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[Majestic7]

So I played the shit out of Jagged Alliance as a kid and spent a lot of time with the sequel as well. I noticed the third is now out. Is it any good? I'm a bit suspicious of these reboots for old games, whether they can capture the feel of the original and improve it.

[Frumple]

Eyeballing the reviews feels like the general sentiment is "It's pretty good, but not as good as JA2 and especially not as good as JA2 modded", so... there you go? It does, however, have mod support, so if you're doubtful maybe wait for that to cook for a while and grab it on sale in a year or three.

[LoSboccacc]

I've seen a few playtrough, and it seems very similar ruleset as newxcom, doesn't make it necessarily bad or good per se, but if one is used to ja2 1.13, it's a completely different experience (i.e. surviving a full burst semy auto at close range)

[Malus]

It is eminently more playable than 1.13 (by which I mean, getting it running is not a chore, it handles 1440p+ resolutions just fine, the UI is actually usable, etc) but a step backwards in terms of actual game design imo. I'm still waiting for someone to give JA2 the "XCOM -> Xenonauts" treatment -- just port the systems and gameplay over but modernize the UI and make it run as expected on new machines; JA3 isn't JA2 and it's not even trying to be.
With that said, I have been enjoying my time with JA3 so far. It's been a while since I've played a recent tactics game (probably Phoenix Point was the last one? Maybe Phantom Brigade?) and it's competent though not exceptional. I like it more than Phoenix Point at any rate.

I have some minor complaints: the maps are too small, the weapon variety isn't great, sometimes it's not clear when the landscape/obstacles are going to obstruct your shots, stealth is either massively OP (if you're save scumming) or just unreliable enough to be extremely risky if you're not, etc. I haven't noticed any serious time pressure, either -- it seems like there's nothing stopping you from taking a mine and then just holing up and spending a while training your mercs up, maxing out militia, all that stuff. If the enemy strength is ramping up I haven't noticed it: my reaction to attacks is, "wow, free loot!". I'm playing on the middle difficulty, so maybe the hardest is a different story there. It's fun setting up ambushes, or picking apart groups of enemies at long-range with a few silenced sniper rifles. At $34.99 (that was the launch sale I think?) it's probably worth it if you like tactics games? I wouldn't pay $60 for it, but it seems like 20-30 hours of decent fun.

[ZebioLizard2]

If it's better then Rage it's already off to a good start.

[scriver]

I was very suspicious as well, especially with the 20% pre-order rebate (I thought it looked like they didn't have confidence in their own product), but I eventually took a chance and bought it anyway, and put on a 2 hour timer so I would be sure to be able to refund it on steam if I didn't like it.

And I didn't refund it. I quite like it. It's not as complex as JA2 let alone JA2 modded, but it's more in the direction of JA2 than anything that's fallen into my lap in a long time. I haven't played that much so far, but it's fun so far.

I'm also a bit surprised by how careful they've been to replicate the JA2... atmosphere, I guess. Not talking about the combat parts here (but in that corner it's much closer to the old ones than say the new-coms is to the old x-coms). They've put a lot into the recognisability (or at least nostalgia) for a very old game. On the topic of nostalgia, though I'm glad to see so many old faces (and the effort put into making them sound the same is very good by the way, sometimes I wonder if they've just updated the old files or something, it's that alike) I am a little bit sad there weren't any new ones... I think I saw one, the mechanic girl with the highlights, Live Wire or something.

So yeah, I'm positively surprised. It's not at all what I feared it might be.

[EuchreJack]

I'm not sure that a change in the tactical combat would annoy me, since I wasn't exactly in love with that portion of Jagged Alliance 1 & 2.

Jagged Alliance 2 didn't have a timer either, once you captured the first town.  It was the mods/expansions that added the real timers.

Damn, almost $45.  Eh, I'll wait for it to go on sale. 

[anexiledone]

It's a lot of fun.

My first playthrough is just on the normal difficulty, and at about 20 hours I've realized almost every combat "class" is useful. If you want to run shotguns, you can run shotguns. If you want to run snipers, that works too. Grenade chuckers? Works. Stealthy pistols? Works. Basic assault rifles? They work too. Basically you're not pinned right into a stealth or sniper gameplay. There is an embrace of the action hero. And it's made better by the destructable environments.

Enemy AI is alright. It has a lot of the same issues as JA2 where enemies either swarm or hunker down. The enemy is split into classes (just standard soldier, melee, medic, sniper, leader, grenadier, mg, rockets) and they do a fairly decent job at their roles and working with one another. Each class has veterans and elite versions, and they seem to actually have different AI as well. Veterans seem to work better as a unit, where as your standard rookies either think they're the hero or they're scared lol. Veterans will take pot shots through a wall if they know you're in that area and their weapon can punch through the cover where as rookies don't really do this.

A lot of the dialog and pop culture references nailed the tone of the originals humor. The main story is your standard action movie tropes. The sidequests get pretty weird and entertaining. They did a fantastic job of finding the line of actually offensive / funny offensive when it comes to a lot of things that could be considered sensitive.

It does have some UI issues (scrapping objects and combining them is a lot more clicks than it should be), and there were gameplay changes involving acquiring weapons and ammo that some people completely hate. It's a lot less tacti-cool dress up sim and a lot more The Expendables

All in all, in my opinion it's the best Jagged Alliance game since 2. While not as good as 2, it did a great job of carving out it's own worth

[EuchreJack]

Combat Class? I thought this was Jagged Alliance? 

Oh hey, a review by someone half my age that never played any of the previous games:
https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2023/05/18/jagged-alliance-3-is-all-about-blood-money/

[scriver]

Combat Class? I thought this was Jagged Alliance? 

Depending on how their stats weigh they get a different label (Leader/All-rounder/Marksman/Grenadier (or Explosives iirc)/Mechanic/Medic and symbol on the merc hiring service.

[EuchreJack]

Combat Class? I thought this was Jagged Alliance? 

Depending on how their stats weigh they get a different label (Leader/All-rounder/Marksman/Grenadier (or Explosives iirc)/Mechanic/Medic and symbol on the merc hiring service.

That actually does remind me of the previous games.

[scriver]

They don't get any particular abilities or bonuses for it as far as I can tell. It just helps you know what their specialties are.

[anexiledone]

Combat Class? I thought this was Jagged Alliance? 

Oh hey, a review by someone half my age that never played any of the previous games:
https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2023/05/18/jagged-alliance-3-is-all-about-blood-money/

I put it in quotes because there isn't actually combat classes in the game. It's how I tend to give people loadouts based on their stats and what not. Like Mouse is amazing with stealth and mobility, so I tend to give her shorter ranged weapons. The game actually allows people to be effective using things other than assault rifles and snipers