I got this recently on Steam just out of curiosity. It really is a genuinely great game. I'm not used to these kinds of old PC games, and a lot of design decisions as well as QoL features can be quite janky and hard to get used to. But once you get past that, this is absolute gold.
Nails is my absolute favourite merc! You can make him wear other armour, though it's kind of annoying to do. You have to hire him without gear or destroy his jacket by using Comp-18 twice on it. Then when there is nothing in his armour slot, make him pick up any armour you want him to wear using CTRL+Left Click, and it will go into the armour slot. Also on the IMP, I usually go the primary stats all 85, the secondary stats (below wisdom) I leave at 35 as they can be trained up super quickly anyway.
It's good to see you build your IMP the most rewarding way, Low MRK, high WIS. A lot of let's plays crank MRK to maximum and you really miss out on slowly building your character to 100 MRK being able to hit just about anything that moves. Sometimes I even set my agility to 55 and train it with bloodcat lair or punching miners and sneaking around them in the mines. Or strength to 55 and doing the trip cancel exploit in the hills of Omerta, also good to raise health, which is handy whenever you lose points of health because you gain back your lost health as well as the new points Oh this game, I could talk about it for hours, there are just so many ways to play.
@@TheEdmon Sorry I'm late to the party, played and owned this gem back in the day and still loving it today. Realised watching your playthrough that i forgot to create my own merc 🤣 A bit painful to watch though its like you have a team of stormtroopers lol. Lynx all the way already on 18 kills and I'm only at the airstrip compared to the rest of the teams 2 kills. Subscribed and will watch every minute of your playthroughs for any tips and tricks, already forgot that you can climb on roofs thanks to you for the refresh. Jagged alliance 3 won't be a patch on this classic.
@@TheEdmon Can't fault them tbh, as most games are introductory to the setting, comparing X-com with Xenonauts is on my table; they're squad-based and both take place in an alien invasion that wants to conquer earth, X-com's is introductory and it kinda leads me to the wonderful game called Underrail and Xenonauts modding community.
Yep, run up to someone and ctrl click them with the grab hand. It is buggy though, it has been known to cause the game to crash so save first. But you can get a lot of weapons early this way.
I was lead to believe Stracciatella was basically vanilla JA2 with higher screen res and a few quality of life additions, but you're right it just doesn't feel the same as classic and i always end up going back to vanilla
They "fixed" the A.I., but all this did was make it such that the enemies got a lot harder, a lot quicker and it made for tedious gameplay because the Red Shirts play like Black Shirts. Frankly, I am not interested in fighting armies of Black Shirts all day long.
im here because i bought xcom and read reviews and jagged alliance popped up. then i went and looked at the 3rd one and ive read some long reviews from the vets explaining why the 2nd is the better option. so now im here. hope to learn something =D
Many years ago, I played JA2 Classic on highest difficulty... until most of the cities were mine... But I got ANGRY, when my Militia was wiped out now and again... I CAN NOT HAVE THAT!!! Feels bad man. So, I don't play JA2 on high difficulty any more. But this game is fun, no matter what difficulty :).
Don't know if this was the cause of odd backstepping early, and this is dozens of hours ago for you, but JA2 has a tendency to jam the alt key on when you alt-tab out, until you hit alt again after you come back in.
Can't you find Nails' jacket? I'm almost 95% certain I remember finding it, it was actually decent armour, not *amazing* but definitely good enough for the times.
What was wrong w/ Stracciatella please sir - difficulty curve? Had found your other playlist and understand you stopped playing it. I just started a campaign so let me know if I should go vanilla instead. My 1st time ever w/ JA2 btw... Thanks for the series, will watch it in parallel w/ my playthrough to learn pro tricks e.g. 'kung-fu fighting' 😁 or stealing - made me laugh and no 40 pg strategy guide I have read mentions that!! I like your presentation style, no nonsense and very calm, keep up the great work. Sending good health
I hope you enjoy the series :). Stracciatella has AI fixes that makes all the enemies behave like Blackshirts (the hardest enemy in the game). It makes taking sectors tidious bug-hunts. Part of the fun is that the redshirts are stupid and just charge at you, at least, I think so.
