Bugged Alliance : a recap of horrors

[grimdarkness]

While we're waiting for the holy 3, while somebody is already asking where to prebuy, it could be wise to recall a bit of history about the JA franchise after good ol' 2.
More specifically, let's backtrack on memory lane to 3 titles that tried, and failed, to become .. heh .. spiritual successors of JA2.
I hope you like crap and the smell of it. Remember to wash your eyes after you have finished reading.



BACK IN ACTION (2012)

Developed by Coreplay (and if you ask "who?", I can understand, because I ask myself), it's a sort of remake of JA2, set on the same island, with same story and characters. Devs had the brilliant idea of making the game (not kidding) real time with tactical pause.
This otherwise foolproof plan was somewhat marred by a zombie-level AI, bugs enough to rename it Bugged Alliance, the inspired removal of the fog of war and a graphic that was worse than its 12 yrs older predecessor. I remember I bought it, regretted after 3 hours and reinstalled first JA2 and then Silent Storm to wash my mouth.

FLASHBACK (2014)

The stuff nightmares are made of. Developed by Full Control (let's just say that they don't even have a wiki page), after what we could call a less than stellar Kickstarter, brings back turn based combat, and this is good news. Problem is, good news end here.
The game was released in a pre-alpha form marred by so many bugs that, in comparison, day one's Rome Total War 2 was a flawless gem. Add to this a severe lack of balance, and a concept of realism that saw things like succesful headshots resulting in just a scratch, or full cover behind objects a quarter the size of a merc. The cherry on the cake is a wondrous AI that made enemies running to you and spending all their AP instead of using interruptions or cover.
After the ravenous reviews, devs tried to patch things opening the game to modders, but not even Sir-Tech themselves could have saved this crap.

RAGE! (2018)

Very appropria7e title, for the wrong reasons. Developed by Cliffhanger Productions (the same of the aborted JA online -the less we talk about it, the better).
Underdevelopment is a term that only begins to describe the problems behind this game. For starters, good luck playing the game with mouse and keyboard (I've seen mobile ports with better controls). Then the player is pleasantly surprised by the fact that he can't create his own mercenary (what? IMP? I laugh in your face). Another wise move was to add activable specials abilities ala Diablo (just to be sure to completely alienate the old fans and tactical gamers in general). All this excellence completed by a cartoonish graphic, together with some of the worst of AI this side of Big Rigs, resulting in a dumbed down mobile port for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Rage was undoubtely the feeling of many unwary buyers before uninstalling this crap and removing it from their libraries to oblivion.



Well, you can bet all these "games" had forums filled with enthusiasm and wait before their releases. Every deviation from the canon was justified (real time? more realistic! active abilities? more RPG!) and the dubious and critics silenced, lambasted or marked as trolls.

After all this, you may understand why me and some other middle aged guys are slightly cautious towards this upcoming game. You see, sometimes little things like history and records can make you cynical and a bit negative, when you've already experienced all of it, the premature praises, the unjustified optimism and the prebuys of collector editions, and finally, the cries of rage and disappontment on release day.

You must forgive us, but I hope this little reminder of past horrors will make you at least understand, and even tolerate us.

Thank you for trying.

[uncle nick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOEjC0kjjj0
Jagged Alliance 3: "...People asking if i'm back? And I really hadn't an answer (2021). But now (2023) yeah, I"M THINKING I"M BACK So, you can hand over your money or you can go play another game...".

[YourMomWouldBeProud]

You forgot Jagged Alliance Online, my most favorite game of the series. Unfortunatelly not liked by many.

[Demo]

Originally posted by meisy:

You forgot Jagged Alliance Online, my most favorite game of the series. Unfortunatelly not liked by many.

Jagged Alliance Online did one thing right, they had tons of weapons, over 40 or over 100. That's one thing JA3 must get right, I hope they have more than just 20-25 weapons. I understand that modelling is hard (actually modelling weapons isn't that difficult), but it would be very desirable to have more than just 25 weapons, there needs to be like 100 or 200.

