Jagged Alliance 3 - Review After 100%

Talking about my experiences with Jagged Alliance 3, a sequel 24 years in the making.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:13 Achievements and Mods
01:55 Overview
03:32 Difficulty
06:01 Story Set Up & Thoughts
07:45 Mercs & Progression
14:02 Gameplay
20:07 Combat
25:08 Steam Deck
26:33 Positives/Negatives
28:10 Conclusion
28:54 Wrap Up
Intro Music By Juan Andrés Matos, www.juanmatosmusic.com/
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#gaming #gamereviews #jaggedalliance #jaggedalliance3

[@MortismalGaming]

That bugged achievement I mentioned got fixed the day this video was published!

[@kaidorade1317]

You’d think with three Alliances these commanders would know how to make everything go smoothly

[@somedayslater6276]

You taking the time to 100% before you review makes a huge impact. I subscribed as soon as I heard that I hate this review culture where people rush out their review as soon as they can to get the most views, missing important details in the experience. Thank you for your work sir!

[@thegrimsaxon790]

I found melee stealth kills to be quite manageable once I figured how to do it. I was initially trying to beat the timer by sneaking up to the enemy and then trying to select the attack. You are supposed to prepare the attack ahead of time and when you walk your merc into range they will auto-attack, easy peasy. Then it just becomes a problem when they miss and alert the enemies but that is more about selecting the right merc and right target at the right time.

[@amc2004uk]

Hey, thanks for the tip, I've never even attempted stealth melee because it just seemed pretty confusing.

[@matthewscully795]

Martial artist perk they barely miss.

[@bulthaosen1169]

Shadow is the ideal melee assassin since he can stand while sneaking. I cleared an entire map just to try it. Slower than a sniper but still doable.

[@simonmoody8400]

I have only acouple of sectors onto the mainland and only just started using melee stealth. I don't have a 'specialist' in it, but Fox is a very capable sub for one, cleared all but 3 goons from the first urban area w the church that way thanks to her

[@matthewscully795]

@@simonmoody8400 Igor is the best recruit level stealth melee.

[@ScarScream]

I'm not even finished with the game yet and I have to say it is one of the best surprises in the last few years. I didn't even know about the franchise and I only tried it because of the comparison to XCOM. First thing that really got me into it was the soundtrack, it reminded so much of movies like Predator/Rambo/Die Hard/Commando/etc. If the music is great then that gives the game an extra couple of points. Your mercenaries all have different personalities and can have some cool quotes and interactions with NPCs depending on the situation which can be hilarious at times. For instance Larry (before you cure him) always calls human enemies zombies and animals zombie dolphins which cracked me up. Also the setting is pretty nice, some fictional country in ex colonized Africa with good variation of terrain like desert, tropical, mountains, villages or cities and mines. I loved the characters you meet from the beginning with their African-french accent, even though it's not stellar, as a native French I was actually a bit impressed and you meet some other nice folkloric people on the way too. What makes the game though is the necessity to find ammo, parts, silver mines and new weapons to help your squad(s) throughout the campaign and of course training them during the course which can be tedious and yet so rewarding. The game lets you choose how you want to play, do you want to be a merciless mercenary and just kill everything you see without losing your conscience over it? Go ahead! Or do you want to be the feel good hero from the movies you watched in the 80s/90s? You can too Or you can do everything in between as you want depending on your mood. 😁 And when it comes to roaming.. That is what I am so interested about replaying JA3 because of the huge map and the fact that it seems you can pretty much decide to go anywhere from the beginning meaning there is huge replay value. Anyways like I said I haven't finished the game yet so I'm not going to grade it like an 8/10 or even 10/10. All I know is that I already want to try it over and probably more then once. At this point I'll give this game a Dunkey out of 10 😉

[@Mgaak]

I am happy that you enjoyed the game, I enjoyed it as well.

[@yaldabaoth2]

1:57 I see you combining items one by one, just like I did at the start but once you click the combo you want, there is a slider under it. Saves a lot of time sometimes.

[@jhorvat01]

I've spotted that slider very very late in my playthrough. this isn't visualized very well

[@Junk_Ramen]

The devs had a huge challenge ahead of them with this game. They had to take a cult classic and trying to make it both marketable to newer players, and worthy enough of a successor for the hardcore fans. They had to modernize some aspects of the old game, but not so much that it becomes too much modern Xcom vs JA2. They had to compete with the cult player's memory of an EXTREMELY detailed and robust fan-made patch. And they did this all within the means of a lower price tag game. Phenomenal job by the developers, who clearly played and loved JA2. I am personally happy to call JA3 a worthy successor to JA2.

[@danyael777]

Fully agree and add an _....rather than JA: Back In Action_ to your last sentence.

