Well, it's okay if you've never heard of it, since this game is old. Really old. Old as balls. Old enough to be made in '99.
Okay, so it's not that old, but it still sports 15 years of age. Back in those days we didn't have graphics, so games had to be good through the actual gameplay, and this game still manages to kick the ass of 75% of today's video games, much like a diabetic Stallone that keeps escaping Florida.
In this game, basically everything sucks for the people of Arulco, seeing as the banana republic's proud King was driven out of his country by his wife, a creature from the very depths of hell, also known as my home country. Life sucks as the people of Arulco's only purpose now is to make sure the Queen can afford every handbag in the world. That's where you come in, with a team of mercenaries hired on a budget you hope to free this country from a dictator in the name of her angry husband. Meet an array of colorful characters that make up their lack of skill with funny lines, free the cities one by one, driving the queen more and more mad (and consequently degrading the state of her messenger), or go straight to her door and shoot her (since that's the only condition for winning the game, but let's be honest... why would you do that?), and as always, remember to have fun.
Jagged Alliance 2 was a hit back when people still feared the end of a millennium, and today it keeps being up there with sites such as GOG still handing out copies by the dozen.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Now what could possibly make this game a candidate to challenge the top 100 games? Surely it died out before Bush stepped down.
Meet V 1.13.
Jagged Alliance Version 1.13 (named after the last official patch was 1.12) is one of the biggest game mods out there, supplying an overhaul of just about everything there is in the game. Everything is better, everything is deadlier, everything is also more helpful. I can begin to tell you about it, but even my 50+ hours of trying it out haven't explored its full potential.
The guns are better, the mods are better, the armor is better, the knives are better, the pistols are better (yea... pistols, you know... those things we never used in the base game), the towns are better, the mercs are better, the traits are better, the inventory is so much better it almost deserves a central role, the... you get the point.
While JA2 and its various official attachments are available on GOG and the like, V 1.13 is available on the Bear Pit (most hardcore JA2 forum out there) and various small mod sites. The graphics still look as they did 15 years ago, but this is one of the best tactical games out there.
