouge is , by NOT involving any of Fox's voicelines LOL, she cracks me up every time.. or the banter between Fox and my fellow Dane, Monica Søndergård ýes that's how her name is spelt.... 🙂
Fox's special ability is insane once you give her a silenced sniper rifle. She has the most kills on my teams by far! But JA2 was always about building Team Ivan for me, and I have to uphold the tradition in JA3. Buns keeps Grunty happy, and Grunty and Ivan are buds, so I've been keeping Fox sanctioned away on another roster. I'll have to switch her over to hear Buns get annoyed :D
There's even one more Jagged Alliance game if you count "Hired Guns: New Jagged Edge", which was originally intended to be Jagged Alliance 3 by Russian strategy developer Game Factory Interactive/GFI Russia (now known as CatsWhoPlay) but they lost the licensing rights before release so had to change the name and the in-game stuff like Bobby Ray's to something else. Amusingly an strategy game by GFI before this change, ALFA:Antiterror, actually boasts how it's "From the developers of Jagged Alliance 3D" on the german box art.
@@2HeadedHero Yeah but very forgotten. Hired Guns (re-named Jagged Alliance 3D) got taken off steam, not helping. (It's on Matrix games digital store but overpriced.) I own a physical copy but haven't played it yet, no intrusive broken DRM thankfully. ALFA (which doesn't play like JA but is interesting as a turn-based/real-time hybrid) was on Gamersgate but got removed. (and an expansion pack for it never left Russia.), english copies for it also apparently have no DRM. ALFA uses a weird in-between system, you program a set of commands for your troops and they carry them out in real-time, for 20 seconds, then time pauses again and you can give new orders.
@@2HeadedHero They are at least interesting. Hired Guns I hear got very mixed reviews and ALFA (which I'm currently playing on/off) is wonky since you are reliant on the AI of your squad during the real-time execution portion but does have an impressively large selection of weaponry.
@2HeadedHero A little before the events of Jagged Alliance 2, he killed Hurl because Fidel couldn't stand Hurl being too fearful on missions... so seriously, killing a guy just for that reason, no sorry! This creep should be put in an insane asylum with a key that's "lost".
If you missed Aliens Dark Descent in the summer then I highly recommend it for you, they've patched out most of the 'bugs' (heheh) and the theme is bang on.
My theories on The Major and Adonis Possible spoilers ahead 1: The Major is actually the President running a plan to drive Adonis from the country, convert it into a military dictatorship, or both. 2: The Major and President are working together to turn the country into a dictatorship, drive Adonis from the country, or both, The big flaw with these is why doesn't the President's daughter apparently know the plan. 3: The Major is an Adonis operative who was part of a plan to convince the President to give Adonis more power in exchange for anti-Legion support. Only The Major has gone far beyond the plan and possibly just wants to seize power for himself now. 4: Basically 3 but things are actually going according to the plans of Adonis. 5: The Major is a former mine worker, or other employee with a grudge against Adonis. 6: The Major is a CIA agent sent to destabilize the region for here. 7: The Major was a deep cover Warsaw Pact agent assigned to rise up in revolt when the time for a Communist regime to be installed in the country. With no superiors he has decided to seize power for himself
They leaned a little to hard into the whacky silly stuff and it came out a little to cartoonish... but... it feels like Jagged Alliance and its fucking awesome.
@@2HeadedHero yeh that's true but I feel they went a little to far here, the balance of silly and serious was better in JA2. But it's only a small complaint, I'm very impressed and happy to see a worthy successor.
I did not try it but, since 21kiloton said that the game allows you to finish it with the Big Chien that is in more worse and messed up state than it was on beginning of the game...put a smile to my face,
Im about 20 hours in - it is brilliant. It feels just like the fabled JA2 mechanics. I just wish the online shop was in there, more weapons,, ammo needing to be carried by the mercs, and probably adaptable visuals i.e ability to see the mercs with armour on etc. Guess the mod community will resolve this. UFO Enemy Unknownl and JA2 are my fave games of all time.
The streamlining of ammo management was a welcome change for me, but I think the lack of online stores could be explained by the fact that there's no airport to take over. So many mods out there already and looking forward to seeing what comes out next!
