Jagged Alliance 2 Set for July 23

Finally! Many years ago gamers waited anxiously for Jagged Alliance, one of the most heavily delayed games in recent memory, but it was well received when it was finally released. At one point in 1998 it appeared that its anticipated sequel, Jagged Alliance 2, would never see the light of day, as the US offices of Sirtech were going under. However, the Canadian development group persisted and finally secured Take-Two Interactive and Talonsoft as publishers.

Now, after more than a year of delays (and a few months after the release of a European version) Jagged Alliance 2 is finally set to ship to stores in the US on Friday, July 23.

In short, Jagged Alliance 2 is a modern-era strategy game with role-playing and action elements. The player controls a set of mercenaries through the liberation of a small country. The game features many different types of terrain (well, mostly jungle, actually) and buildings, 10,000 lines of digitized speech for 70 preset mercenaries, and a new in-game character generator.

"We are very pleased with the quality of this product," said TalonSoft president Jim Rose. "From the moment we first saw it, TalonSoft realized that Sirtech put a great deal of time and effort into Jagged Alliance 2, and we expect that players will realize this as well. We believe Jagged Alliance 2 will do extremely well in the US marketplace."