Jagged Alliance 2 Patches/Mods

[FallenOut]

Hey everyone, I'm new here on the forum. In a nutshell I used to play games quite a bit when I was in high school but I don't really have the time so much anymore. I'm also fairly picky with the games I play and the vast majority I've ever tried I didn't really like but every once in a while I find a real gem. Anyway, I really like how people here aren't necessarily into games with fancy graphics but more the feel or strategy. I've played games of various genres and liked a few and hated many in all of them.

First a bit about the games I've played previously for those of you who care and are trying to figure out if I'm a consolefag or not. If you don't care just skip to the Jagged Alliance bit.

Anyway some games I've played over the years:

Fighters Anthology - a fairly old flight simulator I was into as a kid, my first game and had a lot of fun with it. I really liked the complexity of it though I'm sure they've gotten more complex since then.

Quake 1 - self explanatory

688I Hunter Killer - Submarine simulator that I quite liked but never quite finished

Diablo II - I'll admit I played it quite a bit for a while although I found it more addictive than good. Overall I think it's probably the most overrated game I'm aware of and I'm really not sure I get what the fuss is about. The gameplay is pretty mindless and monotonous.

Caesar II - Fun city builder but pretty easy once you design a good block. From then on it's copy/paste. Overall, definitely too easy.

Caesar III - Much more challenging than II and much more fun. I was a bit of a perfectionist with my cities and set very high requirements for myself for each city which went far beyond those required for each scenario. Because of that I only made it through half of the game even though I was actually quite good at it and understood the mechanics

Max Payne 1 & 2: Now it seems single player shooters aren't really popular but I quite liked both of these. I liked the atmosphere, voice acting and the whole comic book animation thing was pretty cool.

Starcraft - played it quite a bit with friends but overall I found it required way too much "practice" to get good at it. I like a challenge but I'm not willing to practice quite as much to get good as this game requires.

Age of Empires II - Liked it better than starcraft because it's more focused on the economy. Actual units are relatively weak and to win you really need to have a stronger economy than your opponent to sustain an attack. Probably one of my favourites over the years.

Age of Empires III - Tried it, hated it.

Quest for Glory 5 - I know this is blasphemy on these forums but I quite liked this one. I really liked the atmosphere, puzzles and humour. I've never played the other parts unfortunately but I hear they're even better.

Civilization 4 - Started playing it pretty recently. Honestly, my feelings about it are quite mixed. I like the complexity and the eye candy is a nice bonus I suppose. Having said that, I feel that most of the challenge is at the beginning and once that part is over I get quite bored waiting for the game to end. I find that it takes just way too long to finish one bloody game. I have no problem with a long game as long as I feel I'm facing new challenges but in this case I often feel like I won very early and then I'm just waiting for the victory screen for the next 3 hours.

Fallout 1 & 2 - Loved both of them. Atmosphere, quests, story everything is just bloody perfect.

Fallout 3 - Tried it, hated it. I got bored before I even broke out of the vault and uninstalled it.


JAGGED ALLIANCE?

Anyway now I'm in a situation where I'm not willing to put in quite so much time into games as I was in high school. Otherwise I'm sure I would love a grand strategy game. Sometimes I crave games like AOEII and Caesar III but to get into any RTS would require practice which is out of the question while the complex city builders also have a very steep learning curve. So basically I'm looking for a game that isn't mindless but is reasonably easy to get into without having to spend hours daily to really get into it. Jagged Allliance 2 seems a lot like Fallout and funnily enough I spent some time looking for games similar to it and came up empty and then I saw JA2 on your top 10 strategy list. It seems to be just what I'm looking for.

The big question (finally) is which version should I go with? Gold? 1.13mod? Play the original patched then get the gold version? Which would be the best experience for a newb?

 

[Burning Bridges]

Hi FallenOut, I think you will feel at home here.

JA2 can be quite time consuming, on the other hand you can leave it for longer periods in between if you want. Some people spend half a year playing it through.

Go to bears pit
http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com/
if you want to play witch 1.13 patch. It adds higer resolutions, a new inventory system, and a ton of other stuff.