Yeah, with certain video settings I noticed some chop - especially in the post processing. A couple reviews on Steam brought this up as well. But after reducing a couple settings it was smooth on my rig.
Great game, was super fun and did the old one i loved justice for sure. For new players testing out the game make sure to bring Mouse :) she is cute and OP as fuck.
@@Spectre1406 Thing about Mouse is that she has allot of the stats that unlock perks very high so she can train anyone to enable more perk combinations pretty easy. She also fits the role of solving stealth when not used to it yet with the perk she has. Med is nice to have on most mercs, explosive and mech would for sure get some dedicated people that have a high stat in it.
"Ivan, i don't we are in Alrulco anymore." I played the hell out of Jagged Alliance 2 demo, then the Jagged Alliance 2 game, never really got into the Unfinished Business/Gold edition, and Wildfire was just a ridiculous hard mode. Back in action was a nice JA2 remake, and im not sure what crossfire brought to the table. i will probably pick JA3 up when it's cheaper. Grunty? not Gunty?
If you liked JA2, I think you'll be pleased with what they did for the characters in JA3 😁😄 Grunty is still a pretty solid merc in JA3 and his personality much more bizarre
Only thing I found I don't like in JA3 so far is the lack of stores where we can buy and sell items. JA3 just puts an item on a table and you just click to buy it or not, with no option to sell items back to the vendor. If they ever added this feature back to the game, I think it would become the best JA game period, and that says a lot, considering how awesome JA2 was (and is). I would still pay for a remastered version of JA2 with improved graphics and QoL upgrades too!
For me, the mercs kind of dictates the morality of the cast. Sure some are psychos like Fidel who's contract dictates he gets kill a lot of people, or jaded veterans like Gus and Len wanting to do some good even as their bodies fail them, or Pierre who despite being a ruthless fighter, is a more grounded version of a knight who wants to free his people from the tyranny of the corporations and their allies. You don't really have true pro corporate guys like Stephen Rothman would if he exists in this game who would unironically go to bat for Adonis until the plot twist.
@@thedkm-4894 No one in AIM with explosives skills is perfect, Barry has health issues, Red is a misogynistic pessimist and Fidel is a psycho but able to play well with the locals despite his personality. Still the game missed out on having Mercs with colonial ties to Grand Chien like Cliff for example who would see coming to Grand Chien as a doctor and later combat medic with a condescending attitude vs Grizzly being the generic American patriot who screams AMMMMERRRRICCCCAAA
@2HeadedHero Moral is a spectrum. Being a merc more or less already excludes lawfully good, but can still be chaotic good or chaotic evil or chaotic neutral, etc. It's like an exterminator isn't good or bad. But there are those who goes out of their way to do a good job, and ones that burns your house down to get to the pests. Not that I've met one that burned my house down... just a figure of speech.
I've finished JA2 multiple times and played through the JA3 main story. The mechanics feel good, but the game lacks a truly interesting story that would be easy to follow. Also the humour feels superficial and somewhat 'forced' for lack of a better word. Also, much less freely recruitable NPCs and no weapon dealers. For me it's a 7/10.
In almost every aspect they have done an excellent work. But...I am really DISSAPOINTED from combat. I finished it in impossible mission difficulty and iron man easy.. NO challenge at all except 2-3 occasions and the AI sometimes was bugged or dumb AF. I didnt have this feeling of danger and fear of losing my mercs like in Xcom series..
I like this game but it has some major drawbacks compared to 2 IMO. Tons of Mercs are missing from 2 with no in game explanation (2 included a section explaining why the Mercs missing from the earlier games were gone) Also the in settlement shops have very, very limited selections and for some insane reason the in game online weapon and supply store from 2 is gone. Finally the diamond mines run out absurdly fast in the default game.
JA3 is my first in the series, just finished it yesterday. I had 2 squads for a while but mostly only ran one basic merc crew and took them all the way through. By the end of the game i had around 1.2 million buckaroos because there was little to spend it on. A browser accessible weapon and supply store would have been great.
