cf.: History of 1990s Computer Games.

Jagged Alliance 2 Walkthrough Guide

Welcome to my walkthrough guide for Jagged Alliance 2 (1999), a turn-based tactical cRPG developed by Sir-Tech for the PC platform.

Jagged Alliance 2 is the sequel to Jagged Alliance of 1995.

Jagged Alliance 2 is non-linear in nature and allows for multiple approaches, but this beginner's guide for Jagged Alliance 2 is written linearly in order to gradually reveal the campaign to new players without flooding them with info and spoilers. And to tell a story: the story of how my band of Jagged Alliance 2 mercenaries liberated a country from a dictator!

Jagged Alliance 2 1.13	Jagged Alliance 2 Best Traits	Jagged Alliance 2 Expert Mode
Jagged Alliance 2 Maps	Jagged Alliance 2 Best Attributes	Jagged Alliance 2 Crepitus
Jagged Alliance 2 Cheats	Jagged Alliance 2 Best Skills	Jagged Alliance 2 Stracciatella
Jagged Alliance 2 Best Weapons	Jagged Alliance 2 Best Mercs	Jagged Alliance 2 Tactics
Jagged Alliance 2 1.13	X-COM UFO Defense	X-COM UFOpaedia

Jagged Alliance 2 Combat Sytem

Jagged Alliance 2's turn-based tactical combat system leaves other games in the dust. Only Silent Storm, X-COM, X-COM Apocalypse and ToEE can stand alongside Jagged Alliance 2 and not be laughed, booed and egged off-stage. With the exception of Dungeon Rats, recent attempts by current gen devs at recreating deep tactical combat have been puerile in comparison.

As opposed to realtime or pauseable realtime, the combat system employed by Jagged Alliance 2 is properly referred to as turn-based tactical. That is, rather than act simultaneously, the player and the AI take turns in issuing orders to their combat units. In this case, the player's mercenary squad takes its turn and then Deidranna's army takes its turn. Rinse repeat until a combat resolution is attained. Interspersed with interrupts, the battle (movement, attacks) continues in discrete turns until it has been won by the player or the AI. The battle can also end if the player's squad manages to retreat all combat units from a hostile zone.

As in Silent Storm and ToEE, turn-based combat kicks in when the AI detects the squad's presence. Otherwise, the squad may be moved around and positioned freely in realtime, either independently or as marquee-selectable groups. This is NOT the case in X-COM whose turn-based mode is persistent within its Battlescape.

In turn-based mode, combat units are locked in place and may only take actions in strict conformity to rules, terrain, elevation, obstacles and combat units stats, such as the all-important Action Point pool which governs their movement (distance, stances) and inventory management as well as how many times they can fire a weapon.

Jagged Alliance 2 Combat Encounter Design

Combat encounter-wise, nothing competes with Jagged Alliance 2. While we mostly go up against human soldiers, there are different kinds and there are also unusual specimens such as bloodcats and crepitus. You see, we don't need 100 different monsters in a game to make combat encounters interesting.

The tactics in JA2 comes from enemies and the player's squad being able to wield different weapons such as knives, guns, mortars, LAWs, grenades and gasses of different kinds.

For example, we can silently take down a sector full of blackshirts with an Ambidextrous / Auto-weapons IMP wielding two MAC-10s (Uzis). Or snipe off their heads from a screen away with an M24 fitted with laser and sniper scope attachments. Both are badass in their own way. As is just punching someone to death with bare fists.

Variety also comes in the form of stances: not many cRPGs let combat units crouch much less climb, sprint, jump, duckwalk, army crawl and backpedal. Not only that, but the area design is tactical, features verticality, and its destructibility allows for the structural reshaping of the environment during combat encounters, which can impact and even dictate their outcomes.

Jagged Alliance 2 Strategy Mode

The strategy mode is seamlessy integrated and features militia training, interactive overworld map and sector inventory management. By seamlessly integrated, I mean that moving between tactical mode and strategy mode is not at all jarring. It doesn't feel like we're playing two different games, but rather one very well thought out game. Both modes feel like they belong; they are not tacked on or frivolously employed. They are rock solid and integral in every way. This is called King-tier game design.

