From some brief Internet searches, I've seen certain communities embrace the high buffoonery while others celebrate all the wrong things. You're liberating a tropical-climate country whose residents are largely people of color. The original games 'poked fun at cliches and stereotypes' in action movies, and JA3 'continues in this tradition, but also takes jabs at contemporary issues and pop culture.' In other words, it is knowingly full of cheesy, brusque shorthand from an earlier era of entertainment. The game tells you, in a disclaimer on first loading, that this is how it is. If I command him to get into 'Sneak' mode, he responds, sounding like a fifth-rate Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator, 'It is a shame that they won't see my magnificent physique!' My first hired mercenary's name is Steroid, and-wouldn't you know it-he's a big, dumb guy obsessed with fitness and performative masculinity. Skip ahead a bit to see the non-cutscene gameplay. I keep thinking about new ways to ambush my enemies instead of dealing with the things adults want me to do. Now, 24 years later, I am playing Jagged Alliance 3 and having the same problem my teenage self had. I played each Jagged Alliance title many, many times but skipped the semi-sequels that, to a devotee, didn't look right, even at a glance. But here we are, with a Jagged Alliance 3 that feels very direct in its sequel-dom. Nobody expected a true sequel 24 years later. It racked up editors' awards and high review scores, but its most notable nod was a nomination for ' Best Game Nobody Played' in 1999.

Like its predecessor, Jagged Alliance 2 had exponentially more developer cred than sales. As Darius Kazemi puts it in his wonderful book on the game: 'No matter what a war-themed video game claims to do, it inevitably simulates the cultural fantasy of war and never war itself.' Like Soldier of Fortune magazine, or dozens of VHS box covers from the 'Action' section, it's only realistic at a glance. The sequel more fully meshed '80s action movie tropes and stereotypes with the peculiar fun of micromanaging a jungle gunfight, while also managing a cast of real characters. Jagged Alliance 2 was a richer, cruder, funnier, far better game. Jagged Alliance sold okay and became a minor cult classic but is not mentioned in even a fraction of as many histories or ranked lists.

X-COM took the throne as the progenitor of turn-based tactics games.

The first Jagged Alliance game was published nine months after X-COM: UFO Defense, despite being developed at nearly the same time, in the same genre, with neither knowing about the other. Platform: Windows (runs on Steam Deck/Proton)

Soldier of fortune 2 steam