Of course, we always have DLC for that. Adding lots of weapons, should be priority number one.

[uncle nick]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632833292

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643639625

The only one thing i enjoyed with Flashback, is that i could mod/mock-up some nice guns like the Atchisson Assault AA-12 Shotgun, and then let my mercs have some real awesomw fun with them.

[Demo]

Originally posted by uncle nick:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632833292

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643639625

The only one thing i enjoyed with Flashback, is that i could mod/mock-up some nice guns like the Atchisson Assault AA-12 Shotgun, and then let my mercs have some real awesomw fun with them.

Bro can you stop f***ing posting flashack mod screenshots in JA3 forums.
Holy sh**

[grimdarkness]

Originally posted by uncle nick:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632833292

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643639625

The only one thing i enjoyed with Flashback, is that i could mod/mock-up some nice guns like the Atchisson Assault AA-12 Shotgun, and then let my mercs have some real awesomw fun with them.

The mere fact you found something positive about this turd is quite astonishing.

Just looking at these pictures, I have serious flashbacks of Flashback. Must be PTSD.

[Demo]

Flashback was unfairly criticized, and this is funny because I also saw somebody else talk about how Flashback's greatest crime and problem was not having a big enough budget and team to make a strategy the size of JA2, or comparable.

Flashback, as far as I understand, didn't mess with the formula, and had reasonably good mechanics.
Was it kind of bad, sure. Was it short, sure. But aside from that, I didn't complain, so to speak.

[[Dolt]TheWickedGerman]

And if there are 390875690458756903847609348576093485760943875690356780 (yes, I rage slammed on my Keyboard like an Idiot, why are you asking?) horrible JA titles before. This dev has nothing to do with them, so why should I care?

That´s like punching your co-worker because your brother ♥♥♥♥♥♥ your wife.

[Reef]

Originally posted by DoltTheWickedGerman:

And if there are 390875690458756903847609348576093485760943875690356780 (yes, I rage slammed on my Keyboard like an Idiot, why are you asking?) horrible JA titles before. This dev has nothing to do with them, so why should I care?

That´s like punching your co-worker because your brother ♥♥♥♥♥♥ your wife.

but your co-worker kept teasing you that your bro fcked your wife lol.

[uncle nick]

ok, i go back to playing my mods by myself.

[uncle nick]

Yes, after the game is launched, ...i will spam more JA3 screenshots. Just 7 weeks to go.

[ArizonaCharlie]

Im Worried This Game Will Be Trash (but i want to enjoy JA for the first time)

[zloba]

This must be heresy here but I liked BIA, well, liked enough to compete it and feel satisfied. Their brand of RTWP was interesting and allowed for creative tactics. The flow of the battles felt good and IMHO rewarded careful planning and kitting out. For once equipping an SMG made sense because it allowed you to turn and aim quicker and made CQB in game quite realistic. Actually the worst thing about the game were the atrocious 3D portraits, now they did look like they belonged squirely in the mid 90s.

[grimdarkness]

Originally posted by zloba:

This must be heresy here but I liked BIA, well, liked enough to compete it and feel satisfied.

No heresy. If you look around here, you'll find a guy who played the hell out of BIA and Flashback, so you'r not the only one who found diamonds in the dirt.

I guess next time somebody will come praising the RPG virtues of Rage.

But let be honest, it's all subjective. You liked Bugged Alliance? Good for you, because it means you didn't waste your money (and your liver) like many others did, and you had fun with it.

It doesn't mean you're a heretic, or dumb. RPG Disco Elysium has been universally lauded, and I don't like it. Too weird for me, and it doesn't have combat, which is big no-no in my book. Am I aware i'm part of a minority? Sure. Does it make me change my opinion? Absolutely not. And I don't feel like an idiot because my tastes don't mirror the 90% out there.