The storyline is simple and coherent, brilliantly succeeding in introducing us in the atmosphere of an African third world country, named Diamond Coast, thorn apart by civil war, after the president is overthrown by his own brother. You play the role of the commander of a mercenary squad, hired by the deposed leader to reclaim his position, but in order to do so you are bound to assemble your own team, train these mercenaries and equip them. Beside the government forces, there are plenty of rebels scattered around the country, willing to join forces with you if you posses good negotiation skills, but deadly when they decide not to support your cause.

In fact the beauty of this game resides in the lack of moral restrains, because as a mercenary you are only bound to your word as long as the one who hired you is paying for your services and there is always the option of taking a different path. As you progress with the game some of these rebels may offer you a new mission or even hire you to annihilate the very person you were supposed to help regain his position in Diamond Coast. Depending on the persons you decide to help and the new missions you'll undertake, the game has up to five different endings so it's only fair to say that every action counts and you'd better plan your moves carefully.

Right from the start the developers made it crystal clear that this is not going to be a walk in the park, and you have to take your time and analyze in depth all the details introduced in this title, in order to start with the right foot. The amount of information available in the early stages is quite impressive, you must take a quick personality test to determine you profile and the actions that suit you best and then browse the notebook for mercenaries' offers, possible jobs and weapons acquisitions. While the personality test is a welcomed addition and spices things up, there are a bunch of questions that sound so silly that it's most likely they'll only manage to make you smile before choosing a random answer.

Bad English is in fact one of the most important drawbacks of this title that has a deterring effect on the gamer even in the early stages, because trying to fish out the useful information out of the ocean of data sent to your notebook is difficult enough, without having to deal with these translation issues. Furthermore, you'll sometimes receive piles of information from different sources and not everything converges in the same direction and you'll have to decide what's accurate and what's going to lead you into the wrong direction. Overall I can appreciate the effort the developers made in designing an appealing plot by introducing all this information, but from time to time I couldn't help but thinking that I'm getting lost in translation.

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Despite losing the rights to use any of the intellectual property of Strategy First, GFI came up with a game which is structurally similar to Jagged Alliance series, offering a real-time mode when your mercenaries are moving on the designated location and shifting to turn-based mode when combat starts. There is no guarantee though about how long it will take until you shift between these modes, but it is triggered by visual contact with enemy forces so it pays off to be extra careful when deploying your troops because once the battle starts there is very little you can do to regroup. Poor path finding can become an issue if you are caught off guard since one of your teammates will probably stay behind and has slim chances of catching up with the rest of the squad in tactical mode.

Once the game enters the turn-based mode every action you perform costs action points, more or less, depending on the move you plan to execute. It's been done before and it's pretty much the cornerstone of this genre, but even so there are some disturbing issues here that are worth mentioning. First of all the costs of firing different weapons vary a lot, and even using the same gun from different distances won't require the same amount so you'll frequently get the feeling that you're fighting in the dark. To make things further worse, you consume a lot of APs just for walking a short distance and if you are not careful enough, it's most likely that you'll consume a bit more than planned, which leaves you with insufficient point to take the actual shot.

Just when you start thinking that you're finally mastering the AP system, you'll discover that being wounded, losing your breath and other factors can subtract from a characters action point before they have the chance to receive orders. Suffice to say that once the Aps run out, your mercenary finds himself in harms way, unable to anything and the only reasonable solution is to end your turn. Losing breath is not something even the hardcore fans of the turn-based games were forced to deal with a lot, but it is a crucial element in Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, one nobody can dismiss or ignore. If you run too long or carry some heavy equipment, you'll run out of energy and collapse on the ground after taking just a few steps, with deadly consequences.

Aiming issues are definitely the most important and frustrating of all problems one might encounter when playing this title, a lot of things appear to be arbitrary and simply unrealistic and this can weed off even the most dedicated players. You'll never know if your next shot will hit the target, as it's possible to miss while firing a submachine gun from just a few meters while aiming a dying man and hit with a pistol a target sitting far away, with additional cover. It's up to you to decide which body part it's better to aim at, but since the accuracy is virtually unknown it's pretty much the same thing. Add to these issues some stupid lines indicating that your mercenary lost a specific amount of "wisdom" point after being hit in the head and you've got the full picture of what I'm talking about when I complain about the inadvertences of the tactical mode.

On the other hand we've got an overpowered AI which is capable of delivering pin-point accurate shots from incredible range, throw grenades further than a pistol's range and occasionally able to take a round of bullets in the chest without scratch. They will counterattack from different areas and at different intervals, always trying to surprise you so even if you decide to choose the easiest mode the computer will be more than a challenge. Resilient as it may be, the AI will occasionally get disorientated and rush blindly towards your enforced position, getting vulnerable from all sides and becomes nothing more than a sitting duck. Maps are generated randomly which is fine, since there is a good chance the dictator will send reinforcements to reclaim an area you control, forcing you to return to the same zone.

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Conclusion:

Those dedicated fans that grew up loving and playing these old-school games were probably thrilled to discover that despite all the legal problems, someone was willing to continue the story that made "Jagged Alliance" famous. Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge brings the amazing gameplay up to date with new visuals and a better engine, but numerous bugs cripple an otherwise exciting concept, and cause this title to look like nothing more than a lone survivor of a dying breed.

Gameplay: 67

Transition from real-time to turn-based mode is challenging by its very nature and requires the gamer to be on constant alert to detect enemy troops before they are within striking distance and capable of taking the initiative. Unfortunately the tactical mode is much more difficult than it should be, due to severe aiming issues, lack of precision and unrealistically resilient opponents which makes the entire gaming experience a bit frustrating.

Graphics: 73

The visual effects are nothing to shout for but there is little room for complaints either, because overall the graphics deliver a decent environment, and fairly good animations, but the cinematics are way below what you'd expect from a 21^st century computer game. Too bad there are no weather effects and the missions won't take place during the night, so there is very little variation regarding meteorological conditions.

Sounds: 64

There are just a couple of themes playing in the background, neither of them being impressive so the fact that it repeats itself over and over again is not helpful, while voice acting are simply atrocious. During the actual combat the game sounds just fine, guns being fired create the appropriate noise as well as the enemy and friendly troops sneaking behind a tree or swarming through the lush jungle.

Multiplayer: N/A

Hardware: 72