Jagged Alliance

The Good
Boy, this game took away almost a month of my life. I was back in school then and hardly finished lunch, before "Metavira" dragged me back to the PC. Jagged Alliance got seriously addicting.
The game's idea to integrate strategy, action and a decent bit of role playing made for a great concept. I loved to hire soldiers of fortune on the one hand, while placing workers to harvest the island's natural resources on the other. The game was relatively complex, while still easy to get a grip on.

The Bad
The graphics weren't much of an attraction, even back in 1994. The top-down perspective made for a good overview of the sector your hired guns were in, but it would hurt your eyes after a while.

The Bottom Line
Jagged Alliance is a great strategy-action-roleplaying-game. No wonder it became a series. The game is one of my all-time classics, still lying in my bookshelf, ready for replay.