Jagged Alliance 2 Arulco Overworld

Jagged Alliance 2 features a contiguous, non-linear overworld consisting of 201 explorable surface sectors and 36 subterranean sectors. The contents of some of the sectors are randomly drawn from preset pools, such as where the helicopter pilot is, where the humvee is and where the weapons depot is.

Each surface sector is 3200x1600px.

Jagged Alliance 2 Perspective

Jagged Alliance 2 is presented in top-down isometric perspective with seamless transition between exterior and interior, with the exception of subterranean sectors (which display a loadscreen). It features seamless transition from ground level to rooftops.

The gorgeous isometric maps have been manually extracted, downsized, converted and then annotated by me for illustration purposes. Behold the glory of Jagged Alliance 2 isometric; it's ageless:

Jagged Alliance 2 Squads

There is a selection of 63 reactive squad members to choose from with their own voicesets, portraits, stats, personalities, virtues and flaws, interjections, and likes and dislikes. There are three pools: AIM mercs, MERC mercs and recruitable NPCs.

Party of 18

Forget one squad of six like in the cRPGs we're used to. In Jagged Alliance 2 we can control up to three squads of six on the same map or any map on the overworld - even sub-sectors. We can assign each merc to their own squad, too, for a total of 18 "squads":

Now that's what I'm talking about. That, right there, is a party. We even have a robot.

cRPGs are Rooted in Wargaming

Thus, they should be based on the premise that many will die; it takes an army to win. That's why JA2, ToEE, IWD, IWD2, X-COM and Silent Storm are superior. Because they have party arbitration or deep companion pools.

Jagged Alliance 2 User Interface

Jagged Alliance 2 features easily the best cRPG user interface ever made in regard to functionality, efficiency and aesthetics. Laptop, Strategy and Tactical UIs ooze human intelligence. These devs were TRU gamers. Seemingly, these sorts of devs are extinct. Have you heard of Ian Currie (Director & Designer) and Andrew T. Emmons (Lead Programmer & Designer). Evidently, they are geniuses.

The Jagged Alliance 2 UI also has a detailed built-in Help system which can be called up with the H-key. Thus, players can never complain that Jagged Alliance 2 is too hard to get into. Those that do complain probably have a room-temperature I.Q or the gaming aptitude of an ape.

Concision in Dialogue

So many cRPGs of the past and present overflow with waffle; that is, walls and walls of text that no one reads. But Jagged Alliance 2 dialogue is clear, concise and yet flavorsome enough, which is all I've ever wanted.

Jagged Alliance 2 Animations

Sprite animations are a joy to behold. Watch as your mercs walk, run, crouch, get into a prone position and crawl along the ground, leap over fences, pull themselves onto rooftops and jump down or topple from them, wade in water, open and close doors and lids, casually spit on the ground etc. Also, bitch-slapping and martial arts. Tactical movement types include walking, running, climbing, duckwalking, army crawling, strafing and backpedaling.

Jagged Alliance 2 features death anims. Giggle with glee as the head of an enemy gets shot off in a fountain of blood, as blood spurts out their back as they fly backwards after being bursted, or as they topple from the second storey! The death anims are not on par with Fallout but the others go way beyond what Fallout managed.

The talking heads are not as good as Fallout talking heads but there are more of them. Hundreds more of them.

Varied Environments

There are varied environments to explore and fight in, such as farmlands, ruins, forests, swamps, mountains, deserts, dungeons, coastlines, military installations, opulent palatial residences and sprawling urban zones.

Jagged Alliance 2 Destructibility

Jagged Alliance 2 employs destructibility. Can't find the front door? Plant some TNT and blow a gaping bloody hole in the wall. There's your door. Need a way out? Shoot a fuel tank to make your own back door.

