2019-03-01_PC_Gamer___40_US_Edition

It works like this: You take your two

mercs (you won’t unlock another for

hours) and liberate a jungle island

one turn-based combat encounter at

a time. Each merc is a bundle of skills

and quirks. This is the game’s biggest

strength, as each character feels

different, if not exactly

balanced. Raven is a

sniper who can’t carry

heavy weapons. This is

more useful than Ivan,

a tank whose bad knees

hurt him every time he

jumps down a step.

The story is as deep

as it is original—which is to say not at

all—yet takes up a surprising amount

of time, full of conversations I quickly

checked out from, but couldn’t skip.

It can’t decide if it wants to be gritty

(they’re kidnapping children!) or

cartoonish (they’re mind-controlling

people!). The mercs are, to put it

charitably, a broad collection of

national stereotypes. The one clever

idea the game has is to emphasize

how old they all are, but despite

being prominent in the marketing, it

doesn’t come up often.

The fact that you only get two

mercenaries to start with is

important, because those opening

few hours are brutal. I haven’t played

any of the previous Jagged Alliance

games, so I don’t know if they were

always this hard, but even as an

XCOM veteran I was initially worried

I wouldn’t be able to

finish more than a few

levels before my

deadline. Things do get

a little easier a few

hours in when you’ve

managed to scavenge

some armor and

healing items, but even

then you’re often saddled with

awkward objectives that force you to

take action before civilians are killed.

The result is a game that often needs

you to stealthily kill half the enemies

on the map before you get spotted,

which isn’t easy when your two

soldiers are often facing 20 guards—

all of whom get alerted very easily.

It feels like a lot of the game’s

problems could be solved if I started

with more mercenaries. The added

firepower would make combat both

easier and more interesting, giving

me more than a couple of abilities to

play with (there’s no levelling up, and

most equipment is just slightly better

versions of the same few guns).

MAKING CAMP

The difficulty is also increased by the

fact that there is no post-mission

recovery. Your wounds from the last

battle carry over to the next one

unless you rest, which carries the risk

of being discovered by a patrol. The

only equipment available is that

which can be laboriously looted from

individual corpses and containers

(the game is really crying out for a

‘here’s all the loot’ screen). This

survivalist aspect appears elsewhere

too, with soldiers having to drink

water, stem bleeding and fight off

infections. I get the concept, they

want to convey the idea of this

scrappy team surviving in the jungle,

but the reality is mostly just juggling

several different consumable items to

cure your various conditions.

There is an overmap, though,

which enables you to traverse the

island, moving your troops from node

to node while pursued by enemy

squads. In theory you can avoid these,

especially as the game eventually

gives you a squad of rebels you can

use to delay them. In practice you’ll

almost always end up getting caught

in a series of frustrating ambushes,

especially as the troops move while

you rest to heal up and repair your

weapons. Jagged Alliance: Rage is in

love with busywork.

Ultimately it is that busywork,

coupled with the odd decision to give

you such a low number of troops,

that makes the game a slog. The good

news is that we’re living in a golden

age of turn-based tactics games, and

both Jagged Alliance fans and the rest

of us can do better than a lukewarm

game with a beloved name.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Belated sequel to

beloved turn-based

tactics game

EXPECT TO PAY

$20

DEVELOPER

Cliffhanger Productions

PUBLISHER

Handy Games

REVIEWED ON

Core i5, GTX 970,

16GB RAM

LINK

jaggedalliance.com

42

Too hard, too dull and

too much, Jagged

Alliance: Rage is a sequel

that doesn’t live up to the

success of its forbears.

VERDICT

The story is as

deep as it is

original—which

is to say not

at all

J

agged Alliance: Rage is in love with busywork. At every stage of

the game I’m bombarded with basic maintenance tasks, survival

elements, weapon degradation and looting—so much looting. It

wouldn’t be so bad if there was more variety to the combat, but

sadly I found myself using the same few tricks over and over.

TOO OLD FOR THIS

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE An introduction to the island overmap

1 ALLIED

Your rebel allies can

delay enemy troops.

2 TAKE A BRE AK

Resting is vital to heal,

craft, and repair your

troops’ weapons.

3 ON THE MOVE

Enemy squads can

move once a turn, even

when your own units

are resting.

4 STORY NODE

A major objective,

useful for advancing

the story.

5 SPAWN POINT

A guard post, these

continually spawn new

armies until defeated.

6 ‘OPTIONAL’

An optional objective

(but in reality you’ll do

them all).

1

2

3

4

6

5

JAGGED ALLIANCE: RAGE

is all busywork and no play. By Tom Hatfield

REVIEW