It was unthinkable years ago for anyone to imagine that sophisticated PC games could run on consoles, but for many of them, their developers have taken great care to ensure that they function regardless of the constraints of the receiving system. They demonstrated that these games are not exclusive to PCs.
The most recent of these is the fantastic Jagged Alliance 3 console port, which our very own Andy Johnson, a strategy expert, first reviewed.
The game had controller support when it was first released on the PC, but it’s now finally making its way to proper consoles, like the PlayStation 5, which is where I played it.
Jagged Alliance 3 isn’t in the slightest embarrassed by its intricacy, and it doesn’t hold back when I play it on a TV or, in my case, while lounging on the couch.
Of course, there are some unavoidable rough spots, such as the absence of a comprehensive tutorial at the beginning of a game with as many layers as this one.
When bringing a strategy-heavy game like Jagged Alliance 3 to a console, the biggest concern is usually figuring out how to map all of the keyboard and mouse commands to a controller—which naturally has fewer buttons than those inputs. Surprisingly, the game functions as expected because of context-sensitive prompts.
Rough Alliance 3
To return your mercs home unscathed, careful unit placement and turn-to-turn movement are essential.
However, there are some complaints about the accuracy of command selection, particularly in combat.
The camera is unyielding and not very responsive, and choosing a target can often be difficult. Nevertheless, Jagged Alliance 3 offers a lot of fun if you can tolerate its above-average learning curve and give it some time to settle in.
Of course, even when comparing it to other games that are similar to it or slightly different from it and have been ported to consoles, such as Company of Heroes 3 or even any of the more recent XCOM titles, I would still rank the game higher in terms of complexity. If you’re considering diving in, you should probably take it slow because the sheer volume of options here will probably kick you in the face.
After assembling a team for the first time—and Jagged Alliance 3 does a respectable job of guiding you towards a solid starting group—you are thrust into a warring state where the local militia has abducted the president,
who is focused on promoting peace. Employed by the man’s daughter, it is up to you to use your cunning to retake the nation and save the man without incident.
That is the main goal, though, since you have complete control over how you approach taking over or destroying the numerous installations, mines, docks, and other locations on the large map. Time goes by quickly, and the more of it you spend using any strategy you choose, the more money you’ll need to pay to keep your mercenaries on contract—they aren’t cheap, and they get paid by the day.
As of now, I have managed to escape the game’s opening zone and have begun my march towards the mainland, having taken control of the island that serves as the group’s headquarters.
But while I work out how to take over a diamond mine and start making money every day, I am deeply in debt, desperately looking for work, and becoming more and more indebted over time.
When we combine this with devious stealth sections that harken back to titles like Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, we have a kind of unpredictability that gives each playthrough a distinct feel.
These are the kinds of scenarios you’ll encounter in Jagged Alliance 3, and they’re by far the game’s best feature—they force you to make difficult choices and accept them, good or bad. Nor are these the only examples.
Additionally, you can use conversation trees to approach lethal situations. These trees consider the stats of your characters and can be avoided if you strike at the correct angle.
In a way that is becoming less and less common these days—reviewing games usually has me hopping from one to the other, forgetting about previous reviews in favour of whatever’s next—I’m excited to think about what lies ahead of me in my awkward journey through this. In the upcoming weeks leading up to the holidays, I most likely will return to Jagged Alliance 3.
Jagged Alliance 3 is an incredible return to the venerable franchise, save for the issues Andy already covered in his review, such as the extremely high level of difficulty from the start and other annoyances that are shared in this port, along with a few minor technical issues.
It is incomparable to any other efforts made in the past to bring the franchise back by developers other than Haemimont Games. It is commendable that it doesn’t hesitate to throw you into the deep end and let you swim or drown, given how rewarding the experience can be if you make it through!
