*Jagged Alliance*

The Jagged Alliance franchise started in 1995, with the first two games maintaining a cult following despite somewhat poor sales. Although several attempts have been made to revive the series, they have been met with mixed reception. The games put you in charge of managing mercenaries as they liberated islands and small countries. You also have to deal with finances, clashing personalities, protecting territory, and maintaining the equipment of your mercenaries.

The original took place on the fictional island of Metavira, where a revolutionary medicine has been found in the native trees. This discovery led scientists Jack Richards and Lucas Santino to the island. Santino, however, got greedy and decided to take the island by ****, so Jack and his daughter Brenda hire the player to take the island back.

A year later in 1996, Jagged Alliance would receive a stand-alone expansion pack called Deadly Games. The pack removed most of the management elements and focused directly on linear missions where the player would engage with the DFK terrorist group. This pack would also add additional mercenaries and weapons.

Jagged Alliance 2 would be released in 1999, and put the player in charge of liberating the country of Arculo, which has been taken over by the tyrannical Queen Dedrianna. This game would add back many of the management elements, and add more mercenaries, weapons, side-quests, and more shops to resupply your mercenaries.

Much like the original, Jagged Alliance 2 received an expansion pack called Unfinished Business. Much like Deadly Games, Unfinished Business was rather linear and removed many of the management elements, whilst adding equipment and playable characters, including some characters from the first installment.

Despite relatively good reception, Sir-Tech would go bankrupt, and the Jagged Alliance franchise laid dormant. For a while, modders took up the mantel, with mods such as Wildfire and V 1.13. Wildfire changed many of the town layouts, and added some additional items, whereas 1.13 proved to be a complete shake-up, adding the need for webbing for gear, and more detailed skill systems.

In 2012, bitComposer games would release Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, a remake of Jagged Alliance 2 that would also serve as a reboot. This game would also attempt to add in real-time combat. The game came to be met with mixed reception, although did receive two DLC packs. Two years another attempt to reboot the franchise was made with Jagged Alliance: Flashback. Despite coming off of a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game was a commercial and critical failure that **** developers Full Control to go bankrupt shortly after its release.