Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Yosharian]

If you don't like the game why are you posting in here? You are a strange person

 

[Cyberarmy]

If you don't like the game why are you posting in here? You are a strange person

Because

 

[raeven]

Just play through the free demo and then you can keep bitching about it without being ignorant

Why would I waste hours playing shit JA3 when I can enjoy my first playthrough of 1.13 for JA2? I already wasted hours watching people play JA3 to learn if it is really shit.

Because then you can hang out in this thread and give meaningful, educated criticisms of this game that it is apparently so important for you to deride.

Alternatively, you could fuck off out of this thread entirely.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'd forgotten how stupid the night vision goggles look

 

[ArchAngel]

If you don't like the game why are you posting in here? You are a strange person

I am comparing new shit with awesome (modded) original.
Same like we did all the time in NuXcom topics, or nuFallout topics, Dragon Age topics and others.. including games that are not direct sequels like Phoenix Point..

I am sorry that you feel bad about JA3 sucking and feel worse when I state it.

Only reason people get mad when you state something sucks is if they do know it sucks, they just do not want to admit it.
It is same like fat people that get mad when you tell them they are fat. And there seems to be a lot of "mad fat" people in this topic LOL

 

[Yosharian]

You are kind of dumb, projecting all your sad insecurities onto other people like that.

 

[ArchAngel]

You are kind of dumb, projecting all your sad insecurities onto other people like that.

I have no clue what you are talking about. You are one buthurt about someone saying something bad about the bad game you play.

 

[ArchAngel]

I do not know if this was improved in 1.13 or part of original JA2 but I am amazed how well pathfinding works when not in TB mode.. JA2 was released 1999, BG1 was 1998.. how did IE engine manage to fuck up pathfinding so bad..

 

[Zombra]

Burned out on BG3 and there's still a week to go until this, the next BIG RELEASE on my list. Come on Mimimi you pricks just release it now. Wtf am I meant to do for the next week.

Need another good bird's-eye party-based tactical game eh?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Maybe it's time to call infinitron for a split

 

[PanteraNera]

Just play through the free demo and then you can keep bitching about it without being ignorant

Why would I waste hours playing shit JA3 when I can enjoy my first playthrough of 1.13 for JA2? I already wasted hours watching people play JA3 to learn if it is really shit.

I've wasted seconds seeking out JA3 stuff in the JA3 thread due to you posting your JA2 stuff.
We are simply not the same.

If you don't like the game why are you posting in here? You are a strange person

Just play through the free demo and then you can keep bitching about it without being ignorant

Why would I waste hours playing shit JA3 when I can enjoy my first playthrough of 1.13 for JA2? I already wasted hours watching people play JA3 to learn if it is really shit.

Because then you can hang out in this thread and give meaningful, educated criticisms of this game that it is apparently so important for you to deride.

Alternatively, you could fuck off out of this thread entirely.

Maybe it's time to call infinitron for a split

Infinitron

 

[Strange Fellow]

all you morans have to do is ignore him

 

[Yosharian]

Way ahead of you

 

[ArchAngel]

So many butthurt people. Everywhere. You are all funny.

 

[3 others]

Tried the demo and played through the tutorial island. I'm very impressed with what they've achieved with this cursed IP. Here are some thoughts while I wait for the full game installer to download from GOG.

+ I'm having FUN.
+ The tone of the game is on point. I've never thought of JA2 being particularly action-movie-like, as the publisher has for some reason felt the need to convey while promoting this game, but the lightheartedness and a certain kind of light irreverence fits well here.
+ The setting is well realized. It feels enough like an African shithole instead of some Caribbean amalgam like the previous ones.
+ There's a nice rhythm to the combat. The enemy repositioning turn is a nice halfway compromise solution to the inherent problem of first-turn advantage in turn-based tactics games. Overwatch adds dynamism to the my-turn-your-turn flow, and is IMO a better mechanic than the old all-or-nothing interrupt.
- ...but the enemies don't seem to play with the same rules though. I don't think even Mouse can move 15 squares and still have enough APs for two pistol shots.
~ The enemy AI (as noted in approx. 1256298 other places too) is way too careless and should at least react to 15 shredded corpses in an overwatch line of fire. On the other hand I think this fits the African bush war theme somewhat, and wouldn't look that out of place in some of the African modern-era warfare books I've read (Hannes Wessels' Rhodesian SAS memoir A Handful of Hard Men is the gold standard in this genre btw. - highly recommended for anyone intrigued by the JA3 setting)
- Burst fire seems pointless. I get the sense that it never deals any more damage than single shots even if all three bullets hit the mark.

