Jagged Alliance 2

Great game. Play the 1.13 version for even more fun. Search "1dot13" to find the latest build, or visit The Bear's Pit forum.

I'm old and have been playing computer games since before computers had hard drives. Really. Hundreds of them. This is the best game ever imo. Ah to be lying on a roof under the tropical night sky with a Dragunov sniper rifle at the ready and Raven and Buzz on full auto covering the approaches. Just can't be beat.

Hell, it's the best tactics game I own as well. It's really difficult to describe quite how good a game Jagged Alliance 2 is: it seamlessly blends fast paced, tactical combat, an interesting and meaningful strategic layer with a well written CRPG story, bolstered by excellent, over-the-top voice acting. I think it's best enjoyed with the v1.13 mod, which adds more of everything with plenty of options to tailor the experience to your hearts content, adding challenge and content and with plenty of bugfixes for the base game.

Well there are so many reviews that another one is not really necessary i guess. Reason why i write this is about the game "version" to be chosen, normal (called vanilla) vs mods, expecially the most famous 1.13. The game as it comes from GOG is the official one, and i strongly raccomand ppl new to the game to play it as it comes. Its awesome and better balanced then any mod you can find around. Also you have to consider the modded game is quite different, its not just adding weapons and stuff like better inventory. There are some very good mods, the most famous and played is the "1.13" mod, and its basically a collection of some other mods. Try it after you played the normal one, 1.13 is very nice but also very different to the original game. Note that 1.13 is not an official update, its a collection of community mods that changes an incredible number of game aspects. 1.13 is a mod but there are more then 1 version actually, from forums you can get latest (but less stable) releases. From 1.13 "official" page you can get the latest stable version of the mod, itmisses a large number of modifications from the "latest" releases, but its very stable at least. The game quest-line and events are not changed in 1.13, but the game experience is really different. 1.13 its quite configurable (from .INI file) and adds a lot of interesting changes to the game, some are indeed very welecome, but its not so easy to set all the variables to start a game that you really will like. If you play 1.13 as it comes, without manually change something, the game seems to be too hard at start and too easy near the end game (personal opionion). So you are a bit forced to go into INI file to configure it as you prefer, but it can take some tries to start a game that really please you, and also it requires to read and learn a good number of keyboard shortcuts (with no in game buttons) to perform specific actions. 1.13 requires you to play from start with a larger pool of mercs, the base team will be the IMP's mercs, that are 6 aviable in the 1.13 actual stable version, and only 1 is hirable in the original JA2. So as you can imagine starting with 6-9 mercs or with 3 (as the vanilla JA2 basically requires) adds from start a big difference in the playstyle. So well, my advice is to play this game as it comes first, then experiemnt mods, they changes a lot the game experience and overall i liked more the normal version of the game.

This game was far ahead of its time when it was released in the late 90's. We're talking about things never before done, or very seldomly done in games TODAY, 20 years later. Pros: - Great story with lots of rabbit holes to discover - FULLY voice acted characters, and MANY of them - Great writing and character development - Guns, GUNS, and MORE GUNS!! - As many RPG elements as you want for an in depth experience (training your own militia, inventory and skill management, character relationships) - It's just a good game (I know). But really, it just is. You should play it. - Mod community is HUGE. Cons: - Graphics are a little dated by today's standards - Occasional game crashes and other bugs - ...Can't think of any others :P If you want a deep, rich, funny, entertaining and grossly addictive game to try and have had your fill of other more modern games, try this. You will not regret it.