Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire

I was suspicious of this title after noting that it was not, in fact, developed by the makers of the original game. My suspicions proved true, as it is not so much an expansion pack as an inordinately amateurish mod of the original game... its story claims to take place after the events of JA2, yet the scenes and dialogue are almost exactly the same, with a few characters inexplocably moved to new locations and deprived of the lines in which they hint at what you actually want to know! The enemies appear to behave much the same, except they now wear blue shirts instead of red ones -many harmless civilians do too, which is needlessly confusing to say the least! Some of the weapon sprites and armor names have been altered to emulate the real world rather than the Jagged Alliance canon, for no apparent reason other than the developers' personal preferences... A few things have been changed, and even if it's been years since you played JA2, or if you haven't played it at all, you will know which they are right away -mercs moved to the AIM alumni section with very poor-quality explanations, the top two mercs suddenly being two german gentlemen with unusually boring backgrounds, rebel leader Miguel's voice actor having been swapped out for a substantially less talented one so that his lines might be modified in just a few places to fit the "new" plot, and left the same as they were in the original game out of sheer laziness in other places, despite the fact that this mod claims to take place after JA2 rather than in some strange parallell universe as one might assume- the list goes on. If you like Jagged Alliance or X-Com, do NOT buy this. Buy JA2, Unfinished Business, JA1 or Deadly Games -Sirtech, at least, know what they're doing!

Not a review of the game, just a comment on the 1-star reviews. They seem to be based on Wildfire 5, the 1st commercially released version. That version was developed by i-Deal games. It was buggy as hell and support for it stopped after Strategy First didn't live up their end of the deal. 1 star for that game is still too much. However i-Deal struck a new publishing deal with Zuxxez Entertainment (now TopWare Interactive). The version they released was Wildfire 6 which has most bugs fixed. That's the version that's sold on GOG. You can check that info on wikipedia. As for comments on the price, I can understand those. I have mixed feelings about it. It has it flaws, especially story wise, it's more an upgraded remake than a mod. On the other side, you do get a full game with a big map, not like the short run through that UB is.

This is not really an expansion as many people posted, it's more of a "remake" of the original JA2. A few weapons were added, the towns were remodeled and the AI improved, while keeping the old atmosphere and gameplay intact (made it a lot harder for inexperienced players though). The full changelog would be: -Realistic sound effects for a new, exciting and authentic game feeling. -Improved overview with a 1024 x 768 resolution. -All sectors have been reworked. New settlements, and building density has been increased. -Varying landscapes with changing density of vegetation and new visual conditions in close combat. -150 new items. -The commander can now command a squad of 10 mercenaries, in Jagged Alliance 2 only six mercs were allowed per squad. -More than 20 new weapons. -All weapons and explosives have been newly balanced with absolutely authentic characteristics - Total realism in the combination of weapons and protection systems. -The importance of sub-quests has been increased and now plays a major role in the game's overall flow. -There are new opponents and unfortunately for the player they have become a lot tougher, cleverer and unscrupulous. Differing enemy behavior demands a higher quality of varying tactics and non-linear thinking. -All military facilities have increased their defensive capabilities. They have added mine fields, fences, watchtowers, perimeter lighting, and alarms. Loving the JA series since i first made contact with it in 1999 and it always had it's place on my HDD since. If you feel the same let's give the new players a bit of help by improving this wiki. http://jaggedalliance.wikia.com

It has been a long time since I played the original Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2. Both amazing games. JA2 especially was thrilling, challenging, and had deep strategy elements combined with some real characters to flesh out the gameplay. However this is not those games. What you are getting here is essentially Jagged Alliance 2 with different shirt colors, and maybe some additional weapons ((although Im not even sure if thats the case). In addition, the developer made the game much harder. Enemies start off very superior in terms of hit points, weaponry, and skills. So what changed here? They took the same game, and made it harder. That is all. Also, its a little confusing because it seems like elements of the story have been removed, but I didn't find anything NEW in terms of the story. Long review short, you would be better off downloading the original JA2.