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👍 Pros: 👍
The game makes the player really feel it theme, the game is tough, and the jungle environment only makes it worse.
Enjoyable survival mechanics
Some of the best turn-based stealth mechanics in a game
Fairer RNG than mot turn-based games

Pros or Cons:
Brutal difficulty

👎 Cons: 👎
Voice acting quality is all over the place
Needs quality of life fixes

“Jagged Alliance: Rage!” is a turn-based strategy that excellently captures the atmosphere of two mercenaries trying to survive on a hostile island. One of the ways this is shown through game mechanics is through the use of water-based survival mechanics, weapon durability, and infections. In a third world nation, especially one with a power mad villain, it is hard to get water. The player’s mercenaries need water, or else they lose some of their strength. There are multiple stages of dehydration, so it is important to find water whenever possible. Weapon durability has weapons jamming more often if they are at a low level of maintenance. It is nice that weapons don’t break, but a weapon jam can cost the player an essential shot. Finally, if a mercenary is wounded, then they can get an infection. Infections lower the maximum hitpoints of a mercenary. Pills to cure these infections are few and far between. They go away with time though.


🎮 Gameplay: 🎮

Difficulty
The first aspect of this game that I must bring up before going further into the mechanics is the difficulty. This game is brutal even on normal difficulty. I had to restart missions multiple times because of one wrong move that cost me my entire squad. A player must think extensively before a move, as the player only has two mercenaries against an often huge mass of enemies. It is for this reason that stealth is such an important part of the game.

Stealth
Every enemy in the game has a defined vision cone that a player can see by mousing over said enemy. This is going to be a necessary technique to master as stealth can help to greatly reduce the amount of enemies on the map; the map can usually even be cleared entirely in stealth. The vision cone is split into two sections a small semicircle that is their active sight. Active sight will trigger an alarm right away. Past this cone is a more passive sight. If the player runs through this range, then they will be noticed by the guard. This is why the prone stance is quite helpful. The prone stance allows a mercenary to slowly crawl past enemies. If the mercenary gets noticed, they are in a terrible position. Being prone means that the mercenary can’t shoot over obstacles and is limited in their abilities. Another way to avoid being spotted is through the sneak style of walking. There are two walk options, sneak and run. Running allows a mercenary to get farther with less action points. I often found myself barely using this mode as it would almost immediately set off a guard. Sneaking allows the mercenary to stay out of sight and they don’t make any sound while moving. Bodies must also be moved out of sight as guards will wonder why their fellow soldier is lying face down dead in the dirt.

Combat
Besides moving around, the player also has to fight! While in stealth, if the player uses their hands or a silenced weapon, then they can kill from afar without alerting the entire camp. Melee stealth kills are difficult as they require the player to have their mercenary run into melee range. To lure out other guards, the player can whistle. This brings the guard to the whistling mercanaries position. To avoid this potentially dangerous scenario, a piece of equipment can be thrown to make sound at a specific location. There are also three levels of awareness and they are search, gunfire, and alarm. Search has a single guard looking for the source of a sound they heard. Gunfire has all guards run at a location. Alarm means that guards know where the player’s mercenaries are and they are all going to run and shoot at them. Combat plays quite similarly to the newer “Xcom” games with action points, except that specific body parts can be targeted. The three body parts are head, torso, and legs. A headshot does lots of damage and can disorient a soldier if they aren’t killed immediately from the shot. Legs also impair a soldier as a shot there can cause the guard or mercenary to fall down, wasting their action points. If any combat actions are taken by the mercenaries, then they build up Rage

Rage
Rage allows the mercenaries under the players control to use special abilities and become tougher. If rage is accumulated and isn’t used, it provides a passive buff that increases action points and eventually damage resistance. There are three levels of Rage, and it can help to turn the tide of battle


World Map, Survival, and Maintenance
The world map is where the player can choose the mission they want to play. The map is divided into separate nodes. On nodes without a mission, the player can rest their mercenaries to deal with wounds, repair equipment, and gain health back. The enemy won’t sit idly waiting for the player though, and each phase that the story is broken into, they will send squads of troops to hunt the mercenaries down. If both the squad and the mercenaries are on the same node, an ambush occurs and the mercenaries are surrounded on two sides. Mercenaries must also drink water that they find throughtout the game world. Without water, mercenaries will start to lose action points and maximu healthpoints. Clean water isn’t always available, so sometimes dirty water will have to do. Dirty water can cause infections which, once again, remove maximum hitpoints. I liked all the survival and maintenance mechanics. They provided a sense of barely surviving in such a harsh environment.

