Last Train Home

I recommend this game for anyone that can handle a fairly glitchy RTS/Resource manager. The story is solid, takes some creative liberties, but that's fine. Most of the mechanics work well, however, there are some glitches that make things quite hard at times. For example, I had enemy troops run directly to hidden units, despite being nowhere near my units and not alerting any of them or capturing an objective. Also, units will become stuck on terrain quite frequently, which isn't a huge issue unless you're trying to move out of a blast zone. My biggest complaints about the mechanics come down to weapon ranges and accuracy. Every handheld weapon in the game has a range of 25m (about 82ft). I understand there is a need for balancing, but the effective range for the mosin nagant (the base rifle) is about 500m. Artillery, field guns, tanks, and armored cars also have a very restricted range, again, I understand the need for balance, but every single one of these weapons is essentially 100% accurate. If the long ranges had been balanced with inaccurate fire, the game would have been better. Killing the crews of mounted guns via stealth will always destroy the weapon. I assume this is a balancing issue, but several missions require the player to move into a formerly hostile camp/base and fend off attacks which makes the game less enjoyable when you can't use capture defenses. Not all structures block line of sight. Some will, but it seems like each wall/building/tent/shed/rock/tree/hut was modeled and placed specific to each mission. This also applies to cover, some large rocks, walls, and various barriers will be cover in one mission and then no longer provide cover the next. This weird balancing and the glitches made some missions an incredible slog to get through. I enjoy a mission that requires me to think of a detailed strategy, but many of these missions felt like the developers wanted the player to complete it in a specific way, and when you don't, you're punished for it. Overall, I'd give this a 6.5/10. The story is good, the majority of mechanics work most of the time, but there are some glaring issues that make the game tedious at points. Also, why are there so many modern cultural references? It's not an easter egg if every 3rd non-story based line (and every achievement) is a reference.