Jagged Alliance Flashback brings back the true spirit of this legendary series: Turn-based tactics meets crazy mercenary personalities and intense battles. Manage your squad of unique mercenaries, secure your income and take back the island - sector by sector, turn by turn.
User reviews: Mixed (287 reviews)
Release Date: Oct 21, 2014


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Recent updates View all (12)

December 19

Patch 1.1.2 Now Live on Steam (Win,Mac, Linux)

We've just added a new patch to Steam, which adds Russian Localization and is supported by a new Public Editor. New Kickstarter skins are also in, waiting from keys from steam now.


  • some localization fixes
  • fixed AI bugs related to stealth
  • fixed bug with some of the AI units not wearing enough armor
  • fixed the mods menu to work on OSX and Linux
  • fixed NRE on NPC lookup that caused game crashes
  • fixed bugs in the Spigadoro quest
  • fixed the ammo duplication exploit
  • fixed the mercenary becoming wounded after level up

  • Public editor updated
  • DLC clothes pack released
  • Russian localization added

7 comments Read more

December 5

Version 1.1.0 is now on Steam with new content and new features

We've just released a new version on Steam that comes with a lot of new goodies.

First off we've expanded the island of San Hermanos and add 3 new sectors (2 visble and one underground). With the new sectors we have also added a new quest that has a a "wild" twist and added lighthouses that negate deployment costs in the current and adjecent sector if you control it.

Attachments have also been added to this version, so now you can add up to 10 different attachment and just to name a few: Sniper Scope, Nightvision Scope, Reflector Sight, Supressor and Bipod.

We've also updated the modding menu in the game, so it's now hooked up to Steam Workshop properly and you can easily manage your mods.

Lastly, We localized the game to Polish and we've added a Soviet Weapon pack that includes the following weapons:

  • PPSH-41
  • Skorpion vz.61
  • Blyskawica
  • RPK
  • Makarov
  • AS VAL
  • VSS silent sniper rifle
  • Degtyarev DP 28



  • New free "DLC": New sectors and questline
  • Lighthouses added to San Hermanos (controlling them removes deploy cost in adjacent sectors)
  • Added Polish L10N
  • Weapon attachments
  • Modding menu
  • Soviet weapon pack
  • Added stealth icon


  • Inventory fixes
  • Stealth fixes
  • Weapon stats display fixes, so now it uses proper calculations of the modifiers
  • Reaper achievement value fixed
  • Some of the AI calculations fixed
  • Fixed a possibility to duplicate items

13 comments Read more

Digital Deluxe Edition

The digital deluxe edition includes:

  • Jagged Alliance: Flashback
  • Jagged Alliance 1: Gold Edition
  • Space Hulk

About This Game





System Requirements

Mac OS X
SteamOS + Linux
    • OS: Windows 7
    • Processor: Intel i3 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel 4400 / AMD HD 6670
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
    • OS: Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1
    • Processor: Intel i5 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeFirce 600 series or AMD equivalent
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
    • OS: Mac OS X 10.6.0 or later
    • Processor: Intel Core i5 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
    • OS: Mac OS X 10.9.0 or later
    • Processor: Intel i7 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 700 series
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
    • OS: Ubuntu 13.04
    • Processor: Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel 4400 / AMD HD 6670
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
    • OS: Ubuntu 13.04
    • Processor: Intel i5 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 600 series or AMD equivalent
    • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
Helpful customer reviews
40 of 65 people (62%) found this review helpful
21.9 hrs on record
Posted: December 4
I don't know what the other reviewers are complaining about, this is a fabulous game. Do I wish it had a bit more content, absolutely. But what is there is at least as good as JA:2. Yes, JA:2 was a bigger game. But in an era where you can't get games like JA built anymore, because everybody's wasting their time on FPS, this is a diamond. I'm happy I backed it on the Kickstarter, and happy with the end result.

I think that the gist of the complaints are that this isn't as fully featured as JA:2. For example, you can't walk backward, and you don't need to pick any locks because all the doors are already open. I agree, it would be nice to have those things, but they are nice to haves not must haves.

The meat of the old game is there. You pick Mercs, take control of and hold territory, and are always on the hunt for better equipment, and equipment attachments. There are side missions, vendors, and new Mercs you meet along the way.

There are definitely some things missing, but there's also new stuff that I think is pretty cool. First and foremost, this is a new game, built with modern computers in mind and it doesn't crash all the time like JA:2 used to. In some ways it has more strategy. For example, I love the way the game forces you to defend your territories while you're training militia, because you can't have a whole squad of trainers. It's also got a new map and a new mission as well as new Mercs and equipment. The UI is way cleaner and easier to use. The concept of a squad inventory, while less realistic is far more easy to use than having to go hunt for all the equipment drops you left all over the damn map. There's a whole perks system that implements all kinds of useful special abilities like "never accidentally shoots friendly mercs" (granted there were special abilities in JA2).

The bottom line is that it's not JA:2 and as a result the die hards are predictably unhappy. That said, this is the first of all the games that have come out bearing the name "Jagged Alliance" since JA:2 that is actually worthy of it's name. Give it a try, you'll like it.
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41 of 69 people (59%) found this review helpful
243.8 hrs on record
Posted: December 6
This game is right up my alley. It is a combat turn based Chess style game, with resource management, adult humour & irony, sexual inuendo, and a killer soundtrack. I work behind an office desk in Procurement, Logistics and resource management. Like in real life, somethings never go according to plan. You have to think fast and deal with the problems when they occur. In this game, you will get that. You will plan out a scenario, and the game willl throw you a curve ball. Good thing about playing this game, is that you control 'Time'. In real life, ...time never stops for anyone. Sure, the game is broken at the moment like a Beta game; but what game isn't broken? As a game player, I just deal with it!

