Mustawd
Guest
Finally beat this. It took probably 11 hours longer than needed because I restarted on vanilla. The Game+ mod was just way too difficult, and not in a good way. At first it was ok, but I eventually realized it's tweaked for ultra hardcore fans that have already completed the game. So basically you have to do everything perfectly, and get a bit lucky on the RNG (IMO anyways).
After restarting the game on vanilla I started to have a bit more fun. The story actually isn't too bad, and I enjoyed it for what it was. The characters were done "ok", but really only three or four of them stood out as having unique voices. The others were a bit generic.
The biggest problem I encountered was that although combat was still fun for me, the mechanics, tactics, and overall variety never changed much throughout the games. There were different variety of weapons, but none of it mattered much. The only saving grace was the special abilities of each team member. Those were actually interesting, and provide different ways to approach a mission. However, as not many missions were different, it hardly gave you an incentive to mix and match your team.
Also, there are some levels where you need to play through it once to realize you needed 4 snipers/assault rifle guys because all the enemies were permanently at long range. All in all, I'd say about 1/3 of the levels were designed extremely well to result in good tactical play. 1/3 were kind of meh, and the other 1/3 were forgettable. Which is a shame because the last two maps kind of show the variety that the devs were capable of.
Overall though, it's not a bad effort. I enjoyed the gameplay, although towards the third fourth it got a bit stale, and I had to power through. Also, the story is kind of cool, even if the dialogue and characters could use some more work to flesh them out.
VERDICT: Buy on sale if looking for a turn-based tactical game with some interesting atmosphere. Just be aware of the 3/4 of the game lull, which picks up in the last three missions.
After restarting the game on vanilla I started to have a bit more fun. The story actually isn't too bad, and I enjoyed it for what it was. The characters were done "ok", but really only three or four of them stood out as having unique voices. The others were a bit generic.
The biggest problem I encountered was that although combat was still fun for me, the mechanics, tactics, and overall variety never changed much throughout the games. There were different variety of weapons, but none of it mattered much. The only saving grace was the special abilities of each team member. Those were actually interesting, and provide different ways to approach a mission. However, as not many missions were different, it hardly gave you an incentive to mix and match your team.
Also, there are some levels where you need to play through it once to realize you needed 4 snipers/assault rifle guys because all the enemies were permanently at long range. All in all, I'd say about 1/3 of the levels were designed extremely well to result in good tactical play. 1/3 were kind of meh, and the other 1/3 were forgettable. Which is a shame because the last two maps kind of show the variety that the devs were capable of.
Overall though, it's not a bad effort. I enjoyed the gameplay, although towards the third fourth it got a bit stale, and I had to power through. Also, the story is kind of cool, even if the dialogue and characters could use some more work to flesh them out.
VERDICT: Buy on sale if looking for a turn-based tactical game with some interesting atmosphere. Just be aware of the 3/4 of the game lull, which picks up in the last three missions.
That was my thought the first two attempts, but the size and layout of the map actually allowed me to create choke points and interesting crossfire opportunities with my snipers. Also, I used Thirteen to transport all over the place, cause general havoc, and draw attention away from my main force. It was a lot of fun, and I wish more maps had the opportunity for combat to evolve that way.
