Posted January 06, 2009
Jagged Alliance 2 is a squad focused turnbased strategy game with (slight) roleplaying elements that did a lot right and very little wrong. In what it does it is - up to now - unequalled. You are the leader of a band of mercenaries that are hired by Arulco's ex-President Enrico Chivaldori to re-take this fictious third world country from the hands of Deidranna Reitman (his ex-wife :) ) who turned it into a vicious totalitarian dictatorship.
You start the game by creating your own personal mercenary and hire additional mercenaries to join your squad (from first one, then two internet based agencies). Unlike the similar X-com these mercenaries aren't nameless soldiers, but complete characters with different abilities, skills, personalities (that can and will clash) and likes/dislikes. Here is one of the many things that turn this game into a classic: The voice acting is superior, the characters amusing and the social relationships between them have provided fodder for many many forum threads filled with discussion.
Landing in Arulco you are on your own - all you have is a letter for the rebel leader and a lot of soldiers between you and the target city. You'll have to fight your way there. And this is another thing Jagged Alliance 2 got just right - the combat system is intuative and simple, but at the same time allows for far more complexity and interesting situations than what other similar turnbased systems manage(d).
How you get from there to Drassen is up to you - the game is non-linear within this framework. You can conquer cities, mine for gold, train militia, pretend to be MacGyver or simply explore the world (there are optional sidequests if you look for them). At certain stages in the game a few cut scenes present Deidranna's reaction to your activities. These cutscences - in their slightly cheesy B-movie satire - are a bit hit or miss, but don't distract from actual gameplay.
What really catapults Jagged Alliance 2 in the five star category is that it is a game that is obvioulsy made with love and deserves yours because of that. Here a world with an inherent logic has been created. If your troops are captured the game doesn't end. You either hire new mercenaries to eventually free them, or have them attempt to break out themselves. Not even the alter-ego you created needs to be alive ot finish the game. As you play and replay the game you will find these little things that tell you the developers thought ahead, and provided players a chance to muck about. Want to send Flowers to Deidranna? There is a chance. Play the game the fiftieth time and you still might come across a death animation you hadn't seen yet, find a combination of mercenaries you didn't know yet and so on.
Despite all the additions the v1.13 mod brings I'd recommend a play-through with the game as is, first. Once you got the hang of it though - get the mod for better AI, more options, higher resolutions and/or windowed play and last but not least tons and tons of more ammo and guns.
You start the game by creating your own personal mercenary and hire additional mercenaries to join your squad (from first one, then two internet based agencies). Unlike the similar X-com these mercenaries aren't nameless soldiers, but complete characters with different abilities, skills, personalities (that can and will clash) and likes/dislikes. Here is one of the many things that turn this game into a classic: The voice acting is superior, the characters amusing and the social relationships between them have provided fodder for many many forum threads filled with discussion.
Landing in Arulco you are on your own - all you have is a letter for the rebel leader and a lot of soldiers between you and the target city. You'll have to fight your way there. And this is another thing Jagged Alliance 2 got just right - the combat system is intuative and simple, but at the same time allows for far more complexity and interesting situations than what other similar turnbased systems manage(d).
How you get from there to Drassen is up to you - the game is non-linear within this framework. You can conquer cities, mine for gold, train militia, pretend to be MacGyver or simply explore the world (there are optional sidequests if you look for them). At certain stages in the game a few cut scenes present Deidranna's reaction to your activities. These cutscences - in their slightly cheesy B-movie satire - are a bit hit or miss, but don't distract from actual gameplay.
What really catapults Jagged Alliance 2 in the five star category is that it is a game that is obvioulsy made with love and deserves yours because of that. Here a world with an inherent logic has been created. If your troops are captured the game doesn't end. You either hire new mercenaries to eventually free them, or have them attempt to break out themselves. Not even the alter-ego you created needs to be alive ot finish the game. As you play and replay the game you will find these little things that tell you the developers thought ahead, and provided players a chance to muck about. Want to send Flowers to Deidranna? There is a chance. Play the game the fiftieth time and you still might come across a death animation you hadn't seen yet, find a combination of mercenaries you didn't know yet and so on.
Despite all the additions the v1.13 mod brings I'd recommend a play-through with the game as is, first. Once you got the hang of it though - get the mod for better AI, more options, higher resolutions and/or windowed play and last but not least tons and tons of more ammo and guns.
