Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13. It's insane that this game is almost a quarter of a century old (came out in April 1999 according to Wikipedia) and it's even more insane what fans of the game have done with mods (especially the whole v1.13-mod). For anyone who doesn't know it, the game is a (turn based) strategy game, where you're working for the exiled leader of a tropical island nation who got ousted by his wife who is now running the country as a dictatorship. You get a bit of starting money and can hire mercenaries with different abilities and personalities, to then support the rebels on the island to re-take the country and get rid of the dictatorship. What made it and still makes it special is that you're basically in charge of the whole operation and you decide (after initially being dropped in a rebel holdout) how to free the island. The map is divided into more than 100 sectors and you can go whereever you want. Most of the sectors are empty, because there's just woodland there, swamps or the road connecting the different villages and cities. However, there are six or seven settlements on the map (with two or up to five sectors each) that you get to liberate one after the other. Once you've taken over a town you can train a rebel militia there to protect it from the state army who tries to retake control.
It's very dynamic and you can basically decide freely how you want to go about the whole thing (of course the game gives you slight hints through the storyline about which way you might want to go, but ultimately you decide yourself). You make money by taking over the towns and most of them have a mine whose workers will start working for you instead of the state. As your winning more and more battles you get more loyalty from the people/rebels and the income from the mines goes up. With the money you need to hire new mercenaries, who need to be paid upfront with daily, weekly or bi-weekly contracts. You can also renew contracts with mercs already in your team, but as they level up, they get more expensive. You also need the money to buy new gear which is done either with a handful of traders on the island or you can use a website, where you can order stuff that then gets delivered to the local airport a (few) day(s) later depending on how much you're prepared to pay for shipping. You then actually have to go there and collect the stuff from boxes. You're basically playing the game on three different screens: there's a strategic overview of the island, where you're basically doing the 'big picture'-stuff like deciding where your mercs are going next, where new ones get dropped of, where to train new militia, etc. Then there's a tactical view where you "zoom in" to individual sectors both for turn-based battles against the enemy forces, but also to explore the world, because the game does have some RPG aspects as well with quests you get given and talking to characters. Finally, there's also the laptop screen where you get all the important information about your operation (like stats on your mercs, questlog, etc.). However, you also have 'internet'-access through your laptop (not the actual internet, but the one in game), because hiring mercs, getting gear and other stuff happens online via websites.
What makes the game so special in my view is that it gives you so much freedom and it tells great little stories both scripted, but also just with the stuff you experience while fighting your battles or with your mercs. They all have different personalities and you can get pretty attached to them so you don't want them to do. You form relationships with them and they can just quit, if for example too many people die while working for you. And they also have relationships with other mercs, so you can have people who really hate each other and can't work together or some who are friends and who like working with each other and won't quit even if they're unhappy as long as their mate is in your team as well. That's just another great dynamic the game offers. It's also a really good game in terms of gameplay itself. The overall management aspect is nicely done and the battles can be won in different styles depending on the mercs and the equipment you're using, like doing mostly night ops using night vision goggles or having a team of snipers.
Having said all that, the game was an absolute mess when it came out in 1999. It was buggy as fuck (no wonder with the kind of mechanics and freedom it has). However, it got patched later, even thought that was kind of a mess as well as it was a rather small studio. The last version was 1.12, but modding was kind of a big thing with the game. So v1.13 has been around for 15 years or so. I think it was initially started to improve the game even further in terms of fixing bugs and other little things (because the studio who did the original game no longer existed), but since then they've added tons of new mechanics improving the game even more and making it more complex. Biggest thing for me is, that they made it playable on new machines as the original version had only a resolution of 640x480. The game is still on Steam and GOG and modding it is pretty easy. You basically just copy some files. What's also great apart from what the stuff they've fixed, added and changed (like the whole gear system) is that there are now many more options to customize the gameplay that weren't there with the initial release.
Even though the v1.13-mod has been out there for a while (and it is still worked on getting updates BTW), I never really got into playing JA2 again. The interface was just too clunky. Decided to give it another go this weekend and it basically just clicked again. Don't know, if it's because I tried a different screen resolution or whether it's down to something they've changed in the mod, but it's very playable now and I really enjoy it. Played a shitload of it back when it was initially released and before that, I played loads of the origional Jagged Alliance which wasn't as complex, but still had a lot of the same mechanics in it (like having your team of querky mercs to grow fond of). JA2 wasn't the final game of the franchise, but the ones after that weren't as good. There were two more additions to the franchise based on the JA2 original game, but they were both buggy as well and are considered to be a lot worse than JA2. Sir Tech, the studio that developed the franchise, went bust not too long after JA2 was released and since then various companies held the rights to the Jagged Alliance franchise. There were also quite a few attempts to create a third installment of the series, but none of them were any good or commercially successful. However, THQ Nordirc now has the rights to JA and they're currently devloping Jagged Alliance 3 and it is supposed to be released in summer. It is developed by Haemimont Games and the previews look really good (not in terms of graphics, but in terms of it being a worthy successor to JA2). Not only have the press been able to play the game, but they also gave it to various Youtubers who were able to play the first 12 hours or so. And they all seem pretty impressed by the game. Biggest plus could be that the initial creator of the franchise Ian Currie is involved in the development of the new game. Really looking forward to the summer and will enjoy playing JA2 v1.13 until then...
