There is so many versions of this game to make one dizzy. And to add to the confusion the versions on GoG seem to be different than the versions on Steam.

I own on Steam
Jagged Alliance - Back in Action
Jagged Alliance 2 - Wildfire

There is a Jagged Alliance 2 Classic which appears to go on top of Wildfire and according to some reviews makes the already buggy Wildfire even worse and makes it so you can't properly use some mods?

I can't find a original JA2 that doesn't lay on top of wildfire on Steam where I know that's specifically what it is.

Gog has https://www.gog.com/game/jagged_alliance_2 so is that the original version that doesn't layer on top of Wildfire and that's better to get?

OK so where does https://store.steampowered.com/app/1620/Jagged_Alliance_2_Gold/ fall into this? What's the difference between gold and not gold? Is this layered on top of WF for a buggy experience?

Which JA gives the best experience? Is 1 better than 2 or visa versa? If I got a version of 1 and 2, which versions of those numbers to get? Or can I be happy with what I already have, do the versions I have represent a good JA experience already?/Will run any mod I'll want to use?(mod recommendations?) What version does "Back in Action" even represent/"remake"

I'm stumbling over my words trying to even explain my JA confusion.

Look at the reviews. Besides, most of these games are heavily discounted. You can just buy them and see how they compare with what you have on Steam. You can request a refund up to 30 days after purchase (as long as you didn't play each game for a very long time).

Further reading:
• Wikipedia article explains what the Gold pack is.
• Reddit post that's basically your question.

JA2 + 1.13 makes it a very diferent experience. The changes might be abit overwhelming, and it has been a long time since i played, but the result is worth it.

Making it work properly also requires quite abit of reading, but this link has all the info required.

http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=24648&start=0&

honestly, it just makes it all the more confusing. ive tried about 12 times over the years and never gotten it right. Yup.

Back in Action is also a very enjoyable game (but whether or not is a JA game is a much contrived point - if you play it, I do suggest the rebalanced mod for minimal changes to the core game).

JA2 doesn't go on top of Wildfire. Wildfire orginally was a mod of JA2 which became an official entry in the series. It's a stand-alone, so you don't need JA2 to play WF.
There were 2 WF versions, 5 and 6. 5 is the buggy one, 6 the stable. 6 is sold here.

Wikipedia provides plenty of info:
Jagged Alliance series
Jagged Alliance 2

JA, JA2, JA2:UB and JA2:WF are great games and well worth their money.
After playing vanilla JA2, install the 1.13 mod for a new challenge and replayability.

JA, JA:DG, JA2 and JA2:WF are all on sale. You can get all 4 for € 5.16.
On top of that this weeks releases Brigade E5: New Jagged Union and it's successor 7.62 High Calibre (with the Hard Life add-on) were inspired by JA(2) but are not as good. You can pick both up for a total of € 3.58.

If you want just one you should get GOG's regular JA2. It's considered best of the series and has by far best support with excellent mods, source ports, custom content and whatnot. Seems that on Steam it kind of does because they sell something called JA2 Classic as DLC for Wildfire... And apparently they also have something called JA2 Gold with ZERO reviews since 2006 and strange price. Talk about confusion.

I would either get JA2 on gog or JA2Gold on steam. The gold edition is the JA2 v1.12 + Unfinished business packaged together with separate executables. Similarly, the JA1 + Deadly games are packaged together into JA1 Gold on steam.
Wildfire+JA2classic dlc is to be avoided from what I gathered back then if you are interested mainly in ja2 content as it was buggy... although situation might have changed since then.

JA2 Gold on Steam will be probably the original JA2 plus the official expansion/standalone Finished Bussiness plus the editor

EDIT: Too Late, It has been already explaned by the above post

Greetings

JA - Back in Action is simply JA 2 remade in 3D, and with a "real-time with pause" combat system.

If you're interested in the history of the game(s), simply invest €12,46 and buy
Jagged Alliance,
JA: Deadly Games,
JA 2, and
JA 2: Unfinished Business.

That will give you the original JA 2 in 2D-isometric - which is totally worth it (if you enjoyed your Steam copy of JA 2: Wildfire).

Or: if you say "I don't want to buy the "same" game again!", save the €0,99 and simply buy the rest for €11,47.

For completeness sake, I need to mention that there is another game, JA: Rage!, which is graphically closer to your JA: BiA, but has received mixed reviews.

I have JA2 1.13 running with Wildfire 6 maps+mercs and high-res in Linux. It doesn't get any better than that :)

// but I am too sanctioned to share, thank gog

Add to that that Brigade E5, currently on sale, is said that was going to be sold as a title in the JA series, but for some reason it could not be. They added the subtitle: "New Jagged Order".

And of course it has a sequel of its own, 7,62. And a mod readily available in GOG that comes together: Hard Life. There is another mod that possibly you can add to vanilla as well.

See? it could be worse XD

Since GOG sells the original JA/JA2 titles DRM free and the latest versions, I never checked the titles on Steam. I recommend the GOG versions over the Steam versions to anyone.

For some time 2 versions of Wildfire were sold, 5 and 6. 5 was a buggy POS and sold by Strategy First. IIRC correctly they screwed over the developers by not paying them. 6 is the stable version and was sold by Zuxxez which resurrected Topware Interactive and renamed itself to TI. Not sure which version Steam is selling.


I haven't played JA2 in years and stopped tracking mods. IIRC there were plans to mod/remake WF into 1.13.

I've mentioned and recommend the JA2Gold on steam for one very specific reason and that is getting Unfinished business cheaply. It hasn't been discounted on gog for more than a year now and we were talking like ~25% off or something. You can get JA2Gold for 2-3bucks on sale instead. Add JA1 gold for another buck, and you have all 4 classics for 4 bucks at worst on steam during sales.

Our personal preference about store and price aside, OP can make an informed decision based on which content he wants and where/when he wants to buy/play it.

I understand the confusion because sequels/spiritual sequels aside, there are at least three iterations of the same campaign, each one with its own details and differences but basically the same game but harder.

Not mentioning the fan made 1.13 but I own Wildfire on Steam for many years and the first time I tried it I saw that it was more of the same, same campaign more of everything and an absurd difficulty spike. first mission and everybody heavily wounded in a minute. Too extreme. This plus the unability to switch to the original resolution (all is ridicusly small in Wildfire in 1024x768 and no zoom) forced me to abandon the game.

With the gold version they offered the editor. But considering that the official addon Unfinished Business is not comparable to the original and that I can only think in three or four new proper campaigns/maps available, I believe I has been a bit wasted. The big fan job was about adding features and content to the original via 1.13 patch

Wildfire is the only one anyone needs. For the simple reason it is the most polished version, even though the logic isnt always perfect. The first game is a janky mess. Part 2 feels to zoomed in and lacking features that Wildfire has. After WF, the modern stuff just sucks and has nothing to do with the first 2 games at all, apart from capitalizing on the brand name.

WF will sometimes glitch by breaking a few plotlines requiring a reload of your save(save often solves this; every 20mins). Lockpicking requires practice in almost every locked door in the starting areas, but you can open most doors via different methods, as well as using stuff that goes rat tat tat tat and boom(hint hint!).