A First Impression from a JA Veteran

[Shin]

Well, I love the turn based tactical style of game especially the Jagged Alliance, Hammer & Anvil, Silent Storm, style game -- It's one of my favorite types of games in a world of FPSes which I don't care for generally.

So I was overjoyed when I found out about Jagged Edge.

My first impressions -- The player creation is great, of course we've seen it before and it's great to see it like this again. The psychological profile, the statistics, the doctor/trainer/repair roles. It's what we've always liked and it's fun to tinker with. I spent a good deal of time just enjoying seeing what kind of psychological profiles I could get out of answering the questionnaires differently.

The gameplay is hard, very hard on the medium level. Grenades will take you out, and they will take you out one shot permanently in the beginning. If someone gets a chance to throw a grenade, you may suddenly have a dead mercenary or team, no second chances! I don't know how much of a deal body armor will make later in the game but it better make a difference! Some games I like to play ironman, and a game that's impossible to play without saving/reloading all the time is a badly designed game.

It's interesting that sneaking is automatic on a crouch, I expected a 'stealth mode' and to have integrated like that means we won't be running stealthed ever. Fortunately the crouched mode isn't so slow as to bother me, so it's a don't mind situation.

Right now I'm rethinking my initial three person sniper team, and thinking of getting a huge bunch of low quality cheapo mercenaries to see me through the beginnings, so that if some of them die, big whoop, as long as numero uno pulls through until we get better gear OK.

The manual is good but could've used more info about interacting with people and some of the basic stuff that I think was left to players who've played this genre before to figure out, if you haven't a lot of little things might get past you. There's definitely room for a strategy guide here.

My biggest complaint in this game is the camera. It zooms in too close, and doesn't zoom out far enough for strategic decisions. I can't make it zoom at an angle. Worst of all, when set to move to events which of course you want to know what's going on with the NPCs shooting it out, it always zooms in again -- so you're constantly zooming out insufficiently and trying to figure out where everything is on the camera. Many times people've thrown thrown grenades and I have no idea where they were from, when if I just had a little strategic zoom out I would've at least had an idea of the scene. Dying because your camera's clunky when the game is already this hard is a big problem, that fortunately a patch can fix. So let's see it!

The weaponry and upgrades look interesting, a right click brings open the weapon to place the upgrades in -- but is this intuitive for a new player? Did I miss the instruction on this somewhere? A tutorial for this game really would've been nice or at least more instructions in the manual. A FAQ for this stuff will have to do.

I haven't played long enough to see of the mercenaries personalities come out and if there's a good deal of banter and humor, which is what really makes these games work.

So my first impression so far is that this game is pretty rough around the edges, it has the potential for a hit or a miss, and just playing a few hours isn't going to tell me which it is. We'll have to see!

[ShadoWarrior]

13-16 APs to drop stuff on the ground is pretty extreme, and makes emptying containers (for sector autolooting) something you don't want to do until after the battle is over and you are back in real-time mode.

[SlickWilhelm]

The first time I tried to talk to the Officer in the northern sector, I had my garand in my pack and therefore wasn't armed(well, not obviously armed). I got to within about ten feet of him when it switched to combat mode. Needless to say, I died real quick. I was surprised that this happened, because I have a wisdom of 80 and was going to try to bribe them. I didn't even get to try to bribe them.

The 2nd attempt, I had my mercs go more slowly and carefully. By the time we got up near the jeep, the fight had begun between the soldiers and the marauders. I don't know what the difference is between a soldier and a marauder, but they were fighting each other, and both showed up as bad guy targets for my team.

The combat is pretty good, although you are correct about the camera. It's difficult to get it panned just right at certain times.

[Erik Rutins]

The best way to initiate a conversation is to start it at a longer range. By the time you get in close, they're already suspicious of you in my experience. Once you see them, see if you can start talking to them. Approach closer only until talking works, no closer is needed.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

The best way to initiate a conversation is to start it at a longer range. By the time you get in close, they're already suspicious of you in my experience. Once you see them, see if you can start talking to them. Approach closer only until talking works, no closer is needed.

Erik, are you referring to tactical mode? I tried starting the conversation early, but when I clicked the talk icon on his head, my character starting walking up to him instead of talking from a distance. Is there more than one way to initiate a conversation?

[CowGod]

I am another hard veteran of JA2 and I had been waiting for this game to come out for a very very long time!

In my own oppinion but there are a few things that really need to be adjusted in the next patch. First of that camera is really annoying! I have to scroll all the time and never able to get an idea of the exact area. The conversations suck up big time but I can live with that. The map system is JA2 was a far better deal. Additionally and most importantly.....where the heck are IVAN - SHADOW - MAGIG and the rest of the team??? how could anyone make a sequel of JA2 without adding at least some of the most played characters in turnbased strategy gaming history?????