[@JesseDylanMusic]

Yeah! About time too! I had given up on it after several dev teams made… other jagged alliance stuff…

[@johny5400]

the maps are too small tho…totally changed the game. And the economy so so

[@More_Dread]

as someone who replays ja2 multiple times a year i have to say i'm very disappointed with the game. it would have been a decent game on its own without the JA ip... but to me it does not feel like ja2 in any meaningful way. 17h in right now i feel like almost every game mechanic has been simplified for no tangible reason, the merc portraits look nothing like the originals, the voices annoy me and i have run into quite a few bugs, mostly around detection and stealth kills, but also infinite load screens while loading a save game at the "wrong" time. this is not a jagged alliance game to me, its firaxis xcom with a different skin which really feels more like a board/card game than ja2. i like xcom, old and new... but to me this combo doesn't fit. i'm pretty sure that over time mods will allow me to tweak the game a little more to my liking but for now, most of the things i love about ja2 just feel worse in this game. everything is so abstract, makes me feel like me and the devs were playing a completely different ja2.

[@Junk_Ramen]

​@@More_Dread In my opinion besides some basic aspects of the combat UI, it doesn't play very much like X-Com at all. But I'll respect your opinion.

[@ZeppFloyd85]

Just want to say I really appreciate you including a steam deck playability of games in your reviews as it's slowly becoming my main hardware of how I play games nowadays.

[@unperson5713]

Great review! You covered all the most important positives and negatives, real time pause being the most notable. You are already 100%? You are beast.

[@unperson5713]

Jagged Alliance hardcore fans are... difficult. They complain to developers "This isn't a TRUE jagged alliance game!" Then they complain to other players "You're enjoying this game incorrectly!" These "hardcore fans" are the sole reason Jagged Alliance 3 has a 87% on steam and not a 95%, which it deserves. They are habitually disgruntled curmudgeons.

[@unperson5713]

@@SpielkindFR No personal offense was directed at you, which is why I didn't @you in my reply. I monitored the discussions on Steam before the release of this game and was aware of pre-release negativity. On KZbin, I had a guy argue with me this is "no true jagged alliance", then he admitted to never having played the game. I have another guy who stalks me, telling me I am playing the game wrong, he gets all fired up and calls me names. In pursuit of civility, I refrain from engagement, but I needed to vent. Allow me to state for the record, this is a TRUE Jagged Alliance game and people can play it anyway they want.

[@ansettaustralia]

Just wanted to say how much I love and look forward to your videos mate.

[@MrMucera]

I am enjoying my default difficulty playthrough so far. The game is a good bit longer than i thought it would be but the combat, coupled with the various quests and the tiniest bit of exploration keep me interested. One thing i really like, which i initially thought i would get annoyed with, is the lack of to hit percentages. It makes me take more risks and is overall more relaxed and less anxiety inducing.

[@endlessstrata6988]

My almost complete playthrough took 76 hours.

[@blzspti909]

@@endlessstrata6988 I have 111 hours in total according to Steam, but I had to completely restart after ~26 hours when I realized how much I messed up the run (it was on the hardest difficulty, I restarted on Commando) So my "100% run" took 85 hours on Commando difficulty. 2 full squads, all sidequests, every sector visited and controlled, etc. I had $400k+ at the end with all high end gear, fully modded weapons on everyone, all 12 mercs level 7 or 8. The only achievments missing are mostly combat related ones.

[@jothain]

@@arquebusier1995 Yes there is. It makes attacks from multiple sides to sector possible.

[@zombiefolklore]

I do enjoy that your units will let out a little bark conveying what they think their odds of success are. Mouse when ordered to target someone out of range or at a bad angle will say “I’m a mime not a magician.” as an example.

[@yaldabaoth2]

Later on it really isn't that accurate anymore. With the proper rifle, you can snipe across the map at night at a target the shooter doesn't even see and still hit. It's all a function of merc level. Level difference between shooter and target is the most important stat.

[@Stealth86651]

Glad you take the time to complete the game. I wouldn't be surprised if half of all players don't even get halfway through, steam statistics tend to back that up pretty often. Can't tell you how many games I initially played, didn't like, then enjoyed it when I picked it up again and got farther along.

[@MidnightHozz]

I love this game. As someone who played JA1/JA2 on release this game blew my expectations away.

[@dudestep]

Yeah, it’s crazy that we got a true sequel, and not a reboot, 24 years after JA2

[@TucoBenedicto]

@@anab0lic A lot of people would be disappointed no matter what, because they actively choose to make themselves disappointed. I've read people complaining about how this is not a true sequel because it's not "cool 2D sprites" but "boring soulless 3D". I've also read people complaining that the game was a terrible sequel because [insert minor flaw that was present even in JA2] or didn't match the 1.13 mod.

