Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business

"A disappointing follow up to a great game"

This is the stand alone expansion pack for the fantastic Jagged Alliance 2, one of the truly great strategy games. It takes place after the original game in the neighbouring country of Tracona. You are contacted by the Enrico Chivaldori, who you helped liberate Arulco and informed that it is under threat of missile attack from the Ricci mining corporation. They ran the mines in Arulco prior to your intervention. Your mission go into Tracona and eliminate this threat.

Gameplay 8
The creators have apparently listened to some of the feedback from fans and introduced new features that add to the experience. These include introducing a new difficulty level, some tweaks in the combat system and new weapons and characters. Not a lot needed to be done because Jagged Alliance did have near faultless gameplay anyway, so it would have criminal not to replicate that.

Story 5
The story is reasonably interesting without being gripping, there is no real sense of urgency, as you have as long as you want to complete the game. Another fault is the story is not advanced a great amount, you know what you have to do at the start of the mission and that does not alter one iota.

Graphics 6
The engine is beginning to show its age against more modern games but then graphics were never top of the agenda in the series. They are more than adequate without ever making you think wow, like the previous game this is no FMV extravaganza.

Sound 8
Audio has long been an important part of the series, and this game continues that tradition. Music though limited is not too intrusive, being mainly an accompaniment to the digitized speech the strongest factor in the franchise. This gives the characters a real sense of personality, and Unfinished Business does not fail to deliver in this aspect.

Replayability 4
It saddens me to give such a low score but there is precious little replayability in the game. Despite the new mercenaries and weapons being enjoyable, they are quite simply nowhere near enough of them to merit a higher score.

A further failing is the linearity of the whole experience you start at point a and proceed in a virtually straight line to the end. Unlike Jagged Alliance 2 which featured a plethora of side quests and freedom to roam this does not. Side quests here (such as exist) are short and of mediocre quality.

The only saving factor is the inclusion of an editor allowing you to create you own campaigns and sample the many available online. This is not something you will repeatedly return to.

To buy or to rent
Buy but only in the hopes that this encourages a third game something devoted fans are desperate for, besides if you can find it chances are it might well be cheap.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/02, Updated 11/26/07

Game Release: Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business (US, 11/30/00)