You are at the rear of a building. The enemy is at the front of the building. You see him through the window on your wall and the window on his, opposite wall. You snipe at him. Your bullet shatters the window at your end, travels through the building, shatters the window at the other end, and drops the enemy on the front lawn. Awesome. Seriously, when you're in the groove and cool stuff like that happens, you fall in love with the game.

In general, firing through buildings is just so cool. Here, Buns (my fave AIM merc), scores an Interrupt and uses it to fire through a house (front window and back door) in order to hit the guy standing on the other side.

Bullets ricochet. This means they can hit one target, glance off it, and then hit another. Or maybe a couple of others. Example.

The attention to detail is unequaled. A redshirt fires his shotgun at our squad, but misses and hits the pond behind us, causing a splash and ripples in the water. This game came out in 1999. It was 20 years ahead of its time.

• Explosions, robots, tanks, helicopters, humvees, ice-cream trucks, rocket rifles...

Ok, that's enough. Must play now...

Jagged Alliance 2 Options & Game Settings

There is not much to say here other than I'm playing the game like a newbie for the sake of this series of posts. What can I say? I just want to relax and enjoy the nostalgia. I chose sci-fi mode because I want to cover the crepitus. I recommend that new players choose the settings shown in the screencap, below right.

Jagged Alliance 2 Difficulty

Jagged Alliance 2 is not a hard game unless you play on Expert difficulty or Iron Man mode. If you play on Novice difficulty setting Jagged Alliance 2 is quite easy for new players to get into. Jagged Alliance 2 is not hard to learn because it is a well designed game.

Opening FMV

Gotta love these oldskool FMVs, pre-rendered in 16 bit color. So raw and gritty. And always to the point. Above, tanks are shown rolling into the town of Omerta and blowing things up, and the citizens of Omerta are shown being mowed down by automatic weapons. This is how a dictator took control. 

The FMV then cuts to a cafe in Prague, where you are shown being hired by Enrico Chivaldori to liberate Arulco and eliminate its evil queen, Deidranna. Enrico is a blue-blood who married Deidranna for political purposes. He went into exile when she turned against him and is assumed to be dead by Deidranna. Enrico gives us a briefcase full of cash and a note to take to the leader of the rebels in Omerta, Miguel Cordona.

So our goal is clear: liberate Arulco and eliminate Queen Deidranna. Or just elimintate the Queen (and the Queen Crepitus if playing in Sci-fi mode). 

Getting on-side with the rebels and gaining control of the mines is advised: we need allies and cashflow. To hold liberated sectors against the queen's reprisals we will also need to train militia. How can one person with a laptop make all this happen? Well, we are going to have to hire a squad of mercs...

When it comes to "squads", think "special forces" or "commandos". Elites that get behind enemy lines, kicking ass as they go. We create our starter squad by means of IMP & AIM, two separate chargen processes that are detailed below.

Jagged Alliance 2 Laptop Interface

Check out that user interface. It's a laptop! How cool is that? So appropriate for a game that came out when they were all the rage (I still use a laptop for globetrotting). We are looking at one of the best user interfaces in gaming history. It's full of info and an absolute joy to use. Fits the theme and era perfectly.

Anyway, we check our emails and read our recon report that consists of several pages of background lore on Arulco politics.

Jagged Alliance 2 IMP Password

Don't forget to check the email from Psych Pro Inc. It gives us the password needed to access I.M.P.: XEP624. Type it in to start I.M.P. chargen.

Jagged Alliance 2 IMP Guide

Constituting the Jagged Alliance 2 character creation system, IMP stands for Institute of Mercenary Profiling. By employing IMP, we can create our own character. We can only make one IMP in Jagged Alliance 2, but that's all we need. The IMP is supposed to be our personal touch to the game. The good thing about IMPs is that we can tailor them how we like and their upkeep is free, unlike hired mercs. 

The two most important aspects of IMP chargen are Personality Profile and Attributes & Skills.