@@TheEdmon I could not thank you enough!! Decided to ditch Stracciatella aftter ~ 10 hr down the campaign. Vanilla is SO much better. Yes it lacks Qo but... where I thought my tactical skills sucked it was actually the AI (a solider in M01-02 hits me across 2 screens but I cannot hit them back w/ skilled snipers?!)... also, you do not find wire cutters in Omerta which makes Drassen Airport so much tougher (being your 1st time). Since I was watching your vanilla playthrough in parallel I had a 1:1 comparison. Executive Summary : Vanilla forever and godspeed to you sir!!
Is it possible to play this game like a super mega pro by focusing on 1-2 mercs, sneaking around, knifing and punching enemies, milking max xp from each encounter?
You can win this with just the custom character. Taking Throwing Expert and throwing knives. An enemy hit with a knife in the head, that is unaware of you, dies instantly.
@@TheEdmon Even this kid from Tixa prison can be upgraded to be a real killer but this action required too much hours of killing crows with throwing knife 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@TheEdmon Well Trevor has highest wisdom (if I remember it right), so he levels up very quickly (and his salary as well). But with high wisdom his other stats level up quickly as well - you can do the mine arm/disarm training to level up explosives and then tnt arm/disarm to level up int and you have universal soldier for lockpicking, electronics, explosives and repair with high accuracy as well.
A lot of A.I. "fixes" that makes all the enemies behave like blackshirts (I.E. camping in corners, holding position, generally being a pain in the arse to deal with), which was never the intent of the game. Other "fixes" like the Drassen counterattack now works, when it was deliberately removed from the game because it's too early to be hit with a squad of 8 blackshirts out of nowhere.
That's why it's not fun. JA2 more than anything is a game of stats. If you make the A.I. just sit wherever and give it great stats, it becomes almost impossible to beat enemies without taking damage.. unless you use something like grenades, splash, shooting at squares blindly... these kind of tactics still work, but that's it. It's like, the best strategy in JA2 is to find a good position and lure the enemy into it. But if you set the enemy to never move, it doesn't work... then suddenly they are doing the very same thing you are, waiting somewhere and waiting for you. "Fixing" the A.I. to make it play more optimally actually makes the game a lot less fun.
@@TheEdmon I disagree. 1.13 gives you more tactical possibilities. When enemies are sitting inside a building you need to find a way to flush them out. You can use explosives to destroy a wall and then toss inside some tear/mustard gas grenades. Storming a building without any plan or preparation is difficult as it should be. On open ground there is no problem with passive enemies, because you can use sniper or two with ghillie suit and silenced weapons. You can kill whole squad like this before they even have chance to get one shot at you. You can also suppress the enemy, so he can't move. Then you just need to flank and kill him. This is what I like about 1.13, for me it's pure fun. I didn't played vanilla much, because it becomes boring and repetitive for me very fast. As you said the best strategy is always to find good spot and lure the enemy so most fights looks kinda the same. Overall I understand your point of view, because I had exact the same complains about other games and mods. But in JA2 case I think modders did outstanding job by enhancing tactical aspect of the game.
@@MrBegmar But as I already stated and you acknowledge, there is no way to flush them out "unless you use something like grenades, splash, shooting at squares blindly". Yes, explosives are also splash. All of these things are typically highly limited and farming them (like, from the shop with money over time) just drags the game out, in my opinion at least.
@@TheEdmon You can start game with different settings of Bobby's Ray or modify ini to make grenades and explosives more common. You even can just turn off advanced AI and other features you don't like. I recommend playing around with settings until you find something suiting your needs.
You missed a lot by not finishing with Stracciatella. Not only does it fix bugs, it allows for higher res and sped up gameplay. Vanilla is too slow, enemy turns take too long, merc walk too slow, etc.
![Jagged Alliance 2 "Any%" in 15m 24s | Speedrun old PB [PC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ofr9pKSxmjA/mqdefault.jpg)
popped back in after watching the whole playthrough to tell to anyone who happens upon this series that it is definitely worth to watch.
And you didn't even spoil it :).
after watching the whole thing it was disappointing because he lost the most important episode at the end.
One of the best games ever made. Extremely unfortunate that the studio closed and nobody made anything like the game since.
Yes i played it a lot when i was young. I hope i can buy it somewhere again
Jagged Alliance 3 just released a few days back.
25:26 years of watching your channel and *this* is where that line comes from...
lolol. Yep.
