Brigade E5: New Jagged Union Image
  • Summary: Brigade E5: New Jagged Union is set in the fictional, small tropical country of Palinero. Players are required to assemble a band of mercenaries and take control of a rapidly deteriorating situation in order to survive the imminent civil war and avoid having their country left in complete ruins. Brigade E5: New Jagged Union is a tactical strategy title. The story offers players the opportunity to experience three different viewpoints of the conflict, or work outside the political structure to achieve their own goals towards global domination. Game play for the title is based on an innovative combat system called SPM (Smart Pause Mode) that successfully blends together the elements of both real-time and turn-based games. [Strategy First, Inc.] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 9
  2. Negative: 6 out of 9
  1. Brigade E5: New Jagged Union tries to revitalize a struggling genre, but gets almost nothing right. There are some nice customization options available, but that's about it. Combat is not fun at all, and the bad camera views and Playstation 1 era graphics only make things worse.
  2. Even if the game falls apart fairly quickly, and has bugs and interface quirks that make the main story borderline unplayable, it still deserves a measure of attention and admiration.
  3. There is hardly a flow to the game and with the poor camera controls and poor animations this is a title that is better off passed on.

See all 9 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Negative: 1 out of 15
  1. TomB.
    10
    Camera control does take some getting used to, along with some other features. Amazing combat though. Awesome weapons and realism. Best game most people will never hear of. Totally addicted! Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm not even sure if anyone is going to read this, since the last post was 2007, but I wanted to add my 2 cents. This game should have no relation to JA series. It should be its own franchise (see JA: Back in Action). None of the characters from JA or JA2 are in BE5, and you aren't even working for AIM. NPC interactions are a joke, I stopped caring about the storyline pretty early in the game because talking to NPCs was not enjoyable (translation not very good, no emotion in the characters, not personable). As for the storyline, I was disappointed as well. There are 3 factions, each don't like each other. If you do missions for one, you will lose your status with the other(s). Although, it really doesn't matter who you take your missions from, because all of the missions are pretty much the same among the factions, with tiny changes. Mostly deliver a package, then assassinate someone, then retake a city, etc. All of that being said, the game does have some positives. If you aren't concerned with storyline and want to go around blowing everything up, this can be the game for you. The weapon selection is pretty good; you can even select different ammo types for your weapons (FMJ, JHP, etc). The RPG even has anti personnel rounds and anti armor rounds, even though you won't need to knock out tanks or other vehicles. There are many attachments for every weapon as well. You can deck it out for night ops with night vision devices (NATO and WP equipment), or go with CQB setup like red dot sight, or for long range (sniper scopes, ACOG, etc). You can carry almost every version of M16 series or AK series. Grenades, trip wires, land mines, body armor, the works. Combat is pretty neat as it is all in real time, although you can pause the action to make your moves. Although not exactly realistic, it does give you a chance to make decisions for your mercs (which won't do anything without your involvement). I think this option is imperative for any game where the characters can't do some basic things for themselves (like defend themselves). I would have liked to see more squad tactics, such as being able to move in tactical formations such as wedge, line, column, file, etc. You won't have too much trouble with the bad guys for the most part. They aren't very good at tactics, although I have been snuck up on occasionally (always have someone guarding your 6). They aren't afraid to use grenades, and they usually carry some hefty firepower. You can enter some buildings and go to multistories, shooting out of windows or off rooftops, but be careful doing so. Launching rockets from the roof can be dangerous, because the rocket usually hits the roof ledge and explodes on contact, killing anyone unlucky enough to be standing next to the shooter. This also goes with shooting from the roof; your merc will continue to blast into the roof ledge, with none of the bullets going to the intended target. But it is fun to lob grenades from the roof on unsuspecting bad guys. After all of that, I like this game. Not for the storyline or interactions (JA2 was so awesome with that), but for the chance to go around causing mayhem. I know this is a good game because I find myself pulling it off the shelf and reinstalling it, just to play the combat. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. JustMe
    1
    There is nothing superb about this "installment in the JA series". Control, cameras, action, you name it - it's a miss. I cannot understand how anyone with ANY experience in TBS can enjoy this fuming heap. Silent Storm still rocks the socks off of this alpha stageish "release", and SS(S) has been around for quite a while now. One point for the arsenal. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 15 User Reviews