From: "Barnes;Robert K." <BOBB@nt.xetron.com>
Subject: Re: JA: Jagged Alliance, Overview/review (longish)
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 09:20:00 E

UPDATE OF JAGGED ALLIANCE OVERVIEW/REVIEW
             by Robert K. Barnes
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Jagged Alliance (JA) requires a 486/4MB (8MB recomended), and a
CD-ROM. You should run the game from a clean EMS boot disk. Several
people have reported lockups and other problems with QEMM and
other memory managers.

This overview is divided into 4 sections: End of Day, Preparation,
Daytime, and Combat.

END OF DAY: The game starts at the end of the day. You review the
statistics and personal data of the potential mercenaries. There
are 60 of them with unique voices, personalities, equipment load,
skills, and salary requirements. Not all of them are available at
all times, sometimes they are on other assignments. A lot of them
will not work for you until they are confident in your abilities.
Once you have hired and fired team members, you select sleep to
move to the next day. You cannot buy equipment, each team member
brings their own stuff, or you find it in the field. You can have
up to eight team members. You may SAVE your game during this phase.

PREPARATION: The world is composed of a 6 by 10 rectangular grid
of sectors. The first task of the new day is to hire and allocate
guards and tappers (sap harvesters) to work the sectors that you
control. The next thing you do is to equip your troops in a way
that is very similar to XCOM/UFO. Team members will retain their
assigned equipment (less consumption) from day to day. You also
give them their duty assignments. You can place them On duty or
let them stay behind with other assignments like Train, Doctor,
Patient, Repair (equipment), and Rest. Each piece of equipment has
its own unique condition expressed as a percent from 0 (destroyed)
to 100 (excellent). You must keep your equipment in good working
order or results are unpredictable. You start the mission day by
placing your team in any sector that you control. You may NOT SAVE
your game during this phase.

DAYTIME: The game play evolves over a complete day during which
you try to perform your missions. You can compress time to make the
time pass faster. The mission starts in the sector that you have
chosen. You move each of the team members in real time similar to
the method used in Dune2. You can move the team to another sector
by grouping them at the edge of the map. Typically you start them
in a sector next to the one you want to capture. This is also a good
time to completely explore the area. During this time you may use
the overhead map to order guards to move from one sector to another
(similar to the game Risk). You may perform a QUICK SAVE during this
phase. You can only have one quick save.

TIP: Leave some extra ammo and equipment in a good defensive area.
If you are low on health and ammo and forced to retreat, you can get
a quick reload with out ending the day!

COMBAT: Combat occurs when the enemy occupies the same sector as your
team. The enemy can invade a sector at any time. If your team is not
present then your guards will try to defend it. The turn-based combat
is very similar to XCOM. The enemy appears to be fairly smart. They
run for cover, try to out flank you, respond to to gun shots, and
appear to have different skill levels. You must exit the game to
save during combat.

SUMMARY AND OPINION: I really enjoy the game. The graphics are good
and the sound is excellent. The plot is a little lame, but it is no
worse then "go out and collect spice in the field"!  What really
distinguishs this game from all the rest are the personalities of
the team members. It is worth a look just to hear some of the team!

There is a lot more to this game than kill someone and get their
stuff. There are a lot of special items that can be found to help
you with your missions. The missions themselves are the typical
Find Something, Rescue Someone, Capture something, etc that RPGers
have come to love. Landmines, traps, team interaction, and the
general RPG feel give this game a lot depth.

I predict a LOT of news traffic on how to find this or that item.
You can't buy stuff you have to capture or find it. Some of it it
buried (hire someone with a metal detector).

This will be a classic.

bobb@xetron.com