@2HeadedHero A little before the events of Jagged Alliance 2, he killed Hurl because Fidel couldn't stand Hurl being too fearful on missions... so seriously, killing a guy just for that reason, no sorry! This creep should be put in an insane asylum with a key that's "lost".
@@2HeadedHero Fidel is bored, give Fidel something to kill😆 and he really means that it's not just an empty phrase, if you don't kill enough with him he will abandon you😅 even if I like that every merc has its own flaws, Fidel takes it a little bit too extreme
Check out Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Wildlands. This is what JA should look and feel like, imo. I think JA3 is more or less hot garbage. What seperates JA2 from this copy pasta is that back in the day they actually tried to make a good game. JA3 is just trying to imitate another game that was actually good. But I guess you can't expect much fromt he modern gaymer.
I don't get the style of this game tho. It's waaay too Fortnite/Borderlands-y. Why go in that direction when the most popular military game out there, Call Of Duty, is fully realistic and "adult" in its aesthetics?
I'm really glad people are enjoying, and getting into the game, but it doesn't even come close to JA2 in terms of actual gameplay. Dumbed-down ballistics, baby's first cover system, hero-shooter-like abilities, maps that are filled with waist-high boxes, cringey character designs, bullets that magically do more or less damage depending on arbitrary nonsense, etc. It's very obvious that they are pandering to the modern Xcom crowd, at the expense of tactics, and depth. It certainly is the most inoffensive entry of the series' post JA2 era, but it failed to capture the magic of the original, or its sequel. I'd recommend it to fans of casual tactics games, such as modern Wasteland, or the aforementioned firaxis Xcom. For fans of JA2, it's worth a look, but it doesn't match up.
You're the voice of a vocal minority that won't be happy unless any follow-up to JA2 is exactly that with better graphics. JA2 vanilla was the best, 1.13 was the best and this isn't it so I'm not happy blah blah blah. This is a legitimate sequel and a nice piece of work. After a bunch of daft titles with the Jagged Alliance banner but no heart, this is the game fans have been waiting for.
We took a 60 hour boat ride through croc-infested waters to see how good Jagged Alliance 3 turned out. That said, JA3 is friggin MASSIVE, and we've seen far from all there is to see. Expect an even more comprehensive vid on the game in the future.
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Jagged Alliance 3 feels like Jagged Alliance. They definitely nailed the feeling of the game. I did install the Active Pause mod and I do have some complaints about the UI/inventory, but overall, the game is a worthy addition to the franchise.
Definitely!
Hey, how's the active pause mod treatin' ya so far? I miss it from JA2 but the mod looked a bit buggy still
Aye. I stop picking up weapons and just focus on clearing the mission.
I see this game as a brain stimulator where you solve a map puzzle by using a mixed of melee and gun fight.
I just clear the Good Place without taking any damage once I know the map layout and my enemies.
It just make me happy.
I just found a counter to clear the underground prison with no damage. I got a video up if anyone interested in the Good place where I one punch the Jackhammer 😅
I agree. I'm a big fan of JA 2, it's one of my favorite games... I remember my feelings and emotions from it... and JA 3 causes me similar emotions - this is something that no game in the series that came out between 2 and 3 parts failed
@@rollinkunz It isn't the best, but it is better than nothing. It makes setting up a bit easier, but yeah, there are some issues with it.
They did a great job with JA3, happy to see where this will go for the series.
YES!
Thanks for the exhaustive review and nice commentary. Look forward to adding this to my backlog and dream of playing it.
That's the dream! 😅😄
If you want a fun fact I think I've got a cool one for you guys. The Jagged Alliance 3 | Feature Trailer's language was tonally based off of your Jagged Alliance 2 video.
Is that true? How did you find out?
@@2HeadedHero I helped write it. Your video was used as the reference to the type of casual speech we wanted to use.
@@seanmd6 Haha, awesome! Well I take it as a high complement 😀😁
@@seanmd6 Oh, that's so cool! Thank you so much for letting us know! :D
@@rollinkunz yeah I thought it would be fun to share since I saw the video in my recommended today.
I feel like it's appropriate that Haemimont, a developer mostly known for making what is essentially Sim-Third-World-Dictator, is now making a game about ousting a third world dictator. Waiting for the crossover where you can take your Tropico save and use it to generate a Jagged Alliance campaign. Yes, I know it will never happen.
