Jagged Alliance was one of the best games I ever played. Really. Although many have never even heard of it, this was one of the greatest games of all time. There was nothing real special about it except the fact that you could jump right into playing it, and once you were there, it would draw you in forever. Like many things in life, this game was a lot easier to get into than out of.

Now the sequel: Jagged Alliance 2. To be honest, sequels usually scare me. I'm afraid they'll fudge up what made the original game and leave me with a complicated, unplayable mess. This, however, did not stop me from drooling over Jagged Alliance 2. When it was finally released, I purchased it immediately. I was not disappointed.

The plot in Jagged Alliance 2 sounds like it was culled right out of one of those "single-handedly save the Latin American country" flicks, but it is very solid. The rightful leader of the fictional country Arulco has been framed for murder and presumed dead, and his evil wife now rules under a harsh military dictatorship. You have been hired by Enrico Chivaldori, the rightful ruler stated above, to free the country from the grips of the evil queen. The plot follows through the whole game, the story being told by people you meet and in-engine cut scenes at the queen's palace. While never taking itself too seriously, the story in Jagged Alliance 2 is strong and involving enough to get you in gear.

And in gear you must get. While much of the game is played on the quasi-3D tactical map, there are two other screens you will be spending quite a bit of time on. First, there's the laptop screen, complete with e-mail and the Internet. Through this interface, you will keep in contact with Enrico, hire and manage mercenaries, and buy weapons from the online arms dealer. All of this is very slick and persuasive and adds to the immersiveness of the game.

When you're done playing with your laptop, you will be taken to the main map screen. As the name suggests, this is where you will view the map of Arulco. The map is broken down into sectors--there are 200 in all. Some of the sectors are cities, some mines, and some roads or wilderness. Your ultimate goal is the capital city of Meduna, although you'll have to capture and gain the loyalty of the other cities and towns along the way. Some cities have a local gold or silver mine; the more loyal these cities are, the more cash will come in from their mines. This cash is vital to keeping you in business.

Mines are not the only source of revenue, however. As you romp through the sectors, blowing away everything in sight, be sure to talk to the locals. Some will give you quests to complete and will give you a handsome reward at the end. Others will simply chat and give you information, and some can be hired to fight on your side (at a price). The character interaction in this game is great, even more so than some computer RPGs.

Perhaps the characters you will interact with most are the mercenaries you hire. Each has a unique personality, skills, and, of course, price. Most mercenaries can be hired for a discount by the week; however, they demand cash up front. While you won't be able to hire mercenaries rich in the two latter traits until you have a steady cash flow, every merc has a distinct and entertaining personality. Some are loners, some don't like Russians, and some just don't like being called psychotic. Each is brought to life with lots of dialogue, which is great by the way. The voice acting is excellent, and some lines had me rolling on the floor gasping for breath. Yes, this game could be great if all you did was talk to your mercs.

However, the queen isn't the type to be talked off her throne. From the beginning to the end, your hired guns will fight many battles against her goons. The tactical combat is simple to get into and works very well, and the enemies are challenging and clever. All of the combat takes place on the tactical screen, where you start out in real-time mode. It stays that way until you come across and enemy or two, or three. The game then shifts into turn-based mode, allowing you to execute your plan as you see fit. During battle, your mercs can run, duck, crawl, and of course, shoot. Their stats and skills determine how good they are at this. Firepower also makes a big difference, and there is quite a selection to choose from. While at the beginning you'll be stuck with wimpy handguns, you'll come across plenty of high-tech weaponry by the end of the game. There are plenty of new weapons here, such as throwing knives, machine guns, and ... well, you'll see. You will have to put this hardware to good use if you want to be successful. The enemies are tough to put down, especially certain nocturnal beasts, and I'm not talking about elite troops with night vision, either ...

When the smoke clears and the sector is free of enemies, you can wander around and explore. There's lots of stuff to find, and I was delighted to see some old-school type puzzles, such as giving item A to person B to get item C. Of course, most of the things you find you can keep for yourself, and some can be merged with other items to create new ones. Plus, aside from things to pick up, you'll get to mingle with the population of Arulco and rest up for your next attack.

The game includes quite a bit of management but nothing too complex. You play along a 24-hour pause-able and compressible clock. This means you can let your mercenaries sit around in a sector and heal up or repair items, compress time so you don't have to wait three real days, and pause when you want to change orders. You can then have your mercs walk (or drive, or fly ...) to another sector pick a fight, get an item, or find an NPC. There's also some financial management to be done, although once you capture a good number of mines, you're pretty free money-wise.

As for production value, Jagged Alliance 2 keeps things pretty simple. The graphics are simple with no lens flare. They do their job, however, and the gory animations are great. The sound is a bit more up-to-date, though. I've already raved about the excellent voice acting, and the other sound effects aren't too shabby either. Different types of guns have distinct sounds, and heavy weapons sound especially cool.

As you can probably tell by now, there's a lot in Jagged Alliance 2, and it would take forever to say everything about it. You're probably thinking the simple fun of the original is gone. Well, it's not. The game takes all these complex elements and molds them together so well that you don't even think about them while playing. Sometimes I forget I have a country to save and just try crazy stuff like we all did in the first game. Probably the most complex thing you have to think about is when to quit--this game is so involving underneath, yet so simple on top. It won't appeal to everyone right away, but spend some time with it and it will have you hooked.

To find out more about Jagged Alliance 2, check out the Terravirtua forums.

Final Grade: A

System Requirements:
Pentium 133 (166 recommended)
32 MB RAM (64 recommended)
400 MB drive space (ouch! the full install is over 800!)