[@TucoBenedicto]

​@@anab0lic I don't need to "go read the reviews" because I'm extensively playing the game myself. Most of the issues the game currently has are just a matter of balance. And I don't mean it in the sense that half game needs to be re-done. We are just talking about better fine tuning of numbers. Overwatch can be situationally very useful but it's far from being "overpowered". It simply isn't "XCOM-tier" overwatch that was usually a waste of a turn reserved for what you didn't have better to do. Using overwatch still is relying on some coin toss rather than having granular control of your actions and aiming. And it's particularly reliable only in case of heavy machine guns, which on the other hand are INCREDIBLY bullet-hungry with valuable and rare types of ammo. Without modding the game to increase drops you could go through half of the campaign and barely find for yourself enough bullets for one or two magazines of that thing (100 bullets) and you can use half of that in a single OW, so it's a massive opportunity cost. "Dumbing down of mechanics" is one of these vague, unsubstantiated whines you keep hearing, usually from people who can't exactly put their finger in what is exactly "dumb". "Lack of meaningful tactics" is just bullshit. The problem, more than anything, is that as you keep progressing there's just ONE tactic that becomes clearly more efficient than other ones and that's "sniper rifles for everyone (but then again, nothing a rebalance passage won't fix, if they recognize the issue). You'll still get slaughtered if you approach any of the biggest fights carelessly.

[@MidnightHozz]

@@anab0lic Yeah. People who have dedicated their lives to a cult worshipping a 25 year old game and it's community patch aren't really a good source of info.

[@sixmillionsilencedaccounts3517]

Is the world exploration open just like in JA2 or linear? How big is the overall map compared to JA2? Man... I have so many question... can you create your own character? How is the stat system designed? Is it the same as in JA2? Are there night op perks/missions?

[@sleepofgc]

Having a blast with 3 and agree with many of your points. I would love to see you play 2 and possibly the venerable megamod, 1.13. Modded JA2 basically turns into turn based Arma inside a cheesy action movie RPG. It's amazing.

[@yum9918]

I remember actually using textbook bounding overwatch in 1.13, and not because of roleplay, but because the simulation is done so well that it becomes almost mandatory to engage or disengage sometimes. It's really good stuff.

[@Stforv]

Jagged Alliance never was an RPG in the first place - it's a tactical combat game. It's a sub-genre of strategy games.

[@1SaG]

@@Stforv Well... it was mainly that but with quite a lot of other elements thrown in as well. Mostly RPG (improving stats, leveling mercs up, etc) but also a rudimentary business sim (managing expenses and income) and quite a lot of soap opera-y bits (relationships between mercs).

[@stoalfc9246]

Just a quick remark. You said that in combat you have a squad of 6 mercs, but you can have more, if you attack an enemy sector with more than one squad. You just need to not attack once the first squad arrives and wait for the other one to arrive and then you can attack the sector with both squads, i.e. more than 6 mercs. Don't know, if it works with more than two squads, because I only have 8 mercs at the moment.

[@eco8374]

I can confirm that you can have up to 12 mercs at the same time in combat.

[@sionteemo9697]

seems like you can have as many mercs as you want attacking the same map. I've had 16 mercs spread up to 4 squads attacking a sector.

[@ThePicklebrooks]

Absolutely yup I have 3 full squads of 6 going right now

[@saitzo2325]

@@ThePicklebrooks that same thing was in the bad "back in action" , all the groups to area and start the fight.. but I mean I did like the tactics thing (you could set your actions to happen at the same time, like open door, throw a grenade), but it would have suited some other game better and the game wasn't good

[@punish01]

@@ThePicklebrooks how did you acquire third full squad? Game tells me that I have too many mercs. I have two full squads and when I wanted to fill up the third squad game told me that i Have too many mercs.

[@Shnuksy]

Tnx, was waiting for this one!

[@sbear579]

Love your reviews!

[@PaulRoneClarke]

No surprise that the "active pause mode" mod on Steam is by far the most popular and 5 star reviewed by those that use it. What is a surprise is that it's not standard in the game. Even more surprisingly the mod author tells us that his mod simply unlocks the active pause that IS ALREADY in the game, but locked behind the "developer mode". Surely having it as a toggle option in the main menu would therefore have been a really simple thing to add? If it's already in the game - why not have it as an option? Bizarre.

[@mhjmstultiens]

Might be unlocked in a patch. Good to hear at least it's there.

[@View619]

The mod doesn't unlock active pause, it unlocks a clearly "debug only" tool with no meaningful UI elements or polish at all. The mod even warns that it may cause errors in certain situations. That's not something suitable for an official release. The developers need to actually make a usable Active Pause feature instead of simply releasing a flawed debug tool; a toggle isn't enough.

[@sebastiang.5032]

​@@mhjmstultienswasn't in the first patch, so we'll have to wait if further patches will address the issue

[@PaulRoneClarke]

@@View619 Ok. Fair point, I will say though that the mod works quite well for me. It does 60% of what I need it to to enjoy the game more. Polish is certainly not there. Allowing players to enjoy a single player game however they like is a lesson you would have thought most devs would have learned by now. Gatekeeper certain play styles has never worked either in the game, or in the responses the devs get in their communities. So it's bad in game design terms, and bad in marketing terms. (Again - that's just my opinion)

[@View619]

@@PaulRoneClarke I don't see how gate keeping comes into the discussion here? While I would certainly enjoy a fully functional, active pause mechanic as well (and not a debug tool) I don't think blaming the devs for some shortcoming applies here. And expecting them to provide toggles for things not meant to be used by the public seems silly. The game hasn't even been out for a month yet, I'm sure they'll follow up accordingly.