I got this recently on Steam just out of curiosity. It really is a genuinely great game. I'm not used to these kinds of old PC games, and a lot of design decisions as well as QoL features can be quite janky and hard to get used to. But once you get past that, this is absolute gold.
JA2 is considered to be the best TBS ever made. A title it arguably holds to this day.
best game ever played. Really. No exaggerations.
one benifit of having jigh marksmanship at the beginning (80+) you get a MP5K from the get go
There is a whole list of items you can get this way, including explosives and medkits.
Videos like this are a godsend. I got this on steam like 2 years ago but my Gen Z brain just has no idea how any U.I. pre Windows XP works😂
Best of luck playing a true classic :).
Yeah man. The UI is so complex for my feeble mind.
the UI works exactly the same as in Win XP, what are you talking about.
Nails is my absolute favourite merc!
You can make him wear other armour, though it's kind of annoying to do. You have to hire him without gear or destroy his jacket by using Comp-18 twice on it. Then when there is nothing in his armour slot, make him pick up any armour you want him to wear using CTRL+Left Click, and it will go into the armour slot.
Also on the IMP, I usually go the primary stats all 85, the secondary stats (below wisdom) I leave at 35 as they can be trained up super quickly anyway.
I do like nails. You can get rid of his armour another way that's cheaper: Make him swim repeatedly until it breaks. Tedious though.
Yeah love JA2. My main issue with the original are the Rocket Rifles that every other enemy seems to have by the end of the game.
It's good to see you build your IMP the most rewarding way, Low MRK, high WIS. A lot of let's plays crank MRK to maximum and you really miss out on slowly building your character to 100 MRK being able to hit just about anything that moves.
Sometimes I even set my agility to 55 and train it with bloodcat lair or punching miners and sneaking around them in the mines.
Or strength to 55 and doing the trip cancel exploit in the hills of Omerta, also good to raise health, which is handy whenever you lose points of health because you gain back your lost health as well as the new points
Oh this game, I could talk about it for hours, there are just so many ways to play.
I try to avoid all the cheese in this campaign, including all the Santa Mona stuff.
I love how your video is overlaid onto your character portrait. It's clever and looks great.
Glad you enjoy it :).
My all time favorite game. So underrated
It really was.
Got this yesterday on steam deck and absolutely loving it
It's a great game.
@@TheEdmon Sorry I'm late to the party, played and owned this gem back in the day and still loving it today. Realised watching your playthrough that i forgot to create my own merc 🤣 A bit painful to watch though its like you have a team of stormtroopers lol. Lynx all the way already on 18 kills and I'm only at the airstrip compared to the rest of the teams 2 kills. Subscribed and will watch every minute of your playthroughs for any tips and tricks, already forgot that you can climb on roofs thanks to you for the refresh. Jagged alliance 3 won't be a patch on this classic.
@@danieljones9334 How is it on Steam Deck?! :o
Good Game and Awesome mechanics, and by that I mean EXCELLENT ones You can make your mercs crouch , climb and prone by command, unlike some games.
I wish games developed on this, rather than getting ever simplier.
@@TheEdmon Can't fault them tbh, as most games are introductory to the setting, comparing X-com with Xenonauts is on my table; they're squad-based and both take place in an alien invasion that wants to conquer earth, X-com's is introductory and it kinda leads me to the wonderful game called Underrail and Xenonauts modding community.
"Most people didn't even know you COULD steal weapons in this game."
Uhm, you can steal weapons?!
Yep, run up to someone and ctrl click them with the grab hand. It is buggy though, it has been known to cause the game to crash so save first. But you can get a lot of weapons early this way.
@@TheEdmon Thanks! I guess I'll have to play it again then 😬
@@Voller84 That's why *stracciatella* is you new friend, more stable and all.
Thank you for the playthrough.
I hope you enjoy it, there are some fun moments, for sure.
@@TheEdmon Have you thought of doing a wildfire playthrough?
@@chancedu Campaigns are decided by suggestion / vote on my Patreon :).
Start now watching your Ja2 playlist, thanks for steaming this amazing game 😀👍
Ps: crazy start gratz
I hope you enjoy the campaign! :)
I was lead to believe Stracciatella was basically vanilla JA2 with higher screen res and a few quality of life additions, but you're right it just doesn't feel the same as classic and i always end up going back to vanilla
They "fixed" the A.I., but all this did was make it such that the enemies got a lot harder, a lot quicker and it made for tedious gameplay because the Red Shirts play like Black Shirts. Frankly, I am not interested in fighting armies of Black Shirts all day long.
im here because i bought xcom and read reviews and jagged alliance popped up. then i went and looked at the 3rd one and ive read some long reviews from the vets explaining why the 2nd is the better option. so now im here. hope to learn something =D
Directly to my childhood.
