Jagged Alliance was best known in the 90s and is getting a third part after 24 years. According to Metacritic, the second part has a user score of 8.9 and is therefore in the upper league of good games. Can the new part keep up or even surpass the last part?
The new part received praise from many quarters even before its release. We have seen it for ourselves and can say in advance: we really like Jagged Alliance 3. But: This is only the first impression.
The full game can take up to 100 hours and will likely play slightly differently in the mid and end game. We will of course continue playing it, but in the next article we will put more emphasis on the co-op mode - because it is a new addition to the Jagged Alliance series.
Who is Jagged Alliance for? Of course for everyone who likes turn-based games. For everyone who likes to tinker and wants a certain depth of play. If you had fun with XCOM, you probably enjoyed Jagged Alliance 3 too. I would even say that if you like playing Mario + Rabbids, you might enjoy Jagged Alliance 3. Anyone who likes fast action might be a bit turned off. Because in Jagged Alliance 3 you as a player not only have to invest time but also brainpower.
Die Hard with Humor
Right from the start you can read in the game that Jagged Alliance is not an easy game and is a really challenging game. Therefore the normal mode is “Die Hard”. There are also setting options for auto-save such as “Until the bitter end”. In this mode, saving occurs only after the end of the battle and a battle can last half an hour. Especially if you are not well prepared.
After the setting options, you soon get to the real thing: hiring mercenaries and putting together a troop. Personally, this really amused me when I contact the mercenaries to negotiate an order. For example, the character Steroid like Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks to you with funny but somewhat stupid sayings and Fox speaks to you like a stereotypical party girl. In addition, most characters will tell you who they like to work with, which can have an impact on certain values.
The characters are very detailed. You can even read their CV. They are very stereotypical but they are also well done: from the stupid muscle man to the Russian brute with an ushanka to the Japanese cowboy, there is something for every taste.
The first use
What I particularly like is that you are not thrown into a typical tutorial, but rather gradually get to know the game via tooltips and displays at the right time. You'll soon defeat your first opponents and get a feel for how the game works. Then you go to a villa, where you are introduced to the main story by a nice lady.
You travel from quadrant to quadrant on the satellite view, locate loot, fight and also have conversations with villagers who are either annoying you or are well disposed. Depending on how the dialogue progresses, you will receive money or improve the characteristics of your mercenaries. Luckily the dialogues weren't too lengthy and you actually learn things that are useful to you. For example, I learn from a “civilian” with an AK that his children repeatedly come across military equipment while playing soccer. We want to go there to find something useful.
So no small talk and no unnecessary prolongation (at least in the first few hours of the game). The only thing that bothered me personally was an awkwardly placed autosave where I had to play through a dialog again after a total failure. But you could also use it to conduct the dialogue differently.
Just as the beginning was amusing, so is traveling and combat. The wannabe Arnie drops sentences like “I hope there is some protein powder in here” when he rummages through a box for loot. Or he responds to a good shot from Fox with “That was pretty good. For a girl.” (the audio edition is in English with German subtitles). Very cliched and certainly not a game for good manners but it's fun.
Preparation is everything
You quickly move forward with your troops, shooting from quadrant to quadrant and you'll quickly be eliminated again if you don't prepare. I wanted to get a machine gun from a mine to give to a villager and was quickly picked off by enemies. I did put up a brave fight by choosing positions so that the opponents would also shoot at their own people.
But the AI isn't completely stupid, because they don't necessarily shoot randomly. If one of my troops is already injured or even down, then this mercenary has a big target. The mercenary providing medical care doesn't distract at all, even though he would be an easier target. My tank Arnie was quickly flat and I could no longer win the battle.
You have to prepare well for battles. I then hired an additional mercenary, even though I had little money, and let some of them rest before I plunged back into the hail of bullets. Even the second time it didn't work because more opponents came out of the bush. The machine gun in the mine will probably have to wait a bit longer.
Because during travel and battles, time runs out and mercenaries want to get paid. Therefore, you have to look for sources of income from time to time.
Short interim conclusion
Humorous, great graphics and no bugs. For us, Jagged Alliance 3 has a “well-rounded” gaming experience and we just wish there was better clarity in some battles. As mentioned, we will discuss co-op mode in the next report.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Jagged Alliance 3 - PC* | 89,95 EUR |
* = Affiliate link/advertisementAs an Amazon Associate, we earn money from qualifying purchases. If you make a purchase through one of the links, we receive a portion of the purchase price as commission. This doesn't cost you anything extra, but it helps support our website. Last updated on September 24.05.2025, XNUMX / Affiliate links / Images from the Amazon Product Advertising API. Images from Amazon PA API.
