Jagged Alliance 3 Release Date 2023

[Shane Rouse]

JaggedAlliance is a series of turn-based tactics video games. The first games in the series were released for DOS. From Jagged Alliance 2 on, the games were developed using DirectX for native Windows operation. Jagged Alliance 2 was also released for Linux and is available on Steam and on GOG.com for Windows.

The Jagged Alliance games center on strategically controlling mercenary squads, on and off the field, who complete various missions such as freeing countries from oppressive dictators. The games feature a mix of turn-based battle simulation, 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) elements and role-playing.

Humour via spoken character comments is a trademark of the series. The personalities of the individual mercenaries range from mildly eccentric to disturbed. This contrasts the games' setting which is otherwise closely linked to such subjects as war and death.

Each mercenary is an individual with their own traits. Part of the strategy was the player's freedom to select a multi-faceted team to win the game in different ways. Not all teams would work; for example, Ivan and his nephew Igor, who work well together, are hated by Steroid, the Polish bodybuilder. "Buns", a Danish markswoman, hates "Fox", a medic with centerfold looks. In contrast, "Fox" loves working with "Grizzly," on whom she has something of a crush.

The player has to maintain a level of reputation in the Jagged Alliance games. If the player gets their troops killed often, regularly hires and dismisses members or generally is insensitive (such as not paying for deceased merc body shipments back home), their reputation will lower. Bad player's reputation affects all mercenaries. Mercs may demand a significant pay raise to consider working for the player. Hired mercenaries may quit unless the player discreetly pays them a bonus. And only desperate-for-work mercs will agree to work for really notorious players.

The intellectual property (IP) for Jagged Alliance has been exchanged between many companies. The series and IP were created by Mad Labs Software,[2] who later became a part of the publisher for the first game, Sir-Tech Software, Inc., along with a transfer of IP. The second game, Jagged Alliance 2, was also started by Sir-Tech. When Sir-Tech's publishing arm went bankrupt, the game rights were transferred to its development house Sir-Tech Canada and published by TalonSoft. By the time Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business was released, Sir-Tech's publishing arm was out of business and the game was released by Interplay. Subsequently TalonSoft went bankrupt. At the moment Strategy First owns the IP and has published Jagged Alliance: Wildfire. Strategy First made several attempts to extend the series with Jagged Alliance 3D and Jagged Alliance 3, both of which never saw the light of day. Strategy First was acquired by Silverstar Holdings, which then ran into financial problems and was delisted by NASDAQ.[3] It is unclear what effect this will have on future games using the Jagged Alliance IP, though in the final SEC filing before being delisted Silverstar stated that it had reached a settlement of some issues with Russia-based Akella: "Akella and 3A Entertainment have the option to acquire certain intellectual property rights for the Jagged Alliance and Disciples franchises for an additional $100,000".[4]

The first Jagged Alliance game was developed by MadLab Software, Montreal. Qc, the following three games were developed by Sir-Tech Development based in Ottawa, Ontario. Ian Currie, Shaun Lyng and Linda Currie were the lead designers on the Jagged Alliance series. MadLab was absorbed by Sir-Tech Canada but the company shut down in late 2003.[5]

Released in 1995 for MS-DOS, this first game of the series tasks the player with freeing the fictional island of Metavira from the greedy Santino. The player must recruit mercenaries as they explore, capture, and hold new territory. The natives harvest the valuable trees from which a revolutionary medicine can be extracted; a result of the island having been used as a nuclear testing ground in 1952. The more trees the player holds, the more income they make. Income can be used to hire native guards and hire more mercenaries to take the offensive and clear more sectors of enemies.

This game features a top-down perspective of the game field for battles, with character portraits framing the view on the left and right sides. A separate map view shows the entire country broken up into distinct conquerable sectors.

Released in 1996, Deadly Games is a DOS sequel to the original game. It features a different format, however, and is considered by some to be more of a spin-off than a sequel. This game features the same engine and top-down perspective as the original game.