But if you're completely new to the game I recommend to start playing the game with 1.12 at least for a short time. You can get it for example at GoG for 10$. I found it for 99c in a bargain bin.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

JA2 is arguably the greatest game ever, and the most loved game on the Codex, I would say. Anyway, you may want to start out patched to 1.12 before taking a shot at 1.13, just to get the hang of some of the mechanics. It can be time consuming, but only because you never want to put it down.

 

[Renegen]

It's a tactical strategy game that has a lot of personality. You also have a fair bit of RPG mechanics like improving your characters, equipping items and an open ended way to play.

I prefer Wizardry 8, same company and around the same time.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yeah, go with Ja2Gold, the last official version, 1.12 is the number. It's easier and simpler than the 1.13mod so it's better to cut your teeth in that first. When you feel comfortable with the system, then upgrade into 1.13 and go nuts!

 

[wwsd]

JA2 is definitely a special game. I remember being about 10 and running across a demo version, where you had to play with Ivan, Vicky, Gasket, Shadow and probably some other one that I can't remember. It didn't make any sense to me at first, but after some time, I managed to make it all the way down and beat the demo (it had regular fighting, a lower-level part, and an even lower level with those annoying giant bugs). I got the full game later on and enjoyed it for years.

It's nice to see that JA2 gets so much appreciation over here. It truly is a classic, and you will have a good time regardless of which version you play. It has a kind of charm about it that is just very rare in most games. I would start out with Gold, enjoy it in its own right, or simply play it for a while to get a feel of what the "original" game is like. After that, you can always try v1.13 and see if you like it.

 

[spectre]

JA2 is definitely a special game. I remember being about 10 and running across a demo version, where you had to play with Ivan, Vicky, Gasket, Shadow and probably some other one that I can't remember. It didn't make any sense to me at first, but after some time, I managed to make it all the way down and beat the demo (it had regular fighting, a lower-level part, and an even lower level with those annoying giant bugs). I got the full game later on and enjoyed it for years.

Heh, same here. I remember at first I didn't know you could right click to aim and I was so pissed at the accuracy, thinking what a silly silly game (manuals are for the weak :-P ). Then, all of the sudden I learned what the right click does... and I was instantly in love.

@FallenOut
Well, nothing more to say about ja2, really, if you're a newcomer gofer version 1.12, then upgrade to 1.13
and enjoy the freaking best made game in the squad-based tactics there is.

If you used to like submarine sims, do yourself a favor and try Silent Hunter III, number IV is also supposedly good with some modding.

Also, do yourself a favor and play some of the strategy must-plays sometime:
ufo: enemy unknown - if JA2 is the best there is in the genre, this comes close second.
the silent storm series - a more recent series in the genre, nice mix of strategy and rpg, purdy 3d engine (for its time) with great physics.
heroes of might and magic - just play it. It's physically impossible not to like this game if you're even slightly into strategy.
panzer general - used to be THE world war 2 strategy game. You may try fantasy general, the fantasy themed iteration if that's more your thing.
master of orion - one of the best games in the 4X genre. If you liked civilization, get this.
total war series - try for the cool mix of turn based overmap and real time battle gameplay. Try Rome first, then maybe Shogun 2, by that tme you'll know if it's your thing.

Also, regarding your thoughts on Civilization 4, I had a similar feeling when playig this, if you want to be challenged by the AI, you basically have to play on the highest difficulty settings, although it is not really my thing, cause the cheating gets too obviously ridiculous for me. You may try to look for some big mods on civfanatics.com to straighten this out, you may also try Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - believed by many to be a better game, although it is a bit harder to get into.

And, seeing as you like rts, go ahead and try total annihilation, men of war and dawn of war - I'm more of a turn based fan but these three managed to keep me occupied for quite some time.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Also, check out the Paradox titles. They're all incredibly deep in different ways, and provide different focuses for very different gameplay. Easily the best of their kind. And they're easy to mod to boot, with a lot of good, well produced mods out there.

 

[SCO]

No, go with stracciatella - it's the 1.12 minus bugs

http://tron.homeunix.org/ja2/