Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Preview
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What I saw looked very promising, albeit still a little rough around the edges. There wasn't much differentiation in the character models in terms of skin color and facial features, but was informed the developers were still working on it. While there wasn't much to distinguish the demonstration merc squad from a facial perspective, there was a marked variety in their weapon loadouts. Assault rifles looked distinctly different from sniper rifles, which looked distinctly different from the combat knife one of the mercs employed. The level of detail in weapons and gear for the characters is quite impressive, even down to the points on a tactical vest where a character would clip something in place.
As the demo continued, I admired how the developers had gone beyond the tile-based maps of JA2 and were working with more organic structures and landscapes. While JA2 didn't look bad, and still doesn't, there were some inherent limitations which occasionally led to some problematic issues relating to line-of-sight and target identification. The new maps will certainly feel less cheesy than their predecessors when it comes to hidden enemies. More than that, however, the maps bring Arulco to life all over again. The demo had the team set down on a beach at the western end of the capitol city of Meduna. It looked like a nice inviting tropical beach, save for the landmines and chainlink fence topped with razor wire. Doubtlessly, that beach will get torn up a lot in the final game when your mercs are making their move to overthrow Deidriana.