+ The "chunkiness" of strategic layer Operations is a plus. No incentive to micromanage mercs to repair, rest, or training tasks every hour when there's downtime. In JA3, the equipment repair task for example requires a minimum time investment of 6 hours so you're better off fixing a larger amount of stuff once you get down to it.
- On the other hand, some granularity is unnecessarily lost. A merc no longer has a continuous stamina bar, instead he is either normal or tired (or well-rested), with appropriate tokens. And I don't think it's tracked anywhere in the UI how near a merc is to getting tired.
- In general, there is an unnecessary vagueness to many game mechanics. I know everything can't be Into The Breach, but why can't I do knife takedowns if I have a gun in the other hand? I still haven't quite come to grips with what I can expect the enemies to be capable of during their turns. How far can that guy move to that direction and still shoot during his turn, is my cover enough? What can and can't I do when I'm being pinned in overwatch?
+ The sidequests seem fun, and numerous. And let's not act like that flaming twink tattoo shop quest in JA2 was some high watermark of vidya gayme writing.

+ The merc designs and portraits are generally very good and cheeky, with a lot of character. Thor's flip-flops, Mouse's cheesy keychain, and all that... and their personalities shine through in the banter (which there is a lot) and other interactions.
- ...but the faces look like they've been pieced together with some internal Tropico NPC character creation tool slider wankery. Most of the black mercs don't look bantuid or nilotic at all, and half of the roster has a retarded grin on their face.
+ The NPC portraits look nice, and are voiced well enough.

- Some of the merc stats don't make sense. Wolf exudes competence and charisma so why is his leadership so low? Why does the half-retarded Ukie girl have a high leadership value? Some of this is carryover from JA2 but still... they felt no need to adhere so strictly to JA2 concepts elsewhere so why here?
~ The new mercs are kind of hit-and-miss, although the concepts are at least somewhat entertaining. Ultrazoomer Kashmiri tech wiz? Childish potatozone sharpshooter girl? Lazy Samoyed shaman/ranger dual class? Sure, why not. At least the girls are as annoying as Ira, though.
- I feel like there's some missed potential being left on the table with the merc selection... in addition to being the most entertaining merc in the whole series, Malice would be a nice addition for loads of French interactions. Cliff is a native Anglo South African, and Stephen was a diamond mine operator...

 

[Ryzer]

The deadeye perk is so op, to the point that I wonder if they playtested it.
It's a net 20% increase in crit chance+ bipod + grip and you have a rifleman constantly doing crit damages on target.
The bipod as well is so important compared to the rest, it's almost game-breaking.

 

[Yosharian]

...but the enemies don't seem to play with the same rules though. I don't think even Mouse can move 15 squares and still have enough APs for two pistol shots.

That's one of the ways they add difficulty. In Commando, enemies get +30% Free Movement. In Mission Impossible, they get +60%. I started on First Blood to learn the ropes, just now restarted on MI difficulty and.. wow. It's a huge step up haha.

I personally think you aren't emphasising how good the voice acting, sound & music are. The atmosphere of this game is fucking tremendous. IMO the music alone is insanely good, way better than it has any right to be with a game of this quality.

 

[Beowulf]

Burst fir is all right. It is useful when:
- your enemy is Almost Dead, or Severly Wounded and you are shooting with a merc that doesn't have Marksmanship high enough to risk a single shot, so it's better to just spam bullets and count on at least one hit.
- you install one of those mods increasing number of bullets shot while using burst or auto fire - this time combine it with a merc with high Marksmanship and suddenly AR's perform like you would them to perform. You can kill someone with one burst to the head, 2 burst to the torso, or combine single shot and burst fire for the same effect. Of course it is still RNG susceptible, especially for those high level enemies in the late game.

 

[3 others]

...but the enemies don't seem to play with the same rules though. I don't think even Mouse can move 15 squares and still have enough APs for two pistol shots.

That's one of the ways they add difficulty. In Commando, enemies get +30% Free Movement. In Mission Impossible, they get +60%. I started on First Blood to learn the ropes, just now restarted on MI difficulty and.. wow. It's a huge step up haha.

I personally think you aren't emphasising how good the voice acting, sound & music are. The atmosphere of this game is fucking tremendous. IMO the music alone is insanely good, way better than it has any right to be with a game of this quality.

How to tell you're playing JA3 on higher difficulty without telling you're playing JA3 on higher difficulty

Yeah, audiovisual art direction seems to be surprisingly high quality here. It would be excusable to have Deus-ex-in-Paris -grade voice acting but every single character this far sounds at least generally believable for the setting.

Can't comment on the soundtrack. With a noisy laptop it's... unobtrusive but I'll plug some headphones in the next time.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Burst fir is all right.

I used an M14 with burst on my main IMP merc most of the game, and it was very good. Quick scope means two full aimed bursts per round, four bullets to the head usually enough to kill 1-2 guys. He rarely missed, good at hitting partially covered targets, and even better after damage/accuracy bonuses from AGI perks. Even my snipers couldn't do better than 1 per round unless they were perfectly lined up for two kills with one bullet. Would have been even better with a G36 but I never found one, or maybe an AR15 with a crit build. FN FAL does better damage but I didn't like the high maintenance level, and an AK-74 couldn't mount a quick scope for some dumb reason.

