I will focus on the singleplayer in this reveiw as that is what the big change is from its predecessor even though the multiplayer is very good (unfortunately only a handful of people are on at a time from my experience 19:00-21:00 GMT). Pros: + You can really imagine any scenario happening irl as everything is simultaneous unlike many other games of simlar genre. + Lots of unit variety spices up the matches. + City game adds another layer of stategy to the game and it is very fun to climb your way up the food chain so to speak. + Rewards good play as there is no rng, everything is deterministic. (Lots of mind games in multiplayer) + The game is clear on why you win/lose a fight (whether its cover, range, stillness, etc) + Soundtrack Cons: - Bugs. Not game breaking but there are quite a few from turns not lasting 5 seconds (no long turns) to unresponsive menus. - Poor AI at times. While the AI is usually not too bad, keeping you on your toes, there are times when it is straight up dumb (sending their leader into a place I am keeping on lockdown via gatling fire as an example) - Poor explanations at times (I am still confused about what each level of diplomacy does and why factions accept different agreements) Overall this is a great experience and anyone who likes strategy games like xcom but wants something that directly rewards skill will love this game. Quick note for if you buy this game: Get your key off the gog website (not galaxy) to enable multiplayer.
I have played through the first map which took just under 6 hours. Yet again, CDPR shows their commitment to being consumer friendly by making this not only a straight up single player experience, no bullshit or strings attached, but you also get a bunch of free goodies inc. the soundtrack, a map download, artwork etc! Pros: 1. Simple rules that can develop into interesting strategies, one of which I enjoy is one where you can benefit from hurting your own troops. 2. These rules are broken from time to time (you are told how beforehand) leading to more interesting scenarios that you could not get into elsewise. 3. Serene soundtrack which is fitting in a card game rpg of this kind. 4. Failure of battles is not a massive setback, allowing you to try different stategies on a whim. 5. You are forced to switch up your tactics/deck from time to time, when you may lose or gain cards due to story events or one off 'custom deck' battles which showcase other potential strategies. 6. You can see some of your choices have an effect on the world, some of which you discover later down the line (similar to the dark spirit in the tree in Witcher 3) Cons: 1. I personally am not a fan of the art style. The art style is very accurately portrayed in the trailers. 2. The world feels a little bit linear because you are being forced down one winding path (a few dead end branches) whereas I would prefer if there were multiple ways to approach the main objective 3. all choices are of two options that may or may not be what you want to do (for example I chose to rescue an elf accused of spying, but really wanted to give an explicit order to keep an eye on them but couldn't) and sometimes these choices seem meaningless (~70% of the time however they do seem to have an impact) 4. Not a fan of the army cap (understandable as to why it was added but feel it should be a little more reasonable) Overall I really enjoy the game, and is well worth the money.
