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Turn-based action strategy games on the PC; you either love them or you hate them. There tends to be no in-between, and this theory proves to be true with Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge. If you're a fan of X-Com, Silent Storm, or indeed the original Jagged Alliance series, this may well be of interest to you, drawing the same basic gameplay structure from the aforementioned titles.

The basic premise of the game places you in charge of a squad of mercenaries whose mission it is to overthrow an African warlord and restore order to a country (and probably save the world in the process). The story itself is told in a series of poorly written e-mails, which serve to more confuse than inform, but I found the plot really doesn't affect the game one way or another. To sum up, it's your job to kill the bad guys.

After hiring your team, buying their equipment and training them, you're ready to begin the first campaign. With your squad under your full control, you proceed to move them around the map, looking for enemy troops who are hiding and scattered around, waiting to ambush you.

Every time you move or fire your weapon, a certain amount of action points are used up, and once you run out, the end of your turn is signalled and the game grants your opponent control of his squad. The problem is, with only a small amount of action points to spend and a ridiculous amount of enemies to kill, you'll quickly find yourself heavily outnumbered and outgunned all the time. No matter how many action points you have, your opponent seems to be blessed with more. It all makes for a very one-sided affair.

For those armchair generals out there who are reading this and are thinking this still deserves a look, be warned: what we have here is a far from polished effort. Patches are being released that improve the flow of the game somewhat, but even so, you do get the feeling at the very least the game's Russian developer lacked a quality control department.

Before I implemented the latest patch, it was incredibly slow to play, although this issue appears to have been fixed now. The main problem I still have is with the stupendously high difficulty level throughout. Enemy troops have such an advantage over you at times that it borders on the ridiculous. Your mercenaries are too easily exhausted and suffer from chronic fatigue, while your opponents are able to run rings around you as you struggle to keep up with the sheer number of them. With an easier difficulty setting this may be worth a look, but unfortunately as it stands there are more polished titles out there worthy of your hard-earned money.

Overall, it's far, far too difficult for its own good. Expect countless hours of frustration ahead of you and very little reward for your efforts.