😁😅 absolutely
I would pay for Tropico 6, and full DLC price for both games for that feature.
OK, you made a sale. I watched your Jagged Alliance history and you two really *understand* what made the series iconic.
Thus, when you say this is a worthy sequel, I'll listen and front up.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
AWWWWW YEAH. I appreciate your video on JA2 for getting me into the series. Looks like the sequel is quite unique
Glad to help spread the word! Thanks for watching as always!
My god they did a great job with the destructible terrain and multi level maps; something the JA titles after JA2 struggled with. At the Haunted House Barry took out about 6 enemy in one shot by blowing up the upper floor with a single stick grenade.
They also did some real justice to the character details and relations. Another primary facet of the JA experience that recent titles haven't quite gotten.
I played 400+ hours of JABIA, with the Rebalancing mod it was a whole lot of fun, but the canonical stuff was a bit half-a$$ed. This one had some changes but this JA owns its roots and celebrates them.
I miss some of the JA2 mercs, but it was kinda the same when JA2 came out and dropped some of the JA mercs.
I'm hoping they do well enough with this release to do some DLCs or sequels.
Feeling like they cut out a lot of the "meh" mercs from 2 but honestly, some mad modder will surely add them in. Or the entire arulco campaign
They said it was their best release they ever had sales-wise, so it's got legs.
love this review. laughed so many times. i binge watch your channel now the whole day
Thanks very much! We love to hear it, truly. Welcome to 2HH 😁😁
I see this game as a brain stimulator where you solve a map puzzle by using a mixed of melee and gun fight.
I just clear the Good Place without taking any damage once I know the map layout and my enemies.
It just make me happy.
I just found a counter to clear the underground prison with no damage. I got a video up if anyone interested in the Good place where I one punch the Jackhammer 😅
One punch the Jackhammer? That's awesome!
@@2HeadedHero 🙂💕
I just got my hands on it and I say it’s good. At first I thought the AI was gonna be really dumb then after a while I went up sgainst a big squad with a leader and moved one merc up a little too close. Every single enemy took appropriate cover and overwatched him that made me happy. The thing I really didn’t appreciate is that they removed the online store.
16:50 hate to um actually you guys, but loyalty really only has an effect on some dialogues, and mine income. if you hold your mouse over the shields on the camps, you can use intel to find out what the objectives are. when you complete an objective, you remove a few soldiers from the camp. in your playthrough, you got bastien to bugger off, so the camp was missing a shield.
Yeah, found this out after the review was uploaded - This actually goes into the beef with the UI and onboarding, one of the few downsides in the game
@@2HeadedHero otherwise great review though. What were your thoughts on (early-mid game twist after helping biff)? I think I went to go help them early, and it threw off the pacing entirely for me.
@@Chodey510 There will be more thoughts when we do another more extensive vid. Let's just say things... Turned out differently with Biff for me 😄😅
Great review. Sorry some people have to virtue signal instead of laugh. But the way they kept the tone of the franchise, updated the gameplay without dumbing it down, and implemented stealth CRPG elements (along with the timeline, they remind me of Expeditions: Rome) make this a game worthy of the name. I've played with the Active Pause Mod and without. When I replay this on Ironman Commando difficulty I will turn it back on. Because taking a permanent character death because I took .1 sec too long to click stabbie stab isn't my idea of fun. But for a regular playthrough, with all the autosaves, RT stealth is fine. I had no stuttering or technical issues, and the framerate lock is an absurd 240fps on Ultra settings. I knew the Devs of Tropico would make a game that looked and sounded beautiful. So that's no surprise. The rest is...a very, very good surprise.
Best game in franchise. Who would have thought?
Honestly, I say otherwise. Earlier games in the franchises had more options despite AI issues.
Played the “back in action” specifically to 90% and it was enjoyable, despite how melee worked.
Stuck on Console now so whether this more basic title comes to my platform will be in question
@@TheWarlock97 How can you judge Jagged Alliance 3 when you have admittedly not played the game?
