Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business

The Good
At first glance this seems like your normal addon, new weapons, new characters, and a new but smaller campaign. Well, that's not true, the new campaign is totally different from the original. It's competely linear, you go from sector to sector, and the element of silver mines, multiple squads and etc... are completely gone. This doesn't have to be a bad thing though. The game can actually be best compared to the JA2 demo, the demo had only two maps which had no variations, you meet the enemies at the same place and all. In the full version of JA2 it wasn't like this, the enemy was constantly moving, the enemy placement was mostly random. In that regard JA2 has massive replayability since things were different each time, but JA2UB can also be more fun in another aspect, the authors had more freedom in UB when making the missions since nothing was random, the missions made were exactly as they would be played, so the missions can be a whole lot more fun as they have more substance then JA2's missions (although the essence of replayability is totally gone in UB). Unfortunately, this isn't totally so, the levels are not well made, but I'll get back to that later.

About the other new things. There's two new handy options you can use in tactical warfare, with two buttons you can see where your current mercenary can shoot, and where it's best for him to take cover. This is a nice feature, although I doubt you'll use it any much... at least I didn't, most of time you should know yourself where to take cover. There's some new mercenaries, including a tourist you met in JA2, and an oldtimer from JA1. The new mercs are completely cool, they have perfect voice acting and unique personalities. Although there's one stupid thing here, at one point in the game, it's random whether or not you'll meet a certain merc. And if you don't meet him, you'll just have to start a new game to see if you meet him then. This is not good, I especially hated it since I knew beforehand about this merc and I really wanted him on my team and check him out, but no, I didn't meet him, and I really don't feel like playing it again just to meet him since the game really doesn't bring anything new the second time around.

The new weaponry kicks ass, the most obvious addition is three new sniper rifles which change the game totally. Those who say that the sniper rifles in the original JA2 was useless then check this out, they are a lot more powerful than the ones in JA2. With these rifles the game is definately more interesting. Yeah, one thing I almost forgot, you can also import any savegame from JA2 to use your old custom merc into this game, there's even new speech made for all the custom merc voices which is a nice touch.

The Bad
As I mentioned the missions aren't designed any well. Well, this both true and untrue, the missions are fun, but not as fun as they could have been. With the design of UB they had so much more freedom in the design of the sectors, but the missions just felt like generic-map-with-random-enemies similar to JA2. Another bad thing is the imbalanced difficulty setting. The game starts right off where JA2 left, you have powerful weaponry, the enemies have high stats and powerful weapons. This is more than okay for outdoors sectors, but when you get to buildings things get really dull. Indoor combat: the AI feels like camping all the time and waits for you to walk to them, the enemies have the best weapons and high stats so if they see you, they get the first shot, they don't miss, and they kill straight away. This spoils a lot of the fun, the element of strategy is completely gone, your only choice is to constantly sacrifice one of your troops to kill the enemies.

This is the major flaw though, but there's some other minors, the campaign is small, the art of the new weapons is very dull and uninspired, and the game has some bugs here and there.

The Bottom Line
I enjoyed the game, but that's probably mainly because I'm such a big JA2 fan that anything else would be impossible. What really saves the game is the level editor with the game. There's already a great deal of fanmade campaigns posted around the net to prolong your bloodshed, and most of them seems a lot more fun than the original standard campaign too. The game is a must have for any JA2 fan, sure there are flaws and you can complete the game in a few days, but you can always make more missions yourself or just download some. For those who haven't played any JA game, don't buy this one, start with buying JA2, it's definately the best in the series.

The Good
I liked the new mercs: Gaston and Stogie should've been in the original JA2. You'll want them on your team! The new weapons are quite cool, especially the PSG-7, but the new Barrett sniper rifle is too heavy and powerful for this type of game. If you never saw a head pop off or a body fly backward in JA2, you'll see this in overkill once you get the Barrett.

If you found the difficulty too easy in JA2, buy Unfinished Business-- it is far more intense from the very beginning, although (being a small game) it's easier to reach the end, too.

