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I was suspicious of this title after noting that it was not, in fact, developed by the makers of the original game. My suspicions proved true, as it is not so much an expansion pack as an inordinately amateurish mod of the original game... its story claims to take place after the events of JA2, yet the scenes and dialogue are almost exactly the same, with a few characters inexplocably moved to new locations and deprived of the lines in which they hint at what you actually want to know! The enemies appear to behave much the same, except they now wear blue shirts instead of red ones -many harmless civilians do too, which is needlessly confusing to say the least!
Some of the weapon sprites and armor names have been altered to emulate the real world rather than the Jagged Alliance canon, for no apparent reason other than the developers' personal preferences...
A few things have been changed, and even if it's been years since you played JA2, or if you haven't played it at all, you will know which they are right away -mercs moved to the AIM alumni section with very poor-quality explanations, the top two mercs suddenly being two german gentlemen with unusually boring backgrounds, rebel leader Miguel's voice actor having been swapped out for a substantially less talented one so that his lines might be modified in just a few places to fit the "new" plot, and left the same as they were in the original game out of sheer laziness in other places, despite the fact that this mod claims to take place after JA2 rather than in some strange parallell universe as one might assume- the list goes on.
If you like Jagged Alliance or X-Com, do NOT buy this. Buy JA2, Unfinished Business, JA1 or Deadly Games -Sirtech, at least, know what they're doing!
Unfortunately, I have to agree. Just played through JA2 (for the umpteenth time) and UB (for the first time) and I really wanted to like Wildfire but I had to stop once I got to Miguel and his shoddy new voice actor. I'm sure a lot of the tweaks and changes work for the better but the larger screen makes everything tiny and the whole vibe is one of a bad mod. I for one just can't get past the bad writing. I'd only try this if you want to experience more intense battles, however, they're way over the top in difficulty resulting in a game environment that's hard to really believe in. Just goes to show how well balanced and immersive JA2 is.
Just a minor note, could you make it a bit more clear what we're all supposed to stay clear of?
It's not entirely clear until the latter parts of your post, and even then you don't mention the game/mod by name.
I too was excited about Wildfire when I first heard about it. Then I bought it at GoG was disappointed when I played it.
One of my favorite mercs is Wolf who got canned in Wildfire. It makes absolutely no sense when you read his profile text in JA2 as it mentions that Wolf went into training to improve his physique and AIM was very happy to rehire him.
JA2 + V1.13 is much, much better
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Andy_Panthro: Just a minor note, could you make it a bit more clear what we're all supposed to stay clear of?

It's a review, therefore appeared on the forums only by the virtue of being commented on...
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gnarbrag: I too was excited about Wildfire when I first heard about it. Then I bought it at GoG was disappointed when I played it.
One of my favorite mercs is Wolf who got canned in Wildfire. It makes absolutely no sense when you read his profile text in JA2 as it mentions that Wolf went into training to improve his physique and AIM was very happy to rehire him.
JA2 + V1.13 is much, much better

Totally agree! I always hire Wolf in JA2 seeing as he comes with a shotgun.
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Andy_Panthro: Just a minor note, could you make it a bit more clear what we're all supposed to stay clear of?
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Vestin: It's a review, therefore appeared on the forums only by the virtue of being commented on...

Ah, my mistake.
It's been years and years since I played this, originally illegally due to the the original at first only being sold in the US and Canada.
When it was finally released in Europe by zuxxez as download, I bought it.
It's most definitely not the best mod out there, especially as it was bugged as hell when it was originally released.
Still I had fun playing it.
Best change IMO is that it's harder.
The colour change of the enemy indeed was annoying.
The storyline was a bit boring after playing JA2.
Still there's no reason not to pick this up if you're a fan of the series.
If not, stick to JA2 and the 1.13 mod.
Post edited September 24, 2010 by HertogJan