⚙ Overall:⚙
Overall, this is an enjoyable turn-based strategy that even provides two player cooperative play.

📚 Story: 📚
The story starts off a bit generic, but it gets better as more characters are introduced. On the way to pick up a stranded client, the two mercenaries the player picks at the beginning of the game are kidnapped by the villain who is busy with his monologue. The game also has dialogue option in the game, but from what I can tell, the story does not change much based upon the decisions that a player makes.

🎧 Sound:🎧
The sound is fine, but the voice acting quality is not consistent throughout the game’s characters. The main mercenaries have excellent voice actors that put great emotion into their performances. Side characters and one time voice lines are of much lower quality and it is quite obvious that good voice actors were not hired for the part. Combat sounds are great and guns are great to shoot. More voice line variation for the player’s mercenaries when they are selected would have become welcome, as there are currently only two. The music is quite enjoyable and there is enough variety that it kept me interested. I usually turn the music off, but the rock soundtrack kept me interested.

📺 Graphics: 📺
The graphics of this title will definitely be a controversial topic for fans and newcomers alike. The graphical style is low-poly with more detailed faces. As someone who focuses more on gameplay and story, these graphics don’t bother me in the slightest. Fans of “Xcom 2” who are used to high quality graphics in a turn-based strategy game will not enjoy how this game will look. One thing that I do wish was available would be graphical settings. They are very sparse and don’t allow players a ton of control.


This product was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free.

