Jagged Alliance 2

I am a huge fan of the original Jagged Alliance and tried to get into this game two or three times before but gave up because of a bit of a learning curve to the user interface and also that the game tends to crash on new systems. To fix the compatibility issues, do yourself a favor and download "Jagged Alliance 2 Stracciatella," which is a collection of libraries you feed the files of the game that you download here and then runs it with wonderful compatibility with new systems, including MacOS X, which is what I am playing it on. Lifesaver! Also, once you actually learn the interface and some of the game mechanics (just look up Jagged Alliance 2 fan wiki), this game is an absolute masterpiece and the interface is actually a joy to use. This has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time, the design is simply a work of love, starting from the vision the designer had, to the wonderfully drawn animations, and attentional to detail, the personalities of all the mercs that took a lot of time and creativity. One of the things I love most about how Jagged Alliance was designed was how you run into unique events during the storyline (during the first game, without saying anything too explicitly, the kidnapping, the picking up of delivered crates, the illness etc.), (during this 2nd game there are even more really fun sidebits that have that wonderful Jagged Alliance sense of humor). Can't say enough good things about this :)

My last playthrought was with "Wildfire" 15 years ago, and in my memory the game was very unstable and bugged. To my surprise, this version is very stable, it didn't crash or freeze once in the 50+ hours of my playthrough on Windows 10. Soundtrack and atmosphere are amazing, the graphics are obviously not up to date, but solid and aged better than 3D games of that time. Some fights in the early stages of the game take a bit too long, due to weak marksmanship and no precise weapons, but with high wisdom your soldiers learn very quick. One of the best turn-based tactic games, and still worth playing.

This is an excellent game. Truly immersive combat & strategy RPG. It is hard to point to single or even couple great things about the game. There are so many amazing concepts like strategy view, many...many mechanics, soldiers of fortune are superbly designed in terms of skills and personalities, tactic gameplay is very rewarding, great guns and equipment... I remember I bought the game in 1999 on CD, played so much that finally my disc refused to work. Now I have my copy with GOG and could not be happier about this. Worth every penny.

Never before was the sequel to a turnbased strategy game that much fun, never before a dictator so ruthless and yet so hilarious, never before was a game so captivating. The land is Arulco, your mission is to kick Deidranna Chivaldori from the throne. Your contractor? Enrico Chivaldori, her husband who had to fake his death in order to escape the nation. Now in exile he gives you everything he has to stop his ex-wife from oppressing the people. A myriad of characters roam Arulco in both the cities and the countryside, both helpful and dangerous. It is a long way before you free the nation and serve the queen a bullet between the eyes. And Deidranna Chivaldori is a very dangerous and driven woman... Each mercenary you can hire either in Arulco or from AIM and/or MERC has his/her own set of dialogue to a myriad of situations. Each merc has his/her own personality and will act accordingly. The game itself was patched by the developers to the version 1.12, however the community took the torch and modded a communitypatch together, version 1.13, which brings more options into the game. Make the game as hard or easy to play as you want it to be. Even to this day, there are projects that not only add new features and 1.13 adds TONS of features, but also an arsenal worthy to wage a world war in Arulco. Think outside the box. You are no national army, you can throw at them whatever you want... Forbidden mustard gas or thermobaric missiles? You name it! There is also an addition on the way that is called AIMNAS that adds even more items to the game as well as bigger sector maps. Yes, you read that right: The community was able to edit new sector maps several times bigger than vanilla maps. From the 256 sector maps on the surface currently in the game, the subterrain ones not included, only about 50 to 60 remain to be built. In short: The vanilla game is awesome and has replayability, the modded game has replayability beyond compare. Everyone should own this gem of a game.

I bought this game as a hard copy back in 1999 and the fact that it is still one of the first games I install whenever I buy a new computer should tell you something. There is nothing that compares to this great game and if I would have to choose my favourite game ever, this would be it. I still play it to this day. I could go into all the fantastic mods made for it (and still being made for it), but even if you don't mod it, it still stands strong in its own right. I cannot recommend this game enough. Buy it at a sale or buy it at full price, but do yourself a favour and buy it. It is a superb blend of tactics, strategy and RPG with which all other such games should be compared. It is the gold standard. I ensure you that you will not be disappointed with your stay in Arulco, but just remember the sage advice of Ivan Dolvich: "Keep head to dirt."