I play Battlefield 4, and that game is seriously broken, broken hit boxes, invisible wall obstacles, aimbot players, kill trading, etc. The core of the Battlefield 4 game is broken.

At least with JA Flashback, the core of the game is not broken. You hire mercenaries, kill the bad guys, manage your resources & expenditure, befriend the local island population, and exploit their economy to make lots of MONEY. Some gun stats and game aspects are broken, Some JA game features are missing, ....learn to deal with it!

For gamers who want to play this game as a serious competitive shooter game, this game is not for you.

This game is for gamers who want an updated JA1 game, to play for the laughs and frustration of seeing how things can go horribly wrong (even if that includes the game itself not working properly). Learn how to deal with it!

Or wait for JA3. Your choice.

Update 21/12/2014:
It would appear that the latest patch V1.1.2 introduced a new bug into the combat play. This bug is allowing mercs and enemy soldiers to shoot thru solid wall cover.

During combat play, when you reload from a saved game, all female mercs will be lying down in the prone shooting position, and will have the special ability to shoot thru the wall cover section below any window and some solid objects.

Example: http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/540761427828323614/0BC9DFF80B9253E21E4C6E18AC6B7083286A026B/

In the example, we can clearly see Flechette lying down in the prone shooting position inside the building, able to target (shoot) an enemy soldier who is outside the building, thru the solid wall section below the window opening.

I think this is now a serious major flaw in the combat play. It gives female mercs special ability and some combat advantage.

For anyone wanting a quick fix for this issue, just make all the female mercs stand up from the prone shooting position, and the bug will be gone until you next reload a saved game.
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30 of 51 people (59%) found this review helpful
1.7 hrs on record
Posted: November 30
JA: Flashback is a game that was barely funded during its kickstarter, and it shows. It feels like it's still in beta, with several features that should be implemented but aren't, like doors that actually open and close, only ground-level height, and an 'energy' bar which has no real purpose. There are also numerous misspellings which should have been caught months before release. Overall it's a barebones, unpolished experience that you are being charged a premium price for. The devs claim to be updating with additional features, but I'd be surprised if they can turn what was released into anything resembling the previous games.

For prior JA fans, this is not the JA reboot you're looking for. Getting into the features that were cut would take too much time, suffice it to say the vast majority of them are gone. For new players, it's a functional but lackluster turn-based isometric strategy shooter. It does what it's supposed to, nothing more, but there are other games out there in the same genre and style that do everything better, and for a lower price. Give XCOM: Enemy Unknown a try instead.

p.s. My play time should be about 4 hours higher than what's displayed, it's been reset a couple of times. I don't know if that's another game issue or just Steam being weird.
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10 of 16 people (63%) found this review helpful
4.4 hrs on record
Posted: December 20
JA:F runs well on Linux, modding support included. That's nice.

The game support is great: I contacted Full Control for 2 issues and in both cases I had answers and fixes in less than a day. I love Full Control for this.

JA:F provides a nice JA engine, supports modding and have very responsive developers, so I expect a great future for this game. That's the kind of games I always support!
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12 of 21 people (57%) found this review helpful
37.5 hrs on record
Posted: December 14
It's not exactly pretty, but for a kickstarter game I can't put it down.... and with the modding support and the devs willingness to engage the community I have great expectations for the future.

Pros: Jagged Alliance! Machine guns! Third-world 1980s conflict! Also a shorter learning curve than JA2.

Cons: The learning curve is shorter because it lacks many features compared to JA2.
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12 of 22 people (55%) found this review helpful
16.0 hrs on record
Posted: December 11
It's rough, but's it's the most faithful representation of the franchise since JA2, and it has a lot of potential. With the devs committed to expanding the game through patches, and a strong modding community behind, there could be some amazing stuff coming up.
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18 of 34 people (53%) found this review helpful
49.7 hrs on record
Posted: December 12
Being a long time TBS fan as well as a fan of the series I could not pass this purchase up. What a huge mistake. This game is beyond bad. No need to get into further details as you can get plenty in other reviews. I never write reviews but this game is so bad I felt compelled to warn other consumers.
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17 of 34 people (50%) found this review helpful
7.9 hrs on record
Posted: December 10
If you like and enjoy squad based strategy games , then you could do worse than this little beauty ! You won't finish this in an half hour , or even a few days , it's built to last , and more importantly , to MOD ! So please don't fall for the negative reviews posted , it's much better than them . I've only just started and can see many hours of play here . Me likee !
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276 of 356 people (78%) found this review helpful
0.6 hrs on record
Posted: October 21
Just gave up playing it. It looks like JA:Online. Not even close to JA2, or it's successor 1.13 mod. Do you even know what makes JA2 a good game? Like micromanagement, Inventory management, fully detailed weapon customisation, more simulation aspects. And what is that? Just an JA:Online (cover-marks ("shields") even haven't been changed) with great advetrisment. Tactics? Just saw three opponents gathered behind same log and started shootng at my guy, while he was at the opposite side of a log, right behind it... Stealth? Forget about it, since cover-logic haven't even been implemented, as i told you already. When i saw all this, i recognised, that noone will ever make something even close to JA2, since noone can into community forums and community-requested features. "Why should i spend my prescious time on reading this BearPit forum, which have brought JA2WF, JA2UB, JA2 1.13, AIMNAS and all that stuff to this world, if i can grab my kickstarter money and make something like JA:O?" This game became my biggest disappointment of this year. Just give this game to community, make extended API for modders and extend modding support. You have failed fans of the JA, just let them fix your monster atleast, since you aren't able to do that by yourself.
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163 of 200 people (82%) found this review helpful
6.3 hrs on record
Posted: October 23
Jagged Alliance: LOST CONTROL - A game made by FULL CONTROL.

