Jagged Alliance 2

The Good
Graphics: Beautiful isometric 3D graphics (none of those silly polygons, mind you) with enough variation and well thought-out maps. Also nice rendered intro animation.

Sound: Talking mercenaries and NPC's (with really silly voice acting), only slightly annoying "combat music", and billiards of realistic sound effects.

Gameplay: JA2 lets you use any tactics you like to deal with the bad guys. Or not! - If you like, you can just have heaps of soldiers charge in head first with guns a-blazing, as opposed to all that boring stuff they teach in the army (and the myriad "stratagy giudes" you can read on the Internet).

Other stuff, just as important: Once you've gotten over the superb gameplay and presentation, you also start to notice the little things like the interesting sub-plots and all the not-so-important but well written background information on "Arulco", the different PC's and NPC's, and all the equipment.

The Bad
First of all, all through the game I expected "Hamous", the ice-cream truck thief to say "Me so horny", but he didn't! (Well, of course he didn't, but if the guy who did his voice had to fake such a preposterous accent, he really should have said "Me so horny".)

Second of all, you tend to miss a lot of the sub-plots and NPC's just because they don't show on the map screen and it really gets to be a pain in the arse just walking around on the real-time screens looking for people who might or might not be there.

The Bottom Line
Well balanced combat game - play the way you like to.

The Good
Good graphics, the whole "personalize this and that" feature, good sfx and an attempt to keep old characters.

The Bad
This game is a complete insult to the original. It steps on all genius things from JA 1 and adds too many clichés and that nerdy feel that just keeps on and on in all "modern" games! How so? Well, for example, the voice talents and characters are so watered down they look and hear really cartoonish, when will game developers understand that a credible character and a believable voice talent make so much a difference just as a good or a bad actor does inside a movie!? Also the characters' relationship with others and personality traits don't matter much anymore as it used to in JA1, something that made the game be truly unique and added a fun strategy to deal with. Also the mobility and gameplay is completely different. JA1 made the player be in total control and gave you a great deal of free will, you could plan your strategy well and conquer your enemy step by step according to your strategy. JA 2 however, is way more linear, almost as if it would be a turn-based beat 'em up game with guns. The characters also seem weaker in the game and characters that used to be excellent mercenaries in the original game, now are soft and slow witted. Graphics in general are good, but really important thing such as the mercenaries faces are terribly cartoonish or simply unattractive.

The Bottom Line
Terrible Sequel, but can make a good game for players as a whole different game.

The Good
This has to be my favorite game ever. It's a perfect mix of strategy and role-playing. You control a squad of up to 18 characters as they try to wrest control of Arulco from the evil dictator Deidranna and return the country to its former monarch. You take control of sectors on a map, gradually leading up to Deidranna's seat of power in Meduna. Along the way you combat green and elite troops, meet individuals who help you along the way and upgrade your units.

The game runs very smoothly on even low-end systems. There's no interface lag like in many other video games. The graphics are nice and the controls are functional. The sound, music and humour are also great! The tactical gameplay is superb and some of the best you'll find in any video game. I'd rate the tactical combat even higher than X-COM's. The interaction with characters and side-quests, while less prevalent than in some other role-playing games, is interesting and adds a nice break from the combat.

The Bad
The only complaint I can think of is the lack of multiple levels in structures as in X-COM. While it is possible to walk along the ground and climb on the roof of some buildings, multiple storeys within buildings would have been nice. The sci-fi aspects are also not so good.

The Bottom Line
Probably as close to perfect as any video game as ever come! The game is always interesting and never leaves you wanting to play something else.