[@sarahohara5806]

This game is good. I have been conditioned to regard anything released under the JA moniker with suspicion due to a few duds after JA2. But this is a nice return to form. Lots of similarities to JA2, just more streamlined. I like the different mercs and sometimes I wish they had leaned into the RPG elements a little more and given each merc their own little companion quest to give those colorful characters more time to shine. This game turned out to be a really nice distraction in the pre BG3 waiting phase. I have binged theory videos on that game when JA3 came out and just playing this solid tactics game is a better use of my time, IMO. One negative that I also noticed was that battles can drag sometimes, especially if you have militia in the sector. 8 militia guys, then 14 enemies. And suddenly a turn takes five minutes with no option to speed up ally or enemy animations. Though it's a marked improvement over JA2 where you would train 8 and then 16 militia, if I remember correctly, and enemy squads were also larger, leading to even longer turn wait times.

[@NurkePL]

Great review Mortym, I am learning things slowly and am already on my 4th restart and think I may have cocked this one up too, I approached a powerful guys house without talking to someone first and ended up killing his boys and he doesnt like me very much now

[@agamlord]

Chill review bro! I'll get the game as soon as there's any discount. Can't wait to play it.

[@Dr.Akakia]

It is on discount right now(steam)

[@nyverdaletabletop1674]

Thanks for another great review!

[@justinmills1721]

So appreciative of your approach to reviews - I always know exactly what I’m going to get. Thank you!

[@Findark-wb8nv]

Nice vid dude! Pls add a section to your reviews where u talk about how fun/hard/time-consuming was to 100% the game. Some people would like to know is it worth to try to get all the achievements etc.

[@jeremiahortizEagle]

Awesome review! This series was one of the first I ever played when I was like 9 years old haha. I'm really glad the review showed how well it is overall. Thank you for allowing me to be excited for this new game from your review. Side question, will you be doing an updated review for chaos gate with the new dlc coming out?

[@MortismalGaming]

I might do a video on it, I havent decided yet, lot going on right now

[@mhjmstultiens]

So better than expected? A pleasant surprise, this one.

[@fixxer47]

I don't have a gaming PC so it made me vary happy to see the announcement of PS5 version. JA2 is the best turn-based game of all time, period. Glad to see JA3 found a way to continue this franchise successfully. Thank you for your detailed review.

[@TucoBenedicto]

Disclaimer: comment made before I started watching the video. I'm loving the game and I think they set all the good foundations in place to have a worthy successor of JA2 (one of my all-time favorites). I just think they REALLY need to rebalance some stuff and polish a bit a few remaining rough spots.

[@raindropsrising7662]

So amazingly huge this game. Replayability is quite good. Played 1st, 2nd and now the 3rd! Quite happy they kept what was fun and joy. Thank you for doing 100%

[@tni333]

3:20 that sounds like coop and singleplayer are separated. They’re not. You can play the entire „single-Player“ campaign in coop right from the start

[@notme716]

So soon (no complaints)? I love binging his content even if I’m not planning on buying a game it’s a pleasure to experience.

[@anduril38]

I'm really enjoying this game. I'm awful at it and for its little flaws, it's really engaging for me. Fantastic review as always

[@Baraz_Red]

Meanwhile, the mod to add a Pause will help (both Steam Workshop and Nexus), but hopefully the devs will add a solution. For example, an option to enter turn-based mode in advance, like what Larian Studios does, would be cool.

[@fuchnorris6277]

thanks man. i love the originals and i even liked parts of Back in Action but im glad this one seems like a good one. As soon as i finish Aliens DD. i hope you review Xenonauts 2 when it comes out of beta. i appreciate your content

[@Krtica78]

Im new to the game still. Few sectors cleared. I have a feeling that i will have constant problem with inventory and items inside. How do I manage it? Does every merc needs to carry all or there is some kind a general stash for all equipment? Or can i somewhere stockpile it? It feels that mercs carry too many unnecesary items. Any idea?

[@blzspti909]

Just finished my 1st run on Commando difficulty and clear 35 out of the 50 achievments on Steam. The only thing I had to actively look up was the Red Rabies quest. As an oldschool fan of JA1 and JA2 with hundreds of hours in the 2 previous game and Wildfire; I think the devs did an excellent job creating this level of detail with a AA price tag. It's a true sequel released almost a quarter of a century after the previous installment of the franchise. I hope they'll be successful and will be able to release DLC. The modding community is already at large 😁 I love what they did with the Jagged Alliance franchise. Well done Haemimont! Keep up the good work! :)

[@Outerwebs]

It's worth stating that anyone who hasn't played Jagged Alliance 2, and likes this sort of thing, REALLY should check it out.