Short version: This game is a big disappointment.

I had a bad feeling about the game when I watched the videos of the Alpha version, then I thought, well the game was still pretty far from finish maybe things would turn out to be better (and it came out yesterday).

Despite the plastic 3D-models and UI designed by some "Hello world!" level programmer, the tactical part of the game is not there at all. It plays like a cheap clone of XCOM with that half-shield/full-shield mark when you take cover but note that you can't do any smart shooting behind an object. The object just block both line of fire and line of sight of yours and enemies'. The whole combat part is to play the "move from a cover to another cover" thing. Enemy duck down, you crawl down, stand up, move a bit, duck down, blah blah blah. I cleared the 1st town with only my IMP merc and not got shot once (default difficulty). I would be grinded to meat pieces if it's a similar situation in JA2.

One funny thing is that enemies tends to rush to your face and not doing anything, I assume they don't plan their AP very well? Remember how you get beaten up by the melee/sprayer enemies in JA2? It's not likely to happen in this game unless you are very very reckless and do nothing when enemies come to you. After you hit them, they sometimes stand in the open ground and do not move. Sometimes they run back and forth a bit. Sometimes it says "Panic" and the wounded enemy run to some random directions. So they behaved like Kamikaze-commandos then suddenly became cowards? Do they have a political commissar kicking their ♥♥♥ but has a limited area of effects?

Sometimes I just rush with all team members when there are few enemies left (remember how cautious you were when getting the last rats in every battle in JA2?), because getting hit is not that lethal at all, since you heal even faster than Wolverine in X-Men. Btw: Sometimes you can have >100% chance of hit. How is that possible? During battles, sometimes when you change the direction your merc is facing, you quit the combat mode, and it says ENEMY CONTACT LOST. It's really confusing.

Enemy will attack the land you occupied very quickly. Once they sent the troops and headed to my land, so I send my team to chase after them. They took down the millitias I trained, I felt so bad about it and I wanted to avenge them. There were at least 10 enemies in their troops so I was preparing for a bad fight. Then, after they took the last pieces of my land, they vanished from the map!!! I felt like a dog chasing a vanishing sausage.

There were some people on the Steam community posting posts to tell how they like the combat and how thrilling it is. I did give the game a second try due to those positive comments, I tried to enjoy the combat, but I failed. I also saw some posts regarding the postive comments of the combat:

[Quoted from Steam Community]

Originally posted by Keyboard Cowboy:
..It sounds like you guys are playing a completely different game than I am... o.O
Ohh well... :o

Originally posted by SoulsandBlood:
..Seems like we are playing a different version.My AI is as dumb as dirt.

[/quoted from steam community]

Maybe I got a wrong link of the download of the game, too?

Scripts & story:
You start with receiving some mysterious radio distress from someone and you must kill some evil Prince who is rich and bad. The whole intro feels pale and vague. The scripts of the game were written by some guys who thinks he/she is humorous but there were no humor at all. It doesn't stop mentionning Lynx banging Buzz, or Ivan drinking vodka while loading the game, trying desperately to hook up with old fans of JA series. Not a nice trying I'd say. Even in the very beginning of the game, in the IMP text, I saw they spelled "rathar than" as "rather then". Ye, English is not my 1st language either.


Short version: It's cramped.

You can't interact with most part of the world. I didn't figure out how to jump over a short wall or fence, or jump on the roofs of houses. You can't shoot dead bodies or break a window or open/close a door. Full Control promised many things in the begninning. You can check them here:

Did they have the things they promised in the final game? Ok let's check with "Destructible Environments" first since it's the update1:

I tried throwing grenades to various things, including wooden barrels, wooden fences, walls, sofas, tires, rocks, sandbags, cows and pigs.... and nothing got destroyed. The only thing I destroyed with grenades is a huge sun umbrella, it looks like the one in the main title screen.

Other things:
There are lots of animals roaming around on the island. I mean LOTS of, cow, sheeps, pigs, chickens, birds..it feels like an island version of Mongolia. Why do people fight when they are so rich? Don't the evil Prince have feasts with his pawns? Are they all vegans? I tried to kill the cows in the game, but found out that you can't. Even grenade can't kill a pig or a chicken. Not to mention that I want to boost up my strength by punching them! However, you can use the bodies of cows or pigs as cover! Try to lean your body on a pig in real life, please. And don't do it in front of your neighbours.

You can stand in fires and not get burnt.

You can't loot the civillian houses, because in 1988 people were as poor as ♥♥♥♥, there are nothing in their houses. Only in one or two houses out of 20 you can find a case containing some loots. Most NPCs are filled with random taglines, like "Hola" "Can I touch you?". Why the heck you want to touch me?? Also there are side missions like "Please sleep with my wife so I can work". Hmmm, the island dwellers are really friendly aren't they? One thing is really annoying, you must face the directions of the NPCs to see them. No, standing around them is not enough. The town people duck down when you fight your enemies and refuse to talk to you. They don't really need to, because they are as invincible as the animals, but you can't use their bodies as covers.

I hired Buzz and she has less than 10 taglines, and she sounded like a buffalo with a cold. Then I hired Lynx, thought maybe he would spice things up a bit. But nothing happens. Where is the banging part they mentioned before?? They don't even talk to each other! Later I learned that merc Vicky Waters from JA&JA2 is a farmer's daughter. Is that Fallout-looking wrecked car shell in the northern farm supposed to be a 1964 Chevy? It doesn't look like one. Later I saw the Danish girl Monica "Buns" Sondergaard, yes the annoying kindergarten teacher (but I like her) being some local gangster's body guard. I thought she was 12 years old in 1988?

