Kalypso failed so much, though they had the entire game already done right in front of them. HOW HARD can it be??

User Rating: 4 | Jagged Alliance: Back in Action PC
This game attempts to remake the old JA using modern graphics. That's just fine by me, I wish more producers would think of doing that, I would certainly buy a remade Baldur's Gate for instance. BUT they removed so many core elements that it feels light and broken.

The good:
-pretty graphics
-great music tracks
-gear selected for each merc also shows in the their portrait (sunglasses, hats, camouflage)
-gear for each merc gives them unique appearance. The models are pretty detailed, you can dress a merc as All Capone and he will look as intended.
-extended camo kits -you have urban, jungle, desert and night
-good sense of humor for anyone bothering to read the item description. Not sure if this is new or it's simply copy-pasted from the original JA.
-alot of enemy death animations. Very fun, they fall over ledges, do a flick flap, burst into fountains of blood.
-it's called Jagged Alliance! Duh.

The bad:
Here there are so many things the game fails at, I don't know where to start. Most of them are things that they removed from the original game.
-Incredible dumb AI : they just run at you using "zerg tactics" as someone said. If not, they just stand around doing nothing, while you slaughter their friends a few meters away. No matter what mayhem you cause, you can hide for a few seconds and they resume their usual patrol routes. This would be bad even for the Commandos titles.
-Horrific pathfinding and aiming mechanics. Your mercs refuse to shoot over cover, through windows or at the enemy right in front of them. Many time, they just sit around while and enemy happily chops them with a machete. Many times they aim and complain they can't take the shot, dough the target is in plain view. No matter how many clicks and orders you try issuing they just WON"T do it. Very frustrating.
-For me, the game crashed when I reached the hospital and university area. It won't load my saves no matter what. NONE of my saves.
Here is a list of things that were in the original game but were removed. Totally broke the game and made it a poor clone:
-Cars, oil barrels and similar things can't be blown up.
-No fog of war.Obviously removes any items and skilld that might have anything to do with vision or detection: sunglases, listening devices, camouflage, line of sight, night time ops, smoke bombs are all just for the aestetics now. You can see all enemies no matter the conditions. This makes the game sooo very easy it's boring.
-You can't shoot through walls or light cover.Not even trough a bush.
-You can't use shotguns to blow locked doors.
-You can't plant explosives wherever you wish. There are certain walls with a green obvious spot on them.
-Less weapons, only around 5 weapon attachments. No more tripods, no more extended mags. No more weapon customization. No more guns made out of duct tape and led pipes/
-You can't repair armor, as far as I can tell.
-Less ammo types.
-No more custom avatar.
-Less things to play on the laptop - less sites, less intel. You only get 1 merc site and another shopping site.
-Less mercs then in the original. You have around 20.
-You can't hire a merc without gear or life ensurance. Not sure if life ensurance is still in the game, for a fact. No options, you either hire or go back.
-No more turn based fighting. They obviously removed everything that came with that, like action points, interrupts, initiative or aimed shots.
-The leveling system was dumbed down. You no longer specialise as you use weapons and skills. You JUST get experience and level up when you reach a certain cap. Then you allocate 7 points wherever you wish.
-The game offers most of it's weapons right off the bat. Yes, you can even buy a grenade rifle from the first minute. The shopping site offers for free 4 weapons and 4 body armors right from the start. You can actually win with 1 single merc. This makes the game ridiculously easy. Feels like it's been dumbed down for kids. Even more so, you will find money by the bucket. In the first 30 min of gameplay, you will a bag of diamonds worth 40k $ for instance. You can afford everything. A bit later you find another bag the heli pilot sends you after. Just as you conquer a mine, the foreman gives you more diamonds! You get the idea, you swim in cash.
-The atmosphere from the first game is gone. You don't feel the inhabitants of Arulco are actually dying of hunger. Most houses are clean, have a fridge with meat in it, beer, tv and even a car in the garage. Hell, they live the good life!
-Forget about shooting neutrals. This villager annoyed you? Live with it, because you can't shoot him or blow him up, no matter what.
-The weapon and items description is wrong. They are so off... For instance you might find that a clove of garlic weights 250g ingame. That's 1/4 kilo. Dear god! Seeing that, what can you expect in regards weapon realism?
-You spend more time hauling equipment around then actually using it. It's a chore trying to transfer item between mercs.Every merc can carry only 3 weapons at a time. It doesn't add to the difficulty, but to the time you have to spend lugging stuff around.
-The ambidextrous feat is still there, but you can't actually use 2 weapons. What's it used for then?? Even if you could, there's no point in doing it anyway, because the game is not turn based anymore.
-There are no dialogue options. Considering the original game was limited in this regard, you could still threaten, be friendly, offer a gift. Here you can just accept or say goodbye.
-No more of the original humor can be found. Queen Deidra (or whatever her name is) no longer has those funny cutscened where she slapped around poor miguel. No substance, no humour, no nothing.

Every single aspect of the game has been remade and simplified for no reason. Every little bit of flavour the original had, it's gone now. The game takes you by the hand, carries you around and makes things so simple and dumb even a 7 years old could finish it.
This game offers nothing more then Fallout: Tactics did. Not even the graphics. I see no reason to spend a dime on this instead of playing that game again. Or maybe play JA2 again. But stay away from this like it's the plague, especially if you enjoyed any previous JA titles.