[@danielgreen6302]

I second that Emotion.

[@NefariousKoel]

After playing JA3 for awhile, I feel like JA2 largely did better with it's characters and humor. A fair bit of the JA3 dialogue writing is quite meh in comparison. Also really miss Bobby Ray's web-store, "Tons Of Guns" option, and some other little things that just added more flavor to the whole. I expect the modders will eventually get things sorted for the latter stuff. I don't regret buying JA3, however, since it has added some things and is still enjoyable enough.

[@dudestep]

@@NefariousKoelI don’t know about the writing man,I think this game really matches the 2nd well, but maybe that’s cause I have MD and that dude is hilarious.

[@SpecShadow]

just don't install v1,13 because it's for veterans only Straciatella is the way to go

[@Stforv]

@@NefariousKoel Well, devs are aware, they said they are working on more stuff, so hope for Boby Rays is valid.

[@TheBeeperman]

I played the original way back when. Been in love with all of them ever since.

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks 👍👍

[@Tobbzn]

The real time with pause feature has been added to the game - was surprised to learn that it wasn't in at launch!

[@Baraz_Red]

Happy to hear about the choices and stories/quests ! I will wait, but it is def. on my wishlist !

[@playerone7663]

Just in case someone with an older system is curious if they can even run the game: the game runs fine (on low settings) on my 2016 laptop. Wasn't expecting that at all.

[@tsuikagura]

OMG I almost missed this, JA2 was/is one of my favorite games of all time and based on your review this sequel seems to do it justice :D I'm going to buy this right away. Might even get it multiple times (by accident) like I have with JA2 -_- (there is a PS5 port!)

[@davidsinclair1288]

Thanks for the review. It sounds like the game has added some new things without straying too far from being a Jagged Alliance game, which is what I was hoping for. The outposts and scouting mechanic in particular will change strategic planning and squad management. I am curious to see how it works in practice and whether it will be viable to have a dedicated scouting team in the same way as I used to have separate combat and militia training teams in JA2.

[@BaronVonHaggis]

Good review, i'm currently playing through the game myself and you are totally on the money with the melee stealth combat being a bit clunky. But still really enjoying the game so far. 👍

[@Hexagar]

If you find out how melee stealth is working you will clear half the enemies in melee without alerting anyone and without wasting the precious nato ammo 🥳

[@ThePicklebrooks]

I'm just kinda getting the hang of it now it's clunky but it works just gotta quickload alot lmao. There is however a mod that allows you to pause prefight. I haven't used it yet but I'm definitely thinking of trying it out

[@josephgarcia9076]

I'm really enjoying this game I've never played number one or two but I'm a fan of tactical and classic RPGs. This hits the spot. Playing on Xbox s.

[@Aayren]

I can't get that training option. Any time I tried to use it, training would take ages, in span of 30h of playing, I find time to train +1 to agility! Was it something patched, or I miss something in training? (And I was using merc very good at skill to train merc that is very bad at skill)

[@miso56]

nice video. the problem with weapons in ja3 is that they require different set of high leveled skills. for meele silent kill you need very scepific set of stats and then this merc is not good for sniping. sniper rifles are great, but are not suitable for overwatch. in general smg/shotgun/meele is very usable as secondary option when enemies are in close range - lower ap usage. and it happens a lot of time. meele attack on basic difficult will practickly disable your character, so smgs are essencial for snipers as a second weapon, which is not so much used, but you need, when you do not load save during combat 😂. they should add a time restriction to reenter a retreated battle map.

[@EerieV23]

I am enjoying this game and watching others play, since the number of options are insane.

[@brentbentKRFP]

I was trying to justify not buying this but knowing it's doing well on Steam and. more imporantly, you enjoyed the combat and it seemed the game itself, damn, gotta get it and it's downloading as I type. Perfect timing, now I Have something new to play to sate my CRPG frenzy mode I'm in because of BG3's impending release date. I freaking adore that both games had two critically successful outings and then over two decades later within less than a month of one another they release a third game. What are the odds of that happening? This is when it'd be nice to know a real life Sheldon Cooper who could crunch some theoretical numbers for us.

[@michaelparas6968]

Great review. Another clunky aspect which i dont know if theres a way to get around it is the camera when inside multi level buildings. The game seems to want to do its own thing moving between levels like crazy. Otherwise a really fun and id dare say worthy sequel to ja2.

[@8wayz2shine]

I was pleasently surprised by the depth of the combat and the varied and interesting quests. The game can get even better with some improvements to stealth, the inventory system (needs at least filters), additional hotkeys for the interface and others. By the way Mortym, do you have any suggestions how to go about the Lone Wolf achievement?

[@MortismalGaming]

Theres a good write up on the steam forums for it, but generally silenced sniper rifle/knife, easy difficulties, don't try to fight everything. Blood works really well for this with his stealth perks.

