Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, the real-time military strategy game by GFI and Morphicon, releases on PC in the UK today. Step into the combat boots of a mercenary commander contracted to overthrow the ruthless dictator of The Diamond Shores in deepest, darkest Africa. The funding for your mission comes from an anonymous and secretive source with their own agenda. However, your main concern is hiring your mercenaries and planning your tactics for the planned coup d'état.
Gary Hartley says: I've nothing against games being hard, but before you survive the first few initial outings, loot a few corpses and watch your team's stats rise to the point where it's noticeable, you'll be spending a lot of time reloading old saves that took place before complete slaughters and eagle-eyed head shot levelled against you.
Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge is a half-hearted attempt to resurrect a turn-based shooter series which should have stayed in the rose-tinted gaming sections of peoples' memories. Confusing controls, no plot and terrible English translations turn what could have been an enjoyable shooter into a mess of bad design and crushing difficulty- one for the bargain bin.
YLG: "It says a lot about a game when the first thing that hits you is the terrible dialogue, naff voice acting and worst spelling I've ever seen in a videogame, and if the developers and publishers couldn't be bothered to spend a few quid to hire a decent translator, what does that say about the rest of the game? If you said "It'll be a let down from the off", you're right."