The "Line of Sight" feature is brilliant. If nothing else, get UB for this. It helped me greatly in seeing my vulnerabilities in cover that weren't always obvious by sight in JA2. You'll notice new bullet trajectory angles after playing UB. After playing UB, play JA2 with your new knowledge.

The Bad
Sir-Tech managed to make an even less convincing villain than JA2. I don't even remember his name. The only time that you'll encounter him is before you kill him.

I wished that the plot were less linear. With Unfinished Business, with its similar sector map to JA2, one got the sense that you could make bigger tactical choices than you could really make. At least with Deadly Games (sequel to the original Jagged Alliance), you knew that you had no choice, at least, but that you could plan your raids according to the reward that you might receive for successful completion. Thus, you could make the superficial comparison that "Unfinished Business" is to JA2 as "Deadly Games" was to JA... but, to me, the sequel of the first was better than the original, whereas JA2 seems much better than its sequel. I felt a litle ripped off by "Unfinished Business" (even at a "budget" price of $20), because the campaign felt so short, which was a first for me with this series. Well, it was still worth it... yes, just not so much as the other feature-packed epics in the Jagged Alliance past.

The Bottom Line
It's not bad, except in comparison to the other games in this series. Historically, it offered few improvements in features or personality. With the very difficult to use mission editor, this game made and will make dedicated fan missions and campaigns possible (such as "Deidranna Lives"). However, this is because of fans mostly and not the original creators of Unfinished Business.

I can still recommend it sincerely, but not nearly as highly as I can as the "original" Jagged Alliance 2. At least "Unfinished Business" stuck mostly with a very good formula without screwing too much up!

The Good
What I liked most about this game was the minimal amounts of "resource managemnt" carried through from Jagged Allience 2 and the increased action. The addition of new mercs and weapons is a welcome surprise, as is the ability to select exactly what your custom merc stats are to be, each of the mercs has their own personalities and voice acting which is one of the biggest features of the whole series and this edition is no exception, all the characters have dozens of lines of dialouge and unique personalities, including the NPC's. Just like JA2, UB has one main goal with a few minor sub missions for your team to complete along the way, while you could still complete the game without doing them, it would be very difficult if you don't (one mission rewards you with the ability to purchase medical supplies.). The game is also extremely addictive although you may count this as a down side.

The Bad
One major problem with Unfinished Business is that on some computers, the AI turn runs incredibly slow, this can drag the AI turn on for upwards of 5 minutes in sectors with higher numbers of enemies. Another down side is the extremely repedative gamplay, how ever the failry short overall lenght of the game(another down side) helps to deminish the feelings of repedativeness.

The Bottom Line
JA2:UB is a modern, turned based, 3/4 down perspective, small unit combat game with stats improvement elements akin to a traditional RPG and dangerously addictive gameplay that will make you loose sleep playing the game. If I had to compare JA2 or any of the Jagged Allience series to a similar game, the closest game would have to be the Fallout series, although it has lots in common with the earlier X-Com series. Great fun even for people who don't realy like RPG's and this "lite" version is perfect for those who don't want to pussy foot around with mediocre functions when they could be fighting enemies.

The Good
Hey, it's Jagged Alliance. What's there not to like? Most of the great gameplay found in Jagged Alliance 2 is still intact, in addition to more 'easy' or user-friendly character creation for those who did not import their star character from the previous JA 2.

The Bad
This is hardly a game, honestly. Compared to JA2, this is game is only 5 minutes (dramatizing). I mean this is a VERY SHORT GAME if you (somehow) didn't understand my previous sentence. The map is small(er) me thinks compared to JA2, plus the fact that they erased the 'train militia' option, this game became VERY easy to play. Basically, this game became JA 1: Unfinished Business. The one major difference between JA 1 and JA 2 was the militia option, making it more than a micro mercenary war game. The presence of the train militia made it a more macro strategy game.

