End State Review Summary

Strong Potential & Enjoyable Core: Players find the game highly enjoyable in its current state, recognizing significant potential for future development. The core gameplay, graphics, and overall concept are well-received, with many expressing excitement for its evolution.

Excellent Tactical Combat: The game's tactical combat system is a major highlight, frequently compared to XCOM and Jagged Alliance. Players appreciate its depth, challenge, and unique mechanics like reaction fire and overwatch, finding it both immersive and satisfying.

Good Visuals & Sound: The graphics are generally praised for their quality, especially considering the game's early access stage. The sound design, particularly bullet and ricochet effects, also contributes positively to the experience.

Looting & Mission Rewards: The ability to loot items while still receiving mission rewards is a liked feature, adding to player satisfaction.

Save Game Issues: One player reported that the game became uninteresting after save games stopped working, indicating a critical bug that needs addressing.

Unpolished and Buggy State: The game is frequently described as unpolished, janky, and riddled with bugs. Players experience issues like freezing, crashes, animation glitches, targeting problems, and general instability, indicating a need for significant development and quality assurance.

Game Lacks Core Content: Players overwhelmingly report that the game is severely lacking in content, feeling more like a demo or pre-alpha than a full game. This includes missing features, limited maps, enemy diversity, story depth, and overall gameplay options, making it feel unfinished and repetitive.

Overpriced for Current State: Many players feel the game is not worth its current price point, especially given its limited content and unpolished state. They suggest it's overpriced for what feels like an early access or even a demo version.

Lack of Narrative and Dialogue: The game is criticized for its simple narrative, lack of engaging story, and absence of voice acting or character dialogue. This contributes to a feeling of a barebones experience without immersive storytelling.

Limited Mercenary Customization: Players note a lack of personalization for mercenaries, including no female options and insufficient information about their stats or equipment. The inability to replace fallen mercenaries also limits strategic choices.

Familiar Turn-Based Tactical Gameplay: Players consistently note the game's strong resemblance to established turn-based tactical franchises like XCOM and Jagged Alliance, particularly in its combat and pre-combat exploration mechanics. This suggests a familiar yet potentially refined experience for fans of the genre.

Detailed Stance and Aiming Mechanics: The game incorporates a detailed system for character stances (standing, crouching, prone) that directly influences aiming percentages for different body parts. This adds a layer of tactical depth to combat encounters.

Basic Loot and Progression Systems: The game includes a functional inventory system where players can loot items and receive mission rewards. Soldiers can also level up and gain skills through experience points, providing a basic sense of progression.

Reaction Time Combat System: A unique 'reaction speed' system is implemented, determining initiative in overwatch and counter-fire scenarios. However, some feedback suggests this system can be inconsistent, particularly with non-linear enemy movement.

Good Stealth and Cover Mechanics: The game features good stealth mechanics and functional cover, which are important elements for tactical gameplay. However, the cover system is noted as 'somewhat' working, implying potential minor issues.

Poor Performance and Stability: Players are experiencing significant technical issues, including frequent crashes, random freezes, and low frame rates (15-20 FPS) even on high-end systems. These issues often necessitate force-closing the game and restarting scenarios, severely disrupting gameplay.

Game has strong future potential: Many players acknowledge the game's potential and express excitement for its future development. However, they also caution that the current state is akin to an early alpha or demo, suggesting that those expecting a complete experience should wait for further updates and polish.

Recommended for genre fans: Despite its early state, the game is recommended for fans of turn-based strategy, especially those who appreciate strategic depth and tension. Hardcore fans of the genre who understand the implications of an alpha build are more likely to enjoy it.

Purchase to support development: A significant portion of the feedback indicates that purchasing the game in its current state is primarily an act of supporting the developers and their vision. Players are advised to buy only if they are willing to invest in the game's potential, rather than expecting a fully fleshed-out product.

Desire for Jagged Alliance features: There's a clear desire for the game to evolve more towards a 'Jagged Alliance' style experience, particularly with customizable elements, rather than resembling an 'XCOM2' clone. Improved mercenary hiring is also a specific request.

Refunds considered/requested: A small number of players have considered or requested refunds, indicating dissatisfaction with the game's current state. This suggests that for some, the game did not meet even basic expectations.

Very Early Access State: Players consistently highlight that the game is in a very early Alpha or 'EARLY Early Access' stage, feeling more like a demo than a full game. This indicates a significant lack of content and polish, with many features appearing as placeholders. There's an expectation that the game will grow substantially with future updates.

Long Development History: Many players have been following the game for years, noting its 6+ year development cycle, much of which was perceived as abandonment. Despite this, there's a 'grudging affection' for the developer's return and commitment, with hopes for a clear roadmap.

Developer Effort & Communication: There's an acknowledgment that the developers are actively working on the game, with a recent major update bringing new features and bug fixes. However, some players desire a direct feedback mechanism and a clear roadmap to understand future development plans.

Suggested Gameplay Improvements: Players are suggesting specific improvements for core gameplay, including the ability to create custom mercenaries, more varied item acquisition, and enhancements to melee combat, loot, random encounters, and tactical combat mechanics, such as color-coded movement radii.

Concerns About Abandonment: Despite the developer's return, some players express concern that the game, in its current early state, might still be abandoned, a common fate for many Early Access titles.