The battle system is quite different than Grimrock I think. Isn't it turn-based and goes to a separate battle screen?
Yes, the combat goes to seperate screen. It's basically jRPG combat like (blobber combat) and is TURN-BASED.
You left click on an enemy, and then choose an ability. Some abilities require that you put "combos" on an enemy, before you can use them. For example:
(I'm playing a Cyberninja) Your main attack does x amount of damage, but puts on 2 combos. Another ability requires 2 or more combos on the enemy. After attacking with your main attack, it now has 2 combos on it. You can now use that second ability on them.
(note the greyed out ability above, as it requires at least 2 combos on the enemy before you can use it).
So far exploration is fun, you WILL need to look around with the look function (to find hidden containers, datalogs and credits etc...).
There are many dialogue options which you can choose, though I don't know if any of that will ever lead to *actual* C&C, or if it will be meaningless BioWarian/Witcher C&C. So that I don't know yet.
After the first mission, you will now have money to hire people. You can then see a list of mission to take. They describe what they need you to do. Like one was a diplomatic mission, so obviously I'd hire someone that has a good talking skills for that (or kill the person).
Some are straightforward explore and find stuff (from the description). Some of them have a + rep for a company AND then a - rep for another company. And some have just a + for a company.
I'm liking it so far. This is NOT incredibly complex JA2/X-Com combat, but enjoyable so far. I'll just try a few mission and see.