Its not turn-based like the original series, but the new iteration of Jagged Alliance has a charm to it. With the new update, the developers gave the gaming community most of what they asked for and the updates just keep on coming.

The action is pretty fast although the strategic elements need some more improvements, the tactical aspects are well designed and extremely functional. If you are looking for a squad based strategy game with a lot of depth, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action offers a lot of gameplay for its price.

If you come at this game like a clone of JA2 with shiny new graphics then you'll be disappointed ,if you look at it as an evolution of JA2 then it is a good game.

The plan and go system gives you way more flexibility than you ever had with JA2 ,if you charge in guns blazing you will lose your mercs ,but if you take the time to plan your attacks you get the rewards - it's a thing of beauty to see a coordinated assault - snipers take out the guards as the guys you've stealthed to the windows pop up and drop grenades into room full of bad guys :D

I really like this game. There's a real shortage of good tactical / strategic military games for PC players and this fills that gap perfectly.

I've enjoyed the Silent Storm, Men of War and X-Com games and this is is a similar vein, although not turn-based the option to stop the action and plan our your squad's moves is done really well. There are loads of weapons which can all be customized with attachments (scopes, silencers etc.). You can adopt stealth tactics or just go in all guns blazing (although if you're like me you try the stealthy approach, which will soon turn into chaos).

The game has got a few flaws, such as the annoyance of securing an area only to have the enemy move in as soon as your back is turned. However I still think it deserves 5 stars for being brave enough to be offer a more thoughtful and strategic game in an over-hyped Call of Duty dominated current games market. It's also fun to play with good combat.

Unfortunately, this game will most likely be a disappointment for diehard Jagged Alliance fans. The game has been streamlined, most likely to appeal to a wider audience. This process has stripped most of the details that made the original games special. Instead of a game continuing the legacy of previous Jagged Alliance titles, it plays like a run-of-the-mill RTS game. Sure, there's autopause and plotting of movement - but it doesn't work very well since the "pause when orders are completed" doesn't seem to work at all, the camera makes giving orders a pain, and constant micromanagement is needed since your mercenaries aren't at all intelligent about what to do if you don't direct them.

But JA wasn't just combat, was it? No, but the RPG/adventure elements are sorely lacking in this game. Granted, I don't KNOW this since I haven't completed the game - but I haven't seen any mystery, suspense or puzzles after playing the first three maps - and there's little hope for there being any later in the game either.

This is quite obviously a conscious design choice, since the game has the exact same story as JA2, and the cast is the same as well. This obviously eliminates a lot of suspense. To make matters worse, there is no fog of war - as soon as you enter a map you get to see exactly where all the enemies are. Last of all, dialogs are entirely straightforward, and there doesn't seem to be any intrigue whatsoever - just find the NPC with a blue exclamation mark, talk to them and then click the first dialog button until the dialog finishes in order to receive the next quest or whatever. Straightforward, streamlined, dull and boring.

Where to begin. I'm not a "jagged alliance fanboy". I have played the originals, I found them quite fun, but I'm not "qualified" to compare them. So bear that in mind!

Now: It is quite good fun, slow and methodical works well, and overall the "pause and go" system works fine once you get used to it. Is it better than turn based ? that's a personal choice.

As a game in its own right, its fun, and worth a look. Its a solid tactical shooter, with some nice touches.

Few points for people who are considering it :

It has -no- Fog Of War. You can see everyone on the map at all times. This is a bit odd, and possibly going to be patched/optional later on.

You cannot make your own Merc.

It activates on Steam.

I am quite disapointed with this remake. Its like the developers decided to take out as much of the options and mechanics as possible which made the original easy and fun to play. The missing sector inventory is just one of the things i am missing desperately. It is not even possible to trade from one merc to the other from the merc inventory if they are close enough. Now you have to select a special trade windoe which hides most of the merc informations and there equiped items. So to give a weapon to another merc you have to find the merc who has the weapon, select him, hit the trade button, select the second merc, transfer the weapon to his inventory, close the trade screen, select the second merc and then equip the weapon, Compared to the original this is so inconveniant. And these are just some of the things which annoy me greately, not even speaking of the butchered gameplay.

My advice: don´t waste your money on this, just play the original. It may be old, but it is way better then this attempt of a money grap.