Jagged Alliance

If you’ve never played Jagged Alliance, you’ve missed out on one of the most impressive and complex titles in the turn-based strategy genre. Of course, the series has moved on a fair bit since its Nineties origins, and the most recent incarnation, Jagged Alliance 3 is, despite being understated visually, something of a unique title in the PC gaming world. The news that the original Jagged Alliance is coming to the DS was greeted with genuine joy on the N•Rev team. Why? Well, there’s so much that, back in 1994, on its original PC release, was simply groundbreaking. What’s more is that, to our mind, it’s yet to be bettered.

The level of complexity is truly stunning, but at the same time being intuitive and, importantly, easy to play. The basic premise revolves around the discovery of a new type of tree, whose sap opens amazing curative and lucrative possibilities. The downside of this scenario is that these trees can’t reproduce. This means that the one area where the trees grow is a hotly contested zone. Enter you and your contact book to help out.

Jagged Alliance puts you in charge of recovering areas for various benevolent purposes. Sometimes you’re securing water sources for the local populace; at others you’re simply trying to control areas with high concentrations of the tree. The great thing is that you control every aspect of the mercenary endeavour. You hire the team from a roster of over 60 mercs, most of whom don’t like each other, and have very distinct skills, strengths and weaknesses. You decide how they enter the area, and you get to kit them out, manage your budget and maintain the coherence of your mercenary unit. Out in the field, things are no less involved. There’s a wealth of mission objectives, and an inordinate number of ways to complete them. You also have to consider personal objectives such as trying to recover as much cash from the battle zone as possible. If that means raiding corpses, or pillaging the locale, then so be it. Money’s money, right?

While Jagged Alliance has never done particularly over here, it has a big following in Germany. Quite exactly why the UK hasn’t embraced this brilliant strategy title is beyond us, but when it hits the DS you’ll have the perfect opportunity to get into it.