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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Screenshots

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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)

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

The best turn-based squad combat strategy game around

The Good
This game got all the details right. First and foremost, JA2 only operates in turn-based mode when an enemy is spotted or one of your soldiers is attacked. Non-combat movement happens in real time. This makes the game exponentially more enjoyable to play than many similar titles. Combat--the meat and potatoes of the game--is a blast. There are plenty of items to choose from - a veritable cornucopia of guns, ammo, armor and assorted stuff. A mechanically adept character can often combine two or more apparently useless items into something useable, like a gun barrel extender or a trip-wire booby trap. The characters are all distinctive and they let loose some great sound bites, especially during combat. If you liked the character of Minsk in the Baldur's Gate games then you'll find plenty to enjoy here. All the potentially mundane management tasks (character generation, recruiting personnel, buying equipment, tracking your finances) are actually enjoyable, thanks in no small part to a wonderful pseudo-web browser interface.

The Bad
This doesn't detract from gameplay at all, but it's worth mentioning. JA2 is supposed to be set in a tropical island nation. The NPC natives of the island don't seem to realize this; they speak with a variety of Russian, South American and African accents. The voice acting is good, but the accents don't make any sense.

The Bottom Line
Don't be fooled by the ultra-cheesy box cover - this is a fantastic game. Essentially this game is a member of the turn-based squad combat genre pioneered by X-Com UFO Defense, with a healthy dose of role playing thrown in for good measure.

Windows · by Kurt Sample (1071) · 2001

One giant leap for mankind

The Good
I don't know where to begin! Being a long-time fan of the series, I felt amazed by the added depth of plot, new features, new weapons, and new tactics, not to mention the cool new mercs, such as Shadow, Stephen Rothman, and Reaper (or the new budget mercs, such as Barry Unger and Igor), as well as by the advancement and redefinition of the old mercs (Buzz, Lynx, Scope, Hitman, Fox (foxier, but ditzier than ever!), Wolf, and Helmut). I loved having to choose mercenaries from two competing agencies. The graphics and interface still aren't great, but they are great steps forward for this series. (However, it still feels like DOS with its linear menu choices). Creating your own custom mercenary at the beginning gave me such a thrill (with this, you can go for desired abilities or to truly try to make a merc just like you, with all of your strengths and weaknesses). The game map is huge and you have to control the fatigue levels of your team carefully. In addition, you can hire up to 18 mercs in 3 teams (versus 6 mercs in 1 team in the 2 previous versions). There is so much to like in this game. I have not even begun to mention the great variety of non-mercs and tons of side quests you'll encounter in JA2. The surprising dialogues will catch you off guard and will occasionally delight and horrify you.

The Bad
It's gory at times. The graphics aren't that great, per se, but some of the mutilation will shock you at the least expected moment. Enemy bodies will splatter at close range with the "right" (or wrong) weapon and you can pop off heads as well. It is quite a tour de force in both surprising and horrifying ways.

Do the creators at Sirtech have something against Romanians? First, in Deadly Games, there was Reuban, a psychopath merc from Romania. Now, the enemy, Deidranna, comes from Romania as well. It's odd! (To their credit, I hope that this was a coincidence in their choices of nationalities for various characters.)

The main villians (Elliot and D.) are more annoying than evil. In any case, you'll want to shoot Deidranna! Maybe annoying isn't so bad... but, compared to the pure evil of the original villain in Jagged Alliance, these clowns in JA2 seem like a parody of evil and destruction.

Many of the citizens of the land have bad "Spanish" accents.

Ira, a key (and otherwise likeable) person you'll encounter, has the ugliest New York accent that you'd want to listen to. In fact, many of the characters have exaggerated taunts and mannerisms. (The voices in the game are both good and bad... you'll see why after playing this for a while.)

The ending sectors are incredibly difficult-- tanks are very frustrating when even your heavy weapons seem to fail and your platoon gets blasted by tanks, mortars, and elite enemies... I don't know why Sir-tech elevated the difficulty so extremely toward the end.

The Bottom Line
If you can deal with turn-based and mostly close combat strategy, buy this immediately. If you like JA2, get the other games in the series for historical reasons. The graphics still leave you wanting, but the sounds, gameplay, and incredible depth will provide you with countless options and hours (and possibly years) of struggle. This is a memorable, addictive, frustrating, and valuable game.

Windows · by M B (15) · 2002

[ 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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  • MobyGames ID: 356
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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.