Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business

Pros • An editor • New methods to determine the effectiveness of covering terrain and weapon range • Same intense tactical battles we’ve loved since the original Jagged Alliance	Cons • The missions are just too damn hard
Bottom Line Excellent game of small unit tactics, but too hard for all but die-hard tacticians and folks with plenty of gaming time on their hands. They’re bayaack! Those down ‘n dirty, frequently funny, sometimes aggravating, tactical turn-based mercenaries from SirTech have returned for another crack at your computer. And what a crack it is. SirTech has further enhanced their mercenaries’ already formidable tactical engine, and buffed up the opposition for an all new romp through Arulco’s neighbor to the north, Tracona. It’s a straightforward romp; there’s no resource management, no militia training, no mining. You just fight the good fight, and pray you prevail against the toughest turn-based tactical missions to ever grace a computer screen. Read on.

The Jagged Alliance franchise has long been the king of turn-based tactical combat. Its mix of gritty-real weaponry and believable role-playing has garnered a devoted legion of fans. Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business is Sirtech’s latest offering to that legion. But although Unfinished Business is an enjoyable return to Sirtech’s battlefields, its killer missions prevent all but the tactically hard core from wading through the game.


Unfinished Business is a lean, mean Jagged Alliance. There is no resource management, no militia to train, and little strategizing which sector to attack. Your mercenaries have been asked to slip across Arulco’s border, and take out a threatening missile base in the neighboring country of Tracona. The objectives are simple: Get in, destroy the base, and kill anyone that gets in your way.


The game uses a slightly modified Jagged Alliance 2 engine, and although, in essence, an expansion pack, Jagged Alliance 2 isn’t needed to play. The story is played out on a large “sector” map of Tracona. Gamers order their mercenaries sector to sector, searching for the missile base and advancing the story. When enemy troops are discovered, battle ensues. It’s a personal battle; as in most strategy RPGs, characters are rated in numerous abilities including marksmanship, mechanical aptitude, medical skill, etc. Each turn, the soldiers use their action points to move, shoot their weapons, bandage wounds, etc. Although the game is similar to Jagged Alliance 2, SirTech has made improvements. A key tap indicates how well terrain will protect your mercenary, and another key pops up weapon range information. You can even import saved games from the original Jagged Alliance 2.


These are welcome improvements, but not enough to mitigate the brain-numbing difficulty of the sectors. Even the first few locations take numerous restarts to conquer. Hey, challenging is fine, but needlessly frustrating is not. The game would have been better served with an easier, novice mode.


On the other hand, if you don’t like the given missions, you can design your own. Unfinished Business includes an excellent editor that not only supports mission design, but entire campaigns. In fact, the editor is the game’s best feature. We’re sure it will spawn a bevy of user-designed campaigns.


Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business is a strong addition to the franchise. Chock full of the same brain-straining combat that made the series famous, Unfinished Business will delight turn-based tacticians. Conversely, the game is difficult, perhaps needlessly so, and newcomers are warned to either stay away or prepare themselves for many hours of frustration.

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