Apart from all this the game is good but with the mentioned adjustments it would be in the EXCELLENT GAME list like JA2 rather than stay behind in the GOOD GAME list considering that its the sequel.

[CowGod]

And something i still can't figure out. Can you sell stuff in this game or am i missing something?

[milkweg]

ORIGINAL: CowGod

I am another hard veteran of JA2 and I had been waiting for this game to come out for a very very long time!

In my own oppinion but there are a few things that really need to be adjusted in the next patch. First of that camera is really annoying! I have to scroll all the time and never able to get an idea of the exact area. The conversations suck up big time but I can live with that. The map system is JA2 was a far better deal. Additionally and most importantly.....where the heck are IVAN - SHADOW - MAGIG and the rest of the team??? how could anyone make a sequel of JA2 without adding at least some of the most played characters in turnbased strategy gaming history?????

Apart from all this the game is good but with the mentioned adjustments it would be in the EXCELLENT GAME list like JA2 rather than stay behind in the GOOD GAME list considering that its the sequel.

Directly copying characters from JA2 or JA (miss Tex as he wasn't in JA2 even) would be a CP infringement. Search through the other posts in this forum on how to change the camera. I used the values in that mod and the camera is much better now.

[Shin]

AFAIK this isn't 'Jagged Alliance 3' and there is even one of those in the works though that project's been so quiet I haven't heard if it's really still alive?

This is more like 'Hammer & Anvil 2' honestly with mercs, that's the feel of it. Not quite the same thing.

[ShadoWarrior]

Actually, this used to be the official JA3D, before the Russian development studio had their JA license yanked. The developers had a difference of opinion with the publishers over design and content. The devs went off their own way and they had to rename everything to avoid infringing on the JA2 IP. They found a new (Russian) money source, er, publisher and they continued to work on the game until they released it. I'm beginning to see why the JA copyright owners didn't like the direction the developers were taking the game, and why they decided to go with another dev studio and completely restart the JA3 project (which is still in the works).

[CowGod]

So this is not the actual sequel???????

[ShadoWarrior]

No.

[Shin]

Well that clears up a lot! Interesting. 

[Tactics]

Which to buy? This $29 one or the other?
 
Jagged Alliance 2 for $10?
 
It sounds like this $29 version needs a patch and a mod to be decent.
 

[CowGod]

This game has some real issues!!!!

The computer seems to cheat as he keeps throwing granades at me from twice the distance i can!

Also, i have a huge loadout of weapons but ammo is nowhere to be found! is there some weapons shop somewhere to sell and buy stuff???

And what about my financial situation? there is no finaces screen!!! so how am i supposed to know what i have and what i'm  spending?

Anyway .... up till now this game is a disappointment. Especially knowing that the only reason why it is so bad is because of some missing options and an unbalanced AI. Have they even tried this game before putting it for sale? ....i wonder!

patch it and do it fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hard Sarge]

your info on money is on the Strat map (right click where it shows your money amount)

how many days are you into the game ? the online store starts adding stuff as soon as the 2nd day starts, most of the other ammo can be found during battles, on the maps, make sure to look for any crates you can open, lots of goodies are in there (as a bonus I would think)

(I had a M-79 before I had ammo for it, I had a Fancy Russian Sniper rifle before I had ammo for it, use what you got on hand, and store the rest, when you get ammo, bring it out)

you can mod what you think is wrong, or pick up the mod someone else already made to help with the Grenade tossers

[Hard Sarge]

now stuff that upsets me, is that they don't even know what these weapons are, or what they are for, a blooper or others of that type, don't matter if you can see the target or not, it is not a derict fire weapon

[CowGod]

So where was it written that you have to right click on the money to get that chart? Or you just figured it out?

[Hard Sarge]

sorry, not a right click, just a mouse over

(found it while playing)

[CowGod]

So why is there a file in the game with all the merc names from ja2????? seems to me that something is a bit fishy!

ORIGINAL: milkweg

ORIGINAL: CowGod

I am another hard veteran of JA2 and I had been waiting for this game to come out for a very very long time!

In my own oppinion but there are a few things that really need to be adjusted in the next patch. First of that camera is really annoying! I have to scroll all the time and never able to get an idea of the exact area. The conversations suck up big time but I can live with that. The map system is JA2 was a far better deal. Additionally and most importantly.....where the heck are IVAN - SHADOW - MAGIG and the rest of the team??? how could anyone make a sequel of JA2 without adding at least some of the most played characters in turnbased strategy gaming history?????

Apart from all this the game is good but with the mentioned adjustments it would be in the EXCELLENT GAME list like JA2 rather than stay behind in the GOOD GAME list considering that its the sequel.

Directly copying characters from JA2 or JA (miss Tex as he wasn't in JA2 even) would be a CP infringement. Search through the other posts in this forum on how to change the camera. I used the values in that mod and the camera is much better now.