I bought this, because it was published by Wadjet Eye Games, riding on the quality they made us expect from the products they ship. Unfortunately, this is a half-cooked game. The nod towards Miami history is nice, and the voice acting is good, but those the only pros of this game. The writing is bleak, the protagonist is not likeable (it makes you wish he just dies halfway through), the puzzles and hints are badly designed and ambiguous, the controls are unresponsive. Sadly, it's not a good game.
This is one of the best adventure games I've played, almost on par with the likes of Gemini Rue. The dystopian cyberpunk vibe is strong in this one, the writing is good, plot twists well-placed, and the voice acting is surprisingly better than in some of the big-budget productions out there. The pixel-art is very nostalgic, yet clear. There's no pixel-hunting, all active areas are easy to find. The puzzles are logical, no use-the-wrench-on-the-flower-to-make-a-fishing-rod ones. Some are quite tough, though, and to this, the only of the two flaws I found is connected: no hint system. It would be good for the character to say something that would nudge us in the right direction. Unfortunately, there's nothing like it, and you need to rely on walkthroughs. The other flaw is scarce background. This would really need more backstory that just a few news articles and random references in the dialogues. All in all: a very good cyberpunk adventure game. Definitely worth playing!
I'm glad I bought it on a sale and didn't spend more than 10$. It's not worth any penny more. The combat is utterly broken and illogical. The map and interface are severly lacking. Navigation is hellishly cumbersome. Quests are uninteresting and badly written. After each chapter you LOSE all your investment in soldiers and their gear. Anything positive? The music. That would be it. I advise you to stay away from this game. It's not worth your time.
I've played the original XCOM countless times, so I thought this will be fun... Well, it was for the first few hours. The early game is nostalgic.. unfortunately, also at the interface level. All the flaws and illogicalities are there. The tactical map, which was XCOM's greatest strenght, is a frustrating gore-fest. Prepare to reload, reaload and reload again. With an autosave ONLY at the beginning of the mission! Hours to achieve limited success in a single mission? Devs, you're not doing it right! Plus, the mid-game. The aliens (on Normal difficulty) get very strong really fast. After a few months, you have first upgraded fighters, while they start dishing out the heavies! And there's simply not enough money to build more stuff, hire more researchers (in XCOM, I had research-specialized bases; here, I barely manage to maintain research in only the starting base!). You can't do shit! In XCOM, you could earn more money by producing and selling advanced tech. Here, not only it takes DAYS to manufacture a single rifle, but also the sale value... is BELOW the manufacture cost! So, with very limited funding from the nations, you can only run the main base, with 2-3 outposts with only fighters and a radar... which isn't enough. So, all in all: nostalgy: check; broken difficulty: check; broken missions: check; broken financing: check. All in all, a huge let-down. I regret buying this and wasting over 10 hours. Definitely NOT worth buying.
The story and tactical combat is extremely captivating. Several well-designed companions and NPCs make you want to play one more quest... and then one more... and then it's the middle of the night :). There are two downsides: 1) Resource management becomes meaningless around mid-game, because you'll always have an abundance of everything. 2) The loading times... each time you enter a big area, you can just as well go make yourself a sandwich... or three... and some coffee... and read some article on the Web. All in all, definitely worth playing! If only for the story.
A bleak story with no answers, extremely random game, bad interface design (you cannot rearrange the dice during the roll, seriously?). All in all, I regret every penny and every second spent on this. I can't find anything positive about this product.
This game has lots of potential, but it fails to deliver on it. Miserably. There's not enough information, so you stumble in the dark. This would be good, if not for the assumption that you're running an already established clan. Moreover, some crucial information about your farming and population is missing, plus alliances and tribes are more or less useless, as no one will EVER help you, when you get attacked. Add some terribly designed random events and you have a recipe for a disaster.
What HoMM and some later games did well, this game fails at miserably. There are some really nice ideas, all of them badly implemented. Clunky interface, illogical management, not enough feedback, a gazillion clicks and waits to do a simple thing. Avoid, unless you're getting paid to play this game. The consider, if your time is worth it.
The feel of the game is perfect, the story is interesting, the gameplay innovative, but... The difficulty and randomness are not balanced. Some missions are so easy, you get not much enjoyment for winning, while others are so frustratingly random and tough, that you just want to uninstall. Which I did. All in all, it's a great idea in a poor packaging.
