Jagged Divide

So, the demo for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action hit Steam yesterday and I decided to give it a whirl.

I adored the original Jagged Alliance and was keen to see how the new semi-turn based real time 3D visualized variant would compare against my memories of its predecessor.

The new iteration on the IP uses what they've coined as the Plan & Go system. This is essentially a 'real time with pauses' system that allows the game to run in real time, with commands/actions able to be given at this point, but can also be 'paused' in order to allow the user to give more detailed/further actions and directions to their squad members. This 'pause' mode also allows for commands to be queued up, meaning you could go "move here", "throw a flash-bang through the window" and finally follow it up with "run into the room and shoot anything that moves" - which will then run sequentially once you 'unpause' the game.

In my opinion is that this has worked really well. The game flows nicely and, whilst the demo can hardly be seen as a full demonstration, it has a lot of potential. The only place I've found it to fall down is when you come up against the the somewhat limited AI in use. Quite a few times I told my team members to run up to an area where I expected an Enemy to be, based on their previous patrol route, only to find that they had taken a slightly different route (or even just stopped walking entirely) and I then had to set up another set of commands in order to combat them.

Overall I quite enjoyed the demo, although I feel I must warn you that the level given in the demo is pretty damn difficult. The tutorial, on the other hand, is a nice intro to the systems and allows you to get to grips with the gameplay before being massacred remorselessly.

You can grab the demo on Steam at the moment, but as it seems to be struggling a little at the moment you can also grab it from one of the links here.

Jagged Allian: Back in Action will launch in the UK on 10th February 2012. You can pre-order on Steam now and save yourself a cool 15% on the final price.