[@8wayz2shine]

@@MortismalGaming Thank you very much, Mortym. Will try this for a second playthrough. :)

[@shawngillogly6873]

Thanks for the review. I would say the No Chance to Hit is very much a series choice, not just a game choice. So the Devs mentioned wanting to stay consistent with that as well. It's a YMMV feature still. But I understand both sides of it. Seeing XCom's 99% miss 20% of the time is also it's own version of frustration. So I can't decide if one is actually better than the other. I think there are enough context clues to be able to tell if a merc thinks they've got the shot or not. But that's me.

[@XKS99]

This.

[@MortismalGaming]

I played it all the way through with it off, and it works fine, as you said it's mostly a preference thing and I'm a numbers guy. Would have preferred it was a toggle though (especially since that mod was provided literally by the devs)

[@shawngillogly6873]

@@MortismalGaming I definitely could see them offering a "classic" and a "statistical" version as a toggle. Give an Achievement for playing through the game Classic Mode.

[@JH-pe3ro]

Central to JA series design is that it emphasizes limited-information puzzles: at the start you aren't supposed to know which mercs hate each other, or what stats are important, or what items do, or what sectors are dangerous. So, lacking a chance to hit indicator is just one more dimension of that.

[@Argie87]

Another thing they could add, an arms market to sell all the extra weapons or to buy new weapons/ammo

[@onurkayarlar935]

OH MY GOD!!!! JA 1 is my first love at tactical combat games, i didnt liked JA2 that much tho, and even not any idea 3 was devoloping... its great news, my baby returned

[@robcampion9917]

This game reminds me so much of the action films I grew-up watching.

[@patrikjohansson5939]

23:16 that exploit is all the way back from Jagged Alliance 1. Retreating from and re-entering sector 39 with a .38 revolver all day, to clean out the enemies one by one. Ah, the memories...

[@mikestone6078]

One thing probably many people are gonna miss ist the Gold level fee for the legendary mercs will be waived, if you just employ other mercs for long enough. It may be a time or money spent on merc contracts thing. I haven't scienced that at all. It's been like that with JA2 as well. Just be patient and you don't have to spend that 20k.

[@yaldabaoth2]

After a while 20k is nothing at all anyway. I ended the game with 12 mercs and 1.5M in the bank. You just got to aim for the mines and not dick around in the jungle. What destroys people financially is hiring Ivan early. He's WAY too expensive (and not even that good).

[@dudestep]

@@yaldabaoth2Ivan is a machine gun god though.

[@erih2934]

From my experience the best mercs are the lowest tier ones. In JA2 the low experience was really dangerous, but since it no longer affects interrupts starting out with those is in my opinion the way to go. They have time to develop and their low cost scale very slowly. Fox, Barry and Igor were my initial go-to (with Grizzly) and I'm pretty sure at mid game they outclass the higher tier AIMs while still being cheaper.

[@KingslayerSrb]

@@yaldabaoth2 have Ivan from the start, swimming in cash and mercs, just took my fifth mine. First time player. Dude literally carried me, other mercs I took (including Ice) were hot trash

[@antonlavrentiev5249]

Loved this game. Gave me same feelings, as playing JA2.

[@JesseDylanMusic]

Are any of the original Canadian devs involved? I don’t suppose so since this dev team is in Bulgaria. I’m just so happy someone really did it! I loved the first two as a kid and even got to beta test the second one, just because the dev team felt like being kind to a weird kid (me).

[@cyberiankorninger1025]

"The best Mercenaries in the game are hidden behind Gold Status" But Barry Unger is the best Merc in the game and he is the cheapest :) Love your review thanks for this. The game is amazing its clearly the best in its genre and I am an old dude who played all the original JA2, XCOM and such in the nineties this is peak. Peoples have to remove the rose colored glasses. JA2 is a masterpiece but this one is even better.

[@Mgaak]

a lot of people tend to shit on the new things due to nostalgia clouding their judgement but, yeah, JA3 is certainly a worthy spiritual successor. Is similar enough to be enticing and innovative enough to not be boring/derivative. This is very important, especially after a few hits and misses in this franchise.

[@almost_harmless]

Finished the game yesterday and was very happy with it. Sure. It is hard and unforgiving, but you can adjust the difficulty as you go, and, by starting a new game, I managed to get further on the second go. It might not be the JA3 you wanted, but it is a good game in and of itself. It might have smaller maps than what you are used to from JA2, but for me, that was not a big deal. It might be for you. Cons for me? There were some quests that got dropped once you trigger a particular action, which annoyed me slightly, but it was not a game-changer or a quest-breaker as such. I enjoyed spending time with my little crew and immediately started a new one to see how far I can stretch noobs. Oh, and I loved the graphics. It really all does capture the essence of JA for me, and mods might even make it better.

[@Stforv]

Honestly, who cares about quests it a tactics game)) Just joking, but seriously, if they cut out all the story content and all quests and made it into kinda sandbox game (which it in reality is) it wouldn't be a worse game.