Back in Action is a fine title, I enjoy it very much and often re-play the game. It is not better than JA2: Wildfire, but it is good. I could easily see some of the real-time-with-pause elements from BIA being added to JA3.
That is why mods are vital. Customization.
I literally just finished my first JA3 play-through and I stand by my statement.
Jagged Alliance 3, best game in franchise.
My only complain is the stutter that happens when there are a lot of neutral units and you start combat. The actual gameplay is pretty good, a worthy successor to vanilla JA2 and JA,
Some optimization would be nice, agreed. But it's nothing that can't be patched hopefully
Only when auto save is active.
The game is SO GOOD that I wouldn‘t want to go to bed for the first four weeks playing it! 3 months in and I exclusively play this game! THIS is finally an actual GAME and not just an interactive movie with gameplay interruptions. It is smart, it is funny, it has intelligent humor, with super likable characters and has loads of pop culture references from Twin Peaks, the band Korn, or Schwarzenegger movies that always make smile big time. It is well balanced, and demanding- but fun demanding and never frustratingly hard. I just love it!
More strategy fans should definitely give it a shot 😄😄
Patrolling Le Grand Chién almost makes me wish for a squad-based fallout.
Good news @gidon147, there IS one! It's called Fallout Tactics and came out around the same time as FO1/2. You can find it on GOG for less than ten dollars: adtr.co/OEdW07
Fallout tactics is a great game.
@@2HeadedHero Yes! Tactics is a forgotten classic. Wasteland 2 and 3 are also very much in the same vein.
@@adamg6643 Wasteland 2 is good, but Wasteland 3 is an absolute treasure
Outstanding review! Just like the game 🥰
Thanks! Welcome to 2HH!
So glad the Amoral Mercenary game is still an Amoral Mercenary game. I agree with y'all this is the first time its felt like a worthy sequel.
it feels like the expendables to jagged alliance 2 90's action movies
Definitely, and this is part of why I liked it so much!
@@2HeadedHero is it hard to make an animated character portrait? you do it in your channel, ive seen older games like front mission and metal gear solid, they only make 5 lips variant max
@@tahnadana5435 we'll just say it's a not-insubstantial amount of work
@@2HeadedHero it adds lots of charm though
@@tahnadana5435 agreed!
Loved this ..im one of those who's been waiting for JA3 for +2 decades (im 59) and yes thers a few things that i wish they would fix BUT MY GOD.. it is all i wanted and then some.. btw you guy's missed a golden oppotunity to prove how g'dam over the top brilliant the dialouge is , by NOT involving any of Fox's voicelines LOL, she cracks me up every time.. or the banter between Fox and my fellow Dane, Monica Søndergård ýes that's how her name is spelt.... 🙂
Fox's special ability is insane once you give her a silenced sniper rifle. She has the most kills on my teams by far! But JA2 was always about building Team Ivan for me, and I have to uphold the tradition in JA3. Buns keeps Grunty happy, and Grunty and Ivan are buds, so I've been keeping Fox sanctioned away on another roster. I'll have to switch her over to hear Buns get annoyed :D
There's even one more Jagged Alliance game if you count "Hired Guns: New Jagged Edge", which was originally intended to be Jagged Alliance 3 by Russian strategy developer Game Factory Interactive/GFI Russia (now known as CatsWhoPlay) but they lost the licensing rights before release so had to change the name and the in-game stuff like Bobby Ray's to something else.
Amusingly an strategy game by GFI before this change, ALFA:Antiterror, actually boasts how it's "From the developers of Jagged Alliance 3D" on the german box art.
Did those games ever release? Interesting!
@@2HeadedHero Yeah but very forgotten.
Hired Guns (re-named Jagged Alliance 3D) got taken off steam, not helping. (It's on Matrix games digital store but overpriced.)
I own a physical copy but haven't played it yet, no intrusive broken DRM thankfully.
ALFA (which doesn't play like JA but is interesting as a turn-based/real-time hybrid) was on Gamersgate but got removed. (and an expansion pack for it never left Russia.), english copies for it also apparently have no DRM.
ALFA uses a weird in-between system, you program a set of commands for your troops and they carry them out in real-time, for 20 seconds, then time pauses again and you can give new orders.
