I very much enjoy the dialog between the well developed characters and the hint of a darkness or wrongness of important people in the setting. The game sections could be better. You can tell Daedalic's team put a lot of thought into the combat, attempting to include terrain hazards and a few choke points. Giving your characters orders even from the beginning gets you unclear results, the random swing of numbers is one thing but hitting and missing actually feels random. Healing is inefficient during battles regardless if you want to use magic or potions so you end resting a lot if you get a run of bad numbers. Character death is avoided - K.O. characters return to the next match on their feet with 1 hit point. Pretty wobbly experience that made me want to play other games instead of fighting with the UI just to play the game.
The game is beautiful. It's sometimes nice to play for it's gorgeous presentation. The strategy elements come from managing your character (one point progression and different class types to choose from) upgrades. The game is largely fair, you can predict with a little experience the outcome of individual situations and occasionally the composition of the opposing squads. Unfortunately the game's variety is limited and the game begins to feel like a grind. You might enjoy it enough to never feel this way, as other reviewers are expressing excitement.
For the range of strategy games offered on GOG, I would suggest that the game's most elaborate part be brought to the for. As an action game, and not a strategy game. As a strategy game it is mired by an illogical series of design functions that seek to justify the price tag. These additional features, the politics, and strategy map, only serve to emphasis how far board, and 4X games have come since the 70s. As single player campaigns go, I haven't been this bored in a long time. Even the theoretical role-playing elements can become a tedium of seeking upgrades, without consequence to the people you are ruling. Credit where credit is due. The voice acting is excellent. The character development among your staff is interesting. The premise is very Larian Studios. The real time game play is novel at first. They managed to capture something satisfying in being a Dragon, and turning the odds by skin of your teeth reflexes. Unfortunately this plays into the failures of the diverse gameplay elements incorporated. Well thought out Strategy rarely is as successful as plying your Dragon against impossible odds and winning through am application of skill from action games. Making much of the rest of the strategy map elements, the cards, the auto resolve function, and the Generals you have, superfluous. You play in expectation of the RTS map, and the rest of the game becomes an annoyance. If they had separated the game to it's base RTS elements, and linked the political choices more directly (the indirect reward and use of cards becomes nauseating after a few hours*) to the type of Army you would be fielding in the short run, and building/unit selection to build in the long run, the game's focus would remain on it's strengths. Because it is fairly fun to fight in Dragon form against your friends while trying to mash the recruitment button when ever you have a moment. The low rating comes from using the word strategy too loosely.