[@Taranchule]

*Jungle Work by Warren Zevon intensifies * I never played the original games despite them coming out during my first big PC period. Still, this game sounds like it'll scratch a modern mercenary-theme itch I've had lately. I'll have to look into it.

[@MatLinnett1]

How is it for destructability? I've never played JA2 or the first game, but I'm a big Silent Storm fan, and that had some of the best scenery destruction I've encountered in games.

[@armynurseboy]

The environment is destructible....for the most part. It depends on what the structure is made of and what you're hitting it with. Also, if there are lootable items in an area you destroy, they will be destroyed too.

[@XKS99]

Having so much fun with JA3

[@anryantosebastian3451]

I like the previous JA when comes to mod, yes the new one has a lot of mod wep, but we can't unattach the mod if we want to change our weapon and that is back waste of parts... Plus CHIP is extremely rare item in JA3 universe, while lenses, pipes, parts are plenty of it. Also no Assault Rifle H&K G11, I love that in JA2, Sniper rifle ok... Especially PSG1 in JA3

[@KoudZ]

mister, do you even enjoy the game when rushing it thru 100% even with achivements? I could never play thru this kind of a game in such a short time.... it almost seems like it is quite short.

[@BenchongDy]

Man this guy shreds games like crazy

[@FekalKilla]

Who you picked for solo playthrough ? (and how you managed refugee camp fight ?)

[@MortismalGaming]

Blood, you can also skip that by just going to the major's camp instead. It's also possible to just send in one merc to die there before rehiring the person you were using.

[@FekalKilla]

@@MortismalGaming sounds like reasonable idea. I try major camp first

[@ramonnnnnnnn]

nice!

[@gamerid6507]

its nice to know ja3 is a good game...i remember 1 & 2 were good as well

[@AyarARJ]

Stupid SteamDeck question: do Workshop mods work on the Deck like they do on regular full size Windows PC/laptop? Not just JA3, but just general experiences? Thanks for the info, folks. Also this was a great review. Most of what I've watches has been some short tips vids from others.

[@MortismalGaming]

Yeah you just have to download them like normal

[@caubert]

Nice to hear review from person who has not played Jagged Alliance 2, feels more honest towards JA3 - without comparisons etc. But this raises a question, are you going to try out the top #1 turn-based tactical cRPG of all times or not because it does not have any achievements?

[@MortismalGaming]

I might do a retrospective on it at some point but I'm not in any hurry

[@Redfren]

Thanks for the review Mortismal, is this game voiced at all?

[@MidnightHozz]

It is 100% voiced. Even the generic villager NPCs have their script voice acted.

[@Redfren]

@@MidnightHozz Thanks so much :)

[@Dracobyte]

Jagged Alliance is finally back!

[@erikskoog8415]

Good show sir

[@Deckaio]

9:50 at some point, if you don't guy the gold-membership, you get it for free.

[@jankodes197]

Those $20.000 really screw me. I had to much more aggressively hunt for diamond shipments and mines because I took it as soon as it appeared (even though I finished the game with mercs from first 2 tiers only).

[@Haarba1]

Weird you encountered this body seeing bug, I pretty much did stealth as much as I could and I never encountered this issue, yes, there were few... lets call them weird, situations, but nothing too weird, if I had alert cause body was discovered it was more or less fair.

[@TobiasMantsch]

Great review, really makes me want to play this game. Maybe later this year. Quick feedback on the point of "combat becomes more of the same over time": This was no different in vanilla JA2 or JA:UB. In JA2 it was basically get a few good snipers and rifles with scopes early, find good spots for them and scout the area with the other guys. More often than not you could clear areas without getting shot at after mid-game. Buns, Buzz, Scope were exceptionally good for this. Thor could be brought to 99 marksmanship very easily because he learned so fast. In UB they tried to mitigate this a bit by having you crawl through bunkers very often (I might misremember, it's been many years since I played these timesinks). Here the op strat were explosives and mustard gas. So without the community mods there were always "cheap" strats that made combat rather repetitive at times. But on the other hand, in the RPG sense, this is also somewhat rewarding and satisfying in a weird way. You have a bunch of highly skilled professional mercs and you are the mastermind of the operation. So finding successful tactics that keep everyone alive and damages at a minimum is part of the fun ;)

[@anthonywnuk-frank3754]

Good 👍 review also always loving this game right now!!!

[@moniquelegarda1842]

I played 2 a lot back then and can't wait to play this. I often say, "Elliot! You idiot!" a lot, but very few of my friends get it. :)

[@nbf-fb1xs]

Algos are pumped

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Jagged Alliance is back after years of absence!