Jagged Alliance 2 employs a personality test as part of its character creation process. My advice for a new player is to just answer the 16 questions honestly and see what traits your IMP receives from your answers.

If you absolutely MUST power-game, please refer to Best Traits Jagged Alliance 2.

Next, we are presented with 10 sliders that represent our degree of proficiency in five attributes and five skills, which are by default set at 55. All of these can be raised up to 85 in chargen, and higher in-game. Skills can be reduced to 35 or even dumped to zero (Attributes and Leadership cannot be zero-dumped). In addition, you have a pool of 40 points to spend. So what to do?

Explanations follow, but I can also refer the reader to:

• Best Attributes Jagged Alliance 2
• Best Skills Jagged Alliance 2

First of all, it's important to note that squad members level-up their attributes & skills by using them. The more they do something the better they become at it. Makes sense. Then they may gain an actual character level which increases their overall effectiveness. Examples are: they become more stealthy, they get quicker at targeting, they get more "interrupts" (explained later), and they get better at detecting danger (land mines).

Now, the Wisdom attribute increases the rate at which skills improve. Ergo, the first rule here is that IMPs should max Wisdom to 85.

The second rule is that IMPs should be healthy, nimble and strong. That means high Health, Dexterity, Agility and Strength. These are important stats that bestow a range of benefits, some obvious and some not so obvious. I especially recommend maxing Agility because it governs how many action points (APs) we get, which dictates how much we can do on our turn, such as how far we can walk/run (mobility) and how many times we can fire our gun (attack rate). Mobility and attack rate are extremely important.

On maiden runs, I don't recommend dumping any stats below 35 because that means they can never be leveled through use. That said, your AIM mercs (see next section) can always fill in for any glaring inadequacy that your IMP might have, so it's entirely up to you whether or not you min-max. This is the third, more flexible rule.

The above-left pic shows the stats that I recommend for new players (no zero-dumps); the above-right one the stats I have gone with for this particular run (min-max). Note how Marksmanship is not maxed in either. It does not need to be maxed because with high Wisdom it will increase quickly and you will get to see your IMP grow into a professional killer. 

An example: An IMP who starts off with Marsksmanship 60 and Wisdom 85 can easily reach 90 by mid-game and 99 by end-game. And that is without forcing the IMP to take all the shots, or take long range shots (which seem to increase skill gain even more). In other words, no favoritism or manipulation. Just naturally playing the IMP as one member of a squad.

The same goes for the other four skills; indeed, IMPs need not be combatants. IMPs can be teachers who just stay in town to train the militia or mercs. Or mechanics who stay in town fixing stuff. But yeah, just remember to max Wisdom in order to level your skills more quickly.

I recommend dumping your other skills to 35 or even zero, as there are AIM mercs available early who can pick up the slack. Note that you MUST hire mercs that fill in for your glaring inadequacies because these skills ARE necessary to general play. Consult Jagged Alliance 2 Mercs and make plans.

Remember that IMPs are not crucial to your success - afterall, they constitute only one member of a six-strong squad and you will have a few squads of six by end-game. But you might as well make them useful and capable of growth since it's your personal touch to the liberation force. Just don't agonize over it.

Confirm your IMP by authorizing the $3000 payment to Psych Pro Inc.

We are now done creating our IMP character! Next, we need to think about our starting squad! (See AIM section below).

Jagged Alliance 2 Character Level

Character Level indicates the overall power of the character. Like, for example, how likely we are to score an Interrupt. Levels are gained by increasing attributes and skills, and by getting kills. History log updates (completing quests and sidequests) also contributes to leveling. The maximum level attainable is 10.

Best Build Jagged Alliance 2

In terms of power-gaming, the best build in Jagged Alliance 2 is the Auto Weapons + Psycho IMP wielding a modified FN-FAL with min-maxed stats. Start with 85 in the top 5 stats, 35 in Leadership, 70 in Marksmanship, and zero-dump the other stats. Mode of operation: go in with guns blazing.