Btw: when you hire someone by calling them, they appear in front of you right after. Are they paratroopers already? Or are they waiting on some satelite and got beamed down to you?

When you talk to recruit-able NPCs, you can ask telephone numbers so you can recruit them later. Then the NPCs vanish in front of you!!! What the heck is that? I want to master that skill too, so I can FLASH to the BACK of the evil Princes and a**l them with the tampon-looking bandage!

On the Steam community people say things like, oh they are a small studio and they lacked money. You know, they missed the cheapeast things to add in this game, the highest value for money things in this game --- All the interesting details that exist in JA2, and they somehow promised to create them in this game.

I donated 25USD because it lit up my hope to see a better new JA game. I'm going back to JA2 now.
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123 of 157 people (78%) found this review helpful
6.1 hrs on record
Posted: October 11
Early Access Review
This update is dated October 16, 2014.. scroll down for the previous more complete review.

So far, since the last update; I feel the gameplay is heading in a better direction. Let's make this clear that I'm speaking of gameplay alone. There is still much I would liek to see before I could recommend this game.

I'm happy they implemented the easier aiming/AP-to-shoot cursor. Much better, gunfights feels much more fluid with that. As much as such a "little" update can add to a more positive outlook. I seriously wish I didn't have to fight the slow camera and the tree-tops. I seriously hope being able to hide tree tops is on their list of to-do's. It's very distracting and annoying, hinders the smoothness and speed at which battles take place.

They've added more characters to the game world. So you can meet some dudes to hire them.. it's positive, but feels like something I don't feel completely positive about actually; they just feel like more random hirelings. I mean Ira, Dimitry, Carlos, Shank, etc... in JA2 they we're characters that eventhough they may not have all stayed on your main assault squad, only brought a positive aspect to the game in terms of feeling realistic and natural characters that had a REASON to be there. Not only was ira a capable medic to start off with, she played a decent role in explaining the different locations to you. It gave you background insight on the towns/region, making you feel like you're somewhere "real". So far, the hirelings are, well, just that; hirelings.

In short, gunplay is getting ok-er.

First game ever reviewed on Steam. And I will update the review as the game release completely and gets patched or updated.

This is dated: October 12, 2014

This is my honest opinion; I'm not trying to start a debate or flame the devs or hurt anyones feelings with what I say. Hopefully it can be viewed as upbuilding criticism. Please view it as such!

I SERIOUSLY hope Flashback gets MUCH better for it's release. I feel sorry for saying what I will say; I've looked over the "shoulder" of the devs since I heard about this project last year; been following all their released information, screenshots, dev diaries, forum posts, etc.. been impatient really. Played JA2 1.13 I don't know how many times to feed my addiction.

I heared so much talk about them listenning to the community; overall got this really good feeling of this being the next Jagged Alliance title (a JA3 that was worthy of the JA franchise).

So today I gave in to my impatience, with pure disregard for the opinion of many disatisfied Early access customers, and complete disregard to my wallet.

I've just spent a few hours playing the game; I get no feeling of satisfaction or of accomplishment like I did even in the first maps Jagged Alliance 2 offers. I feel like this is the worst 45$ I have ever spent in my life, biggest video game let down really.. I should have waited for full release and waited for more in depth gameplay reviews.

There is SO much the devs would need to tweak or balance in so short a time, how much of what has made JA2 good is being left out? There is absolutely no funny banter, not funny lines. The voiceovers... the graphics (and it's def not the most important thing), the sounds, the clunky interface, font size, tactical map, provided information for items, item pictures, method of hiring mercs, new mercs, missions, game world, game mechanics... I could go on. It all feels like I am playing a game made for an Android Tablet ported to PC. Maps all feel barren and empty, incredibla lack of detail, clutter. You can't even open or closse doors yet.

I don't really understand how this game will be completely polished, balanced and fixed for it's full release; not at the speed the updates have been going from the start anyways. It feels like it needs another year of work. And I'm not trying to say the devs don't care or trying to blast them, I realize they barely made the kickstarter, I realize it must not be as easy as most of us make it out to be. ...my issues are that JA2 (and let's stick to the original game and not the modded 1.13) feels lightyears ahead in terms of quality, technical detail and polish compared to this game.

The way this game feels, in terms of feel, is like going back to Jagged Alliance 1 (as if it was a beta for Jagged Alliance 1). I know the "story" is BEFORE Jagged Alliance 1; but Flashback feels somewhat as clunky and "slow"... and PRIMITIVE as Jagged Alliance 1. The worst is, the 3D engine makes it even WORST! Always having to rotate the camera 'cause the palm trees are over your mercs, and you can't see sh!+. It gets really annoying.

It's ironic really, because in a game like Jagged Alliance 1 and 2, due to the way games were sprite-based back then, you can see why a grid-based system was used. It worked perfectly for those games. You take a 3D system, and it seems to make it feel cheaper/crappier than the way JA2's grid-based system worked. This feels like it's trying to be XCOM, but fails at it. XCOM EU, although basic compared to it's predecessors, was relatively fluid and smooth. It works well for a "board-game" styled system, works well for what XCOM EU tried to accomplish.

Back to JA:F, I have no idea why they absolutely needed to spend efforts, time and money to work on a 3D system the way it is; seriously, I would much rather a good quality Isometric view just like JA2, with 3D characters; no fighting the camera and trees to see what you're supposed to see 'easily'. Why is it so hard to make a simple and intuitive map? I'd have settled with the Fallout: Tactics graphics any day over this one.

