Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Preview
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There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the decision to move away from Jagged Alliance's traditional turn-based gameplay in favor of a more real-time game flow. The idea behind the new '˜Plan and Go' system is to keep the action going, allowing the player to pause and plan actions whenever warranted. Like many fans, I was skeptical about losing turns but found the Plan and Go system not entirely without merit and spent quite some time planning out my team's actions. Especially the ability to link separate actions by individual mercs turned out to be a great perk. One obvious application is having multiple mercenaries sneak up behind an enemy soldier and open fire completely in sync, giving the target no chance whatsoever to respond. Additionally, Plan and Go mode adds something of a '˜heat detection' overlay that enables you to see even hidden enemy soldiers. Plan and Go mode is triggered by a quick slap to the space bar but the game settings menu also shows options to trigger on events, such as spotting an enemy or the death of a team member.
Another significant change is found on the campaign map. Sector boundaries are more organic and don't have fictional walls. The map is littered with towns, road blocks, missile sites and other places of interest and removing every soldier from a location gives you control over the surrounding area as well. Soon, a patchwork of red and green circles indicates where you rule and where there is still work to be done. Taking away the sector squares changes travel as well. You can now move between sectors, skirting along or even between borders without having to engage in combat.