@@samz8691 Wow, thank you for this hidden knowledge. We need to track these down!
@@samz8691 sounds like they might be games to look at in the future! Thanks for weighing in!
@@2HeadedHero They are at least interesting.
Hired Guns I hear got very mixed reviews and ALFA (which I'm currently playing on/off) is wonky since you are reliant on the AI of your squad during the real-time execution portion but does have an impressively large selection of weaponry.
I'm playing on a PS5. The control system is as clunky as hell. And I'm still loving it.
Great breakdown. Especially for fans of the OG two games who have yet to purchase this due to trepidation. Now I will buy with confidence. Cheers.
@@Shark_Eyes thanks very much 🙏🙏😁😁
@@2HeadedHero Thank you putting it together. Great video. 👏🏻
Hell yeah, Silent Storm was fun!
One of my all-time favorite strats 😁
SS was a great game until those panzerklein's came and ruined all the fun
@2HeadedHero A little before the events of Jagged Alliance 2, he killed Hurl because Fidel couldn't stand Hurl being too fearful on missions... so seriously, killing a guy just for that reason, no sorry! This creep should be put in an insane asylum with a key that's "lost".
If you missed Aliens Dark Descent in the summer then I highly recommend it for you, they've patched out most of the 'bugs' (heheh) and the theme is bang on.
Definitely in the backlog already 😄😁
My theories on The Major and Adonis
Possible spoilers ahead
1: The Major is actually the President running a plan to drive Adonis from the country, convert it into a military dictatorship, or both.
2: The Major and President are working together to turn the country into a dictatorship, drive Adonis from the country, or both,
The big flaw with these is why doesn't the President's daughter apparently know the plan.
3: The Major is an Adonis operative who was part of a plan to convince the President to give Adonis more power in exchange for anti-Legion support. Only The Major has gone far beyond the plan and possibly just wants to seize power for himself now.
4: Basically 3 but things are actually going according to the plans of Adonis.
5: The Major is a former mine worker, or other employee with a grudge against Adonis.
6: The Major is a CIA agent sent to destabilize the region for here.
7: The Major was a deep cover Warsaw Pact agent assigned to rise up in revolt when the time for a Communist regime to be installed in the country. With no superiors he has decided to seize power for himself
Interesting! I have a theory that The Major is a recurring character from JA1/2 🤔
They leaned a little to hard into the whacky silly stuff and it came out a little to cartoonish... but... it feels like Jagged Alliance and its fucking awesome.
JA's always been silly, glad to see it here too 😁😁
@@2HeadedHero yeh that's true but I feel they went a little to far here, the balance of silly and serious was better in JA2. But it's only a small complaint, I'm very impressed and happy to see a worthy successor.
I FUCKING love this game. Worthy successor to JA2! 💯 👍🏾
I liked the JA3 game. Will play more definitely. Not ideal, of course. I hope for big DLCs and modes.
I did not try it but, since 21kiloton said that the game allows you to finish it with the Big Chien that is in more worse and messed up state than it was on beginning of the game...put a smile to my face,
Yup... bad endings are definitely possible 😬😬
Im about 20 hours in - it is brilliant. It feels just like the fabled JA2 mechanics. I just wish the online shop was in there, more weapons,, ammo needing to be carried by the mercs, and probably adaptable visuals i.e ability to see the mercs with armour on etc. Guess the mod community will resolve this. UFO Enemy Unknownl and JA2 are my fave games of all time.
The streamlining of ammo management was a welcome change for me, but I think the lack of online stores could be explained by the fact that there's no airport to take over. So many mods out there already and looking forward to seeing what comes out next!
It would be an awesome game if it wouldnt want to actively murder my video card. I am waiting for optimization for now .
Yeah, with certain video settings I noticed some chop - especially in the post processing. A couple reviews on Steam brought this up as well. But after reducing a couple settings it was smooth on my rig.
nice!!
Just found you guys. Pretty nice review.
Thanks!
Lynx, Stat and many more mercs are MIssed --'
I think there's a lot of room for more mercs to be added in as dlc or updates 😁😁
Plus workshop support has tons!
