I love this game, yet I can only award it three stars. As others have noted, this is a charming game which manages to present a fair balance of humour, suspense and, well, frustration basically. The learning curve is indeed steep, and as the game itself warns you frequently, the "save" button is your only true ally. You should not go in guns blazing but rather take the stealthy approach. Each level is basically a puzzle where you have to determine where to walk and whom to take out first so their allies will not notice. Once you get the hang of it though, you're in for hours of breathless suspense assassinating as many enemies as possible without getting caught. So far, so good. Where the game definitely loses points for me, is in the nice-to-haves. The extra characters you can unlock do not in fact add that much to the game. You just take them along for variance. Abilities such as "mind control" are seriously flawed by the fact that you are unable to attack the unit as long as it is under your control as it is considered a "friendly". Other abilities, such as Hog Rush, are critical to defeat enemies who are in fact too tough for you. Currency for weapon upgrades is hard to come by and cannot be easily interchanged. It is also not possible to sell surplus equipment (except for weapons, which can be converted into weapon parts at a depressing exchange rate). Spend your weapon parts wisely - one extra damage per turn might be the difference between winning and losing a level. Also, the weapons in the shop and in the field are not that numerous or diverse. I ended up sticking with what my characters own and some which I found in the earlier levels, saving my scrap to buy the occasional EMP grenade (now these are handy indeed). Would I recommend this game? Yes I would. Will I still be playing it in three months time? I doubt it.
