Jagged Alliance: Crossfire

Jagged Alliance: Crossfire is a 2012 turn-based tactics game published by bitComposer Games, a standalone expansion to the 2012 remake Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Part of the long-running Jagged Alliance series, which casts players as the commander of a band of hired mercenaries, Crossfire presents a new self-contained campaign set in the war-torn country of Khanpaa, where the player is contracted to help fend off a hostile military force. The game retains Back in Action's 'plan and go' real-time-with-pause combat system, a departure from the strictly turn-based combat of the classic Jagged Alliance 2 that divided series purists, in which players issue queued orders to their squad and execute them simultaneously. Players recruit and equip distinctive mercenaries, each with their own personalities and skills, manage a roster and finances, capture territory and tackle tactical engagements across the map. Reception was mixed; reviewers and fans regarded it as a competent but unremarkable extension that inherited both the strengths and the shortcomings of Back in Action, including its controversial combat model and rough edges. Crossfire is best understood as additional content for fans of the modernised remake rather than a fresh direction for the venerable franchise. It did little to quiet series purists who longed for a return to the classic, strictly turn-based Jagged Alliance 2 formula.