Sorry if this is long and turning into a short "review", but sometimes I can be blasted away in awe at some old games (Stronghold HD 6$ which I JUST played for the first time this week, amazing!) and sometimes - rarely - I have made horrible choices; JA Flashback 45$ =\ (the amount surely plays a role in how I feel about it too).

I seriously hope the game could live up to the.. "expectations".. I've been having for it (hoping for anyways).

What's strange is that the fans scream out for a simple remake of the original JA2 with features that you find in 1.13; not blockbuster graphics, or a new turn-based system, no! nothing of the sort; SIMPLY: the same things that made JA2 such an incredible game! The special humor, banters, the quantity and accuracy of the gear that mods have brought, the way the story is layed out, the characters you meet. They all felt alive, the maps, as static as they were, gave a sense of reason, and why they were the way they were.

...instead, devs are always trying to find new ways of changing the game, changing the way it works, changing the way stats work, trying to add perks... why?? Why do I need a system like Skyrim with perks? the leveling in JA2 was perfectly transparent; yet it gave your mercs noticeable improvement as you used him. The interrupt system in JA2 was spot on; incredible system. Now enemies simply stay out in front of you and activate their interrupt option.. even if you shoot them 3-4 times and get hits, well you triggered their interrupt. The dude falls at the end of his turn due to bleeding, yet he was able to aim at you by interrupting you.. it's feels poorly implemented; makes me wonder WHY did the stat system have to be changed at all?

Why change what isn't broken? ...ESPECIALLY when we only want the same old system, wouldn't it have saved on time, money, to focus on the content, proper voice-actingand what makes a game world feel "rich" in content?

I guess it's back to JA2 for the billionth time. At least the Mercs NEVER get boring, I can still chuckle at their comments; I haven't had one single chuckle or hint of something funny in Flashback. I'm sorry I feel so disappointed, I guess that's what happens when your epxectations build up (and when you see a 45$ price tag).
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112 of 141 people (79%) found this review helpful
6.7 hrs on record
Posted: November 14
Short opinion:

This is a piece of crap that brings shame to Jagged Alliance series. If you're a fan of any type of tactical turn-based games - avoid it!

Long one:

Yeah, i'm a long time fan of Jagged Alliance games like many others around the world. I don't regret that i was a backer during KS campaign, it was my choice and i was fully conscious about what i was doing. I only regret the final result of this project.

I really don't want to write a book about gameplay, so i will focus on advantages and disadavtages of this game. Here we go:


- Graphics, you can love it or hate it, but i think that graphical style that was taken was a good choice.

- Fighting, well, sometimes fight is annoying, but sometimes it can be fun.

- Music, not bad.

- The game is clearly described, you can easily sense what is it all about


- Graphics, style is ok, but there are too little details and 3D characters have jest few polygons.

- Sound, i don't mind soundtrack, but sometimes sounds in the inventory are too loud and overdriven.

- Just one save slot!

- Very small quantity of stuff thrown around, so there is no sense in wandering on a map, there are only few containers in which you can find some loot.

- Can't open/close the doors!

- There are no second floors, and you can't go on the roofs!

- There is no possibility to modify weapons!

- Bugged and totally unrealistic weapons. There is no such thing like UZI in .45 caliber, there is no such thing like Thompson with 7, 10, or 15-round clip. Sometimes I had action points, proper ammo and just can't reload the weapon.

- Can't see bloody thing during the rain/storm.

- Pathfinding is totally broken. You can click on a single and simple part of the ground and some of your merc will choose the most complicated and longest possible way to get there (and some of them will probably stay just where they are).

- User interface is not well designed, you can easily click on a random place and accidentally move your merc.

- AI, there are no sophisticated tactics that enemies can use, They just get closer and closer, one by one. Forget about flanking and such things.

- Useless militia, you train them, they lose and so on... There is no possibility to enter combat when your militia squad is fighting.

- Strange mechanics, aim shot is useless and sometimes you can embark into weird "never-ending" shootout. It looks like this: the distance between your merc and the enemy is about two squares, you have rather high hit probability and you just can't shot him no matter what. Another thing: 103, 105% hit probability? What is it? Are devs kidding us?

- No noticeable mercs relationships, They're just callous puppets.

- You can use cow as a cover, the cow is...armoured...

- There is no, absolutely no optimalization!

- What the hell "interrupt" button is doing in UI? Interrupt action should act automatically when given character have enough action points!

- Illegible table of guns characteristic.

- There is a shop of course (in text, not graphical form!). You can buy, but you can't sell your own stuff!

- Camera angles are uncomfortable

...Jesus, i have enough, there are probably quite a few things that i could mention, but this list annoyed me enough. As You see, this game has been practically deprived of the most needed functions. I don't really see sense in existing of JA-ish game which is so neutered. Just look at Silent Storm and even 7.62, or Back in Action. These games have some flaws, but this is nothing comparing to Flashback. This game is so bad that i don't see any potential in it and any chance to upgrage the main problems of it.

People from Full Control said something like this: "KS campaign succeeded with minimum amount of money needed to create Flashback project, and that's why fans and backers will receive minimum amount of content". Pure and simple, 368k $ was practically the lowest amount of money necessary to achieve lowest stretch goals and start developing of this game. This is the point where Full Control made a huge mistake, they should never start developing this game with such a low budget. Some would say: "but minimum budget could not be lower due to low interest in community. If the amount was higher , this game would never have been created!". Exactly! Jagged Alliance: Flashback should not exist! This is so weak and embarrassing piece of crap that only brings shame to Jagged Alliance brand.

Maybe if FC had more manpower, capabilities, experience, consistent vision and skills to make things right, then they might have a chance to make a really decent game... But they hadn't and they were overwhelmed by the task which they have chosen, They had to feed their families and stay aflout, we received a game that is poor in almost every aspect. Was it worth it? I don't think so...

