Hiring mercenaries, sending them to liberate a country, and watching them die stupidly in a plantation.

The profile of Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire tells the story of an unapologetic niche. On gut instinct it only gets past 10% of games: the community almost never picks it when voting on feel. But two lines hold, and they are the best ones. On the desert island question it beats more than half the field. And above all, the wish to rediscover it fresh puts it ahead of 79% of games, on very few votes, so take that carefully. Everything else sinks: attachment, controller feel, art style, soundtrack, all near the bottom. That is the tension: nobody picks it spontaneously, yet those who know it would love to start over.

Next to modern tactics games, the comfort of 2004 has aged hard. This one has to be earned, its presentation is rough, and its depth is invisible from the thumbnail.

So, who is it for? For you if you love managing a squad, planning every turn, swallowing your mistakes and starting again. Much less so if you want a visual knockout, a theme that stays in your head, or a game that wins you over in the first minutes.