Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge

Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, the latest installment in the Jagged Alliance series represents developer Games Factory Inc.-Russia and publishers Tri Synergy and Matrix Games attempt to keep the flavor of the original system while updating the story and graphics. Were the correct features up dated?

Something Old – A Few Things New

Information on play is strung across the nineteen-page manual, the ten-page FAQ and the context sensitive on-screen help. The manual barely covers the basics, needs a few more illustrations, particularly on how to equip mercs and should mention that pressing the middle button and RMB tilts and rotates the tactical map. Oddly, the very important interactive cursor mode is not explained anywhere. The FAQ is basically a nice guide to the first mission. The on-line screen can be turned off when players are comfortable with the interface and mechanics. Extra tips can be read while waiting for the game to load.

The graphics continue in the vein of the older games, a mixed blessing. The tactical map is bright with fine African atmosphere in terms of vegetation, buildings and other features. Yet, the top-down view is getting dated. Finding positions on the map is hindered by a limited zoom out and a jerky scroll. The ability to toggle trees and roofs off helps only to some extent. The mini-map is useful for finding players’ troops but has its own problems. The mini-map is small making the dots representing mercs very small indeed. The mercs’ bright green specks are easily seen but enemy dots appear beige and blend in with the ground. Reckoning the respective distances between units can be difficult. These problems are alleviated by having characters names toggled above their figures and by being brought to a character’s position by double clicking on his name in the squad list in the upper left of the tactical map. The global map is useful if bland, showing which side controls which sectors.

Animation and sound push problems with the maps into the background. Character figures are lovingly detailed with sprightly colors specifically tailored for each character. Soldiers and brigands alike move, crouch and low crawl realistically. Weapons are loaded, aimed and fired in detail. Stricken targets crumple and drag themselves pathetically to cover. Explosions are stunning, leaving scorch marks and structural damage. Sound is clear and realistic. Rounds are chambered with metallic click; gunshots echo and ricochet. A hit to the body is noted with a wet thud. Each mercenary has a different voice but all are crisp. Meaningless chatter is held to a minimum.

A Dear Friend from Africa

Activity starts by opening the player’s laptop. The laptop is critical to the game: email gives contracts, assignments, information, passwords, advice and deletable spam. After reading the first emails, players go to a psychological service’s website where they chose a name and picture. The sixteen-question evaluation is very amusing the first or second times it’s taken but quickly becomes a slight nuisance when starting a new game. The test is also irrelevant as the base values of ten skills and bonus points are always the same Values can be changed from the defaults to pump up skills such as accuracy and leadership.

A trip to the arms dealer, Dickey Jay, lets players buy armor and weapons ranging from knives to anti-tank weapons. Miscellaneous items like medical kits and explosives may be stocked. The pickings are slim at first and differ at the beginning of each game, but, with experience and money, over 150 items will be available.

Players then log onto an agency site to hire his team. Up to eighteen fellow mercs can be asked to join. Each of the thirty potential members has a photo, biography and listing of skills. Choices should be made for a balanced composition of killers. Choices can be sorted by experience or price. Players can choose either to merely hire the person or buy the members’ tools of trade. However, not all possible candidates will accept until the leader has more experience or more money to pay them. Candidates might also say over the phone with whom they will work. Snarky accented replies add spice to the exercise.

The troops can be organized into a maximum of three squads with a limit of six troopers per squads. Characters with a high rating in a specialty can be designated as a “trainer” with the rest of the squad as “students”. When the occasion arises, a repairman can be designated to repair weapons and “doctor/patient” pairs can be formed to heal wounded comrades. Equipment can be parceled out by dragging items onto a body outline or pocket; accessories like scopes and silencers go in spaces below the weapons. Extra equipment can be stored, but too much weight drains characters of vital action points in the tactical phase.

Once squads are organized and equipped, play proceeds to the global map. This map is composed of sectors controlled by the player and four other factions: the governments, a native tribe, UN peace keepers and a rival group of mercenaries. Given that much of Africa has long been volatile and a favorite haunt of mercenaries, this mix is not unexpected. The initial mission is to help an ousted president back to power, although that can change as the game progresses. Players can choose to drop off squads as garrisons to secure sectors they gain against counter attacks. Any supply depots where troops can find more munitions will also be shown on this map.

Clicking on the brick-red icon on the global map brings up the tactical map while the blue icon displays a mini-map of the sector. The player’s squads are shown with pictures and skills on an info bar in the upper left. A purple stripe shows possible initial placement. Placing people is a simple matter of clicking on a picture or using a hotkey and then clicking on the map.

After placement, real-time movement is accomplished by selecting a person and clicking a destination. Alternately, several mercs can be moved using a click-and-drag “lasso”. Moving singly is the better option because a clump of bodies is perfect grenade fodder if opponents gain the initiative. Audio cues from characters are helpful. The old right-click-and drag menu has been abandoned for fifteen control buttons on a panel. These buttons adjust stance, e.g. run, walk, or crawl, and firing method, e.g. single, shot, burst, precision aiming. Two other buttons initiate dialog and go into interactive node to grab things from bodies or objects. The cursor automatically assumes these modes when placed on a possible subject. All commands can also be called with hotkeys.

Missions often require moving to several sectors. Speaking to non- playing characters (NPCs) can often provide transport and passes. Hired Guns rewards more than sharp shooting; a sector can often be cleared without the player firing a shot. However, once an enemy gets angry, play becomes turn-based and action points appear on each mercs info bar. The number of these points is function of strength, load, stance and health. Points don’t fully regenerate each turn so making a character run several turns while lugging a heavy weapon guarantees he’ll collapse from exhaustion. Close attention should be paid to the three status bars.

Movement shows the number of action points’ cost versus available. Targeting shows the same thing along with what body part is targeted. Targets can be quickly accessed by pressing the spacebar. Players can auto-sight an enemy’s torso or choose the head or a limb by clicking on the AIM GURU 5000 body diagram or using a hotkey. The number of shots per trooper is a function of action points and ammunition available. Gunfire is shown by simple yellow streaks with appropriate noises. Weapons can be moved to different hands or stowed. The AI is fairly good at movement but enemy fire is as dangerous only as the quality of the men firing and which of the three skill levels the player chose. Once a sector is cleared, the player can choose too loot everything, although his characters may become too weighed down.