SHORT VERSION

Short, unfinished, unbalanced, not well optimized, bugged and last but not least - abandoned (there are no more signs of life from devs at all since 2016-01-27) turn based tactic with very weak AI and a lot of weird stuff. Get it on sale for 5 bucks if you are really interested in such kind of games and don't mind to support a developer/publisher, who basically has thrown a "half baked" product out on market and disappeared after that.

LONG VERSION

Discovered this title while in early access and went for it in October 2015 after it was officially released and got a couple of patches/updates. Now after 70 hours spent I am pretty sure that I have seen and done everything possible within this game, so for all those of you who ask yourself "should I get it or not?" I got an answer. The answer is - no, unless there is a discount like -80% or better. Now some of you may ask "hmm, but what's wrong with it? Trailer looks promising, screens are looking good... okay-okay there were some bugs, but devs are fixing it, right?" and this question is legitimate for sure.

So let’s go deeper in detail:

1. The game itself is ridiculously short. It consists of ca. 12 main story missions, that’s all. Plus there are so called random encounter events, which are cycled through 4 or 5 predefined maps. Main story maps are predefined as well. The task is always the same - kill them all. In a couple of story missions you need to get to point X and pick up a data, but in order to get there you still need to kill them all. The complete walkthrough will take about 10 hours if you won't waste much time with random encounters.

2. The tactical phase is actually fun to play for a while. It plays pretty the same way like the new XCOM EU/EW. There is also a cover system, but the funny thing is that AI doesn't care about it at all - enemies are just rushing to you (no matter what weapons they have) or going in overwatch. It doesn't depend on difficulty you play - I've tested all possible difficulty settings - always the same behavior, no one takes cover. Furthermore enemies never retreat, never flank, never use medkits, never switch weapons (melee/ranged) and so on. Okay, they manage to use nades at least. But basically they are just dashing to you ignoring everything ready to die in the next turn.

3. The progressing is unbalanced. It is possible to get best available weaponry (gencorp rifles) right in the very beginning via random encounter. Once obtained you will literally r.a.p.e everyone.

4. Weapon setup is unbalanced. There are pretty many weapons and I've tried them all. Some (SMGs, flamethrowers, miniguns) are completely useless. Pistols, rifles and sniper rifles are OK. Shotguns and rocket launchers are too much overpowered.

5. The optimization is not good. The game runs not really smooth on my laptop (i7-4710HQ, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX860M, Win7-64 Prof.) although it is far beyond the minimal requirements (2GHz Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Intel HD 4000, Win7)

6. As for today (2015-12-05, v1.1.6) there are still minor bugs, glitches and other annoying things like steam achievements which are impossible to get. Check my reports - some of them are already solved, but latest were not even answered. I guess this game will be abandoned soon or maybe it is already.

http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478014134/
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478010454/
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478008483/
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478011420/
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441482029/
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441520810/

7. I can just keep on going this way and mention tons of other stuff like:
a) Mercenaries, which you can hire but not fire - the only dismiss option is to vanish them in combat.
b) If you hire a merc his attributes will be spread in his skilltree randomly. However you can't see his skilltree before you hire him. If you got him and didn't like his perks selection for any reason - see 7a.
c) Nothing to explore on the game map at all.
d) Really confusing correlation between main and secondary stats.
e) A hit/miss algorithm which is most likely broken. I experienced just too many misses with high-percentage shots like 3-4-5 misses in a row!!! with 80% to hit. On the other hand grenades will never miss, no matter what % is displayed.
f) Caravan upgrades are pointless. There is no use for the most of those upgrades.
g) Sometimes in random encounter missions enemies wont move at all, they will just stand there doing permanent overwatch turn after turn.



Now in the conclusion I have to say that the primary idea/concept of the game isn't that bad at all. The visual art is ok, level design is ok, the story is ok, skill-tree is ok, weapon upgrade system is ok. But the whole rest construct around... it needs at least a massive polishing. It lacks some kind of deepness in this game as well. Something simple like a couple of side quests and explorable map would help a lot. I have a feeling that it was rushed in the very final stage of development. There was so much more potential inside this project, really sad to see what it became in the end.

As I already said in the beginning - I can not recommend this game in its actual shape. The full price of 20$/€ is honestly a joke for this kind of content. Hovewer if you are looking for a short and unbalanced "XCOM-wannabe-clone" with incredibly dumb AI, glitches and a lot of weird things - this game is for you.



PS:
Dislikes are supposed to be invalid unless there is a proof about any single point in this review which is incorrect. Be aware - there are indeed fanboys denying any criticism and instantly disliking every negative review, simply because they get so much b.u.t.t.hurt by facing obvious facts.

