Jagged Alliance

Jagged Alliance is a series of turn-based strategy computer games for the PC. From the first installment on, the series received critical acclaim and gained a significant cult following, although this never translated to major commercial success. The first games in the series were for DOS, but work well under all flavours of Microsoft Windows and in emulators like DOSBox. From Jagged Alliance 2 on, the games were developed using DirectX for native Windows operation.

Description

Games of the Jagged Alliance series center on strategically controlling mercenary squads, on and off the field, who fulfill various missions such as freeing countries from oppressive dictators. A sticky phrase describes these games as "X-COM with personality." They feature a unique mix of turn-based small arms battle simulation and roleplaying.

Sharp humour via spoken character comments is a trademark of the series. The characters of the individual mercenaries range from mildly eccentric to obviously disturbed, and their spoken lines give the games a cartoon-like quality. This can be seen by some as inappropriate for a game with a subject matter linked so close to war and death, but the intent is to avoid a false sense of realism and overt references to real political events.

Each mercenary is an individual with their own traits, and fans quickly selected their favourites from the lot (such as the dour, bearskin-cap wearing Ivan Dolvich, who spoke only Russian in the original game and broken English in the sequel). Part of the strategy and genius in the game was the player's freedom to select a multi-faceted team to win the game in different ways. And not all teams would work; for example, Ivan and his nephew Igor, are hated by Steroid, the Polish bodybuilder. "Buns" hates "Fox," a medic with centerfold looks. In contrast, "Fox" loves working with "Grizzly," on whom she has something of a crush.

Many fans claim the turn-based combat system is the best that has ever been created in a 2D isometric environment. They feel that from both viewpoints of tactical depth and practical playability, especially the second part of the series, this series is the yardstick of the genre. Jagged Alliance mercenaries can choose to save up their allotted action points during their turn to attempt an interruption of the enemy turn. This provides for a simple, arcade-style system of switching the initiative and break out of the normally sequential flow of turns during battle.

The Intellectual Property

The Intellectual Property (IP) for Jagged Alliance has been bandied about a great deal. The series and IP were created by Sir-Tech with the original game and its add-on. The second game, Jagged Alliance 2, was also started by Sir-Tech but when its publishing arm went bankrupt was transferred to its development house Sir-Tech Canada, and published by TalonSoft. By the time Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business was released, Sir-Tech was out of business and the game was published by Interplay. Subsequently, Talonsoft went bankrupt. At the moment, Strategy First owns the IP and has published Jagged Alliance: Wildfire and is extending the series with Jagged Alliance 3D and Jagged Alliance 3.

The first four Jagged Alliance games were developed by Mad Labs which was Ian and Linda Currie, plus a few other skilled artists and programmers. Ian and Linda Currie were the lead designers on the Jagged Alliance series. Mad Labs was based in Canada but has disappeared (as of 2003). One other notable game Mad Labs created was Wizardry 8. See this 2003 Interview in RPG Vault for some details.

Titles in the series

Jagged Alliance

The GUI for Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, showing the player's mercs bordering the playing field. In Jagged Alliance 2, the mercs are lined up along the bottom.

File:Jadg02.gif

The Mission Briefing screen for Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games gives an overview of the objective of the mission, how long the player has to complete it and the reward that will be paid if successful.

Released in 1994 for DOS this first game of the series tasks the player with freeing the island of Metavira. The player must recruit mercenaries as they explore, capture, and hold new territory. The natives harvest the valuable trees from which a revolutionary medicine can be extracted. The more trees the player holds, the more income they make. Income can be used to hire native guards and hire more mercenaries to take the offensive and clear more sectors of enemies.

This game featured a top-down perspective of the game field for battles, with character portraits framing the view on the left and right sides. A separate map view showed the entire country broken up into distinct conquerable sectors.

Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games

Released in 1995, Deadly Games was a DOS sequel to the original game. It featured a different format, however, and is considered by some to be more of a spin-off than a sequel. This game featured the same engine and top-down perspective as the original game.

In Deadly Games, the player takes a group of mercenaries through a series of missions. The missions are linked chronologically, removing the need for micro-management on a strategic map. The scenario branches somewhat depending on your successes and failures. There are multiple terrain types, the mercenaries are hired and fired between missions, and the first equipment trader of the series offers his services. The most innovative aspects of Deadly Games include a wide variety of special ops mission types like hostage rescues, demolition and infiltration missions. Strategic features like turn limits and a boosted AI as well as networked multiplayer capabilities make this the most complete package in the series. The integrated scenario and campaign editors allow for the creation of custom strategic scenarios, adding to the replay value.

