Coming up on 300 hours of gameplay, this game has rapidly become one of my favourites. I'll keep it short:
Gameplay - If you liked xcom 2, get ready for a smoother and more polished experience. The fighting and shooting are punchy, most abilities feel rewarding to upgrade into, and I am still finding new layers of depth to the game. For hard-mode, beating the game on ironman mode was extremely rewarding. For the hardest difficulty - even with almost twice as many hours in xcom 2, all on ironman - I'll admit I've been having more fun saving between turns, after the 10th or so campaign failure. The tactical game is really deep aboard the Edict (even though it still cries out for repairs) - and the combat is *chef's kiss. There are maybe only 5 points in the game where I felt screwed over, and all of those moments started with "I thought my Callidus Assassin was safe next to these explosive barrels." Each enemy unit is straightforward - but they become challenging and interesting when mixed together. I enjoyed every boss fight - and they all felt very different from each other.
Story - I definitely didn't need a good story. A clean xcom experience with some warhammer 40k vibes would have been great for the cost of the game. But I was REALLY impressed. The dynamic between the three main characters (as usual for this genre, the PC is just "the commander" that everyone talks at) is tense, engaging, and really fills out the world. The one-on-one conversations with each character is engaging, and Vakir's character arc floored me. Obviously, if you're a big 40k nerd, there are so many nods and easter eggs and characters floating around - but, if you're down to just vibe in a new world and listen through some sci-fi mumbo-jumbo, i think it's still probably a really enjoyable story for a non-warhammer player.
Aesthetics - I don't know which people on the team were specifically in charge of handling the space travel cinematics but OH MY GOD. My jaw still drops within the first... what... couple minutes(?) after the tutorial where there is a trippy warp-space cinematic. Each of them are stunning. Music is fantastic and orchestral. Voice acting is solid across the board, even the little barks from your Grey Knights / Assassins. The three main voice actors obviously get applause for bringing such richness and depth to their characters.
Level Design - Yeah, this is getting it's own shout out. Not just for the well-designed maps. Not just for the interesting layouts of cover, explosives, not just the mini-rewards. But for the fact that you'll be going through the map and then realize "OH MY GOD THERE'S AN EYE THERE!!! OH MY GOD THERE ARE EYES EVERYWHERE." It's so easy to catch most of the map, go about your business, and then realize just how messed up the world has gotten.
Bugs - Almost none. Infrequently, after a long play session, a unit might get stuck in an animation and i'll get hard-locked... but the auto-save is so robust that I can just close out, get back in pretty quickly, and start up no more than one turn or one activation back.
I will highly recommend this game to anyone who likes the genre or 40k, or especially both. I will be buying the Deathwatch game the millisecond it comes on sale (and I am definitely usually the guy who waits until steep discounts for everything).
