Jagged Alliance 1, What's it Like?

[Wayward Son]

I've read a lot here over the year about JA2 and how great it was, and was wondering, what about the first one? Why have I only seen it mentioned a handful of times? Was it bad? Good? Mediocre? Memorable? Forgettable? Is it worth soending money on that could be saved to get something else? Thanks in advance for any response

 

[spectre]

Is it worth soending money on that could be saved to get something else?

Dude, I just saw Jaged Alliance 1 Gold on Kinguin for like... less than one american dorra?

If you are asking if its worth your time. I dunno. If you can stomach the graphics, it's a charming game that stands on its own.
Personally, my memories of JA1 are vague, because it is completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin
as it offers a bit different experience and perspective on its older brother.

 

[Doktor Best]

Its a great game and i will always love it for introducing me to turn based tactical games, but Jagged Alliance 2 is simply better. Still worth a playthrough ofcourse, but it will never stand the test of time as good as X-com, simply cause of the competent predecessor.

 

[octavius]

I haven't played JA2 yet, and I thought JA1 was brilliant when I played it a couple of years ago.
Together with HoMM1 I think it's the best game released in 1995. And like HoMM1 feels terribly dated by HoMM2 I guess it's the same case with JA1 and JA2.

 

[Krivol]

JA1 is great - has some gameplay inconveniences but can still be played with a lot of fun.

And grab Ivan and Ice ASAP!

 

[rezaf]

JA1 is still fun, I played it a couple of years ago - but JA is one of those rare examples where a sequel completely supercedes it's predecessor.
Civ1 vs. Civ2? Many changes, pretty different game. Quake 1 vs Quake 2? Different game. Same as in most other cases.
In JA, however ... you can still play JA1, but it's mainly for historical curiosity rather than to see a whole different game, imo.

Can one still get some campaigns for Deadly Games though? It's the same low-tech engine as JA1, but offers a different approach and some of the user campaigns were quite epic and well designer. Wish I'd archived some of them...

 

[Wayward Son]

JA1 is still fun, I played it a couple of years ago - but JA is one of those rare examples where a sequel complete supercedes it's predecessor.
Civ1 vs. Civ2? Many changes, pretty different game. Quake 1 vs Quake 2? Different game. Same as in most other cases.
In JA, however ... you can still play JA1, but it's mainly for historical curiosity rather than to see a whole different game, imo.

Can one still get some campaigns for Deadly Games though? It's the same low-tech engine as JA1, but offers a different approach and some of the user campaigns were quite epic and well designer. Wish I'd archived some of them...

I already got it, I only noticed after the first couple of posts that it was $2.49 USD on Steam.

 

[aeternalis]

Can one still get some campaigns for Deadly Games though? It's the same low-tech engine as JA1, but offers a different approach and some of the user campaigns were quite epic and well designer. Wish I'd archived some of them...

Best source I know of is kermi's Jagged Alliance files archive: http://kermi.pp.fi/JA_1/Deadly_Games/

 

[Tolias]

Unlike most others in this thread, I believe that JA 1 is better than the sequel. I first played it back in 1996 and since then I do a playthrough every couple of years.

It is a rare example of a game that was (almost) perfectly made: simple, fast, addicting gameplay; enough complexity to make everything shine; and a large pool of interesting mercs, each with his/her own personality, quirks.

Ja 2 is great and everything but it never manages to give me that feeling joy the first one did.

 

[octavius]

Can one still get some campaigns for Deadly Games though? It's the same low-tech engine as JA1, but offers a different approach and some of the user campaigns were quite epic and well designer. Wish I'd archived some of them...

Best source I know of is kermi's Jagged Alliance files archive: http://kermi.pp.fi/JA_1/Deadly_Games/

Any recommendations? Which one's best? Which one's, if any, to avoid?

 

[rezaf]

Any recommendations? Which one's best? Which one's, if any, to avoid?

I'm afraid I can't say much about specific campaigns just from looking at their filenames...
BUT it did turn out I actually, at some point, archived some campaigns I deemed worthy for some reason or another.
I can no longer tell what these reasons were (if you look at the filedates in the archive you'll notice it was created in 2003), but most are actually not on the site aeternalis linked to (I was looking in the wrong folder previously) - but I uploaded them here anyway, in case anyone is interested.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Thread resurrection time. Started to play this game recently. 20 hours in now, forced myself to stop playing today because I needed to get some stuff done. Instead I'm only posting about it on forums It's not even strictly an RPG but I'm already more invested in the characters than most games of the recent years. And people are generally saying the sequel is even better?

completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin

What's that? It's not the version that's on GOG, is it? I would appreciate you going into some detail on this. Googled but only a mish-mash of random info came up.

 

[Krivol]

He was talking about Jagged Alliance 2 1.13

 

[Doktor Best]

Thread resurrection time. Started to play this game recently. 20 hours in now, forced myself to stop playing today because I needed to get some stuff done. Instead I'm only posting about it on forums It's now even strictly an RPG but I'm already more invested in the characters than most games of the recent years. And people are generally saying the sequel is even better?

completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin

What's that? It's not the version that's on GOG, is it? I would appreciate you going into some detail on this. Googled but only a mish-mash of random info came up.

Yeah the second one is better, but its still a shame the first one is so overlooked because of its successors popularity as it is still a great game.

Deadly games is good too. Don't touch anything in the series that came out after 2.

 

[JarlFrank]

completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin

What's that? It's not the version that's on GOG, is it? I would appreciate you going into some detail on this. Googled but only a mish-mash of random info came up.

Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 is a mod for JA2 that overhauls all the systems, adds some new content (mostly lots and lots and LOTS of gun porn) and plenty of optional rules and adjustments.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin

What's that? It's not the version that's on GOG, is it? I would appreciate you going into some detail on this. Googled but only a mish-mash of random info came up.

Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 is a mod for JA2 that overhauls all the systems, adds some new content (mostly lots and lots and LOTS of gun porn) and plenty of optional rules and adjustments.

Thanks. Interestingly, the GOG version is of JA1 is also 1.13:

 

[Galdred]

Thread resurrection time. Started to play this game recently. 20 hours in now, forced myself to stop playing today because I needed to get some stuff done. Instead I'm only posting about it on forums It's now even strictly an RPG but I'm already more invested in the characters than most games of the recent years. And people are generally saying the sequel is even better?

completely superseded by Jagged Alliance 1.13 in my head, but if you aren't spoiled like that it's worth a spin

What's that? It's not the version that's on GOG, is it? I would appreciate you going into some detail on this. Googled but only a mish-mash of random info came up.

Yeah the second one is better, but its still a shame the first one is so overlooked because of its successors popularity as it is still a great game.

Deadly games is good too. Don't touch anything in the series that came out after 2.

The second is better indeed, but the first has a more affordable Ivan!

 

[asper]

Mod recommendation for Jagged Alliance 1: The unofficial 1.15 patch. See - https://af.gog.com/forum/jagged_alliance_series/ja1_unofficial_115_patch?as=1649904300
Fixes many bugs. Indeed the GOG version is 1.13, you need to update to 1.13b first - update files are included in the 1.15 patch.

The game is fantastic and definitely still worth playing today. One of the best ever made.

 

[GreyViper]

I also suggest having a look at this, if you want the best of both worlds. It uses the vanilla JA2 system last time I checked and pretty good conversion of original maps.
http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=20899&start=0&

Sorry only video i could find about it was in Russian.