Ok so picked it up...played about two hours here's the basics so far:
-Game is RTwP and controls pretty well. Not a fan of RTwP but it's not actually pause...you can only slow down the action and only so much as it's a resource. It's functional though, so far I only have two characters but you can control them independently, give them order, use skills, etc. Pretty simple so far but on the second level noticing there could be a bit more complexity. For instance, the groups are getting bigger, some of the mobs require taking them out first (healers, heavy mobs).
-First level is really a tutorial I think. Basically it appears there's a central village/hub once you get past the first map. From there you can visit the merchant, talk to townspeople, level up your characters, and get ready for the next mission. You select on a larger map your next mission and start on the mission map. So far they've been pretty damn big, with a few optional areas and missions. Nothing ground breaking so far, but some fun little touches like finding out one of the butchers is using villagers and stuff like that. You basically get some gold/items and that's it. Once the primary mission is complete you can return to the main town and level up, buy more items, etc.
-Aside from some minor side mission stuff, there's also some interesting optional puzzles I've run across. The best one was kinda like the scene from Die Hard: With a Vengeance where they had to fill a bucket with 4 gallons of water with a 5 and 3 gallon bucket. Not sure how many of these there are, but if there are more puzzles like this that would be great.
-Leveling works like this...after each mission each character gets points. You have three stats you can invest in (body, mind, and control), with each of these having multiple tiers of skills. For each tier in a specific stat you reach, it opens up those skills to use on your character. Each character can have 2 skills equipped at any time, and you also have a feed skill which uses a base gem (there's like 15 I think). These feed gems modify the feed skill, so basically a life gem will make it a healing well, or a death gem will make it an offensive skill. Kinda cool. You can respec in town at will with no penalty.
-The item system seems decent so far. There's (at least I've seen) 3 different item types (standard white/green/blue) tier system and I think there's also legendary/unique weapons and armor as well. There's all sorts of modifiers like attack speed, resistance, elemental damage...basic stuff but I think it can def scratch that loot itch. Weapons and armors have requirements built around the three stats (not character levels)...so a sword might need 6 body and 3 control or a staff needs 7 mind and 1 body.
-Graphics are nice, kind of reminds me Titan Quest.
-If you are a story/dialog person and/or care about serious quality dialog I'd steer clear. Most NPC's have one liners to say and thematically it's pretty close to something like the Divinity games in tone and delivery...albeit there's even less dialog (good!).
-While the presentation of the game is generally good you can def tell it's from a smaller studio. Some annoyances are while you can pan the camera around, you can't rotate it. There's no button to highlight interactive environmental stuff (chests, lootable rocks, etc). No rebinding of keys (at least that I saw). It's a bit lacking sounds effects/music wise. The music is nice, but it loops and isn't dynamic. There's tutorial messages but after the first set they disappear...but in the menu they continue to accumulate so didn't even notice they were there for the first 30 mins.
Anyways that's about it, if anyone has any specific questions I'd be glad to answer them. Overall the game is pretty fun just for the mission/exploration/party building/looting aspect. For $20 it ain't bad and as long as you aren't needing the next BGII I think you could spend your money in worse ways
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