Jagged Alliance 2

aka: Guerilla: Jagged Alliance 2, JA2
Moby ID: 356
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

The political situation in the democratic monarchy of Arulco has gone from bad to worse. The country has been taken over through a coup d'état by Queen Deidranna Reitman, the wife of Enrico Chivaldori - rightful heir and son of late King Andreas Chivaldori. Enrico was reportedly killed in an assassination attempt during his trial for the murder of his father. Enrico however is alive and has contacted the Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) to help him retake the island. Making contact with Miguel Cordoba, the head of the resistance team, A.I.M. will hire mercenaries and coordinate battle plans to control towns, organize militias in a quest to overthrow Queen Deidranna.

Jagged Alliance 2 is an isometric, third-person perspective turn-based tactics game. The role-playing elements of the game refer to (mostly) character development. The game is also able to switch between two different styles: sci-fi or realistic modes. From a new game, players will use their laptop to review information and hire mercenaries. Following that, the political map shows a satellite top-down position of the island of Arulco. From the map, equipment and funds are managed, as well as a review of enemy movement, and planning can be made to capture towns, mines and other locations. From the map, mercenaries can be deployed into a specific sector. Hostile sectors and enemy counter-attacks initiate combat mode.

The combat screen is where most of the actual gameplay occurs. Traveling in towns, exploring houses (with the purpose of stealing stuff of course!) and most importantly combat, occurs here. An encounter with an enemy team (either offensive or defensive) will prompt a battle in the area of contact. If on the offensive, players may opt to place mercenaries in favorable positions. Each team plays in turns, unless their action in interrupted by an opposing member. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes: enemy soldiers, tanks, bloodcats, and (in sci-fi mode) insect-like monsters. The team that remains alive will control the sector.

In order to recapture the island, players must engage in town militia management. A defense system must be organized for newly conquered towns to defend against enemy troops. Only loyal towns however may have its population trained into militia (indicated by a green percentage on the town via political map). A maximum of 2 mercenaries may train militia in any given town. The militia has 3 different training levels: green, regular, and veteran. The first 2 may be acquired through training, while the veteran status may only be acquired through combat.

Spellings

  • Агония Власти - Russian spelling
  • 铁血联盟2 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

226 People (195 developers, 31 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 31 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 142 ratings with 10 reviews)

Mercs and guns and baddies, oh my!

The Good
Strategy, tactics, and a well thought out plan. This is what you need to play this game. X-COM was a lot of fun. The original Jagged Alliance was a blast. This game made me think in tactical terms for weeks (and still does from time to time). Jagged Alliance 2 is a rather large step up from the original in terms of scope, graphics, and all around gameplay.

The basic gist of things is that you have been hired by the ex-ruler of a country called Arulco. He is thought dead by its citizens and his ex-wife/queen of Arulco. Your job is to make contact with the rebels, and take the country back. You do this by hiring mercs and basically going to war with the country's army. This is a pretty basic plot, but there are so many side quests and extra NPC's and other things to keep your interest throughout the game.

One of the differences with this and the first game is that you can actually make yourself a merc in the game, instead of leading from some invisible command center. Depending on how you answer some questions, you will have certain abilities or quirks. Trust me, you WILL get attached to yourself. (Um... yeah. You know what I mean...) You hire your mercenaries from AIM (Association of International Mercenaries) by signing contracts (1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks) instead of just paying by the day. The mercenaries that you have access to are mostly new, with some returning from Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance:Deadly Games. While there are not as many as in the previous game, they all still have rather unique personalities. Some will simply not work with others, while some may go berzerk upon seeing the enemy. This was one of those things that I loved about the original. Personality. These are not mercs that you hire and use carelessly. Each one has their use in your team. When you lose one, you don't just feel it in the bank account...

As for weapons, there is a large selection that can be scrounged, stolen, looted or bought. There is even an option at the beginning of the game where you can use a larger range of weapons. There are handguns ranging from the Desert Eagle, to rifles such as the Colt Commando. Then of course there are the attachments. Bipods, scopes, silencers, even an underbarell grenade launcher!

The Bad
The AI in this game is very good. Sometimes too good. Even on the easy setting, the enemy is no pushover. The enemy will rarely fire a shot that they know will miss. Supposedly, this is due to the fact that the enemy always knows their chances of hitting, and will only fire when those chances are good. Its a fairly even trade-off to play on normal, so you can get the better guns earlier on. Like in any real-world conflict, weapon and armor quality mean a lot.

Another quirk is the line-of-sight. The manual states "you only see what your mercs see". There are some instances when you KNOW that they should see the enemy, but they don't. That and hiding behind trees/bushes is iffy. Sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn't.

My final gripe is damage rules. Some of those weapons should be dealing a lot more damage than they do. One shot to the head, maybe two should kill a man regardless of what kind of helmet they wear. Three! Four! I don't think so.

The Bottom Line
Jagged Alliance 2 is a very enjoyable game. Despite a few quirks here and there, it does provide a very good squad-tactics kind of game. Once again, I'll refer to that tactical great, X-COM. Anyone that enjoyed that game, will also enjoy this one.

