Halfway

Only rpg element in this game are team managment before mission and raising statistics by stimpacks u can find, there are only 3 stats: health, aiming and agility. This game could be good for 1$ not more. Lack of tactics - youve got to find the way to accomplish the mission the way the programmers predicted. Opponents coming out of nowhere - u werent prepared? Well thats your problem. Picked wrong doors? Start over. The battles are rather long (just because even with raised aiming you character have 40% to hit an enemy which stands 2 squares ahead of you and withotu cover). Small maps, lacks of tactics without learning the map by yourself repeating it 3 times, and there is NO SAVE during missions... You've got to guess which characters will be best for next mission. There is more luck guessing then actual tactics. Not worth the price.

I'm not really good at writing reviews, but will give it a try because this game pissed me off enough. Gameplay starts good and fresh, a more-rpg-like, for lack of a better term, xcom with nice sprites, enviorements and potential; Unfortunately it goes nowhere from there. Character progression in particular is very frustrating, relying on finding better gear, as in, literally versions of what you already have with bigger numbers that, for reasons mentioned in a bit, makes no real diference. Other than that you got stims that can improve your character stats... too bad you are basically limited to 5 per character otherwise they cause issues. Enemies, on the other hand, keep getting stronger, coming in higher numbers and having more health, leading to each stage being a bigger slog than the next, does not help that all stages are basically the same (walk around a same-ey looking map, loot everything, fight the enemies as they spawn). However, despite all that I could not stop from playing the game for a long while, because the plot and characters where very good, full of misteries and interesting questions... that the game never answers. My biggest issue with this game is that it answers nothing, if feels, as another review pointed out, halfway done; Just as the plot starts to build towards an interesting climax, and you start to learn things it just... ends. Nothing is answered, character arcs are left unfinished, you just get a cliffhanger ending that all but says "This will get solved in the sequel". This is what burned me the most and led to this one star ending, because (and I am repeating myself here) the plot and characters balanced out the problems with the gameplay and made it worth pushing through, only for the final reward to be a sudden as all hell cliffhanger.

I have been a fan of squad & turn-based t tactical sci-fi games ever since I remember myself gaming, 30 years ago. This game initially appears to be simplistic and basic but as I delved deeper I realised that there is a careful mindset behind the design choices of the game, design choices that have to do with budget and development time constraint. It seems to me that the developers tried to come up with the best game they could with the resources they had at hand: instead of investing in flashy graphics and boisterous "innovative" mechanisms, it became obvious after a few hours of playing that most care in this game was placed in getting the underlying balances correct. Firstly it's the difficulty: it is exactly what you need in order to have a good time. Not too easy, not too hard, just right so that it is engaging without being either frustrating or boring. Secondly it is the simplicity: if you want to relax and you want most of your choices to be tactical rather than stats/combinational then the game will deliver. It offers attribute-cooking gameplay too but it's simple, practical and gives you choices without too much hassle about it. Having played halfway through the game, the story is nothing really original but it does manage to carry things along. Music is above average. It's a nice synth-based soundtrack that at times reminisces of Vangelis' Blade Runner masterpiece. In all, it invests the game with a very pleasant ambience. My only gripe is that the interface is a bit "chunky" especially the way the mouse cursor behaves. Also, the pacing between actions could be better - the small 0.5sec delays between shooting, camera movement and then choosing another character sometimes can be annoying - the pace of combat could be better if those delays weren't there. In all it's an enjoyable little game and if you can imagine yourself basking in a classic sci-fi tactical setting shooting around at zombified baddies then you can't go very wrong trying this.

Haven't spent much time with the game, so I apologize if people question the value of this review. However it needs to be mentioned how phenomenal this soundtrack is. I funded "Moments Lost" to get more Vangelis-y Blade Runner soundtrack in my life. This games' soundtrack is a better Moments Lost than the actual thing. You are getting a steal on an amazing soundtrack that just happens to come with a game.

A charming turn-based sci-fi strategy game that hits the sweet spot in almost every regard. If you like delicious pixel art, squad-level tactics and are looking for something that’s simple with just enough depth to keep you engaged for about 15 hours and runs perfectly fine on any budget laptop, look no further than Halfway. Full Review - Part 1: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2014/post2005 Full Review - Part 2: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2014/post2006