Jagged Alliance: Back in Action demo released

There's been a lot of hemming and hawing over changes in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action from fans of the original turn-based tactical series, but now you can see for yourself how it's panned out, thanks to a two-mission demo released today.

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There's been a lot of hemming and hawing over Jagged Alliance: Back in Action from fans of the original turn-based tactical series, over changes like its once-absent fog of war (since added back in) and real-time-y combat. Now you can see for yourself how bitComposer's remake of Jagged Alliance 2 has panned out, thanks to a 354MB demo released today.

The demo packs one tutorial mission along with a sample level from the final game, 'Orta Laboratory.' It's taken from "about 2/3 of the way through the game," and bitComposer warns that it's "REALLY, I mean REAAALLLY, hard." Handily, you'll have a pre-assembled team of "veteran mercenaries, armed to the teeth," as you tackle it.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action hits PC on February 14 at $40, published by Kalypso Media.

If you're stuck at work for now, or waiting for the demo to download and install, here's a trailer explaining Back in Action's new "Plan & Go" combat:

From The Chatty
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    February 1, 2012 1:30 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action demo released.

    There's been a lot of hemming and hawing over changes in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action from fans of the original turn-based tactical series, but now you can see for yourself how it's panned out, thanks to a two-mission demo released today.

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      February 1, 2012 1:58 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 1, 2012 2:00 PM

      Someone check this out and post back how it is!

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      February 1, 2012 4:28 PM

      Also on Steam.

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        February 1, 2012 4:39 PM

        Although when I click on "download demo" nothing happens, so who knows.

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      February 1, 2012 4:58 PM

      Awesome

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      February 1, 2012 6:17 PM

      Well that just saved me $40. I was a big fan of the Jagged Alliance series, but I'm really not digging this pseudo-real-time thing. They aren't kidding that the mission is hard. Especially since they don't give you any mission objectives. I managed to take out the three guards to the south without taking any casualties, but the rest of the map is so densely populated with soldiers is near impossible to have any success with the four mercs you're given. Holding out hope that the X-Com remake fares better.

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        February 1, 2012 6:32 PM

        You gotta be a little sneaky

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        February 1, 2012 6:36 PM

        you have to be sneaky?

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      February 1, 2012 6:47 PM

      Demo link http://www.gamershell.com/download_84934_start.html?03:46:36 working, supports multi screen too :)

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        February 1, 2012 7:22 PM

        Thanks, Steam has a link that does nothing and fileshack Mercury speed is less than 50 KB/s

        This is breezing along relatively faster at 500 KB/s

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      February 1, 2012 9:09 PM

      Review after an hour or two of playing:

      Coming from years and years of playing JA2 (and still playing 1.13), it definitely took a little bit to get the hang of the controls and gameplay mechanics, and it is obviously meant to be a very hard demo mission.

      With that said, and if this demo is anything to go by -- this game is seriously awesome. Just had some intense fights. The Plan and Go system works perfectly. I just did some pretty great coordinated assaults with my guys. The most memorable kills I got was pegging people in the face with Danny's shotgun and having Fidel rush in with his SMG in a flank maneuver to finish people off.

      Telling your guys to crawl into different pieces of cover, and sync them to rise up at the same time to open fire is epic.

      Any worry I had about the lack of Fog of War is no longer present. The enemies often move very dynamically and unpredictably, and will at times stealth walk at your guys so you don't have LOS without exposing yourself, or hey will flat out rush you to try and dislodge you from your defenses.

      I hope the full game delivers, because based on this very limited demo, I think this very well be the game I've been waiting for for 12 years.

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        February 2, 2012 1:23 AM

        Just streamed gameplay for Zuff and my friend for about 4 hours and it was epic. The combat is unbelievably well done once you get the hang of it.

        I ended up clearing the whole map except the last 8 guys who, after a long stand off, committed to a full-out rush on my wounded guys.

        A++

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        February 2, 2012 1:36 AM

        hmm cool

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        February 2, 2012 1:38 AM

        Yeah, I just bought it.

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        February 2, 2012 6:44 AM

        Agree, a nice bonus it has native multi screen support too.

        I wonder if there will be a difficulty setting in the final that's really my only concern other than that its pretty cool.

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      February 2, 2012 3:18 AM

      [deleted]

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        February 2, 2012 4:42 AM

        [deleted]

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          February 2, 2012 6:27 AM

          put them on guard mode and they return fire

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            February 2, 2012 6:28 AM

            [deleted]

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              February 2, 2012 6:28 AM

              [deleted]

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              February 2, 2012 7:15 AM

              there are some switches to activate turn based. toggles in the main menu you can use to pause the game when shit gets real, like when a character is wounded or spotted etc.

              that was the first thing i checked ( mostly because i knew from FO tactics that sort of thing can be a pain if you dont pay attention to it constantly, or save every 3 seconds).

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      February 2, 2012 7:04 AM

      So its awesome and horrible.

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      February 2, 2012 7:11 AM

      i tried it last night after i had been awake for 35+ hours. it was quite hard. but not insurmountable tbh. my biggest gripe was not being able to move the camera as much as i would like. remains to be seen if the campaign is evoking any of the original games awesomeness but from what i played it seems like a decent attempt to merge turn based with something a little less, er 90's i guess.

      will prolly buy it if the camera angle gets some love (or modded).

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