There's an aptly named development studio - or was. All of their isometric titles, composed of relatively simple elements, have a certain magic to them. Needless to say, this one is no exception. It introduces basic adventure game mechanics like scouring the level for information and keys to doors and lock boxes, while blending these mechanics with squad-based stealth strategy and a bit of action. None of it seems particularly deep, but the end result is delightfully enchanting.
The game features two campaigns (for the mafia and the police), allows to pick squad mates based upon their stats, and select their gear from a realistic list of items. These include firearms (pistol, shotgun, rifle, and submachine gun), lethal or non-lethal melee weapons (knuckleduster, baton, chloroform, switchblade, and throwing knife), restraint devices (rope for the mafia, and handcuffs for the police), first aid kits, grenades, and bribe money for paying off witnesses (the latter two are exclusive to the mafia). Not only do the police get fewer tools - they cannot pay off witnesses or use knives and grenades - but they can also only engage "legal" targets. That is to say they can only return fire as opposed to sneaking up on unsuspecting enemies to neutralise them quietly, and they have to perform arrests on surrendering enemies by handcuffing them at gunpoint. Otherwise they get penalised, and - after accumulating enough penalties - end up going to jail, making them unavailable for missions. The mafia, perhaps unsurprisingly, are unburdened by ethics and have no moral qualms, so it is probably better to play their campaign first.
Now I have zero proper law enforcement training, and am no police consultant. However, there don't seem to be any ways for the police to announce their presence, except discharging their firearms within earshot, and most enemies have their weapons drawn and don't want to surrender anyway, so the procedure for adhering to the strict letter of the law for me usually went as follows: save the game, whip a shotgun out, and take a run up behind a lone enemy, stopping just close enough for him to hear the footstep noise and become curious enough to turn around. Next, go into slow motion mode, wait for the icon above his head to change, marking him as a legal target, to then blast him away without repercussions. If sneaking up behind an enemy is impossible, the somewhat modified procedure applies: save the game, take two guys, arming the better shooter with a rifle (it has a longer range) and have him cover the designated "runner", who will run up close enough to get spotted, quickly retreating under fire in slow motion, while you switch to the rifleman and blast the perpetrator. Alternatively, you could just not switch to Hard difficulty, and play on Easy or Medium instead because enemy reaction times are noticeably more forgiving on the latter two. Bear in mind, this decision has to be made at the beginning of the game.
Despite all the positives, however, the controls are simply not responsive enough to recommend this game unconditionally to new players. Frame rate is low, and every click registers after a noticeable delay, which hinders any attempt at dexterous play under pressure. On the Hard difficulty setting it is super important to know what's coming, at times having to carefully position your operatives in advance to overcome a given situation. That is because enemies and player characters have very limited vision range and don't see anyone beyond it, so scouting with a "perceptive" character becomes absolutely necessary.
In addition, the game has a few bugs. Even though its save system is amazing in its own right - it is possible to quick-save at literally any given moment - the game might occasionally crash upon saving or loading. One mission has a bugged objective to save an electrician, who is locked in a small walled yard with two gates which can be unlocked with the same key. Problem is, unlocking doors "consumes" keys, and this objective does not register as completed if the wrong gate is unlocked to set the electrician free, so keep several saves on every mission just in case. Picking your team for missions is also buggy - operatives selected in the beginning of a campaign cannot be changed later on, unless they are killed or in jail, so don't fill your roster straight after the first mission because more capable operatives become available later.
The game can be played with a team of just three characters. It appears to lack team management tools like setting behavioural patterns and active monitoring of areas, so it is probably actually more convenient that way. I recommend picking a designated marksman, a melee-capable guy, and a discreet, sneaky guy to cover pretty much all the situations - with the exception of the horrendous railway hostage rescue mission, which seems to change the rule set enemies go by, with some of them becoming so paranoid, they are impossible to sneak up on. However, even in that mission five guys are probably only necessary if you want to save absolutely all the hostages. Nevertheless, the railway hostage rescue mission made me regret the game doesn't let you have a skilled "crisis negotiator" on the team. Don't forget to "practice" every operative's skill in missions as well as collecting upgrade tokens, as this improves them also. Unfortunately, only their signature skills can upgraded through training and upgrade tokens at first; the rest becoming available for improvement only after completing a mission on a territory with the gym icon on it, quite a ways into a chosen campaign.
