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Description
The land of Metavira needs your help! Contract additional mercenaries as you explore, capture, and hold new territories so the natives can harvest the valuable trees from which a revolutionary medicine can be extracted. The more trees you hold, the more money you make. The more money you have, the more you can do, such as hire native guards, hire more mercs, in order to take the offense and clear the sector of enemies. You will also need to retrieve certain objects from behind enemy lines, rescue captured personnel, capture equipment, and more. Hire a good mechanic in order to get your equipment and guns repaired, and to "enhance" them with various add-ons. Travel through lush jungles, treacherous rivers (with venomous snakes!), and more as you seek to free Metavira. Eventually, you'll meet up with the bad guys' leader in his compound for the final showdown...Jagged Alliance is a turn-based tactical combat game with a mixture of strategy, reminiscent of X-Com games. On the "strategic view", you get to see the various sectors of Metavira. You start with just one sector, with a few trees for your income. You need to hold more sectors in order to increase the number of trees you hold, which will increase your income. You can hire or fire mercs.
Each merc can move, shoot or perform any of the other actions as long as they still have action points. Each of the mercenaries have their own personality. Some work well with others, others don't. You'll need shooters (both long and short guns), explosive experts (to set or disarm bombs/traps), mechanics/gunsmiths (to fix and modify your equipment), and doctors/nurses (to heal wounded mercs). Each merc has a different price, so you'll need to balance what you can afford vs. what you need. You will have to manage the equipment as well.
If you move into an enemy-held sector, the game moves to combat mode, where you get an overhead slightly-isometric turn-based tactical combat that's based on "action points", which limits the number of actions each merc can perform. You can do this, or that, but not both. The action continues until the sector is no longer contested (either one side got wiped out, or retreated to another sector, or both).
After the sector is clear, you can call in native guards to "hold" the sector (you need to pay for them as well) as well as hire more natives to process the "new" trees. You will also need to get the mercs to the homebase if any one was wounded, and let the doctor/nurse treat them. Idle mercs at the base can train to improve their ratings. Some scripted events and some random events will keep you busy such as poisoned water, a virus that attacks the trees, the kidnapped daughter of a chief, and others.
So to summarize, you need to manage the mercs (and their salary), their equipment (who gets what), arrange for backup (mercs at base) and medical treatment (doctor/nurse) while taking into account their personalities and strengths. You also need to manage the strategic aspects as you need to "conquer" each sector and then send enough guards to hold the sector after you retrieve the mercs. You manage the money as you need to balance the expenditures (mercs, equipment, guards, natives, etc.) against the income (the trees). You also get to manage the tactical aspects of the battle as you decide each move and shot. A full complement of mercenary supplies (from revolvers to M-16s, plus bombs, grenades, mines, flak jackets, helmets, and more) are available.
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Promo Images
Alternate Titles
- "铁血联盟" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
- "Jagged Alliance: Kampf um Metavira" -- German title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The most unjustly underappreciated game of all time. | DOS | Afterburner (496) |
I didn't like it as much as most people... | DOS | John Lucas (13) |
A Verbally Gifted X-COM | DOS | Narf! (138) |
Holiday Island? Not at all. | DOS | Isdaron (726) |
Playing JA1 in 2001? | DOS | Daniel Martin (17) |
Critic Reviews
MikroBitti | DOS | Jun, 1995 | 94 out of 100 | 94 |
Computer Gaming World (CGW) | DOS | Jul, 1995 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
90 |
PC Games (Germany) | DOS | Jun, 1995 | 90 out of 100 | 90 |
PC Gamer | DOS | Jul, 1995 | 89 out of 100 | 89 |
Power Play | DOS | Jun, 1995 | 88 out of 100 | 88 |
Pelit | DOS | May, 1995 | 87 out of 100 | 87 |
PC Joker | DOS | Jun, 1995 | 80 out of 100 | 80 |
PC Player (Germany) | DOS | May, 1995 | 76 out of 100 | 76 |
Cheat Code Central | Nintendo DS | 2009 | 3.3 out of 5 | 66 |
IGN | Nintendo DS | Jul 08, 2009 | 4.6 out of 10 | 46 |
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Trivia
German version
For the German version, the Association of International Mercenaries A.I.M. was renamed to I.V.S., short for "Internationale Vereinigung der Söldner". The game's sequels, however, stuck with the A.I.M. notation.Speech pack
According to a sale offer placed in the manual, Sir-tech planned to release a speech pack as a floppy version add-on back in 1994, although the official website doesn't contain such a product.Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #114 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #52 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
- Power Play
- Issue 02/1996 – Best Game in 1995
DOS Credits (120 people)
84 developers, 36 thanks
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