Jagged Alliance Online Preview
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(We really tried to keep the heart of the game. really give the old school gamers what they want, but while adding more modern elements,) noted Gamigo's Anthony Guzzardo, as I watched him take on a small village chock full of toughs with a 3-man team. Those modern touches included some excellent graphics, complete with dynamic shadows, muzzle flashes, gunsmoke, and model detail right down to the wrinkles on bad guy flannel. Some of the intangibles are already in place, too: the uptempo, fully orchestrated music was a nice blend of modern adventure game and MacGyver episode.
I mentioned RPG flavor, and the original Jagged Alliance ranked with Command & Conquer as pioneers of character voiceovers to help add depth to the mercs. Every merc came with bios, specialties, and costs, and part of the game's magical replayability was how each battle played differently with a different squad. Anthony explained that at launch, the game would have 60 possible mercs descending on over 100 playable scenarios and levels in PvE and Co-Op gameplay (with PvP to follow after launch).
Another thing I loved about Jagged Alliance is the constant tension between the decision to reposition or to shoot. Players have a number of action points which they can use to move, to take time lining up a shot, or to change to or from standing, crouching, or prone (with various visibility and accuracy penalties and bonuses for each), switch to burst fire, toss a grenade, use a bandage, and so on. JAO preserves that tension, though Anthony noted that one of those old-timey decisions the choice between headshot (quick kill but low percentage), chestshot (better accuracy), and legshot (chance to cripple) isn't currently in the game.
