Welcome to the jungle. We got dehydration and PTSD.

This month feels like the month of the turn-based strategy games for me. I’m fresh off the heels of Mutant: Year Zero and now I’m on to Jagged Alliance: Rage!, both of which are in the same vein as each other. I enjoyed my time with Mutant, and now as I move over to Jagged Alliance, I find myself both comparing and contrasting each while still trying to find the uniqueness in each. Let’s talk about Jagged Alliance.

First and foremost, I have never played a Jagged Alliance game. I’ve known of them and honestly, I thought they are 3rd person shooters. Much to my surprise, booting this game up and seeing the familiar board movement, cover to cover strategy, and aiming percentile of XCOM, I actually got excited to see what this game had to offer.

Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $29.99
Price I’d pay: $15

Players take control of two mercenaries who infiltrate a remote island that has been taken over by a militarized group. They get caught and before being tortured, are released and escape into the jungle. Now, they must make their way through the enemy infested area, gear up, and try to figure out what’s going on while devising a way to escape.

At the very beginning of the game, players choose the two mercenaries to take with them. Each has their own unique stats and abilities as well as their weaknesses. Some may be weaker than others while some may be better at stealth and with certain types of guns.

While the story is lacking, how the gameplay is intertwined with the narrative is well done. Players will complete a mission/level and find themselves on a map of the island with different points they can move to. They can choose to camp and recover health or fix status ailments, repair weapons, and other beneficial things, but doing so will allow the enemy to travel on the map as well. This means they can get closer the more players rest, so it is a risk/reward system.

The big draw here is the combat in missions. Players will move their mercs around a map trying to sneak, attack, and get to cover using action points that are allotted every turn. Sneaking is recommended due to the majority of levels having the opposition in both greater numbers as well as in better positioning. Properly sneaking around will allow mercs to perform silent kills, and taking out numerous enemies without raising an alarm is key in Jagged Alliance. When it comes down to it, players will find themselves in a full on gun fight. Here, they need to stay in cover to keep from getting hit, try to flank the enemy and use more action points while firing to get better accuracy when trying to hit a certain part of the enemy’s body. Along with all this, there is the Rage meter that will fill up when dealing and taking damage. Having rage benefits the character, but also allows them to use special abilities that are usually locked out.

Looting is a major part of Jagged Alliance: Rage. Since I’m outnumbered and left with almost nothing, I had to scrounge up as much ammo and supplies as I could. The game requires players to keep track of their character’s health, thirst, and other special attributes. One merc is an alcoholic, so without some hooch on hand, he gets jittery and it affects his performance. Things like this set apart each character in the game so players must choose wisely when starting.

Visually, the game is not very impressive. It has a slight cartoony look to go along with the somewhat comedic storyline that usually falls flat. It has a somewhat budget feel that didn’t do it many favors. The gameplay mechanic of constant inventory management made for a tedious time as well. It seemed like after a fight, I would then be checking every dead body for items only to have to transfer certain items to each of my mercs, then combine ammunition together, then try to find some water because both my guys are dehydrated. It was a constant juggle trying to keep up with everything I needed, and even then I wasn’t able to get everything I could use because of the limited inventory space.

After a while, Jagged Alliance became repetitive. While I liked the mechanics and the thought put into the combat, due to some overly simplistic things, I found that doing missions that felt pretty much the same began to get to me over time. Still, I found the entire experience at least interesting, even when the story was kind of dragging along. At the end of the day, Jagged Alliance: Rage! is a decent little game with some annoying bits thrown in. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but it can keep some strategy fans busy for a little while with some fun thrown in for good measure. I’d just wait for a slight price drop before entering this jungle.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.