Jagged Alliance

Jagged Alliance is a turn-based tactical role-playing game developed by Sir-tech Software and released in 1994 for MS-DOS by Madlab Software.

I remember watching my father play Jagged Alliance while I thought it was a scary game as a child. Several years later, I found out that it was an action game and decided to play it to understand why I was afraid of it. The answer was simple, let's say that seeing the realism in the dead eyes of the characters forcibly taught me the meaning of Uncanny Valley. Anyway, once I overcame my fears, I discovered that I was in front of a very complex game for its time, and this is why.

The plot begins when Brenda Richards, a scientist in a research group led by her father, Jake Richards, discovers a type of sage in a tree that can achieve medical wonders. Meanwhile, Lucas Santino, Brenda's assistant, convinces the research leader to divide the working group into two parts. Once separated, Lucas starts hiring people for his group, and soon after, they take over the island by force. Consequently, both Brenda and Jake communicate with the player so that Lucas can be stopped and the control of the isle restored.

To achieve this, the player has 60 different mercenaries from which he can choose. This is the most exciting part of the game. Although the player can't select all the characters from the beginning, like all games of this type, he can gain their respect to use them in the future. The most important factor comes from them, as they all have personalities and can decline your offer to join the group or even run away at night if they don't like another mercenary. Also, they will increase their level in each mission, even though this is convenient for the player. At a certain point, it is also unproductive since they ask for higher salaries with the threat of leaving the group if we don't accept.

In the beginning, the player must prepare attack teams, be aware of the number of trees in each sector, and pay guards or other personnel to perform different tasks. When starting a mission, each character has specific action points that will indicate their movement range or the success of an attack they wish to make. Each mercenary has a turn with his corresponding action points, reset each time it starts. In this way, the allies' personality comes into play because some will refuse to stop attacking or moving from their position for different reasons. Along with the significant number of personalized dialogues and the fact that each one has various statistics and unique features, they feel natural and make you think that we don't handle them; we only suggest the steps to follow.

With very lifelike graphics and high saturation to cover any detail that the PC cannot render, Jagged Alliance uses a warm palette where orange goes unnoticed but is always present. The song is very unintrusive, so it does not matter that somewhat repetitive tones elaborate it. It is also worth mentioning that the game has voice acting, with many lines for each character.

It's not surprising that the title has been so well received as it was and instantly became a cult game for everything I just mentioned. It was also followed by two sequels, Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games in 1995 and Jagged Alliance 2 in 1999.

If you still haven't tried this game filled with action, numbers, and characters that look as realistic as they are ready to steal your soul through the TV, you should do it as soon as possible! Jagged Alliance is a fascinating game that everyone should try even once.