Jagged Alliance 2

"Talonsoft revives my faith in the genre and my ability to stay awake for 18 consecutive hours."

I don't give these 10's out to just anybody, y'know...

I've loved and hated many games in my time. Most of them have incurred a little of both, but very few have brought only one emotion. SSI's Warhammer series has earned my unadulterated hatred. Talonsoft's Jagged Alliance 2 has earned not only my love, but all of my free time, as well.

The game's plot is fairly cliched. A ruthless dictator has taken over a small, resource-rich country, and you've been hired by the rightful ruler to kick her sorry ass off the thrown. Uh huh. What now?

You get dropped off in the small, much abused city of Omerta. From there, you get sucked right into a guerrilla warfare-styled, sector by sector reclamation of the country of Arulco.

What's great about this game? You really get the guerrilla feeling as you crawl through the thick jungles, moving into position quickly and quietly before announcing your presence with gunfire from four directions, picking off guards one by one. The atmosphere is great.

The graphics aren't exactly high-tech, but who cares? It's great for what you need, and anything more would get in the way. No 3D graphics rendering to chew up your processor, but the game doesn't suffer without it. The isotopic view is reminiscent of games like Fallout and X-COM, and objects that would get in the way (like trees and walls) fade half-out when you walk behind them. The game works in tilespace, which limits you in terms of cover, but makes movement and placement much easier and much more accurate.

Partial cover is taken advantage of, however. The best place to be is crouching behind a low wall. The enemy can only aim for your head (making hitting you so hard it's more a waste of ammo than a good idea), while you get full firing capabilities. You can also hide inside a building, firing out of windows, which is a good place to be until a grenade is lobbed in there.

The game works on the Action Point system, which allows you to save AP's for things like overwatch. During the enemy turns, if one of your mercenaries has AP's and can see a Bad Guy move into view, he has a chance at an interrupt, which means you can pick him off before he gets a chance to plug one of yours.

What else? You can run, walk, crawl, or scuttle (which is my word for the crouching walk). You can do so loudly (faster) or quietly (much slower but making almost no noise). Shoot. Reload. Bandage wounds. Scavenge for ammo. The plethora of options really lets you plan good, intelligent attacks, and even some stupid but endlessly cool ones (like emptying four clips of ammo into the wall the Bad Guy is hiding behind while another team member sneaks around it to plug him in the head point-blank). And the controls are smooth, easy to learn, and easy to use.

What else? You can make a custom mercenary (you) and hire up to 17 others. You can train militias in inhabited sectors to defend key areas like airports (where your weapons and ammo come in) and mines (where your money comes from). You can get vehicles like a helicopter to move your mercs around the country, but you better capture those SAM sites before you try flying through enemy airspace.

What else? The music is perfect for the mood. But the sound effects are superb. You can guess what kinds of guns the Bad Guys are firing at you based on how they sound. And, although they don't die quite as loudly as in other games, the sound of the bullets sinking into their evil flesh is quite satisfying.

What else? The voice acting is some of the best I've ever heard, and they lend your mercenaries real personalities. In fact, most of my mercenaries I hired not because of their special skills, but simply because I like them. They're a cool squad.

Speaking of personalities, you better hire mercenaries who like each other. If you doubt this, try hiring mercenaries who hate each other. They'll spend so much time bickering amongst themselves that the enemies in the sector will have time to gather around you, set up their guns, take a nap, have lunch, have a child, and fire off a few rounds at you before your guys will even notice that you're in trouble.

And don't worry, the Bad Guys are smart enough to take their time. Instead of charging you like mindless zombies on line for genocide, they'll radio for backup and advance in squads, making full use of cover and toys like grenades and Big Guns.

So, is this game missing anything? Only one thing: role-playing. The game advertises as an RPG, but NPC interaction is silly. There are many side-quests, including a sci-fi thing that breaks the mood, but, thankfully, can be turned off in the options menu. There's no role-playing, but that's all I can say in terms of negative points in the game. I would even add that the lack of role-playing doesn't take anything away from the game at all.

In the end, this game is everything a tactical strategy fan could ask for. A challenging opponent, but enough options to allow all kinds of plans and ideas to cope with them. Guerrilla warfare that feels like guerrilla warfare. Good controls. Beautiful sound. But, above all, real personality, a consistent mood, and a true sense of strategy.

PS - You can send the evil dictator a bouquet flowers. It's hilarious.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99