There are two things to get out of the way before I begin this review in earnest. The first is the bugs. This game was riddled with annoying and even occasionally game breaking bugs upon release, which deterred a lot of initial players. Thankfully, the developer has dedicated a ton of effort post-release to fixing all the most severe bugs, so now all you'll get are occasional silly things (in between play sessions one of my units decided she didn't need the healing item I gave her and put it back in the convoy, for instance) and if you do encounter anything you can post it over at the official forums where the developer is still actively working out the kinks. The second thing that put a lot of people off of this game is its presentation, which I admit is definitely not its strong suit. The game looks very amateur; its art style is flat and its GUI looks like it was ripped from its rightful home in the mid 90s. To be fair, the sprites are smoothly animated and have a lot of charm, and the soundtrack is quite good. But graphical style and fidelity are not the main draws of this game. The gameplay is. And holy crap that gameplay. This is easily one of the most flexible, open-ended and downright fun tactical RPGs I have ever played (and I've played most of them). It's the kind of game that gets you thinking the exact kind of thoughts you want to be thinking in a game like this. Thoughts that start with "Oh! I could..." "How about..." "What if..." "Or maybe..." Enemy standing next to a body of water? How about I push him in and make him waste his turn and energy swimming back out. Enemies swarming over a bridge? What if I put up a bunch of barricades and pelt them from afar with arrows and magic? Or maybe just destroy the bridge and laugh as they mill around aimlessly on the other side. Enemy standing on a cliff? How about I telekinetically pull them off, stunning them and making them take fall damage. This game gives you a ton of units with a bunch of different abilities that open up so many options. One of your main characters can place traps to bait enemies into. Your engineer can build bridges, barricades and even bombs. Your archers can fire multi-arrow trick shots to spread damage around. Your golem can toss objects or units across the map. And that's not counting all the neat utility items like the grappling hook, which lets you wrangle up distant enemies or objects and pull them closer, or the steamthopter that gives a unit temporary flight. Plus, essentially every object on the map is moveable and/or destructible. You can cut down trees or shove tables and chairs in your opponent's way. There's quite a variety of maps in the main campaign that allow you to fool around with this huge bag of tricks, and even playing quickly you'll still get at least thirty hours out of a single run. It's also probably the most fun multiplayer tactics game I've experienced, too, with free-for-all or team hotseat skirmishes. The game comes bundled with a map editor and all the game data is stored in easy to understand xml files, so it's easy to make new multiplayer maps or even new campaigns. As far as story and characters go, they're actually not bad. You follow escaped slaves Emma and Sabrina Strider as they attempt to find and liberate their father from the telepathic ghost-like apparitions that enslave humans and force them to work in the mines. You collect a pretty standard rag-tag band of circumstance and fight your way to the mines in a pretty straightforward fashion, but the dialogue writing is generally pretty snappy and the characters are well-developed. The more socially conscious players will be glad to know that the game features an excellent female protagonist, a group of predominantly female characters (and in roles normally reserved for men, like the boisterous bruiser and the sly cheat) and a surprisingly good lesbian romance. Those who don't care will still be treated to some nice character arcs and lighthearted banter. It's a pretty distinct fantasy world with psionic powers, matriarchal lizard warriors, flying gargoyle creatures and animate golems. Apparently it ties into the world of developer Sinister Design's previous games, but I haven't played any of those and I never felt lost or confused. Overall, highly recommended little indie gem. If you enjoy fun, open-ended tactical games, definitely give this one a shot.