Great game, was super fun and did the old one i loved justice for sure. For new players testing out the game make sure to bring Mouse :) she is cute and OP as fuck.
Agreed, starter squads need Mouse and Barry for sure!
what about fox? she's also a medic
@@Spectre1406 Thing about Mouse is that she has allot of the stats that unlock perks very high so she can train anyone to enable more perk combinations pretty easy. She also fits the role of solving stealth when not used to it yet with the perk she has. Med is nice to have on most mercs, explosive and mech would for sure get some dedicated people that have a high stat in it.
@@ginoh007 Good point about Mouse; I picked up Fox for similar reasons! I'll give Mouse a go next playthrough :D
"Ivan, i don't we are in Alrulco anymore."
I played the hell out of Jagged Alliance 2 demo, then the Jagged Alliance 2 game, never really got into the Unfinished Business/Gold edition, and Wildfire was just a ridiculous hard mode. Back in action was a nice JA2 remake, and im not sure what crossfire brought to the table.
i will probably pick JA3 up when it's cheaper.
Grunty? not Gunty?
If you liked JA2, I think you'll be pleased with what they did for the characters in JA3 😁😄
Grunty is still a pretty solid merc in JA3 and his personality much more bizarre
Nice
Personally I am GLAD! That there wasn't any commentary or finger wagging since I'm gonna be honest the market is over saturated by that shit
Only thing I found I don't like in JA3 so far is the lack of stores where we can buy and sell items. JA3 just puts an item on a table and you just click to buy it or not, with no option to sell items back to the vendor. If they ever added this feature back to the game, I think it would become the best JA game period, and that says a lot, considering how awesome JA2 was (and is). I would still pay for a remastered version of JA2 with improved graphics and QoL upgrades too!
They did add a shop in a recent update
@@2HeadedHero Seriously? I haven't found one yet. Do you remember where it is?
store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084160/view/3807291311725528238
@@sebastianstark8517
For me, the mercs kind of dictates the morality of the cast. Sure some are psychos like Fidel who's contract dictates he gets kill a lot of people, or jaded veterans like Gus and Len wanting to do some good even as their bodies fail them, or Pierre who despite being a ruthless fighter, is a more grounded version of a knight who wants to free his people from the tyranny of the corporations and their allies. You don't really have true pro corporate guys like Stephen Rothman would if he exists in this game who would unironically go to bat for Adonis until the plot twist.
Fidel that freak should be banished from AIM, throwed in a jail and the guards siould lost the key !
@@thedkm-4894 No one in AIM with explosives skills is perfect, Barry has health issues, Red is a misogynistic pessimist and Fidel is a psycho but able to play well with the locals despite his personality.
Still the game missed out on having Mercs with colonial ties to Grand Chien like Cliff for example who would see coming to Grand Chien as a doctor and later combat medic with a condescending attitude vs Grizzly being the generic American patriot who screams AMMMMERRRRICCCCAAA
Bro chatgpt suggested your video when I asked about this game lmao gg
Great, now AI bots are eyeballing our stuff 🤣🤣
There really isn't a question of we are the baddies. Mercs are guns for hire. There is only if we are less bad than the people we are hired to fight.
If that's the case then it seems strange that the game would bother to pose moral questions at all 🤔🤔
@2HeadedHero Moral is a spectrum. Being a merc more or less already excludes lawfully good, but can still be chaotic good or chaotic evil or chaotic neutral, etc.
It's like an exterminator isn't good or bad. But there are those who goes out of their way to do a good job, and ones that burns your house down to get to the pests. Not that I've met one that burned my house down... just a figure of speech.
I was lied to . This review is only 30 minutes. I want a refund
😄😆 *opens wallet, moth flies out *
here's your $0 refund
@@2HeadedHero Haha put out the 60 hour loop version
I've finished JA2 multiple times and played through the JA3 main story. The mechanics feel good, but the game lacks a truly interesting story that would be easy to follow. Also the humour feels superficial and somewhat 'forced' for lack of a better word. Also, much less freely recruitable NPCs and no weapon dealers. For me it's a 7/10.
In almost every aspect they have done an excellent work.
But...I am really DISSAPOINTED from combat.