I've said this before but the problem with burst fire is it's too accurate, so the damage nerf is necessary. I'm all for making the damage even across firing modes but only if burst fire accuracy is capped much lower and can't be aimed at limbs/heads. Being able to laser-focus four bullets into someone's head at range is absurd.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yup, snippers op but they can only take out 1, maaaybe 2 guys. A properly kitted out merc with anything else can reliably delete multiple dudes per turn. The trouble is it's a lot riskier.

I've said this before but the problem with burst fire is it's too accurate, so the damage nerf is necessary. I'm all for making the damage even across firing modes but only if burst fire accuracy is capped much lower and can't be aimed at limbs/heads. Being able to laser-focus four bullets into someone's head at range is absurd.

This. The burst fire will be sensible only when a mod comes along that reduces accuracy and that can be combined with the restored burst damage one. To be honest, the reduced damage didn't bother me too much precisely because accuracy is artificially high, so it effectively works out about the same as it should have been where it'll still outperform single shots for mercs with high marksmanship.

 

[Beowulf]

Burst fir is all right.

I used an M14 with burst on my main IMP merc most of the game, and it was very good. Quick scope means two full aimed bursts per round, four bullets to the head usually enough to kill 1-2 guys. He rarely missed, good at hitting partially covered targets, and even better after damage/accuracy bonuses from AGI perks. Even my snipers couldn't do better than 1 per round unless they were perfectly lined up for two kills with one bullet. Would have been even better with a G36 but I never found one, or maybe an AR15 with a crit build. FN FAL does better damage but I didn't like the high maintenance level, and an AK-74 couldn't mount a quick scope for some dumb reason.

I've said this before but the problem with burst fire is it's too accurate, so the damage nerf is necessary. I'm all for making the damage even across firing modes but only if burst fire accuracy is capped much lower and can't be aimed at limbs/heads. Being able to laser-focus four bullets into someone's head at range is absurd.

Snipers should be able to score 2 headshots per turn. You can put a quickscope on the sniper rifle to assure 3 aim levels on the first shot, but truth be told late game snipers with their high MRK can score headshots without aiming, so you just need to pick those with high AGI to have at least 14 AP's per turn. Or let them drink in a bar from time to time.

 

[gogis]

Burst fir is all right.

I used an M14 with burst on my main IMP merc most of the game, and it was very good. Quick scope means two full aimed bursts per round, four bullets to the head usually enough to kill 1-2 guys. He rarely missed, good at hitting partially covered targets, and even better after damage/accuracy bonuses from AGI perks. Even my snipers couldn't do better than 1 per round unless they were perfectly lined up for two kills with one bullet. Would have been even better with a G36 but I never found one, or maybe an AR15 with a crit build. FN FAL does better damage but I didn't like the high maintenance level, and an AK-74 couldn't mount a quick scope for some dumb reason.

I've said this before but the problem with burst fire is it's too accurate, so the damage nerf is necessary. I'm all for making the damage even across firing modes but only if burst fire accuracy is capped much lower and can't be aimed at limbs/heads. Being able to laser-focus four bullets into someone's head at range is absurd.

Snipers should be able to score 2 headshots per turn. You can put a quickscope on the sniper rifle to assure 3 aim levels on the first shot, but truth be told late game snipers with their high MRK can score headshots without aiming, so you just need to pick those with high AGI to have at least 14 AP's per turn. Or let them drink in a bar from time to time.

I've actually tried it and didn't liked it. Had 96mrk sniper. 14AP is super easy in endgame with all morale buffs you have access to. You not going to have 100% HS without SOME aiming. And weather effects will ruin you.

The problem is that sniper job is to provide one-shot-kill all the time, no backsies. That's REQUIRES thermal scope. Or, just splash resources and carry 2 PSGs kitted with thermal/quick in two slots.

 

[Yosharian]

Completed Ernie Island on Mission Impossible. That was pretty fun.

 

[TheSoul]

I finished the game. , the main foundation's good but could easily be better with a few mods and updates. A pleasant surprise for me.

Main complaints

• It's undeniably a lot more "gamey" with combat and crafting. Random drops fucked me over and I only found 6 sticks of dynamite the entire game so I could barely make any explosives.
• Inventory Management is fucking awful.
• AI
• Roster is a bit too small, and the quips aren't as memorable as 2. The Imp barely says anything during the campaign and I would've preferred a few more locals to recruit for flavor.
• A bit too much backtracking if you don't know what you're doing and having a merc without high leadership makes it take way too long.
• There's a lot of pop culture references, and the ones post 2000s are especially annoying.

Main positives

• Combat flows a lot better once you get decent gear and a few perks.
• The game maintains 2's scale. We still have large squads that can be used across the map and personality (with varying quality).
• Weapon modding was well done.
• The game has some really funny moments. Some highlights include Grizzly calling the commie Chimichanga and Luigi.
• I liked a lot of the larger encounters. Biff's in particular feels like a proper challenge.

If anyone's curious, this channel is uploading a lot of the banter between mercs.

Spoiler