Jagged Alliance 2 AIM

AIM stands for Association of International Mercenaries. Through the AIM interface, we can hire our Jagged Alliance 2 mercenaries some of whom are more professional than others. Just like the one-off IMP chargen AIM is accessible at any point during the campaign from your laptop UI. Now, at this point (assuming Novice mode) you should still have $42,000 at your disposal after creating your IMP Be thankful for that, because AIM can really hit your back pocket. As such, I tend to go for cheap, inexperienced but high Wisdom mercs who have lots of growth potential. Look for doctors, teachers, explosive experts and engineers who specialize in mechanics & electronics. 

You need mercs who can heal, teach, blow things up, repair items, pick locks and disarm alarms, traps and mines. For this reason, I tend to enlist the services of Barry, MD, Danny, Dr. Q and Buns ASAP. Look at those linked-to stats! They all have Wisdom of at least 90, which is what you want because it means they learn fast. It's fun and rewarding to watch smart people get better, isn't it? They can't hit the broad side of the barn when they drop down from the chopper in Omerta, but they gradually train themselves into some of the sharpest snipers in the world over the course of the campaign. You won't bat an eyelid when they request more money from you as they level-up, because they are worth every penny.

That said, it's a bit cheesy and expensive but there is nothing wrong with hiring one experienced merc for a single day. Guys like Lynx, Magic and Gus. This helps out hugely in the first liberation; after which, you can ditch them and keep their stuff. Having access to a Mini-14, a Silenced MAC-10 or a G-41 and a set of kevlar armor gives you the upper-hand in the early going, which can be an uphill battle for newbies. I'm taking Gus for a day just to get his gun, ammo and armor. I've done the Omerta-to-Drassen run a hundred times and just want to speed things along a bit for the purposes of this walkthrough.

Note that depending on your playstyle you might want to look for stealthy and nightops mercs. There are a range of approaches available to you in this game. Hire who you like. These are just recommendations, afterall. Here is my IMP and some of the mercs I'll be rolling with by the time I reach Alma:

On Day 2, an amateur version of AIM becomes available: MERC (More Economic Recruiting Center). Again, look for High Wisdom mercs such as Florence and Gumpy, who can both become good teachers. Gasket is a good, cheap mechanic, too (though he has almost no growth potential). The MERC pool expands as the campaign progresses.

There are also in-game NPCs that can be recruited into the squad. These include Ira and Arulcan rebels such as Dimitri, Carlos and Miguel, as well as quest-based NPCs such as Shank, Vince, Maddog and Dynamo. Carlos and Miguel are not recruitable until significant progression of the campaign has been made, though.

Total squad members on offer: AIM (40) + MERC (10) + NPCs (13) = 63.

Ok, got your starter squad ready for action? Let's take a look at the situation at hand.

Jagged Alliance 2 Mapscreen

The Jagged Alliance 2 overworld represents the war-torn country of Arulco. It consists of 237 sectors the vast majority of which can be explored in any order (non-linearity/sandboxy).

You will end up spending a lot of time on this screen though at this point in the proceedings there is not all that much to do other than become acquainted with the map. Currently it shows that our squad is hovering over A9: Omerta in a chopper (IN TRANS). This will be the first sector we need to liberate from Deidranna's forces.

We will then need to head east to A10 to hook up with the rebels and find out what their situation is. After that, we must take the town of Drassen, gain control of its mines and train the militia to hold it against Deidranna's reprisals while we head off to liberate other towns.

You can see that there are several towns in need of liberation some which are more difficult to take control of than others. You don't need to train up militia in Omerta because the rebels manage to hold control of it after you take it. Plus, there is no mine so the Queen isn't all that interested in reprisals here. Of course, if she knew the rebels survived her tank assault then that would be another story.

Later, other locations will appear on the map, such as SAM sites and the like, and some NPCs will mark locations on the map when they give you a quest (Tixa, Orta). Note also how the map is layered: you can click on the these layers to show subterranean areas; however, we are not concerned with them at this point.

Continued in Part II: Omerta JA2!

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