Hi all,

Have not seen a thread, so here it is:

Anyone played it? I have had a chance to play a little recently, and have formed a short opinion:

It's decidedly prettier than JA2, although the interface could be less clunky. There seem to be too many buttons each with a tiny job where a context sensitive approach would have helped. However, it is something you get used to after a while. I'm not sure if this is a result of wanting to preserve the JA2 feel of 1999.

The game overall is dumber - the pathfinding dreadful, the AI is not too coordinated, and the functions of merc training, militia training on the 'campaign map' is no longer there. Some new touches are positive - there is now one lump -sum to pay for mercs instead of a running cost.

There is no longer turn-based actions, instead it is all real time with a tactical planner, which is both good and bad, as in the absence of turns sometimes your guys will just sit somewhere and get shot. I feel the developers tried to make the game smarter, but without going all the way through where, in now real time they would respond to enemy assault at all.

Anyway, it's still a good game, just not a successor to JA2.