Mine too!
Many years ago, I played JA2 Classic on highest difficulty... until most of the cities were mine...
But I got ANGRY, when my Militia was wiped out now and again... I CAN NOT HAVE THAT!!! Feels bad man.
So, I don't play JA2 on high difficulty any more.
But this game is fun, no matter what difficulty :).
Training militia over and over does suck.
@@TheEdmon Thank you for your reply :).
What does that say about my ability to teach??? so sad :P
@@frankohero Make Ira do it.
@@TheEdmon Yeah she kinda sucks until her leadership stat gets decent. Then she's got solid LDR, and the Teacher perk, makes her a great trainer.
jag 2 wild fire, bet you cannot beat it
thanks ningen, i love the webcam for ants
Don't know if this was the cause of odd backstepping early, and this is dozens of hours ago for you, but JA2 has a tendency to jam the alt key on when you alt-tab out, until you hit alt again after you come back in.
Yep, this bug happens loads in this classic campaign! :). But not a big deal :D.
@@TheEdmon it's one of those odd things about a campaign like this... the explanations are written to you but aimed at other viewers. Bizarre really.
Yes! AFAIK, even subsequent mods have never fixed this bug.
Wait, how are you managing to alt tab out of the game without it freezing?
@@pattozebass9767 It just works for me... dunno what to tell you.
Hi, it is good to watch Hi, it is good to watch you playing Jagged Alliance 2.
Bye Tibor
Glad you are enjoying it.
Can't you find Nails' jacket? I'm almost 95% certain I remember finding it, it was actually decent armour, not *amazing* but definitely good enough for the times.
You can make an improved version in San Mona but I avoided that town, it's full of exploits that make the game really easy.
ty for doing this
Always a pleasure to play this classic.
What was wrong w/ Stracciatella please sir - difficulty curve? Had found your other playlist and understand you stopped playing it.
I just started a campaign so let me know if I should go vanilla instead. My 1st time ever w/ JA2 btw...
Thanks for the series, will watch it in parallel w/ my playthrough to learn pro tricks e.g. 'kung-fu fighting' 😁 or stealing - made me laugh and no 40 pg strategy guide I have read mentions that!! I like your presentation style, no nonsense and very calm, keep up the great work. Sending good health
I hope you enjoy the series :).
Stracciatella has AI fixes that makes all the enemies behave like Blackshirts (the hardest enemy in the game). It makes taking sectors tidious bug-hunts. Part of the fun is that the redshirts are stupid and just charge at you, at least, I think so.
@@TheEdmon I could not thank you enough!! Decided to ditch Stracciatella aftter ~ 10 hr down the campaign. Vanilla is SO much better. Yes it lacks Qo but... where I thought my tactical skills sucked it was actually the AI (a solider in M01-02 hits me across 2 screens but I cannot hit them back w/ skilled snipers?!)... also, you do not find wire cutters in Omerta which makes Drassen Airport so much tougher (being your 1st time). Since I was watching your vanilla playthrough in parallel I had a 1:1 comparison. Executive Summary : Vanilla forever and godspeed to you sir!!
Hey there, is this the Steam Classic-DLC for "JA2 Wildfire"? im somewhat confused with all the versions around .
This is the original JA2. Nothing special about it. Just the original release game with no extras.
Is it possible to play this game like a super mega pro by focusing on 1-2 mercs, sneaking around, knifing and punching enemies, milking max xp from each encounter?
You can win this with just the custom character. Taking Throwing Expert and throwing knives. An enemy hit with a knife in the head, that is unaware of you, dies instantly.
Love this game.... I think I am only who levelled up Dimitri on level 10 and kill Dedriana with throwing knife before she ever noticed me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I used to use Sydney for the same thing, he's got throwing expert.
@@TheEdmon Even this kid from Tixa prison can be upgraded to be a real killer but this action required too much hours of killing crows with throwing knife 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don't work with ivan that's what steroid says
Jagged Alliance 3 is coming.