This game was released in 1999 for Windows and was later ported to Linux by Tribsoft. The mission of this second official game of the series is to free the country of Arulco from its evil dictator Queen Deidranna. Deidranna married the democratically elected King of Arulco, then launched a coup d'tat eight years ago, deposing her husband and taking power for herself. The player is "hired" by the exiled king, Enrico Chivaldori, to free his homeland of Deidranna's dictatorial regime.

Gameplay is similar to the original grand adventure style of Jagged Alliance, but features higher-resolution graphics and an isometric pseudo-3D view of the battleground. The terrain has two height levels (ground and rooftops) for player / enemy sprites and a basic physics engine for thrown objects and ballistics. It also features "destructible terrain" in that players are able to blow open walls and buildings with explosives. The game also takes place across diverse and rather imaginative locations, including a multi-level prison facility, a school, a hospital, surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, a swamp and a junkyard.

The weapons arsenal has grown considerably to include a variety of weapons based on real-life counterparts (such as automatic weapons, shotguns, rocket launchers) and also fictional weapons like an auto firing rocket rifle. There are some more role-playing elements like specialty professions and the possibility to create a custom mercenary as well.

JA2 has been extensively modded by fans of the series. Most notable include, but are not limited to: v1.13,[9][10][11] Urban Chaos,[12] Deidranna Lives,[13] Renegade Republic.[14] and JA2-Stracciatella.[15]

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business, alternatively known as Jagged Alliance 2.5, is a short, mission-based standalone sequel released by Sir-Tech in 2000. This release adds some tweaks to the combat engine, as well as a scenario editor,[16][17] yet the gameplay remains largely unchanged.[18] It allows importing of the character created for JA2 with his or her final stats; the improved stats of other mercenaries will then be imported too.

A new plot is introduced in Unfinished Business. The original owners of Arulco's lucrative mines have returned and established a missile base in the nearby country of Tracona, demanding the mines are returned to them. They destroy Arulco's now-empty Tixa prison as an example of what happens if their demands are not met. The player must put a team of mercenaries together to infiltrate Tracona and disable the missile base.

Gold Pack introduces notable changes to the difficulty setting. The player choosing an advanced difficulty level may also decide to make the player turns timed and whether to disallow saving during combat, as opposed to the original Jagged Alliance 2, which set these settings automatically.[20]

Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire, version 5, was programmed by i-Deal Games and published by Strategy First in 2004 as an official expansion pack.[21] The game's sourcecode was also published in the package, albeit under license. The project had started as a hobby add-on by Serge "WildFire" Popoff, who decided to make it commercial since version 4.[22][23]

Compared to the original Jagged Alliance 2, Wildfire 5 has not altered the game engine or controls and can be considered a mod. The focus was instead directed into designing revamped environments, new items and stronger enemies.[23] This presents players with a more challenging campaign, however the goals and progression remain the same. In terms of gameplay features, the game remains almost unchanged.

Soon after release, i-Deal Games terminated relations with Strategy First stating "...SF fulfilled none of it's [sic] obligation of contract and paid no single cent to i-Deal Games...".[24] Consequently, WF5 remains largely unpatched, only minor hotfixes were published. I-Deal Games also stated that buggy version were released by Strategy First.[24][25]

After the falling out with Strategy First, i-Deal Games developed another version of Wildfire, identified as "version 6", with Zuxxez Entertainment (now TopWare Interactive AG) as distributor.[26][27]

WF6 contains changed source code, a tweaked graphics engine that allows for a higher resolution, introduces new mercenaries and increases squad size from 6 to 10. It can be patched up to version 6.04 (for English version), up to 6.06 (for German version), or up to 6.08 (for Russian version).

Jagged Alliance 2 Wildfire (v5) was distributed electronically by Strategy First.[28] Jagged Alliance 2 Wildfire (v6) was distributed electronically by Zuxxez Entertainment.[29] Two versions of the same game (Wildfire) exist due to the game's publisher Strategy First, Inc. falling out after a disagreement with the game's developer, I-Deal Games Studios concerning expenses. Version 5 is the version published by SF before this spat and so is more problematic than v6, the version released through Zuxxez and others by the developer since the incident.

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