I believe that time will come and we will finally receive worthy successor of JA: 2. It doesn't matter how long i will wait, real mercs never die!;-)
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102 of 132 people (77%) found this review helpful
11.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 23
First, let me say that I LOVE the original Jagged Alliance games (JA, Deadly Games, and JA2). That said, this game is a huge disappointment.

Though they have progressed towards making a JA game, they have fallen FAR SHORT:

-No world interaction. You can't open doors, crates, climb onto roofs, or blow holes in walls.

-The UI feels a lot worse than those of yester-year. How is this even possible? It seems incomplete and clunky, making even simple tasks awkward.

-Character inventory is shallow. Though they have added a "squad inventory", lack of items in the world and the randomness of enemy drops makes this a collection of junk rather than an armory.

-In game engine is also clunky. The game looks out-dated (JAZZ: Hired Guns anyone?) and plays poorly, with AI taking far too long to execute turns. When a 2D game from 19 years ago looks more appealing, you might have failed.

-Combat is lacking. Enemies make poor decisions and don't try to flank, rushing at you and using the closest cover once in range. Line of sight is extremely limited, making some scenarios (firing at a diagonal around the box right in front of you) a case of leaving cover to shoot at enemies who will miss you from 6 feet away. It's honestly comical.

-Lack of video options. You can change "bulk" settings, but have to direct control over AA, V-Synch, texture quality, etc. This seems both lazy and cheap in this day and age.

-Sound design is weak. Most sounds and music are pulled from JA2. Again, this seems less of an homage and just a matter of frugality.

-Map size is small. This might just be an initial mis-giving, but there just isn't much there once you get into a sector. No hidden items, no containers, limited NPCs... Bland and empty.

Give this one a wide berth until they ACTUALLY finish it. As it is now, it has fewer features than that abortive JA: Online crap. Play JA2, Xenonauts, XCOM, or even the UFO series instead.


-Cover is NOT implemented well, with enemies shooting you without you being able to shoot back; in some cases, they even shoot you THROUGH walls.

-Militia is a joke. You can't fight alongside them. It's a cheaper version of the automated combat from JA2, but far simpler and with a graphic-less UI (at least JA2 had portraits), and the enemy is CONSTANTLY roaming in larger bands than you can train in 2 days time. I guess this makes up for the TINY map, as you need to re-conquer sectors.

-Inventory is poor, with no attachments and most enemies dropping ZERO items, despite shooting you from extreme range with assault rifles.

-Combat is a complete joke, with enemies being unaffected by traumatic gunshot and grenade wounds. Occasionally, they might "panic", but it's a die-roll and not something that makes sense. There is no suppression system, and the AP costs are so ridiculous that you will mostly be using snap shot and not moving once combat begins. The enemy, of course, seems to have a lot more AP than you, popping off three shots after moving when you can barely manage 2.

-Wound system, continued from above, does not remove APs from injured parties, but is based on hit location, with legs removing AP, head reducing next-shot to-hit, and body just causing damage. I was not impressed when an unarmored soldier took a .50 HP to the chest and proceeded to run up to me and punch me. STUPID.

-CTDs. On enemy turns, the game likes to crash (look for the tell-tale change of cursor and lack of animations). This is somewhat reminiscent of JA2 1.08, so I guess they were somewhat faithful? Try windowed (resolution hit) and you can cut back on the level of incidence. SESO, otherwise.

This was a regrettable waste of money AT THIS TIME. Luckily, they did much better with Space Hulk, so give them your money for that and HOPE that they don't abandon this one in the mean-time.
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153 of 221 people (69%) found this review helpful
2.3 hrs on record
Posted: October 21
-Doesn't Feel Like Jagged Alliance-

Would I recommend this? My answer is, "Yes with a but, or no with an and..." I give it mixed reviews.

Yes, BUT this isn't really Jagged Alliance. The original did a semi-decent job of making you feel like you were sitting at a laptop in a dark hotel room somewhere anonymous directing mercenaries over satellite - you were their shadowy handler, working quietly to depose a cruel tyrant and liberate the oppressed. This one just drops you in - rather than a mock "laptop" interface where you read the emails of your employer, viderconference, even browse the web to buy guns/flowers to remember your dead, in JA: Flashback, you're just dropped in. No buildup, just "here you go!". It partly fixes this "feel" problem by having your main character be the apparent handler, hiring mercenaries as you go (and said mercenaries appear magically out of nowhere instead of a 24 hour delay where they are choppered in), but I think this loses out to the feel of the original.

The bottom line: The good news is that this appears to be an attempt to recapture the original with 3d graphics and a new plot, with a new combat interface. The bad news is that this game doesn't succeed in the depth of the original (less searchable locations, less apparent subtlety). The WORSE news is that Full Control polled the audience for what they wanted in the game, rather than take on ALL the design work themselves, The rather predictable results are things like a long list of character names such as "Night Eyes" and "Jackie Chen", and a combat interface reminiscent of X-COM: Enemy Unknown, making the game feel somewhat juvenile and unsophisticated.