I finished it in impossible mission difficulty and iron man easy..
NO challenge at all except 2-3 occasions and the AI sometimes was bugged or dumb AF.
I didnt have this feeling of danger and fear of losing my mercs like in Xcom series..
Maybe you're just good at the game! Didn't experience this myself, thought it was plenty tough 😉😁
ja3 is way better than any other attempt made
Absolutely
Good game but in pc control and play more suitable ! For ps5 hard to control like mouse will piss u off
I like this game but it has some major drawbacks compared to 2 IMO. Tons of Mercs are missing from 2 with no in game explanation (2 included a section explaining why the Mercs missing from the earlier games were gone) Also the in settlement shops have very, very limited selections and for some insane reason the in game online weapon and supply store from 2 is gone. Finally the diamond mines run out absurdly fast in the default game.
Sounds like Jagged Alliance 3 has some... Unfinished Business :3
JA3 is my first in the series, just finished it yesterday.
I had 2 squads for a while but mostly only ran one basic merc crew and took them all the way through.
By the end of the game i had around 1.2 million buckaroos because there was little to spend it on. A browser accessible weapon and supply store would have been great.
@@MrMucera I'm starting to get excess funds, so I think I'll just spend them on cooler mercs :D
You call those major drawbacks? Wow! 🤔
Just finished beating off Le Major
😂🤣
tbh , if modding community gets a hold of this , they could make it 10x better just like they did with all 2 mods..
Fidel that freak should be banished from AIM, throwed in a jail and the guards siould lost the key !
Yeah... kinda surprised Fidel isn't a bad guy at this point, really
@2HeadedHero A little before the events of Jagged Alliance 2, he killed Hurl because Fidel couldn't stand Hurl being too fearful on missions... so seriously, killing a guy just for that reason, no sorry! This creep should be put in an insane asylum with a key that's "lost".
You guys should have played with Fidel, this guy is nuts a f.... Psycho I kill all nuts😆 he is so much fun
We did use him in some co-op later on!
@@2HeadedHero Fidel is bored, give Fidel something to kill😆 and he really means that it's not just an empty phrase, if you don't kill enough with him he will abandon you😅 even if I like that every merc has its own flaws, Fidel takes it a little bit too extreme
No ! That dirtball should be in jail --'
Who the hell plays games for a documentary on the blood diamond trade?
Wokies
Check out Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Wildlands. This is what JA should look and feel like, imo.
I think JA3 is more or less hot garbage. What seperates JA2 from this copy pasta is that back in the day they actually tried to make a good game. JA3 is just trying to imitate another game that was actually good. But I guess you can't expect much fromt he modern gaymer.
eh, we liked it 😁😁
I don't get the style of this game tho. It's waaay too Fortnite/Borderlands-y. Why go in that direction when the most popular military game out there, Call Of Duty, is fully realistic and "adult" in its aesthetics?
No
OK
the AI sucks.
No better or worse than its progenitor really 😉😉
I'm really glad people are enjoying, and getting into the game, but it doesn't even come close to JA2 in terms of actual gameplay. Dumbed-down ballistics, baby's first cover system, hero-shooter-like abilities, maps that are filled with waist-high boxes, cringey character designs, bullets that magically do more or less damage depending on arbitrary nonsense, etc. It's very obvious that they are pandering to the modern Xcom crowd, at the expense of tactics, and depth. It certainly is the most inoffensive entry of the series' post JA2 era, but it failed to capture the magic of the original, or its sequel.
I'd recommend it to fans of casual tactics games, such as modern Wasteland, or the aforementioned firaxis Xcom. For fans of JA2, it's worth a look, but it doesn't match up.
You're the voice of a vocal minority that won't be happy unless any follow-up to JA2 is exactly that with better graphics.
JA2 vanilla was the best, 1.13 was the best and this isn't it so I'm not happy blah blah blah.
This is a legitimate sequel and a nice piece of work. After a bunch of daft titles with the Jagged Alliance banner but no heart, this is the game fans have been waiting for.
Its a garbage game. Not even remotely debatable. Its a badly designed, cartoony, massively overpriced mobile game badly ported to pc
Naww