Jagged Alliance is getting all the love of late: last year saw a modern release of the 90s turn-based shooter, then Full Control began a Kickstarter campaign for a prequel to the original games, and now Cliffhanger Productions reveal they’re hard at work on a free-to-play version for Steam.
In the press release just handed to me I’m told that the game will feature no content locked behind paygates, instead there will be a purchasable single player campaign and, for those with less time on their hands, items can be bought outright rather than earned.
Other details from the press release are here recreated in shamelessly unedited detail:
PvP Features:
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Build your company from 40+ mercenaries with unique attributes.
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500+ weapons and items, and crafting to improve your weapons and armor.
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PvP leaderboards, skill-based matchmaking, and tournaments.
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Compete in Warzone events for rare weapons and items.
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Form alliances with players and compete as a team.
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Transfer of PvP rewards into the single-player campaign.
Campaign Pack Features:
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80+ PvE missions with over 100 hours of gameplay.
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50+ unique enemies and bosses.
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Complete challenges to earn Prestige.
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Take on Prestige contracts for even greater challenges and ultra-rare items.
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Use your PvE company in PvP matches.
Jagged Alliance is a franchise that used to represent a certain seal of quality. Unfortunately, none of the teams working on spin-offs, prequels, and reboots are the original developer. As such it’s difficult to say whether Jagged Alliance Online is something we should start getting excited for. If you’re recognising the developer’s name, Cliffhanger Productions are the developer behind the currently unreleased Shadowrun Online. Until that’s playable we can’t say if their involvement with the project is a good thing of a bad thing.
The big plus of it being free-to-play is that we don’t need to put down money to find out. We just need to wait for its as yet unannounced release date.