The basic idea is sound – the judicious application of limited resources is the heart of a good game – but useless micromanagement rears its ugly head here, again. As boss of the outfit you will need to balance income (gained from taking objectives and performing various sidequests (er, jobs)) with expenses (guns, ammo, supplies and replacing dead employees). Just make sure they all have enough guns, ammo and supplies. And really, what is the practical difference between “medical 31” and “medical 32”?īut once you have your crew set it's off to go shoot some people. It is a major chore just to choose six people who don't want to either kill each other or themselves. Along with these come some number of traits (macho, death wish, etc.) along with possible personal histories with one or more of the other mercs.
Each merc has 5 character traits (health, stamina, morale, level and experience), 5 attributes (agility, dexterity, marksmanship, intelligence and perception) and 5 skills (medical, handgun, explosive, etc.). Despite the fun of mixing and matching character types, the first sign of future problems creeps into this process. Part of the challenge (and fun) is putting together a group that has the skills that will be needed for a mission and can work well together. Each mercenary has a picture, a personality and all sorts of quirks. Mercenary recruitment is one of the more fun aspects of the game. He apparently has some legitimate claim to the throne or something, but who cares? Since you're the boss you do not actually get to shoot somebody, but you can take the advance you have been handed and hire other people who will shoot people for you.
You've gotten your big break, however, as a mysterious man wants you to overthrow a dictatorship on a small tropical island. At present it is still a very small outfit, as no mercenaries actually work for you. This was an interesting choice in that, while it brought the game into a more modern style of play, it was also responsible for a lot of the issues that hamper enjoyment. Whereas X-COM is sticking with turn-based tactical combat, JABAI has decided to go with pausable real-time combat. There must be something in the air – between JABAI and the X-COM remake coming out later this year it looks to be a banner year for small squad tactics. “Jagged Alliance: Back in Action” (JABIA) knew a good thing when it saw it and has not discarded these basic building blocks. The Jagged Alliance series has always been about small squad tactics with a dash of resource management thrown in for spice.
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