Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge

by Tri Synergy

Product Features

• Ally with up to 4 different factions for unique bonuses
• Crush your enemies with over 150 upgradeable weapons
• Hire over 30 mercenaries with various specialties
• Destroy everything in your path with realistic physics
• Gain territory with brains, brawn or cold, hard cash

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001EHCCGI
• Item Weight: 8.3 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: September 22, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,364 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #47 in Video Games > PC Games > Action > Fighting

Product Description

Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge is a turn-based

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mercenary Stupidity - $0 an hour, January 11, 2009

By 

waterbowl - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge (DVD-ROM)

Jagged Alliance 2 in 3D, that's really all the game is, except it's missing the mercs with their personalities and has been watered down. There's the laptop, A.I.M. has become I.M.A., there's the psychology test when you create your custom merc, the same shop is there for you to buy new equipment, you can hire guys to defend captured areas, and more, everything that makes it look like a Jagged Alliance game, just with different names. The only shinning hope in the game is the combat, everything else is either missing or just bad. Bottom line is this, if you like the turn-based combat, pick this game up. If you're hoping this is a new Jagged Alliance 2, save your money.

That's the whole gist of the game, if you want to know more, read on!

I miss turn-based games. I love turn-based games. No one makes them anymore, so when one comes out, it's always something to be happy about. Even if it's a game tries to copy Jagged Alliance 2 and put it in a 3D world, it's still a blessing.

Combat is not bad at all. You can blow down walls, use a variety of weapons, add attachments to weapons, target specific body parts, raise up in level and raise your skills, have dialogue choices in conversations, it's all there. It does feel very similar to Jagged Alliance 2. I did find the camera to be a bit of a problem, as trying to find good cover for my mercs can sometimes be challenging in this 3D environment. It takes some getting use to when you first start. The camera with the patch applied makes it easier to use.

Sound quality is pretty bad. The guns sound just average, nothing with a big impact. The mercs don't really have any personality in their voices. I had to put my mercs on mute and disable the voices because their chatter was more annoying than anything else. Also when the mercs talk, you don't see their lips move and facial expressions. While that's a small thing, it's something I liked in Jagged Alliance 2. Sometimes the mercs subtitles don't match what they are saying as well. Music isn't that bad, its nice the first time you hear it but after that, I had to put it on mute too after a while.

The translation is really off. There are tons of bad translation errors in this game. It didn't distract me from the game play at all but it sure is hard to get into the game's story with so many errors.

You also have many choices in the game, which is really cool. You can choose from different factions to fight for and who you want to kill. Wipe everyone on the map if you want, or try to be all their friends. Having choices like this isn't really anything new today in RPGs, but it was a rare thing when Jagged Alliance 2 came out. Now today, it's rare for a turn-based game to have such a feature. You can have a total of 18 mercs in your command out of a possible 40 or so to choose from. While combat is not perfect, I find it satisfying as a turn-based fan. Get to sidestep, crawl, sneak, even weapons recoil come into play. A new game where I have to think while in combat is a nice change from all the new click fast to win games.

As I said, the mercs and their personalities are missing. You have a whole set of new mercs you can hire. While some of these mercs aren't that bad, they all lack any real personality. Some of the mercs try to be funny but it's... just... so... wrong. I almost stopped playing after a few stupid things my main character said but then I found the mute button. I didn't think my custom merc could be that stupid! If you liked Jagged Alliance for the mercs personalities, you won't find that here and will be extremely disappointed.

The game does have wide-screen support. Menus do not stretch and everything looks good.

Overall, it's a pretty good turn-based tactical game. Even though it's not perfect, I am enjoying it on it's combat level. There are some minor bugs in the game but at least they are minor. They are releasing patches for this one, so be sure to grab the patches for it.


What you get with the game:

Single game DVD with a paper sleeve holder
Black and white manual - only like 20 pages
Game box - not a hard case

About copy protection. There is none! There is no Internet activation. Once you install the game, you don't need the DVD anymore to play. You can safely store away your DVD.

One last thing for people who like to mod their games. This game is very easy to mod in every area, even a monkey could do it. I changed the portraits, backgrounds, the music and the armor all in a matter of minutes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars outdated. even if you loved jagged alliance games like i did, February 1, 2010

By 

Matt Corenzwit - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge (DVD-ROM)

the graphics & controls just didn't feel right to me. it's like if i wanna play a Jagged Alliance game, i can just play JA2. that still works great.