This game misses the original on several levels. The scale of the maps are somewhat more restricted (larger squares, less of them between buildings), so combat becomes a little more frenetic and "AAAA, please let me roll good numbers!", where chance matters for more than sound tactical planning. Rather than subtly applying camoflage makeup, approaching at night, dropping the roof guard with a silenced SMG and jumping on the roof to drop every guard in the compound with sniper fire (I turned that into a science in JA2), your firefights are more likely to be an attrition brawl where friendlies just stay in cover waiting for the enemy to walk into their guns, and you hope they run out of guys first. While the "cover" indicator is welcome, it only has three states of none, partial and full, and doesn't distinguish between visual cover and hard cover. While JA2 didn't have ANY cover indicator, it was quite possible to lay in what felt like a furrow in the ground, unseen and shielded by a small rock and a clump of weeds. If they fired, you could usually get enough of a fix to return fire, and blind fire was quite a reasonable tactic. JA:F seems to have removed a lot of these subtleties in an effort to make more of a development/engine friendly game, where level building became simpler and playtesting counted for less. A straightforward remake of JA2, keeping completely true to the mechanics/interface of the original with a new plot would almost certainly have required a lot more work that this one appeared to - and I think it shows in the lack of "polish" in JA:F. A straight remake would have been a better game.

Having followed Kickstarters (I was a backer of JA:F) for awhile, I've noticed that this is the second game (that I am aware of) that Full Control has released that has drawn on previous franchises and received markedly mixed reviews (The first was Space Hulk). There exists something in creative work called the "Editor's eye", the judgment and flair, the elan, to know what to put into a game, what to leave out, and how the whole will come together to look as a final product. I suggest Full Control has a lot of soul-searching to do regarding theirs. The game feels unpolished, juvenile, unserious and simplistic, and almost all of these flaws could have been fixed by a harsher editors eye in its design. Good luck, Full Control. I won't back another game again.
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66 of 86 people (77%) found this review helpful
8.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 24
Huge disappointment. It looks like good old JA in nice 3D HD, it sounds like good old JA - but it's just extremely empty and lacks lots of features. Targeting and surroundings' hitbox ballistick model is just ridiculous - you never know how to set your agents. There is no advanced wound model - characters are just simple life bars. No weapon customization, dialogues are clicking nonsense (you can click whatever, no choices), no exploration, no civilian movement phase, you can't even open or close doors, etc. etc.

Stay away! (or eventually get for about a dollar, when it's on a steam sale and mods get some features back)
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87 of 120 people (73%) found this review helpful
1.6 hrs on record
Posted: October 24
I'd like to think that I'm unbiased as I write this feedback (hoping that it will be a fair warning if you are researching the game) ... but I did really love Jagged Alliance 2, and felt it was a game ahead of it's time, full of personality, decision-making and fun.

I've had a BRIEF play of this 'reboot', and I really struggle to find the motivation to spend any more time with it. After an hour or two, I've had enough.

The problem is, it's shallow. I just see so many features missing or glazed over. At least with 'Back in Action', the game had a pretty robust combat system that innovated on the original .. if JaBia had delivered on it's promise to bring over the personality and substance of the original JA2, and bring with it the new combat, it would have been awesome, instead of a disappointment.

Flashback - well, it's even worse, I'm afraid. It has fewer features than JaBia, the combat is dull, the AI is pretty much utterly stupid (sorry, to be specific .. you can be shooting at the AI and it will run past you and stand to it's back with you so you and your buddies can kill it).

It has promise, and I really would be interested to play this game with another 6 months of rich development, but my feeling is that the people making it have exhausted all the upfront kickstarter money, and rather than grow a set of gonads and spend their own time and money perfecting the product - to yield the ultimate financial and reputation rewards of creating a wonderful, memorable game - they just launched early and incomplete.

Animations are absent .. like, taking cover seems to be just .. standing there.. there is no corresponding action from the merc (at least that I can tell??) that they've taken cover.. nor can I see any easily accessible stat/graphic/icon or anything that tells me that they are actually in cover ..

It's just .. weak.

It's a weak, disappointing title, and I have buyers remorse.

I regret buying it, and I actually don't give a flying poo-poo about twenty bucks .. I regret buying it because by doing so I'm supporting an outcome that I find increasingly unacceptable in the gaming world - releasing unpolished, feature incomplete, over-promise-under-deliver titles.

I'd recommend you steer away from this game if you are considering buying it, at least in it's present form as at 25 October 2014.
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64 of 85 people (75%) found this review helpful
1.8 hrs on record
Posted: October 27
Buyers beware, this game is less feature-rich, less entertaining and less professionally-made than it's beloved predecessor, JA2.

It's easy to be critical of series sequels, especially those made by a new company. The fact is that fans of the series were hoping for a new installment in the beloved series which would harken back to the good old days of a stubborn Fidel, broken-language Ivan, cheerfully deadly Scully and mysterious and powerful Magic.

Those characters are present, along with much of the classic cast. The problem is not the characters, but alas, Jagged Alliance is about much more. I played Jagged Alliance upon it's release, and Jagged Alliance 2 years later. Sir-Tech's vision of a modern mercenary group in an XCOM style of gameplay was brilliant, and I didn't even discover XCOM until much later.

Flashback, however, offers none of the strategic delights of roaming a jungle and hiding behind trees, glimpsing enemies for a moment before they fade out and flank you, or sneaking around buildings to approach enemies stealthily and take them out. You move your units in a turn-based manner, you equip them with various weapons and gear you find or purchase in your travels, but that is where the similarities end.

Tactical combat is a joke, with a poorly designed interrupt system which rarely triggers despite having an experienced teamate facing the enemy around a blind corner. ranges are ridiculous, and weapons fall off to a 0% chance to hit at such a short range that early combat takes place within 4 squares by necessity, and marksmen with an 85% score rarely have above a 60% chance to hit a center-body shot even at that range.

The result is a grindy slugfest wherein utilizing good tactics for cover and concealment and positioning and intersecting fields of fire fails to draw out enemy mercenaries into makeshift kill-zones and enable your team to kill them with minor injuries. Perhaps this was intentional, but for me... the tactical advantages gained by good positioning and approach techniques were a big part of the game. Sadly, this is not the only shortcoming Flashback exhibits.

