Jagged Alliance 2 by Darius Kazemi, Boss Fight Books, August 25th, 2014
This is a book I had long been interested in but held off buying despite it being dedicated to one of my favourite games of all time. It was not so much the book itself but what I considered the pretentious aesthetic chosen by the publisher: Boss Fight Books. Certainly a petty reason but contrary to the popular aphorism — you often can judge a book by its cover. And the cover suggested it would be a meandering personal narrative of the author’s experiences with the game and so a waste of time, money, ink and paper. While this certainly seems to be the case for at least a few of the books published under this label, it is not the case here. Darius Kazemi knows his subject well, interviewed a number of the key development staff and often includes extended quotes from them within the text. He also gives a concise history of both the publisher Sir-tech and the Jagged Alliance series before delving into Jagged Alliance 2‘s development, design, story, features and legacy. It is short but little space is wasted. His experiences of the game also mirror many that I have detailed in other posts about the series on this blog.
I am labelling this as a review but what follows isn’t going to follow the typical format I usually adopt for these. It isn’t really necessary as I absolutely recommend the book to anyone familiar with the game and encourage the curious to read an exert published here.
I have rather fond memories of the original Borderlands which released in 2009. I got a copy for PlayStation 3 along with a small group of friends and a number of fun multiplayer sessions followed for some months afterwards. It was not the kind of game that would normally appeal to me; as the object is less about getting to the game’s end than it is about finding better equipment and grinding up levels. It was the well integrated cooperative play, the generally unique design and the quirky tone that drew me in. Although the sequel Borderlands 2 is usually considered the better game, I didn’t do more than play through the story and I can’t recall many details about that game off the top of my head. I have barely even looked at the series since — with the sole exception of Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic adventure game from the now defunct Telltale Games released in 2014.
Starquest: Space Pirates Of Andromeda by John C. Wright, Tuscany Bay Books, October 8th, 2024