Windows · by Narf! (132) · 2001

One of the best squad-based combat games ever!

The Good
Though sometimes very hard, this game is one of the best squad-based combat games I've ever encountered. This game even best's X-COM by allowing the user to control every aspect of his sqaud's movements and actions.

The game runs in real-time until your squad gets into a battle, when it switches to turn-based combat. Here you can control every movement and shot fired by your squad members. The more experience they obtain, the better they get (just like in real life).

The controls are intuitive (once you get the hang of them) and allow you to quickly deploy orders to your team. Once you take control of the airport, you can order refreshed supplies of ammo and other items and can recruit more mercs to help you in your task of taking back Arulco.

The game is completely non-linear: you can accomplish your missions (taking over cities) in any order you like. If you want to barrel-on through and take out the head cities first, you're free to try.

The graphics, though 2D, are perfect for this game. The picking is almost flawless and movement fluid. The voice-acting, usually a stumbling point in such games, is just right. The interface is free of clutter: the information it displays in useful and pertinent. The music for this game also seemed "right on."

The enemy is finely tuned. The enemies don't seem to have any artificial education to help beat you. They seem to know what they can see and nothing else (a Good Thing(tm)). Many enemies are difficult to defeat but rarely "impossible."

I just wish there were a Jagged Alliance 3 on the way... (there are rumors, but nothing confirmed)

The Bad
The game usually runs fine, but seems to have trouble with NTFS disks. It ran flawlessly until I redid my installation as NTFS. It will run a ways, but then die and refuse to load saved games.

It would be nice if this game were higher res and 3D. But I think these are more of wish-list items for the next version instead of complaints of this game. I never found myself thinking, "Man this game needs to be in 3D."

The Bottom Line
A great squad-based combat game. One that needs to be played to be appreciated.

Windows · by Frecklefoot (188) · 2004

I don't scream and cheer at many games. This one I did.

The Good

  • Voice acting.

  • Sense of immersion into enemy territory.
  • Variation in difficulty.
  • Lots of nerdy weapons.
  • Rewards tactical thinking.


