Frozen Synapse 2

The game is fantastic. I don't have time to type almost anything just now as I'm so eager to spend this time playing more, but seeing is have 4 stars is a travasty (unless they have found bugs that I haven't?). The game is fantastic, it takes the Frozen Synapse 1 and builds on it in all sorts of ways and has a CAMPAIGN version where you are in a role akin to that of X-COM! No time for more now, 10 stars. No game like it. I recommend anyone with even vague interest should buy it! I'm an adult with free time these days, I will go and play this long-awaited sequel now. Even consider Frozen Synapse 1 if the price is off-putting. It's a day 1 purchase for me.

I'm a long time fan of Mode7's Frozen games. I think they're criminally overlooked in the tactics genre. FS2 is no exception, and beefs up the original formula with a overworld (or city, rather), but keeps it streamlined enough that you're not drowning in mechanics, since ultimately the tactics are what make the game here. Problem is, the game has its fair share of bugs. Many were ironed out with initial patching, but some still persist. For instance, when trying to run the game on my PC with an older 6700 series AMD graphics card, the cityscape flickers and buildings appear and disappear as I mouse over them. It doesn't break the game but it's incredibly distracting, and there's no chance any more patches at this point. I mean, they made an official Steam forum post titled "Last call for major issues." And this was only 3 MONTHS after the release of the game. Sad, really. ...and that brings me to the main problem with Mode 7. They tend to just release, swiftly patch, and then bolt from their games. Maybe a single small content update, which FS2 hasn't gotten and would've benefited from, considering its design with the cityscape and the number of things that could be done with it. It's no wonder the multiplayer shrivels up so quickly and there's never any kind of hype for the games, even in the tactics communities, aside from a very small pocket of dedicated fans. Also their reluctance to discount anything beyond a paltry amount during sales is...telling. So yeah, their games deserve more love, but that's a two-way street in this case.

I am the top 16th ranked player. Multiplayer is where this game shines. Alas, the developers put too much time and too many resources into building up the single-player game that the game was buggy on launch. They DID fix things, but by that point the playerbase had already dwindled. An awful shame, because this game really had potential.