The Bottom Line
It's playable. Just don't expect too much, in comparison to JA 2. Good thing it's a stand-alone game, Heroes of Might and Magic made better sequals than this. Doh.

The Good
Well, every good thing I said about JA2 goes for this game, plus the fact that it doesn't require the original JA2 to function. The isometric graphics, the digitized sound effects and silly voice acting, and the variety of available equipment and tactics all put together make this one of the best squad-level combat games available. It's also a whole lot easier to play than JA2 because you tend to have more money and better weapons all through the game, and because you can now easily see where to have your mercs hide in combat.

The Bad
It's short. Damn short.

The Bottom Line
If you can get it for 30 FIM (or whatever) like I did, have a go, especially if you're a Jagged Alliance fan. I wouldn't buy it at full price, however, as it's really just a couple dozen (or less - I didn't count) new sectors with some nice new weapons and very little NPC interaction or plot. It kinda seems Sir-Tech are hoping people will be too excited about the editor to think about how little they're getting for their money.

The Good
This game is more challenging than its' predecessors, and it eliminates the tedium of worrying about income. You just begin getting down to business!

The Bad
Graphics were not quite state of the art when released, but it's not distractingly bad, either.

The Bottom Line
This is not truly a sequel nor an expansion. It is a stand-alone game that engages you in turn-based tactical combat with squads of mercenaries. Included in this game are indicators of your soldiers' line ot sight and weapons range, which allows a little more intelligent planning. You will need it. There are no substantial opportunities to upgrade anything in about the first half of the game, and you will be challenged from start to finish.

The Good
More Jagged Alliance 2, can't go wrong - or so I thought. The enemies are not really smarter as is sometimes claimed but just follow another routine. Still nice; New tactics on your part are required. First battles are challenging as the enemy will outnumber you and outclass you weapon-wise. After that you get rather showered with equipment. New cool guns. Fun (though few) recruitable characters. Roughly half the game takes place in a bunker which could make for great gameplay, but, see below.

The Bad
Oh my, where to start.

Software: There is no limit to the bugs. Now I hear you say we are used to that from JA2. You are not. The old bugs are negligible in comparison. The game will freeze or crash on you every other 5 minutes, at least on windows XP. I did play from an original CD, but I doubt they were able to fix anything at GOG.

Gameplay: Really short and one-track. Only about 20 accessible sectors. No side-missions, no strategic decisions. Cash is limited, but plenty, time is unlimited (and mercenaries are paid per mission not per day), which feels like cheating since you can spend all the time healing, repairing and training you want. Above ground everything is rather ok, nice challenges, at least two well though out sectors. The problem is below ground. Instead of tactically challenging situations you are faced on numerous occasions with spots where all you can do is turn the corner or move through that door, taking fire. No diversions, no decoys, no alternative routes, no blowing up walls, no decisions to make when to invest heavy gear like LAWs and when to save it (Instead you have lots of LAWs but most walls and doors are immune to them). Realistic? Yes, maybe. Interesting to play? No. Smoke grenades now only work in the enemies favor, that is, he will always see and hit you, you won't, no matter who's in the smoke. In exchange you can sometimes throw grenades at weird angles that did not work for me in JA2. Towards the end of the game it comes down to this: move through door, get hit, shoot back, use regeneration boost you find, rinse, repeat. Occasionally the enemies will be able to shoot through walls (corners), sometimes you can't shoot back. Who gets an interrupt now seems to be entirely random or predetermined. The game seems to intend that you take only one team into the later part of the game but it is easy to use the menus in a way that allow entering with most mercs. If you are prepared for the bugs and freezes that seem to come with it.

Story: Not that important really and basically sound but a few weird elements. Useless blabla emails from Miguel and Enrico. Some dialogue seems nonsensical but maybe that's just me.

The Bottom Line
Don't buy, don't play. First quite promising but then extremely frustrating. Taking the fun out of Jagged Alliance. One time I stopped playing for a few days and the last sector was nothing but "please let it be over soon".