The number of turn-based superhero games is thin on the ground, and this one is welcome. Its got some flaws (sometimes its ambition exceeds its budget I think), but learning to use each character as they become available and overcome the problems presented makes for some compelling game play. If I had a single big complaint, it'd be that it'd be nice if the game provided some, from lack of a better term, strategic layer play; there seems to be some potential room for it, but the designers didn't go there.
A different approach to a partially-fallen starfaring culture, SD is focused on running a noble house including their politics, family management, and warfare, in a semi-abstract way. While an interesting game, it suffers from the interface being more than a little opaque, and though its got an extended tutorial, sometimes the tutorial will tell you to do things it thinks are clear, but are not so clear in execution. I've reached that point where I cannot figure out how to proceed, though I'll probably try again. So I wouldn't necessarily discourage someone from buying it, but just make sure they understand there'll be some work needed to get into it.
I'm not going to tell people that this game doesn't have bugs, because it does. However there have been some reviewers on here who have either overstated this, assumed bugs when they just didn't understand how things work, or got clearly into the bug/feature ground. There was a day-one patch problem that was impossible to ignore, but the devs got on that one almost as fast as that patch came out. They also show all sign that they're continuing to crank away at the ones that remain. The complaints about combat have some validity--people used to playing cover using games will find the lack of same a little annoying, and most guns do have pretty close ranges (though when it comes to things like handguns, people tend to overestimate the useful ranges in real life); however that doesn't mean combat lacks nuance, especially melee combat. And of course, a big part of the game isn't about combat; its about making hard decisions, and what you'll do to make sure that you and those you're leading will survive. While it isn't the only game that's gone there (there are shelter management elements to games from Fort Zombie, Zafehouse Diaries and State of Decay) Dead State is the first game that really commits to that and integrates it into the roleplaying game fully. I didn't give the game 5 stars currently because I don't want to suggest that the bugs don't matter, but even with those its an excellent game (caveat; Torque can apparently vary a bit at how it plays with different machines, and some people report a lot of crashing. This isn't universal, though, as I've had exactly one crash in many hours of play) and once a few of the more egregious once are dealt with it'll easily be the exemplar of the type of game its trying for.
