A
s a PC gamer, you understand why the
question “how many games are in the
Jagged Alliance series” doesn’t have a simple
answer. IPs flip back and forth between
publishers all the time, because PC gaming is
an industry that’s 1% megahit, 99% living on
the razor’s edge of insolvency. Any franchise
that looks like it has even the tiniest bit of
legacy with gamers gets bought up and
flogged, even if the actual game has nothing
to do with the original. See also: Prey.Jagged Alliance though is something
unique. While it wasn’t the only turn-based
tactical squad game of the mid-to-late 1990s,
it had a free-flowing strategic layer unlike
anything else, and incredible depth.
By the time the original developers were
ready to let their baby grow wings and fly
away, JA had a core fanbase and the respect
of critics, publishers, and gamers alike. It was
almost ideally set up to spawn a franchise at
least as big as X-Com.
But it didn’t. Instead, Jagged Alliance
became almost a sort of poison chalice,
but one that publishers kept drinking from
because it had to be profitable somehow,
come on you guys, it’s Jagged Alliance!
Here’s what actually happened.OPENING SHOTS
PC gaming in 1995 was all about definitive
adventure games (Full Throttle), deep-geek
turn-based strategy (Mechwarrior 2) and
pushing the limits of 3D (Descent). Then
into the middle of all this dropped Jagged
Alliance - a turn-based tactical game from
Canadian developer Sir-Tech, with a structure
that wasn’t quite like anything else. Okay, the
turn-based combat was familiar enough, withaction points and so forth. But the strategic
layer - which allowed the player to secure the
island nation of Metavira sector-by-sector -
meant there were no missions, as such. NPCs
would pop up and offer objectives, but the
player was free to ignore them.
More importantly, there was a massive
roster of mercenary soldiers to choose
from, each with unique stats and “funny”
personalities. The player also had to manage
a population of guards - to keep conquered
sectors from falling into enemy hands - and
tappers. Tappers were workers who... uh...
harvested medically magical sap from trees
that had been mutated by US nuclear testing.
In any case, JA sold well for its time, at least
enough to give Sir-Tech the confidence to
develop a sequel in 1999. Jagged Alliance 2 was
one of those rare things - a game that was true
to the original but just gave the player more.
Now using the increasingly popular
isometric perspective, JA2 added NPC dialogue
trees, interactions between mercenaries and
morale, a semi-destructible environment, and
a slightly less ridiculous backstory involving a
democratically-elected King.
All pretty straightforward so far. So how
did JA go from this 90s innovation success
story to a confusing mess? Ah well that’s
its secret - by the time JA2 came out, it was
already a confusing mess.YOU MADE THIS? WE MADE THIS!
What’s confusing about Jagged Alliance 2 is
that it wasn’t the second game in the series, it
was the third.
Sir-Tech had developed Jagged Alliance:
Deadly Games in 1996, which was a mission-
based, more-than-an-expansion-pack-less-
than-a-true-sequel to Jagged Alliance. It was
the first Jagged Alliance game that Sir-Tech
developed.
Wait, didn’t I say Sir-Tech had developed
the original? ell, technically yes. ertainly,
the core creative team of Ian Currie, Linda
Currie, and Shaun Lyng were responsible
for JA, JA:DG, and JA2. But they did most of
their work on the original game as Mad Labs
Software, which was brought into Sir-Tech
before the game was released.
Exactly who published Jagged Alliance 2
is surprisingly difficult to figure out. It seemsDEVELOPERSMADLABS,SIR-TECH,I-DEAL,
CLIFFHANGER, COREPLAY, BIGMOON, MIST LAND
SOUTH,AKELLA,F3GAMES,FULLCONTROL,ANDTHEN
CLIFFHANGER AGAIN.
PERSONALITIESIAN CURRIE, LINDA CURRIE,
SHAUNLYNG,ANDALONGLISTOFBANKRUPTSWHO
THOUGHT THEY COULD MAKE SOME MONEY OUT OF
THIS IP SOMEHOW.
RELEASED1995-2018
NUTSHELLUNIQUEMIXOF4X,RPGANDTACTICAL
TURN-BASED MERCENARY COMBAT, WITH REAL GUNS
AND ALWAYS A RIDICULOUS STORYLINE. FOR INSTANCE,
INTHEORIGINALGAMEYOU’REKILLINGPEOPLE
OVER CONTROL OF MUTATED TREES THAT PRODUCE A
MIRACLESAP.BUTITDOESN’TMATTERBECAUSETHE
GAMEPLAY IS TRANSCENDENTAL.JAGGED ALLIANCE (SERIES)
JAGGED ALLIANCE
W HAGIONAUT
A beloved 1990s franchise being snapped up by a big publisher and handed over to a new
studio for a remake is hardly unique. But when an IP goes through half a dozen developers and
publishers on three continents, gets cancelled, reborn, reimagined, crowdsourced twice, and
still seem to be alive after 24 long, hard years... it must be something special.