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7871885/]Follow our curator page:[b] OCG-Curations[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] 👍 [u]Pros:[/u] 👍 The game makes the player really feel it theme, the game is tough, and the jungle environment only makes it worse. Enjoyable survival mechanics Some of the best turn-based stealth mechanics in a game Fairer RNG than mot turn-based games [u]Pros or Cons:[/u] Brutal difficulty 👎 [u]Cons:[/u] 👎 Voice acting quality is all over the place Needs quality of life fixes [h1]Overview[/h1] “Jagged Alliance: Rage!” is a turn-based strategy that excellently captures the atmosphere of two mercenaries trying to survive on a hostile island. One of the ways this is shown through game mechanics is through the use of water-based survival mechanics, weapon durability, and infections. In a third world nation, especially one with a power mad villain, it is hard to get water. The player’s mercenaries need water, or else they lose some of their strength. There are multiple stages of dehydration, so it is important to find water whenever possible. Weapon durability has weapons jamming more often if they are at a low level of maintenance. It is nice that weapons don’t break, but a weapon jam can cost the player an essential shot. Finally, if a mercenary is wounded, then they can get an infection. Infections lower the maximum hitpoints of a mercenary. Pills to cure these infections are few and far between. They go away with time though. [h1]Game Breakdown[/h1] 🎮 [u]Gameplay:[/u] 🎮 Difficulty The first aspect of this game that I must bring up before going further into the mechanics is the difficulty. This game is brutal even on normal difficulty. I had to restart missions multiple times because of one wrong move that cost me my entire squad. A player must think extensively before a move, as the player only has two mercenaries against an often huge mass of enemies. It is for this reason that stealth is such an important part of the game. Stealth Every enemy in the game has a defined vision cone that a player can see by mousing over said enemy. This is going to be a necessary technique to master as stealth can help to greatly reduce the amount of enemies on the map; the map can usually even be cleared entirely in stealth. The vision cone is split into two sections a small semicircle that is their active sight. Active sight will trigger an alarm right away. Past this cone is a more passive sight. If the player runs through this range, then they will be noticed by the guard. This is why the prone stance is quite helpful. The prone stance allows a mercenary to slowly crawl past enemies. If the mercenary gets noticed, they are in a terrible position. Being prone means that the mercenary can’t shoot over obstacles and is limited in their abilities. Another way to avoid being spotted is through the sneak style of walking. There are two walk options, sneak and run. Running allows a mercenary to get farther with less action points. I often found myself barely using this mode as it would almost immediately set off a guard. Sneaking allows the mercenary to stay out of sight and they don’t make any sound while moving. Bodies must also be moved out of sight as guards will wonder why their fellow soldier is lying face down dead in the dirt. Combat Besides moving around, the player also has to fight! While in stealth, if the player uses their hands or a silenced weapon, then they can kill from afar without alerting the entire camp. Melee stealth kills are difficult as they require the player to have their mercenary run into melee range. To lure out other guards, the player can whistle. This brings the guard to the whistling mercanaries position. To avoid this potentially dangerous scenario, a piece of equipment can be thrown to make sound at a specific location. There are also three levels of awareness and they are search, gunfire, and alarm. Search has a single guard looking for the source of a sound they heard. Gunfire has all guards run at a location. Alarm means that guards know where the player’s mercenaries are and they are all going to run and shoot at them. Combat plays quite similarly to the newer “Xcom” games with action points, except that specific body parts can be targeted. The three body parts are head, torso, and legs. A headshot does lots of damage and can disorient a soldier if they aren’t killed immediately from the shot. Legs also impair a soldier as a shot there can cause the guard or mercenary to fall down, wasting their action points. If any combat actions are taken by the mercenaries, then they build up Rage Rage Rage allows the mercenaries under the players control to use special abilities and become tougher. If rage is accumulated and isn’t used, it provides a passive buff that increases action points and eventually damage resistance. There are three levels of Rage, and it can help to turn the tide of battle World Map, Survival, and Maintenance The world map is where the player can choose the mission they want to play. The map is divided into separate nodes. On nodes without a mission, the player can rest their mercenaries to deal with wounds, repair equipment, and gain health back. The enemy won’t sit idly waiting for the player though, and each phase that the story is broken into, they will send squads of troops to hunt the mercenaries down. If both the squad and the mercenaries are on the same node, an ambush occurs and the mercenaries are surrounded on two sides. Mercenaries must also drink water that they find throughtout the game world. Without water, mercenaries will start to lose action points and maximu healthpoints. Clean water isn’t always available, so sometimes dirty water will have to do. Dirty water can cause infections which, once again, remove maximum hitpoints. I liked all the survival and maintenance mechanics. They provided a sense of barely surviving in such a harsh environment. ⚙ [b]Overall:[/b]⚙ Overall, this is an enjoyable turn-based strategy that even provides two player cooperative play. 📚 [u]Story:[/u] 📚 The story starts off a bit generic, but it gets better as more characters are introduced. On the way to pick up a stranded client, the two mercenaries the player picks at the beginning of the game are kidnapped by the villain who is busy with his monologue. The game also has dialogue option in the game, but from what I can tell, the story does not change much based upon the decisions that a player makes. 🎧 [u]Sound:[/u]🎧 The sound is fine, but the voice acting quality is not consistent throughout the game’s characters. The main mercenaries have excellent voice actors that put great emotion into their performances. Side characters and one time voice lines are of much lower quality and it is quite obvious that good voice actors were not hired for the part. Combat sounds are great and guns are great to shoot. More voice line variation for the player’s mercenaries when they are selected would have become welcome, as there are currently only two. The music is quite enjoyable and there is enough variety that it kept me interested. I usually turn the music off, but the rock soundtrack kept me interested. 📺 [u]Graphics:[/u] 📺 The graphics of this title will definitely be a controversial topic for fans and newcomers alike. The graphical style is low-poly with more detailed faces. As someone who focuses more on gameplay and story, these graphics don’t bother me in the slightest. Fans of “Xcom 2” who are used to high quality graphics in a turn-based strategy game will not enjoy how this game will look. One thing that I do wish was available would be graphical settings. They are very sparse and don’t allow players a ton of control. This product was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free.