Read this thread for more information:
http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/0/485624149158912987/

[b]SHORT VERSION[/b] Short, unfinished, unbalanced, not well optimized, bugged and last but not least - abandoned (there are no more signs of life from devs at all since 2016-01-27) turn based tactic with very weak AI and a lot of weird stuff. Get it on sale for 5 bucks if you are really interested in such kind of games and don't mind to support a developer/publisher, who basically has thrown a "half baked" product out on market and disappeared after that. [b]LONG VERSION[/b] Discovered this title while in early access and went for it in October 2015 after it was officially released and got a couple of patches/updates. Now after 70 hours spent I am pretty sure that I have seen and done everything possible within this game, so for all those of you who ask yourself "should I get it or not?" I got an answer. The answer is - no, unless there is a discount like -80% or better. Now some of you may ask "hmm, but what's wrong with it? Trailer looks promising, screens are looking good... okay-okay there were some bugs, but devs are fixing it, right?" and this question is legitimate for sure. So let’s go deeper in detail: 1. The game itself is ridiculously short. It consists of ca. 12 main story missions, that’s all. Plus there are so called random encounter events, which are cycled through 4 or 5 predefined maps. Main story maps are predefined as well. The task is always the same - kill them all. In a couple of story missions you need to get to point X and pick up a data, but in order to get there you still need to kill them all. The complete walkthrough will take about 10 hours if you won't waste much time with random encounters. 2. The tactical phase is actually fun to play for a while. It plays pretty the same way like the new XCOM EU/EW. There is also a cover system, but the funny thing is that AI doesn't care about it at all - enemies are just rushing to you (no matter what weapons they have) or going in overwatch. It doesn't depend on difficulty you play - I've tested all possible difficulty settings - always the same behavior, no one takes cover. Furthermore enemies never retreat, never flank, never use medkits, never switch weapons (melee/ranged) and so on. Okay, they manage to use nades at least. But basically they are just dashing to you ignoring everything ready to die in the next turn. 3. The progressing is unbalanced. It is possible to get best available weaponry (gencorp rifles) right in the very beginning via random encounter. Once obtained you will literally r.a.p.e everyone. 4. Weapon setup is unbalanced. There are pretty many weapons and I've tried them all. Some (SMGs, flamethrowers, miniguns) are completely useless. Pistols, rifles and sniper rifles are OK. Shotguns and rocket launchers are too much overpowered. 5. The optimization is not good. The game runs not really smooth on my laptop (i7-4710HQ, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX860M, Win7-64 Prof.) although it is far beyond the minimal requirements (2GHz Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Intel HD 4000, Win7) 6. As for today (2015-12-05, v1.1.6) there are still minor bugs, glitches and other annoying things like steam achievements which are impossible to get. Check my reports - some of them are already solved, but latest were not even answered. I guess this game will be abandoned soon or maybe it is already. http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478014134/ http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478010454/ http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478008483/ http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478011420/ http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441482029/ http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441520810/ 7. I can just keep on going this way and mention tons of other stuff like: a) Mercenaries, which you can hire but not fire - the only dismiss option is to vanish them in combat. b) If you hire a merc his attributes will be spread in his skilltree randomly. However you can't see his skilltree before you hire him. If you got him and didn't like his perks selection for any reason - see 7a. c) Nothing to explore on the game map at all. d) Really confusing correlation between main and secondary stats. e) A hit/miss algorithm which is most likely broken. I experienced just too many misses with high-percentage shots like 3-4-5 misses in a row!!! with 80% to hit. On the other hand grenades will never miss, no matter what % is displayed. f) Caravan upgrades are pointless. There is no use for the most of those upgrades. g) Sometimes in random encounter missions enemies wont move at all, they will just stand there doing permanent overwatch turn after turn. Now in the conclusion I have to say that the primary idea/concept of the game isn't that bad at all. The visual art is ok, level design is ok, the story is ok, skill-tree is ok, weapon upgrade system is ok. But the whole rest construct around... it needs at least a massive polishing. It lacks some kind of deepness in this game as well. Something simple like a couple of side quests and explorable map would help a lot. I have a feeling that it was rushed in the very final stage of development. There was so much more potential inside this project, really sad to see what it became in the end. As I already said in the beginning - I can not recommend this game in its actual shape. The full price of 20$/€ is honestly a joke for this kind of content. Hovewer if you are looking for a short and unbalanced "XCOM-wannabe-clone" with incredibly dumb AI, glitches and a lot of weird things - this game is for you. PS: Dislikes are supposed to be invalid unless there is a proof about any single point in this review which is incorrect. Be aware - there are indeed fanboys denying any criticism and instantly disliking every negative review, simply because they get so much b.u.t.t.hurt by facing obvious facts. Read this thread for more information: http://gtm.you1.cn/app/325790/discussions/0/485624149158912987/