One of the very few games where melee units are not only on par with ranged units but often even better! So if you're tired of the same old archer spam that you've been doing since the Heroes III days, this is a breath of fresh air. It accomplishes this by giving each unit shields that fully regenerate between each battle. Also, you don't have unit stacks, just a maximum of 6 units (more Age of Wonders style than Heroes/King's Bounty). This means you don't have to go top up unit stacks every level up or after each fight, and letting your melee units take a hit or two is fine (anyone who had to grind the "Grand Strategist" achievement in King's Bounty will appreciate this). The game implements roguelike elements quite well. You can set up your hero and starting troops before each mission and if you fail/die, you can repeat the mission (or choose another one). Building up the town between missions is where the "progress" of gameplay is, more so than getting a more powerful hero. This plays well with the achievements set up for each mission. I managed to get all of them during the first try with the exception of one (Graveyard mission, AFAIK two of them are mutually exclusive so you need to do the mission twice), but generally, since you can replay each mission, you can focus on one at a time. Cons: I had a few crashes (~6 during 30h+ gameplay); however, autosave after each turn makes it manageable. The voice acting is a bit wonky. The main advisor, Natiq (who has 90% of the dialogue), sounds like it's the voice actor's first job. Though it's not overly annoying since there isn't much dialogue. Conclusion: The game is different enough from other tactical strategy games to be worth a try. It avoids adding tedious mechanics just to pad for gameplay time and is well worth the price (especially on sale).