**The Bad**
  • Can play a little slow.
  • Level editor is crap.
  • Graphics are clunky.
  • Enemy AI can vary.


**The Bottom Line**
I'm not a graphics snob, but when the game-play of Jagged Alliance 2 started up my heart sank a little. I could not imagine getting too involved or invested in these ‘jagged’ graphics. The interface didn’t help – it seemed clunky and awkward. You see, I’d played ‘Fallout Tactics’ just prior to this, and regardless of whether that’s a good ‘Fallout’ game, it is a sight prettier and slicker looking than this one. Thankfully I powered through the initial awkward phase, and as a reward I got to know a game that can provide some emotional highs and dramatic moments – not because of masterful story writing – but because of the hair-raising tension that unfolds via the player’s actions. I’m not usually the one to scream ‘Yes!’ and pump my fist in excitement; nor to swear and bang a keyboard, but this game had me doing both. I was screaming stuff like “Swim you fat old f#$%!”, “You die and I’ll KILL you!”, or “Ohhh! RIGHT in the HEAD!” I was bugging co-workers with tales of my exploits in a game 13 years old. I know you’re looking at those screenshots and thinking ‘it doesn’t look like much’, so was I, but it’s the actual game-play that gets to you. As silly as those ‘orange garbage bag shirt’ guys look, you will come to loathe them. The Atmosphere
The atmosphere is the most important ingredient in this game. A lot of games try to create atmosphere, try to convey feeling, but are restricted by their own interface. Let’s look at a sports game, a hockey game – Up until recently, you had to play as whoever had the puck on one side. It doesn’t really re-create the feeling of being a hockey player. Even when you enable a ‘career’ mode and you play as just one guy on the team it is frustrating because of your lack of control. This is a failing to establish convincing and dramatic atmosphere. Jagged Alliance 2 does not fail in atmosphere, because it is a pervasive simulation of being a group of mercenaries in a hostile country. There is no break from this, it is constant. Your enemies will continue to come for you; whether you need to sleep, heal, lick your wounds – is of no consequence to them. They are the many, and you are the few. They will not wait for you to come to them, they will not sit idle while you take their territory. You’ll think you know their measure, and then they’ll take back a site from you, using shock troopers that mow down your militia guards with ease. You’ll push forward into a sector, and be pushed to retreat – only to find more enemies at your rear – caught with men who are tired and low on morale. You’ll watch your mines dry up, your income cease, knowing that the day you can’t pay your men the war is over. So trust me when I say the graphics are unimportant. Trust me when I say that your men will be true characters, and whether you love them or find them annoying you’ll sell their lives dearly. Trust me when I say you’ll get angry at your masses of pixels being unfairly slaughtered by a lucky shot. That you’ll cheer when a hated enemy bleeds out, his life worth less than the precious ammo he’s carrying. All you’ve got is cash and a laptop. You need to fly in people and supplies, it takes time. Time is not your friend. Never in a game have I felt so restricted by the reality of time, the need to train militia, the need to heal your men, the restriction of having only one helicopter, and the ever present knowledge that your enemy is recovering and hunting for you… The Game-Play Mechanics This game does things that you won’t rightfully expect from something that looks so choppy. I didn’t even suspect that I could blow a hole through any building’s wall with a bomb or a missile launcher. I didn’t realize that any fence is only an obstacle to those without wire-cutters or a grenade. I thought the throwing knife was an obligatory gimmick, I couldn’t imagine how titillating it would be to watch it sail silently 10 metres through the air and cut into the face of a nearly bullet-proof opponent – to watch this dread foe stagger back and fall off a roof to his death. Locked door? Can’t pick it? Blow it up! Metal door you can’t blow up? Blow the wall up! Learning your options and applying them intelligently (or rashly) is one of the most rewarding parts of the gameplay mechanic. The items system is deceptively useful. Most guns can have multiple attachments – red dot sights, scopes, under-slung 40mm grenade launchers, tri-pod. You can switch out barrels and springs to create harder hitting automatic weapons! Just because it isn’t flashy looking it’s easy to underestimate the power and versatility here. Ricochets are not just a sound effect here, they can and will kill. Cover isn’t some ½ wall gimmick either, it is essential for survival. If you’ve read up on commando tactics you had best apply them, they’ll save your life. The sheer amount this game knows about the reality of battle is amazing – the demoralizing effect of seeing dead bodies of comrades, the thirst for water in battle, even how much of an advantage firing from behind a copse of pines can give you! The core mechanics are the heart and soul of the game-play. The dread of having a break-light (glowstick) fall near your party in a night mission is terrifying! Shots ring from the darkness, they hit you and you can’t hit back! Characters Having just played Fallout Tactics I wasn’t expecting too much other than archetype’s in the characters department. My perception from the ‘interview’ screen when hiring them didn’t rise my expectations too much either. You see, when it comes down to it, they’re just an amalgamation of statistics and feats. But after a few missions you won’t feel that way anymore. You begin to expect certain things from them, you begin to get to know them and what they can and cannot do. Some of them will frustrate and anger you; I remember a character named ‘Grizzly’ missing almost every shot he took, and getting severely wounded in every encounter. That’s no small deal, as healing a character takes a lot of downtime and effort, it isn’t a ‘use item’ heal, it takes hours of surgery and recovery. It took a long time and a lot of leveling up before he was more competent in a fire-fight, but he was also the only one on my team who could crow-bar open almost any door or locker I wanted into. On the contrary, another character named ‘Blood’ was always the star of my squad, even above my own avatar. Blood always had twice as many kills as anyone else, and it was Blood who made that knife shot to the head. Blood was also a talented martial artist, taking down heavily armed enemies with spinning round-house kicks to the head or a silent knife kill. I would often pair Blood with ‘Hitman’, an older character who was also good with a throwing knife but was out of shape. He’s the guy I was yelling “Swim you old f#$@” at, because he floundered and drown in a river due to his poor shape and heavy load. Where Hitman shined brightest was in training militia troops to hold the ground I took, he was a natural teacher. The Characters BECOME what you MAKE OF THEM. I made Blood into a paragon of victory because I used him as one. I could have done that with anyone I applied properly. I made my lady doctor into a dread sniper because I adapted her to the role. It’s that dual attachment of both being presented with and shaping a character that endears them to you. Short-comings No game is without flaw, and this is no exception. The only weakness here I feel are the graphics, which were honestly pretty par for the times. Everything they DID with the graphics surprised me, I’d visit battlefields from a few days ago and see vultures picking off the corpses of the men I’d killed. Pixelly vultures, but still – that’s neat. Bottom Line: This is a really good game to play for set periods of time (an hour and a half) at a time over a few months. You’ll be thinking about it at work, you’ll want to think before you act, it’s more rewarding intellectually than something that’s just visually pleasing.

Windows · by Kyle Levesque (904) · 2013

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Not 4x but x-com like squad/turn based tactics Dim Gri (30) Jan 2, 2012
4X (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, eXterminate) SharkD (425) Aug 31, 2007
Anyone know what those switches are for? Indra was here (20756) Jun 16, 2007

Trivia

Character Responses

  • When Ivan sees someone hitting an enemy in the head he says, "This is why my brother became an alcoholic."
  • Mercenaries (mercs) are known to have certain personality problems with other mercs. One instance is Enrico, the Arulco rebel leader (and his bodyguard) who dislike German and Austrian mercenaries (due to German occupation of Arulco in World War II).

Cover Art

The talent (model) on the front box cover bears a remarkable resemblance to one of Jagged Alliance’s top mercenaries: Sheila 'Scope' Sterling, a British sniper, though this might be purely coincidental.

Awards

  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 - Best Round-Based Strategy Game in 1999

Information also contributed by Chentzilla

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Heikki Sairanen.

Linux added by Trixter. Macintosh added by Cavalary.

Additional contributors: Andrew Hartnett, Shadowcaster, Brian Robinson, Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Trond Berntsen, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Dimi Morabito.

Game added November 1, 1999. Last modified March 20, 2024.