[@0Gumpy0]

I feel spoiled this year. There's been too many great big games. Normally this one would be a grab but I've been too busy with other games. I'll definitely grab this one on sale in a year, with a few patches I'm sure too

[@leavemydogalone]

Nice

[@damienkrawczuk1435]

I starting to understand the types of games you favor, and yeah I like a good CRPG/TRPG too, I liked Aliens Dark Descent and Miasma Chronicles an enjoyable review might have to suss this one out too, but I'm trying to find a game you haven't 100% reviewed yet that you'd might like, did you try an indie title from Crunchy Koala I think the game company is called Dark Wood? Not a typical CRPG perse' but isometric yeah, but I thought it had some great ambience and gameplay mechanics, anyway leave ya to it, oh before I forget were you ever one for point and click games of yesteryear? There's one I've heard of recently called The Many Pieces Of Mr Coo, really not ya typical strategy based game but the Narrative is nice and whimsical and the puzzles are fun to figure out but I'm only going by the demo I played but I appreciated it for trying something different to mainstream likes, I'll admit my variety is vast, but curious again on what you might think on it, anyway this message is getting a bit long, take care till the next one

[@MortismalGaming]

Can't say I have

[@DrRESHES]

23:20 you see this is what JA2 doesn't have problems with. because the maps are bigger you really need to get into the sector, and it'll take an effort to get out of there mid-combat.

[@M4ruta]

I've been a huge fan of the franchise ever since I stumbled onto the original _Jagged Alliance_ in the late '90s. I've been through JA2 more times than I can remember and all I can say to JA3 is: FINALLY! A successor that understand what made the first two games so good.

[@MasonDMT]

Bought a gaming laptop just to play JA3, can’t wait to dive in 😊

[@badxradxandy]

I played a game like this called Silent Storm.

[@paulaustin2633]

I've never played the JA games, but looking at this it looks similar to the Expedition series, am I right to make that assumption? If so, it's a buy for me

[@sulik6228]

dont know expedition, but the jagged series is close to games like x-com, silent storm, etc. turn based tactic with rpg elements within an open sandbox environment with a relatively non-linear plot

[@MortismalGaming]

It reminds me a lot of Expeditions Rome in particular

[@paulaustin2633]

@@MortismalGaming This is good. Cheers mate 👍

[@maxtized5422]

really like the game. besides some clunkyness my biggest problem with the game is its massive RNGness. i found myself reload a lot because each action could hinder me from going on: stealth fails a lot without infos why (feels like playing commandos in a blind mode), weapon modding could break the weapon so i need time to repair it, automatic fight results and loot are so random - sometimes even way better than manual fighting, and so on. Imo the system should be change: a more fixed rng seed for some stuff, so save scumming is not one of the main gameplay experiences, and other mechanics for just annoying stuff like modding and stealth.

[@JH-pe3ro]

All of the RNG elements have been designed to be good for ironman play, though. I'm finding more to appreciate as I get deeper into it and see how they balanced for that. JA3 biases heavily toward experience level swinging your overall hit chances. When you're fighting higher-level opponents you miss all the time, and they tear through you. Likewise, you already know from modding a gun whether you've made the accuracy bonuses come from the first extra AP for aiming(reflex sights), or from adding additional aim levels(scopes), or from proning(bipod). The other stats are relatively much less important than knowing how the character has to be played for their level and equipment. And I think that goes for all the other aspects - losing some weapon reliability is something you have to factor in with gun modding, even if it succeeds. Some maps seem intentionally designed to make stealth fail(groups of two/three clustered so that they always see a body). It's all set up so that second plays go extremely smoothly because you know what not to do.

[@cyrneco]

Love the game. The negatives that it does have are made up for by the mods. The mod that added the real time pause fixed the only substantial issue i had.

[@KedaiCiplak]

The Man, The Myth, The Legend.

[@Elgar337]

Review came so fast that it's actually for Jagged Alliance 2.

[@horizonblueisland6872]

Does the game have this “secret “ clock like xcom?I couldn’t enjoy xcom due this always run and run mode

[@deciomartins7789]

Agree with the pause on live time. Similar to back in action, it worked great

[@77Bakh]

For years XCOM misses from point blank were a nightmare. Try JA3 :D Nightmare is back!

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

Can enemies use long range weapons effectively this time?

[@MortismalGaming]

Yeah, mortars and rocket launchers especially

[@RaPtOr9600]

Finished the game and couple of things that i noticed and that bugs me while playing : - Quest log is confusing for example i stopped playing for couple of days and then found plaque cure but forgot to take it to doctor. Because i forgot where is doctor located. There should be like icon for quest items in the inventory. - Combat at the end is kinda, pointless sniper rifles wins everything, and with combination with flashbangs are win, tried melee kills it works but its clunky silencers are better. - Inventory system, stacking, splitting ammo, and crafting is clunky, i truly believed i will found in game like portable crafting ammo station. - Performance i don't see this game to be visually better than xCom 2 or Wasteland 3 but its heavy on resources, Crysis remastered runs better on my rig than this game. But finished the game on standard difficulty without forgiveness mode, will give it try in month or two with some mods. I think mods will make big difference in future