Jagged Alliance 2

[Paul G]

Just picked up this game for $10 and find it quite addicting. Any other fans? Weapons have some questionable characteristics but not too bad overall. Made myself as the merc leader, haven't got killed yet.

[Mekhazzio]

JA2 is a good game Like you said, it's not the most realistic representation of combat (even without the sci-fi stuff) but it makes for an enjoyable tactical combat game with a little bit of adventure and strategy thrown in for flavor. It makes for a good overall package. I have to confess, though, that I haven't finished it yet. The game's difficulty curve is somewhat backwards -- it actually gets easier as it goes along, and towards the end it pretty much turns into a turkey shoot.

[Rob B]

Had a great time with the original JA and was looking forward to the sequel. Even tried out the demo but then I picked up Rainbow 6 after reading the rave reviews and after playing it, completely lost interest in JA or other games like it. I have seen some previews of the next follow on to R6, I think its called Ghost Squad. Man o man I can't wait to get my hands on that one.

[Ivan Rajevic]

Paul:

 

Don't expect too much "realism" from JA/JA2. The concept of the game is to have fun, and as such realism has been sacrificed to a degree. It is highly improbable that after receiving a 5-bullet burst of .45 hollow point in the head anybody would still be standing, let alone shooting back. However, Sir-Tech went with a kind of "cartoon realism" that fits perfectly with the rest of the game. Just listen to the merc's comments when they're at death's door...

 

Mekhazzio:

 

Oh yes it gets tougher. Did you try to play hide-and-seek with tanks?

 

Rob:

 

Rainbow 6 is for people with good reflexes and enough adrenalin left in the system . As for me, I guess I'm too old to play anything that's not turn-based! To each his own...

[Rosco]

I am a confirmed JA2 junkie though I admittedly haven't fired the game up for more than a year. Anyways if a real challenge is what you're looking for then either play "Ironman" style {no reloading and delete game if you die }, download a so-called realism pack {mainly featuring vastly more lethal weapons effects} from one of the several fansites out there, or try to complete the game with your custom merc only...

[Guest Moriartty]

I played X-Com Terror from the Deep Iron Man style. Never went back to a save for any reason.

 

I lost more men than anyone else did true. I also won the game in half the game time.

 

I actually won it so fast that I did not have psionics ever. I had my own solution to the problem. I had a trooper with a very high psionic resistance. His job was simple. He carried the biggest rifle around and would shoot any of my troopers that became controlled by the aliens. By the end of the game he had the third highest kill total of all my troops.

 

Of course his name as Vader.

 

 

Originally posted by Rosco:

I am a confirmed JA2 junkie though I admittedly haven't fired the game up for more than a year. Anyways if a real challenge is what you're looking for then either play "Ironman" style {no reloading and delete game if you die }, download a so-called realism pack {mainly featuring vastly more lethal weapons effects} from one of the several fansites out there, or try to complete the game with your custom merc only...

[Douglas]

I didn't set out to play TFTD Iron Man style, but I ended up taking light casualties and didn't bother restoring. Early battles taught me I'd have to be much more cautious than in X-Com. My team moved slowly and deliberately, and most survived to the final battle, where Krug Manski finished the aliens off.

 

I preferred the default names, it's like watching athletes go from obscurity to fame, to the gullet of a slobbering alien mutant. A couple arrived with the names Quentin Tarantino and Jose Cuervo.

[Guest Moriartty]

Did you ever learn the trick so attacking bases was?

 

Once you got pulse wave torps attackign any base was easy. The weapons had waypoints.

 

All you did was fire one shot into the roof from the outside. This opened it up. Then you fired torps in, have them drop one level, then have them turn and hit the walls. 4 torps, one at each wall guarunteed lots of kills and an emtpy room. My torp guys would get a dozen kills per mission each.

[Mekhazzio]

Yeah, the blaster bombs aka PWTs were always the nastiest weapon in the X-Com games, but were so expensive (in money, manufacture time and the alien go-juice needed) that you just couldn't go chucking them around like that willy-nilly on every mission. Practically needed a second trooper dedicated to humping ammo for it, too. They weren't quite so hot in TftD anyway...resources were harder to come by, and those lobster men were so explosive-resistant that they could actually survive direct hits from the thing! Great fire support anyway for dealing with the squishier uglies (especially the hated floating brains), and their ability to blow chunks of subs & bases out was very handy. No need to go through a kill zone set up at a doorway when you can just blow out the wall on the other side and go in that way

[Douglas]

I didn't bother manufacturing Blaster Bombs, my stockpile built up steadily anyway. Six soldiers and a Skyranger stationed in Europe raided landing Supply Ships at a base in South Africa (already dropped from the program) and brought back 150 Elerium each time. They also stacked countless Muton bodies, as I discovered with my ample storage space suddenly filled up (!)

 

The lobsters were tough, but I found that to be a blessing. They gave up all the information we wanted in interrogations involving hot water, jumbo shell crackers, and garlic butter.

 

Now, the alien brains were a grand mal episode to deal with. Much worse than the similar Chrysalids in X-Com 1.

 

[Edited by Douglas (17 July 2001).]

[Guest Moriartty]

I also found that I rarely had to build ammo for my launchers. I would generally have a 3 guys standing back at my sub with a launcher in hand and about 6 shots in their pack.

 

The rest of my squad would move forward and the launcher guys were my very fast arty.

 

BTW, Lobstermen were very resistant to explosives. They were much more vulnerable to AP weapons and sonic weapons. It also worked well to nail a mixed group with a launcher. Most of the aliens would be dead and the Lob's would be hurt. Then one or two shots with a stunning weapon and you had yourself a prisoner.