[b] TL;DR: [/b] it is a railroading experience, somewhat like a dumbed down Fallout: Tactics. Decent game, though feels rushed, like a "single player scenario for a demo of a map editor application" - if you played Sword Coast Legends, then you capture my meaning. I still recommend this game, as it can give you some entertainment.
[b] One friendly warning though!!!!!! [/b] If you have at least minimal experience in small group tactical games, [b] play it on higher difficulty levels than Normal! [/b] I started it on Normal and it got veeeeery repetitive and boring for me, especially at one stage. [spoiler] Train station area, where you get the Scrap Track vehicle. Loot weighs ~5000, and there is no challenge. [/spoiler]
[b] Story: [/b] don't know the whole tale, I stopped playing after some time. It was simple, straightforward. You don't even seem to have any impact on it, just...a setting, a background to have a game with. No dialogue options, just click through the text and move on. Like reading a novel with intermissions of fighting...well, the reading is rather the intermission, don't worry.
[b] Game length: [/b] Don't know, didn't finish it, got bored. I had 30 hours in it when I was writing the review, but at least 10-12 hours were Paused/Menu screen due to AFK/taking a break. So it was 5 missions in ~18-20 hours, with almost no Game Reloads.
[b] World setup:[/b] one mission is one area, you need to complete it then move to another are. No "world travel", it's pretty much railroading you mission by mission. Enter, shoot, loot, leave. For the first few areas (didn't finish the game, so cannot speak for the whole) the devs always thought about loot collector players. You get a Trader in every area at a stage of [strike] clearing the area [/strike] completing the mission. I found it an advantage, because I'm a hoarder and man you cannot carry too much.
[b] Gameplay/Mission variety: [/b] You have options to be sneaky at some missions and can mostly choose path to reach an objective. Mostly, but there is at least one mission where you have to walk through the whole area, open gates to proceed to yet another section, and there is always one way to go. Open gate, kill all, proceed, open gate, kill all, proceed, etc. This mission [spoiler] Kill raider captain on train station [/spoiler] was where I got too bored and uninstalled the game, but maybe on higher difficulty I would have had more fun. I repeat: consider setting the difficulty to higher-than-normal! There are also missions where you have to go defend areas, pretty much like a simple Tower Defense game. Good idea for variety. I hate tower defense, but it's not the problem of the game :D
[b] Party [/b]: you get members one by one as the story progresses. Here I have to tell you the funniest part of the game is Diesel the unbelievably smart and dextrous dog. Besides its ladder animation, the doggie is a full-scale member of the party. Won't spoil it for you, but it's much more than a run-bite-fetch buddy. Devs got brilliantly creative here. Hats off! Rest of the members are ordinary as far as I can tell.
[b] Loot/equipment: [/b] Again, on Normal difficulty! I found tons of ammo and tons of guns. Money was not an issue, as I picked every area pretty clean during/after missions. Thanks to the Trader option in every area. Weapons variety is acceptable: 4-5 traits of weapons (shooting speed/reload speed/shoot distance/capacity/damage), you get 1 average quality of a firearm, 1 better one and sometimes a unique one, usually better damage and maybe distance or capacity. There is usually one alternative for every category, like faster assault rifle but lowe dmg and burst mode only, or decent machine gun and a better one that is much heavier...etc. You have to choose your means of murdering because no way you will carry 3-4 weapons with you along with enough ammo. [spoiler] Especially if you choose Energy Weapons [/spoiler] Other items, like mechanics or medical stuff are just stronger versions of previous ones, requiring higher skills.
[b] Skills: [/b] Simplified system, skills only. no main attributes. Tactical/strategy game, so it is battle-oriented. Skills are only weapon handling, carry capacity, mechanics, medical, and misc like HP, regeneration, resistance, running speed. Also some special capabilites/traits, similarly mostly combat-oriented, but a few others too, like better prices at Traders.
[b] Levelling [/b] There is no XP. You "Level Up" at the end of missions, getting skill points to distribute among the few skills, or buy special traits. This was a downside for me, but mainly because I prefer/am used to getting XP continuously. Also at one stage I would have needed a higher Mechanics skill to open a locked chest. However, I liked the idea of not feeling the need to kill every enemy for the XP.
[b] Enemy AI: [/b] It was said to have been improved since the previous game. But it's still in need of a lot of improvement. I know, AI programming for games is not a small task, it's very complex and requires a lot of fine tuning. This was one area where I felt the game being rushed veeery much. Basically enemies randomly start pouring on your head at the moment ONE of them notices you from afar, but even some run towards you others stay and wait for spotting you again...or even then just stand and watch their HP bar going down while you pump buckshot into their a*s. On the other hand, snipers have much higher shooting distance with the same gun you have. But it's no big deal, they need to have advantages too, not just their sheer numbers of cannon fodder.
[b] Character Auto-attack "AI": [/b] Characters' script for choosing target to Auto-attack, is surprisingly good. You will rather feel the smart mechanics during defense missions, but for example one thing I noticed is they tend to shoot at marksman/sniper enemies over melee/CQB ones first. But it may also depend on their active gun in their hands. But this is one aspect I liked a lot.
So all in all, it's more a simplified relaxing "tactical" experience, than a hardcore small unit strategy game. And can't mention enough: choose higher difficulty if you are familiar with strategy games, otherwise you will find it way too simple.
