There is trouble brewing on the small tropical island of Palinero. Three factions are embroiled in a conflict and mercenaries have been called in to swing the tide of battle before the entire situation becomes a full-fledged civil war.

Advertised as a tactical-strategy game, Brigade E5: New Jagged Union offers a mix of genres. The Strategy First/IC/Apeiron title has six characters you can play as, or gamers have the ability to create their own character. There are three factions that you will have to choose from. But where the game starts to fall apart is in the Smart Pause Mode. Because the game is a tactical-strategy program, the SPM kicks in after you perform an action – as though it is, like chess, giving you the opportunity to consider your next move. The result is a game that feels disjointed, without a fluid dynamic.

The tutorial mission sets up the game rather well and lets players know precisely what they will be in store for. The AI is suspect and the game has some pathing problems that lead to frustration.

The game borrows from the role-playing genre in that as you use skills, you can improve them, and – on the plus side – there are a lot of options available in terms of weaponry. Weapons are graded out and can be customized to a small extent. The overall AI is a bit suspect. Enemies can flank you, but will get rather dumb at the oddest times.

There are several paths to go down in this game and while you will start off as a solo fighter, you will pick up squad members. Back to the SPM – each time you try to get someone to do something, the game pauses – and not just for the main character, but the squad members as well. But the idea is still a sound one – you can work through dialogue and create an experience that is unique to some extent.

Graphically the game is below average. The lack of bump mapping gives everything a flat look and though the game tries to pull off a three-dimensional look, it is just not that good. When you see a palm tree, you may almost laugh at the way it looks and the buildings look like boxes that have been piled together with the tops cut off. The musical score is repetitive and can be annoying after a bit. Most of the game is driven by text dialogue, but the tutorial accents leave something to be desired. The camera does not follow and has to be manually directed, but even then getting it to a place where you will see the action the way you need to is a chore.

Brigade E5 obviously had the best of intentions, but the execution falters and the game comes out feeling like something that would have been adequate 5-6 years ago, rather than a game trying to compete with the likes of more modern looking and playing shooters. This is a game that could have been more but seems to have shipped in a rawer beta form.

Gameplay: 4.0
Game paused – get used to seeing that a lot. You can use the options to alleviate the plethora of auto pauses that take place, but the game still is configured to pause more than seems necessary. The camera, while rotatable, does not truly allow for you to adequately follow your main character. The control scheme has a minor learning curve.

Graphics: 5.0
The animations are not all that great and the overall look is just below average.

Sound: 3.8
Bad accents and forced dialogue. The music can also get annoying.

Difficulty: Medium
Oops, there is a target somewhere behind that wall that can’t quite be seen even though the controlled character is in the same room. Come to think of it, the controlled character is barely visible because the camera does not swing around that well. There are three settings, though.

Concept: 5.0
There are different mercenaries you can play as, as well as experiencing the action from the perspective of three different factions. In this regard the game does well. It’s just too bad that it stumbles with some of the other ideas – like the movement and inventory screens.

Multiplayer: N/A
The game sports multiplayer game modes (deathmatch, assault styles) through either TCP/IP (host or find a server) or modem. No one was online to play with.

Overall: 4.0
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.