It is, apparently. Lets hope it's good.
how did you get the 4:3 aspect ratio?
Set my resolution down to 640x480.
My favorite mercs were Scope, Shadow and Trevor.
Problem with Trevor, was he'd demand more and more pay to an extreme degree after a while. Really annoying.
@@TheEdmon Well Trevor has highest wisdom (if I remember it right), so he levels up very quickly (and his salary as well). But with high wisdom his other stats level up quickly as well - you can do the mine arm/disarm training to level up explosives and then tnt arm/disarm to level up int and you have universal soldier for lockpicking, electronics, explosives and repair with high accuracy as well.
@@jankodes197 He has a special feature, where his wage climbs massively more than any other character. He can hit 80,000+ very rapidly, if not more.
I installed JA2 Wild fire recently, bit the increased resolution made merc and weapons too small for my taste, is there any way to zoom in?
Not that I know of :(.
I thought Stracciatella didnt change anything relevant. What's the big difference compared to classic?
A lot of A.I. "fixes" that makes all the enemies behave like blackshirts (I.E. camping in corners, holding position, generally being a pain in the arse to deal with), which was never the intent of the game. Other "fixes" like the Drassen counterattack now works, when it was deliberately removed from the game because it's too early to be hit with a squad of 8 blackshirts out of nowhere.
I love xcom like games!
Me too!
Nice.
how u move the camera with cursor? bcoz my gog version cannot do that and its bothering me
I dunno man, it just works for me. But I am using the original version of the game.
You know...I have a HUGE trouble with 1.13... I know you might not like it, but I am stucked. Expert difficulty there is so much HARDER than before...
That's why it's not fun. JA2 more than anything is a game of stats. If you make the A.I. just sit wherever and give it great stats, it becomes almost impossible to beat enemies without taking damage.. unless you use something like grenades, splash, shooting at squares blindly... these kind of tactics still work, but that's it.
It's like, the best strategy in JA2 is to find a good position and lure the enemy into it. But if you set the enemy to never move, it doesn't work... then suddenly they are doing the very same thing you are, waiting somewhere and waiting for you.
"Fixing" the A.I. to make it play more optimally actually makes the game a lot less fun.
@@TheEdmon
Yeah. I see your point. Guess I shouldn't have turned up the Item Progression to Very Fast. :D
@@TheEdmon I disagree. 1.13 gives you more tactical possibilities. When enemies are sitting inside a building you need to find a way to flush them out. You can use explosives to destroy a wall and then toss inside some tear/mustard gas grenades. Storming a building without any plan or preparation is difficult as it should be. On open ground there is no problem with passive enemies, because you can use sniper or two with ghillie suit and silenced weapons. You can kill whole squad like this before they even have chance to get one shot at you. You can also suppress the enemy, so he can't move. Then you just need to flank and kill him. This is what I like about 1.13, for me it's pure fun. I didn't played vanilla much, because it becomes boring and repetitive for me very fast. As you said the best strategy is always to find good spot and lure the enemy so most fights looks kinda the same.
Overall I understand your point of view, because I had exact the same complains about other games and mods. But in JA2 case I think modders did outstanding job by enhancing tactical aspect of the game.
@@MrBegmar But as I already stated and you acknowledge, there is no way to flush them out "unless you use something like grenades, splash, shooting at squares blindly". Yes, explosives are also splash. All of these things are typically highly limited and farming them (like, from the shop with money over time) just drags the game out, in my opinion at least.
@@TheEdmon You can start game with different settings of Bobby's Ray or modify ini to make grenades and explosives more common. You even can just turn off advanced AI and other features you don't like. I recommend playing around with settings until you find something suiting your needs.
That jacket can be upgraded but it is still trash btw. :D
You can compound it, then goo it to make it vapourize. Then give him proper armour. Still not worth it.
You missed a lot by not finishing with Stracciatella. Not only does it fix bugs, it allows for higher res and sped up gameplay. Vanilla is too slow, enemy turns take too long, merc walk too slow, etc.
Shame it's got serious balance problems.
Loved Jagged Allience 1 & 2 to death. When games were fun, and not about racial political rubish hypocrit messages.
please do a solo playthrough
You mean, a playthrough with a single character?
exactly. that would be badass. or alternatively a duo of Ira + someone. Or a "3 super experienced mercs only" @@TheEdmon