There Came an Echo

The voice controls were finnicy. Sometimes when you only want to move just one squad member to flank the game would miss the part who you want to move and move the entire squad with not enough cover for everyone ending in a checkpoint load. But that that being said when it works as intended (which is like 80%) it feels pretty great. The story is on one hand pretty straightforward, but at the same time I did not see the main plot twist coming. And even basic as it is it is quite engaging with the main downside of it being quite short. Minor spoiler - Why the haze would Miranda just not take a couple steps back before shooting Adam? Shoot to stun would have given her the keys just as readily as shooting to kill.

The core feature of this game is the ability to control your small team by voice commands. When it works, it is awesome and very fun. When it does not understand you, it can be quite frustrating. This is offset a bit by fairly forgiving difficulty, ability to pre-plan commands and activate them by simply calling "mark <number>" and when everything else fails, using mouse and command menu. I was forced to use it in turret defence mission. I am not a native English speaker (my accent must be atrocious) and it seemed my microphone had low volume and I was unable to boost it further. Still, I was able to get it work, say 70% of time, and finish the game. Graphics looks very good and aged well. Sound is superb - voice acting is great and music is awesome. I certainly recommend buying the soundtrack as well. Writing is also excellent, and story develops in an interesting and unexpected way. The game is fairly short, but fun. With few moments of frustration, when you are not understood in the middle of battle and must forcefully calm yourself. It certainly can act as training aid for lowering and calming your voice under stress.