This game was cool in concept but in execution not so much, and I feel bad for saying that. I haven't gotten all that far into the game (looks like 2.9 hours on record), and I don't particularly feel the need to go any further.
The game is split into action sequences (more on those in a minute) and base sequences, where you're running around your home base. The base sequences are unspeakably boring. You have to run around talking to people to, I suppose, advance the pretty garbage storyline. Sorry, but wow is the writing bad. The devs must have known how boring running around your base was because they introduced fast travel specifically to allow you to more rapidly move around your base. Let that sink in for a moment.
I think the idea was intended to be X-COM-esque with building out your base and upgrading your technologies and such, but it's just so damn clunky and each person you talk to just sends you to talk to someone else, and oh boy do they talk. The voice acting? Not brilliant. But then, I wouldn't be either, with the material they had to work with.
There seem to be two mission types: 1) running around on foot in a small area searching for items/resources and shooting at enemies you encounter. 2) Fighting off waves of enemies from your Outpost. Both of these sound fun on paper. In reality, the first mission type has very small maps with very, very dumb enemies who charge right at you Serious Sam style. It's just run around looking for shiny objects, and when your inventory is full (which it will be, quickly) running back to base to drop it off. The second mission type is what I really came to play, a cool sounding twist on a tower defense game. I love the Bolo book series, and the idea of essentially building my own Bolo to fight off waves of enemies was so exciting. Sadly, it's just not interesting. I can't quite tell you why. I spent those times running around killing enemies by hand because I had placed my defenses incorrectly (more about this in a moment) and they were inadequate to the task of wiping out the enemies. I wouldn't want to just rest on my laurels watching the Outpost do all the work, and I like the idea of having to run around and refill the ammo of the stationary guns by hand, or reroute the power, or whatever. It just doesn't work out that way.
Let's talk about the building aspect. The tutorial (which OMG is very long and doesn't stop talking) doesn't actually bother to tell you very much useful info. What are these various parts for? No idea. The descriptions? They suck. Am I supposed to manually activate this or does it work automatically? If I place a part down, can I pick it up and place it elsewhere? Doesn't seem to be the case, you're stuck with it as it is. Or maybe not, and I just couldn't figure out how to do so. The building interface is a mess. You start with the ability to build one gun or so, and god help you if you place it on the wrong side of the building because you think that the enemies might attack from a different direction. Once you're in the field, you're stuck.
Maybe the building aspect gets better later in the game as you unlock more stuff and have more resources, but that requires dedicating way more time to the grind than I am willing to do. Again, this is something that could have been really cool. You start with the ability to place one turret and that's it. And, again, you need to place it in a good spot, which you don't know ahead of time where that will be. You don't have the resources to build anything else, and you can't deconstruct and rebuild what you have, you have to build around the core you're provided. I think you should start with at least a few parts to give you a taste of it. But then, again, they don't really bother to explain how anything works, you're just supposed to figure it out.
Well, that's not entirely fair, there are tooltips for tons of stuff. But they use in-game jargon which are ill-defined at best. I feel like part of that could be ascribed to poor localization.
The graphics are nice tho, I'll grant you that.
Overall, the experience was just one of boredom and frustration, and I refuse to sink the hours in necessary to hopefully make it worth playing. It's such a pity because the idea is good, and I'm absolutely on the lookout for an online coop game of this sort. I want to play the game that this should have been, rather than the game that they made.
