In a rather surprising move, the team behind Jagged Alliance 3 got the original designer (Ian Currie) of the Jagged Alliance game onboard. Going by the video released concerning this, he sure says all the right things, and it got me more excited than I used to be for this game. However, it’s unfortunately not a recipe for success as seen before with games like Phoenix Point with Julian Gollop at the helm. To be honest, it all has become a bit of a meme, especially for us that took part in the RPG Kickstarter revival. Still cool, though, and another interesting thing is that the lead designer seems to play and like Jagged Alliance 2 if you go by the video. He mentions he plays and finishes it at least once per year, so hopefully, his love for the game translates over to the sequel.
But the developer as a studio (Haemimont Games) doesn’t impress me much. Of the games they have listed on their site, I have only liked one; Surviving Mars, and even then I was not over the moon for it. I will not hold it against them, it’s actually rare nowadays that a studio produces more than one hit. Maybe JA3 will be their big hit? I guess we will see when it comes out, which I think is this year.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Blog 