The Concept

Developer: Sir-Tech Canada
Publisher: Interplay
Fallout Tactics official page: http://www.interplay.com/ja2ub/ (Flash required)

Squad combat

Since X-Com, I've been hooked on squad-based combat. There's just something unmistakably cool about taking a small but skilled group of troops, throwing them against overwhelming odds and coming out victorious thanks to better tactics. Picking off stragglers, grenading tight groups of enemies, and executing perfect assaults are the norm in these games. Of course, one has to save after every turn and load countless times to survive with his squad intact - but the challenge is still there. The player is punished with wasted time if he leads his troops badly, so there is an incentive to not just slug it out and hope that the dice roll your way.

Pick carefully

Woo... CGI!

Depending on who you ask, squad combat reached its peak with X-Com, Squad Leader or Jagged Alliance. Everyone has their own reasons for their answers. Many gamers like the hardcore aspects of Squad Leader, while others prefer the setting and strategic involvement of X-Com. Jagged Alliance and its sequels combine some of X-Com's strategy, with a real-world setting and some more realism. The original, and its stand-alone expansion, Deadly Games, received many accolades in the mid '90s and established a strong, loyal fanbase that couldn't wait to get their hands on the real sequel - Jagged Alliance 2. Of course, they waited... and waited... and waited until the last months of 1999, when JA2 was finally released.

The pilot smoked something strong...

Where's Waldo?

Unfinished Business?

JA2: Unfinished Business is to Jagged Alliance 2 what Deadly Games was to Jagged Alliance. Not quite a sequel, and not quite an expansion pack, it's what most people would call a stand-alone expansion. Homeworld: Cataclysm is probably the best example out there to illustrate the situation. Same engine with some interface and gameplay improvements but overall it's more of the same. If the original game was good, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Should I grenade him?

Two birds with one stone

The plot is quite simple. In JA2, you restored the rightful ruler of a small, fictitious tropical nation called Arulco. The mining conglomerate that ran Arulco's mines during its short period of dictatorship wants to take the mines back. They sent an airstrike at Arulco, and in retaliation, Enrico Chivaldori - the man who helped take back Arulco - is sending you to strike back at Ricci Mining and Exploration, based in the neighboring country of Tracona.