Jagged Alliance Remake

[airboy]

Jagged Alliance Flashback is attempting to relaunch the Jagged Alliance franchise with a game set in the late 1980s before the end of the Cold War.

It is a kickstarter development project - so no telling if this will actually become a playable game.

Information can be found at:
http://www.jaggedallianceflashback.com/home

They are planning to make it turn based, which is the way to go with this game.

[Jarhead0331]

Apparently there is an alpha build for supporters. Anybody?

[Slick Wilhelm]

Awesome! Finally getting back to the Jagged Alliance roots.

That new, real-time Jagged Alliance:Back in Action just didn't trip my trigger.

[Slick Wilhelm]

Apparently there is an alpha build for supporters. Anybody?

http://www.jaggedallianceflashback.com/url/shop

Yep, there sure is. It's actually releasing today for backers. I haven't become a backer yet, but I probably will once it goes beta.

[SgtRock]

Warning !!! - Malwarebytes flags the web site (http://www.jaggedallianceflashback.com/home) as Malicious!!!!

Did they get hacked or something?

[eyebiter]

.

[Bletchley_Geek]

I'm a beta backer - we should get Early Access by the end of May, according to what Full Control has been stating.

I think they'll get the game play absolutely right, as they did with Space Hulk(*), not so sure about the atmosphere. This latter bit was a huge part of the JA2 experience, and the lack of such atmosphere, explains quite well why those Russian-made reboots, as full with game-breaking bugs as the original JA2 was, like Hired Guns, Brigade E5, 7.62mm (which got back a bit of that with R@S' Black Sun Mod, yet that mod goes a bit too far) or the distinctly cold and soulless Back in Action, never did really take off.

But they are also probably going to release a smaller game than the original JA2. Which I think it should be fine, as long as they stick to the promise they're making of opening pretty much everything to anyone capable of handling Unity. One could expect a fan-made remake of the original JA2 "campaign", possibly led by the Bear Pit fellas. Back in Action further failed when they force modders to jump through hoops in order to mod the game (which seems to me to be almost mandatory for this kind of tactical strategy game, where "gun pr0n" is rampant).

(*): And that's the irony of Space Hulk, they make a 100% faithful port of Space Hulk and people just went medieval on their assholes because of the game not being up to "expectations". The irony bit is that I have always thought that Space Hulk was a pretty average game (and a rip off of Colonial Marines), and that Full Control shot themselves in the foot by tying themselves to a clearly overrated game (when compared to what one can do with turn-based strategy on a PC or a tablet). It's likely that a similar reaction will ensue with this JA reboot when the JA2-hardcore mechanics get exposed to the "unwashed" masses.

[Steelgrave]

They can take the X-Com model and I'm all in. Other than that, I'm going to have to wait and see.

[TacticalWargames]

Fingers crossed.

[Bletchley_Geek]

This is definitely shaping up to be a proper remake, as we can see on this Alpha Playthrough posted on the JA Flashback backer forums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT3L482uVcU

the video looks very choppy, and the guy recording the session isn't really doing a great job with the video or the game - in my opinion - but we can see that Full Control is definitely steering the game into the "right & proper" direction. It's interesting to see how XCom: Enemy Unknown is influencing tactical strategy games - see the Don't Starve guys strategy game - in the user interface department (the cover GUI, movement allowance display, etc.): those were good ideas to be kept, I think. It's also good to see how the 'look & feel' (the music, the mercs voices, their faces) of the original JA2 is being preserved, without tossing into the scrapheap the possibilities of technology available in the 2010's.

In the latest backer update Full Control announced that they will be shipping the editor with the Early Access/Beta and they're looking forward to full Steam Workshop integration. The editor is basically Unity, with some plugins automating some tasks I guess, and it looks like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_v1j7B1IVU&feature=youtu.be

The devs estimate the Beta will be available at some point during the next three weeks.

[SgtRock]

JA2 still works so why do we need another remake?

I'd like to see a WWII squad level game at this scale, something like 82nd Airborne/Computer Ambush meets JA.

[Bletchley_Geek]

JA2 still works so why do we need another remake?

One remake that is faithful to the original and upgraded so to exploit present day PC capabilities was something me, and a few thousand other backers, found worthy of being crowdfunded. I have played and owned Brigade E7, Hired Guns, 7.62, JA Back in Action, and all of them have failed (to a different degree) to capture the "soul" of JA2.

I'd like to see a WWII squad level game at this scale, something like 82nd Airborne/Computer Ambush meets JA.

Wasn't that supposed to be Team Assault? Didn't pan out too well that one.

[skeptical.platypus]

JA2 still works so why do we need another remake?

I'd like to see a WWII squad level game at this scale, something like 82nd Airborne/Computer Ambush meets JA.

Sgt Rock, if you didn't bitch about how games don't meet your expectations, would you have anything to say, ever?

[Nefaro]

JA: Back In Action is a good game.  It's just that the pausable real-time mechanics weren't as fun as the original Turn/AP-based one and felt like a real chore at times.  You just end up having to constantly jockey the pause toggle which is, in essence, playing a more annoying version of a turn-based game.

Real-time had been highly overrated for many years.  Luckily not quite so much these days since we're seeing more turn-based stuff show up again.  Thankfully.

[SgtRock]

 

I have played and owned Brigade E7, Hired Guns, 7.62, JA Back in Action, and all of them have failed (to a different degree) to capture the "soul" of JA2.

I too played most of them, Brigade E7 & 7.62 started out Ok but, in all of the later mission you were always outnumbered 20:1, even 30:1, the battles just got crazy and no longer fun. Hired Guns could have been a contender if had more support from the developers but, just like E7 & 7.62 Russian developers don't seem to support their projects after release.

Wasn't that supposed to be Team Assault? Didn't pan out too well that one.

I have no idea what Team Assault was trying to do but, it was nothing like JA or 82nd Airborne.