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Jagged Alliance 2 (JA2) is admittedly an old game. Released back in 1999, this combination roleplaying strategy game has you leading a team of mercenaries through the country of Arulco as you attempt to bring down the nation's despotic queen.

Despite its age, JA2 is an addicting game for those who enjoy a touch of realism in their gaming. You'll find many element's of traditional cRPGs such as action points, hitpoints, and levels but with its own unique twist. Action points are consumed not only by basic things such as moving and pulling the trigger but the act of bringing the mercenary's gun to shoulder and turning to face a new threat, encouraging you to set up an overwatch position before you send the teammate running to the next piece of cover.

The common running gag of 'Good to last hitpoint' is thoroughly adverted. While suffering a flesh wound will be no hindrance, a more heavily wounded merc will find he is unable to run as far or shoot as well as his uninjured comrades until he recieves proper medical attention.

While the gameplay is refreshing for someone like me who enjoys a dash of realism in his fun, what really sold the game for me was the mercenaries themselves. Each is their own character with unique personalities and biases. The former US Army Ranger may get into an argument with the Ex-Red Army Major while the LAPD SWAT trained husband and wife may share moral gains with each other. On top of these group dynamics each mercenary has his own voice actor, helping you to feel like you've recruited a bunch of people, not a faceless blob of soldiers to be tossed in front of the machine guns.

Of course no review would be complete without mentioning the numerous firearms in the game. There are more guns then you can count and while each is unique, no weapon vastly outclasses the other allowing you to pick weapons based on theme or personal preferance. You run into everything from WWII era M1 Garands and Kar 98k's to venerable rifles such as the M14.


If you do decide to pick up JA2, I highly recommend you also download the 1.13 patch mod. This mod in addition to fixing a lot of the bugs from the older editions also adds several new weapons, improves the AI, roaming militia and much more. It also comes with a .ini editor, a .xml editor, and a map editor so you can adjust and tweak the game to your own satisfaction.

*Tips and Tricks*

This section is to give a few helpful hints and a few spoilers to help you survive your trip in Arulco.

1. Take cover and go prone. While this seems like common sense, it case be easy to forget the first time you're playing through. Not only will you're mercs be harder to hit but you also gain a accuracy bonus. You can use the pg up and pg dn keys to tell your mercs to change stance.

2. Run. I didn't find out about this until halfway through my first playthrough but if you press the 'R' key, you're mercs will switch to run mode which almost doubles the distance they can move in a turn. Very useful for those dashes for the nearest piece of cover.

3. Aim. Another thing that you think would be obvious. By right clicking on an enemy you can aim if you're firing single shots (there's no such thing as aimed autofire). This is a great help in the begining when all you have are pistols with only a limited supply of ammo.

4. Sell. If you're running the 1.13 mod, you can sell items from the strategic map by ALT-left clicking. You won't make that much but its better then leaving all those pistols behind for someone else to take.

*SPOILER AHEAD*






















4. Beware the couter attack. If your playing 1.13 and you take the town of Dressan, you will be immediately counterattacked by roughly 60 soldiers. This can be disabled with the included .ini editor but should you manage to survive you'll have a nice armory to start the game with.






*SPOILERS END*



Well that that, JA2 is an outstanding game and if you should decide to try it, I am working on my own little mod that I could use some help playtesting. If enough people are interested, I may upload the necessary files.