Ascendancy to the big leagues happened fast for Full Control – or as fast as anything ever happens in the sphere of turn-based tactics. Before they’d even finished work on Space Hulk, they were handed the keys to Jagged Alliance and lunged confidently into the Kickstarter spotlight – besting their $350,000 goal with hours to spare.
But Space Hulk got lost in translation, taking its loyal players from board to bored. Despite that, as Flashback expends valuable action points hopping onto Steam Early Access, it remains our best chance for a calculated, cruel and classical revival of Jagged Alliance.
The early access version of Flashback features a small Caribbean island, dotted with occasional quests and lines of dialogue pertaining to an militaristic president named ‘The Prince’. As a single player campaign, it’s currently a bit sparse.
Interestingly enough, though, the game already includes a workable editor to allow buyers to build their own campaigns – and distribute them through the Steam Workshop.
“The launch of Jagged Alliance: Flashback on Steam Early Access is a significant milestone in our vision to bring back the beloved turn-based franchise to its roots,” said Full Control’s controller, Thomas Lund. “We’re excited to launch the game on Steam Early Access and can’t wait to see what the Jagged Alliance community will build with the Editor.”
After a couple of years of distracting real-time shenanigans, Flashback’s cover-based combat and “line of sight calculations” – how’s that for a back-of-the-box bullet point – are alluring enough. But do you think it has a hope of matching up to Sir-Tech’s unforgiving ‘90s X-Com relation?
Jagged Alliance: Flashback will be finished and released more broadly in late 2014.