The sectors are largely empty. Gone are the days of finding secret crates stashed back in a corner of a sector, looting it and finding that much-needed lockpick or ammunition of flak vest. Perhaps they have populated some key sectors with these things, but in the four starting areas there's not so much as a single crate to be found - and believe me, I scoured the zones. So while they have filled the zones will all kinds of terrain features to fill up the squares, there is nothing to interact with to make exploring sectors and looting buildings in any way interesting, which was a huge part of the JA series experience.

The UI is clunky and unintuitive, and it fails to offer some of the more interesting dynamic features of JA2 - that is, line of sight cones and rooftop access. The diversity of available weapons - which has no option to raise or lower - simply makes the entire game more difficult, decreasing the likelihood that you will find weapons or ammunition on enemy corpses which match those your party is using. The dialogue screen is almost identical to JA2, which is not a compliment - dialogue was one of JA2's weak points - but falls short of even that in failing to provide more than a very simple and linear dialogue. Where at least JA2 gave certain mood-flavors to your responses, Flashback offers only prewritten script which fails to cover any reasonable range of optional responses.

The English is bad. I realize this is an overseas company who bought the IP, but really... the English is bad, in a finished game product which is supposed to be the professional and legitimate successor to a great franchise. Grammar is where the main mistakes are, but the mistakes are grating when you consider you're paying for a professional product. Using "is" instead of "are" and "them" instead of "it" where appropriate may seem a petty criticism, but my eyes get crossed and I have to reread the already-boring dialogue because somebody didn't do a decent proof-read of their script before release, and it's annoying. Some may not care, but it's still worth noting in a list of the shortfalls of the product.

There are glitches. Sadly, this is to be expected of most modern games, and I won't detail them. They are numerous, but the ones I discovered are relatively minor and akin to what you will find in most games shortly after release.

Overall it seems the company was looking to make a quick buck on a popular franchise, released a comic-sketch version of the mature and gritty mercenary game, and decided to call it a day. I wonder if the designers ever played the games, because some of the basic features left out were core to the overalal JA experience. For my money, this game wasn't worth it. As always, YMMV, but as a long-time fan of the series, I can't recommend this joke.
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58 of 76 people (76%) found this review helpful
4.9 hrs on record
Posted: October 23
I almost never don't recommend a game, but when a game promises a remake of one of my favourite games, Jagged Alliance 2 (or JA2 for short), of all time and does not deliver; I have to do it.

Be advised; It is not recommended in its current state. It is overpriced for the rushed state it is in. I will state some of the pros and cons:


-Graphics are nice, improvement over the original. Sectors look good, as well as weather effects, mercs pictures and weapons look great.
-Character Creation is added which is very good, I would have liked to have some sort of custom portraits (but that may be modded in in teh future)


-Biggest con; The voice acting and quality of voices. They even added a merc with a computerised voice, appearantly a reward for a Backer during the Kickstarter Campaign. But although it gets explained ingame, the quality of that one (and the normal voices) is way below par. As FC has the license (and I can imagine also the original voices), they could have added the original JA2 voices.
-Sloppy, boring interface; Minimalistic (with a capital "M")- Nothing like the original. Copying and updating the original interface would have heldped with immersion very much.
-No laptop as in JA2
-The shop NPC has no UI. No pictures of what you buy, nor an indication how much money you have left. You just have to click blindly until your money is gone and you cannot check ammo-requirements for certain guns, without going out of the shop menu.
-Militia defending screen has been cut from the game, and now shows plain numbers. Militia are more useless than in JA2. Furthermore, you cannot assist in the defense of a sector together with militia, even when your mercs are in the same sector. The militiua get killed first, then your mercs can fight.
-The whole game feels rushed, you can see that funding ran out. The whole game does not breather the atmosphere of the game it tried to remake; Jagged Alliance 2 and continues the trend of JA2 successor failures. All praise go to the original makers from Sirtech, who made a game which cannot be remade, not even in the current market!

So I do not recommended the game in its current state. You better wait for either the price to drop and/or until the modders from The Bear's Pit got their hands on it. They made JA2 even better with patch 1.13, so it is possible to improve JA2. Surely someone can make a true remake of the game, it is a shame Full Control didn't have the funding to take this the whole way. I am very disappointed in the state of the game and it really should be renamed into Jagged Alliance: Under Construction.
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83 of 117 people (71%) found this review helpful
1.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 13
Early Access Review
I'm a backer and I was surprised that Full Control are almost ready to release this.
Key issues:
- AI that can see through walls and behind their backs
- Cannot merge ammo even in strategic screen (I had 5 boxes of .45, each with 1 bullet - shoot, reload, shoot, reload)
- Stabbed through walls
- Cannot leave a sector via the tactical screen
- Floating guns/knives of non-visible enemies
- Almost no environment loot-ables
- Multiple save files (I got into an impossible situation and now have to scrap my game and start over. Not fun)
- Confusing identical assets for very different things (e.g. .45 cal and .44 cal ammo)
- Many many bugs, lack of polish (changing settings like pan speed requires restart, hitting 'escape' does not pause the game, no indicator when you going into realtime mode, horribly choppy visuals, inventory screen flashes when it comes up, crashes)

*sigh* looks like another disappointing Kickstarter
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47 of 59 people (80%) found this review helpful
6.2 hrs on record
Posted: November 2
Backed this game on Kickstarter, because I am a huge JA fan. However, this game does not come close at all. It is riddled with bugs, lacks a ton of features and made me regret I spent the 25 EUR on Kickstarter.

Don't buy in it's current state. Game is clearly not close to finished!
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