JA2 vs X-COM: UFO Defense in 2022

[KainenMorden]

Do you prefer one over the other? modded or unmodded?

 

[Haba]

Nice alt bro.

 

[KainenMorden]

Nice alt bro.

lol not an alt, I assure you.

 

[zool]

Andhaira? Is that you my friend?

 

[BrotherFrank]

Ja2, preferably with that mod that’s seen as standard, forgot name of it. But the game still holds well without it so wins the vanilla award for me.

Og xcom out of the box is ok but its full of little things that havent aged well really needs openxcom at the very least.
Once we start factoring in mods though xcom wins since there are quite a few decent total conversions.

 

[KainenMorden]

Andhaira? Is that you my friend?

lol I have no idea who that is. I'm new to the codex and just wanted to ask some opinions.

 

[KainenMorden]

Ja2, preferably with that mod that’s seen as standard, forgot name of it. But the game still holds well without it so wins the vanilla award for me.

Og xcom out of the box is ok but its full of little things that havent aged well really needs openxcom at the very least.
Once we start factoring in mods though xcom wins since there are quite a few decent total conversions.

thanks for the reply

 

[octavius]

I find OpenXcom much more varied and interesting than JA2. The main thing JA2 has over OpenXcom is the mercenary personalities and their interactions. And some humour.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Why not both?

 

[Dadd]

Best Isometric cRPGs

Ranked in order of their greatness, the best isometric cRPGs are as follows:

• Jagged Alliance 2 (Sir-Tech, 1999)
• X-COM UFO Defense (Mythos Games, 1994)
• Fallout 1 (Interplay, 1997)
• Baldur's Gate 1 (BioWare, 1998)
• Fallout 2 (Black Isle Studios, 1998)
• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura (Troika, 2001)
• Icewind Dale 1 (Black Isle Studios, 2000)
• Icewind Dale 2 (Black Isle Studios, 2002)
• Temple of Elemental Evil (Troika, 2003)
• Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Studios, 1999)
• X-COM Apocalypse (Mythos Games, 1997)
• Diablo 2 (Blizzard North, 2000)
• Diablo 1 (Blizzard North, 1996)
• Baldur's Gate 2 (BioWare, 2000)

Jagged Alliance 2 (99%). The closest to perfection as one can get: a masterpiece of game design that will never be beaten. Jagged Alliance 2 really is in a league of its own. Ranked 1st all-time in Best Isometric RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Turn-based RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Combat RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Party-based RPGs and 4th all-time in Best Reactive RPGs. Thus, it receives its crown as the King of Kings.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

 

[KainenMorden]

I find OpenXcom much more varied and interesting than JA2. The main thing JA2 has over OpenXcom is the mercenary personalities and their interactions. And some humour.

Thanks, I respect your opinion and appreciate you taking the time to respond. Also good to see the last of the old guard of the codex still active, I haven't seen too many 07 or before join dates here.

 

[KainenMorden]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

What mods do you recommend for JA2?

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

What mods do you recommend for JA2?

1.13 is what I usually use, though one usually has to mess around with the settings a bit to get it right.

 

[KainenMorden]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

What mods do you recommend for JA2?

1.13 is what I usually use, though one usually has to mess around with the settings a bit to get it right.

thanks

 

[KazikluBey]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

What mods do you recommend for JA2?

1.13 is what I usually use, though one usually has to mess around with the settings a bit to get it right.

thanks

There's also Stracciatella, which is just vanilla with quality of life improvements. 1.13 is huge and doesn't have sensible defaults, I think you pretty much have to mess around with the .ini files, but that's difficult if you haven't even played the game before so you know what to change.

 

[KainenMorden]

Jagged Alliance 2, especially with mods, is best starting off. Everything is just great. The problem is there is that the default campaign feels like the only worthwhile one, none of the mods have a campaign that lives up to it. Whereas X-COM has the better long game, so to speak, as you aren't going over the same area in the same order, even if there are limited maps in that.

What mods do you recommend for JA2?

1.13 is what I usually use, though one usually has to mess around with the settings a bit to get it right.

thanks

There's also Stracciatella, which is just vanilla with quality of life improvements. 1.13 is huge and doesn't have sensible defaults, I think you pretty much have to mess around with the .ini files, but that's difficult if you haven't even played the game before so you know what to change.

Thanks for taking the time to post

 

[Maggot]

JA2 with Stracciatella. Get a nightly build because they fixed some annoying issues and haven't pushed out a new stable version.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Best Isometric cRPGs

Ranked in order of their greatness, the best isometric cRPGs are as follows:

• Jagged Alliance 2 (Sir-Tech, 1999)
• X-COM UFO Defense (Mythos Games, 1994)
• Fallout 1 (Interplay, 1997)
• Baldur's Gate 1 (BioWare, 1998)
• Fallout 2 (Black Isle Studios, 1998)
• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura (Troika, 2001)
• Icewind Dale 1 (Black Isle Studios, 2000)
• Icewind Dale 2 (Black Isle Studios, 2002)
• Temple of Elemental Evil (Troika, 2003)
• Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Studios, 1999)
• X-COM Apocalypse (Mythos Games, 1997)
• Diablo 2 (Blizzard North, 2000)
• Diablo 1 (Blizzard North, 1996)
• Baldur's Gate 2 (BioWare, 2000)

Jagged Alliance 2 (99%). The closest to perfection as one can get: a masterpiece of game design that will never be beaten. Jagged Alliance 2 really is in a league of its own. Ranked 1st all-time in Best Isometric RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Turn-based RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Combat RPGs, 1st all-time in Best Party-based RPGs and 4th all-time in Best Reactive RPGs. Thus, it receives its crown as the King of Kings.

Wait a second... Fallout 1 and 2 are in the trimetric perspective, not the isometric perspective. Lilura is a hack.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Both are horrible and if I had time machine I'd do terrorist attack in Minecraft to prevent their development.

 

[Sitra Achara]

Now that would be an awesome game

 

[Luka-boy]

"Who do you love more, mommy or daddy?"

 

[Alienman]

OpenXcom with mods. Since it allows for failure to a higher degree. JA2 also feels like it demands more from you. Combat can get really autistic at times, which is not bad per say, but it makes some encounters take a really long time.

 

[Endemic]

OpenXcom with mods. Since it allows for failure to a higher degree. JA2 also feels like it demands more from you. Combat can get really autistic at times, which is not bad per say, but it makes some encounters take a really long time.

Default weapon ranges in JA2 are unreasonably short and the weapon progression is slow without mods. X-COM lets you fire across the whole map from the beginning.

 

[octavius]

JA2: he who has the longest gun wins. I remember recruiting a couple of expensive mercs solely to get their long range rifles, instead of being virtually impotent with pistols.