Jagged Alliance 2

This game was released in 1999 for Windows, and was later ported to Linux by Tribsoft. The mission of this second official game of the series is to free the country of Arulco from its evil dictator Queen Deidranna. Deidranna (a Romanian) married the former ruler of Arulco. Her lust for power made her kill all other pretenders (the Chivaldori family) to the Arulco leadership. The player is 'hired' by Enrico Chivaldori the last surviving member of the Chivaldori family.

Gameplay is similar to the original grand adventure style of Jagged Alliance, but features higher-resolution graphics and an isometric pseudo-3D view of the battleground. The terrain has two height levels (ground and rooftops) for player/enemy sprites and a basic physics engine for thrown objects and ballistics. It also features "destructible terrain" in that players are able to blow open walls and buildings with explosives. The game also takes place across diverse and rather imaginative locations including a multi-level prison facility, a school, a hospital, SAM sites, a vast swamp and a junkyard.

The weapons arsenal has grown considerably to include a variety of weapons based on real-life counterparts (such as automatic weapons, shotguns and rocket launchers) and also fictional weapons like an auto firing rocket rifle. There are some more roleplaying elements like specialty professions and the possibility to create a custom mercenary as well.

JA2 has been extensively modded by fans of the series. Several popular mods for the game include 'Urban Chaos' and 'Deidranna Lives'.

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business

This 2000 game is a shorter, more mission-based sequel. At the time of the release, Sir-Tech was already financially in dire straits and the product title is rumoured to reflect the quirky Sir-Tech humour about a somewhat rushed product. Nevertheless, a number of very good mods add a lot of replayability. This release added some tweaks to the combat engine, as well as a somewhat limited scenario editor.

This was the last Jagged Alliance developed by Sir-Tech Canada.

Jagged Alliance 2: Gold edition

This release added the improvements from Unfinished Business to the final release of Jagged Alliance 2. Unfinished Business is included in the package. Like the rest of the series, this version of Jagged Alliance is out of print, but as of July 2006 it is available via the Steam content delivery system.

If you are buying Jagged Alliance 2 GOLD and intend to play fan made mods for the game, including Editors, trainers and the like, please read the following information:

The Jagged Alliance 2 Gold edition being distributed as of now (January 2006) by Trymedia will not work with any fan made mods. According to Trymedia, the Data files are encrypted and can only be read by the JA2.exe that is being distributed. The best option for those seeking to use mods is to find a copy of the Wildfire English version (includes JA2 GOLD), or an old boxed copy of Jagged Alliance 2 GOLD, and buy that instead.

Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire

Originally a user mod, Wildfire was released in 2004 as another official add-on by the new publisher. It features a campaign that is decidedly more challenging than other user mods, or indeed than the standard game. The game's sourcecode was also published in the package, albeit under a slightly restrictive license.

A renewed commercial release of Wildfire v6 through European publisher Zuxxez in the spring of 2005 saw the Jagged Alliance series staying on shop shelves more than five years after the debut of its second iteration.

One of the more current and popular modifications based on the original source code, is the "Version 1.13 Engine Mod". Some features of the new modding engine include improved enemy-AI, a much larger selection of new weapons and items, and large amount of externalized data that can be modified by the players to add new items, adjust the difficulty, and much more. Several versions have been released and it is still under development in 2006.

Jagged Alliance 3D and 3

Strategy First and Game Factory Interactive announced in June 2004 that Russian developer MiST Land South would develop the next two games in the Jagged Alliance series: Jagged Alliance 3D (JA3D) and Jagged Alliance 3. Details are as of yet unclear, but apparently, though a full game, JA3D will be used to test the 3D engine which will be used for Jagged Alliance 3. MiST Land South will also be developing an unrelated title for Strategy First, Disciples III, for their Disciples series of games.

Jagged Alliance DS (tentative title)

In June 2005, Pocket PC Studios and Strategy First have announced a conversion of Jagged Alliance 2 Gold for the Nintendo DS.

Digital distribution

On July 6th 2006 Jagged Alliance 2 was made available for purchase via the Steam distribution service. It is also due for distribution over the Triton delivery service, but has not yet arrived there. Also Jagged Alliance 2 Wildfire is being distributed electronically via StrategyFirst's website.

External links

• Official Jagged Alliance website
• Official Wildfire website
• The MobyGames' entry on the Jagged Alliance series
• Press release on new Jagged Alliance games
• Official JA2 v1.13 website