I was pleasantly surprised by the new Jagged Alliance 3 release last week. It really flew under the radar, but I’m glad I snagged it because it’s been really great so far.
I did run out of cash on the first island, so I treated that as a trial run. Every situation feels fresh, and the RPG elements seem more fleshed out than the new XCOM games.
I’m really liking how open-ended it seems; it reminds me a little bit of the original 2 Fallout games. I’m hoping for a PVP dlc or mod in the future, because (perhaps an unpopular opinion) Deadly Games was my favorite entry in the series; I played against my brothers all the time when I was a kid.
There is a story that ties the campaign together, mostly acted out through dialogue trees and (so far optional) mission objectives.
The missions are tied together through control of the overworld map. For example, the first fortified position that you are supposed to take has some side quests tied to it that make it’s capture easier. One of these is to stop the fort from buying explosives from a vendor in the area. You can try to talk the vendor out of selling to the Legion or you can kill her; both accomplish the task.
There are morale systems for friendly settlements, too. If you’re working to improve the local conditions, then your mine output is better.
It’s pretty close to the mission/downtime mix from something like XCOM.
Thanks, that sounds like a good mix between story and gameplay.