Jagged Alliance 2 (Windows)

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Description

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 turned-based strategy 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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

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

Part of the Following Groups

• Game feature: Simulated Internet
• Gameplay feature: Brothels
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Repetition
• Gameplay feature: Squad management
• Gameplay feature: Targeting system
• Games with officially released source code
• Jagged Alliance series
• Software Pyramide releases
• Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System

User Reviews

I don't scream and cheer at many games. This one I did.	Kyle Levesque (935)
One of the best squad-based combat games ever!	Frecklefoot (201)
One giant leap for mankind	M B (18)
An outstanding update of the original	Afterburner (496)
Mercs and guns and baddies, oh my!	Narf! (138)
The best turn-based squad combat strategy game around	Kurt Sample (1076)
My favorite game!	SharkD (440)
Disappointing	andvari a (3)
Ugly mercenaries, great game	Late (95)
Sirtech magic touch blessed this one too....	Marina Shoykhet (7)

Critic Reviews

Computer Games Magazine	Jul 30, 1999		100
The Games Machine (Italy)	Oct 01, 1999	95 out of 100	95
Game Over Online	Aug, 1999	91 out of 100	91
Game Captain	Jun 03, 1999	91 out of 100	91
Just Games Retro	Sep 29, 2015		90
Power Play	May, 1999	90 out of 100	90
PC Action (Germany)	May, 1999	90 out of 100	90
IGN	Aug 02, 1999	8.5 out of 10	85
Gameplay (Benelux)	Apr 30, 1999	84 out of 100	84
Power Unlimited	Nov, 1998	8.2 out of 10	82

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Not 4x but x-com like squad/turn based tactics	2	leilei (339) Jan 02, 2012
4X (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, eXterminate)	9	Indra was here (20853) Aug 31, 2007
Anyone know what those switches are for?	4	Indra was here (20853) 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

Related Web Sites

• Jagged Alliance 2 (official website)
• Jagged Alliance 2 FAQ (A FAQ discussing Jagged Alliance 2.)
• The Jagged Alliance 2 H.Q. (Fansite for JA2. Includes downloadable save games and editor tools.)
• The Official Homepage of Arulco (This is a page about Jagged Alliance 2)