I had the original game and later it's expansion pack "The Core Contingency" (all included in the Commander Pack) back in the 90s. It was a brilliant game, one of the few (if not only?) Top-Down RTS 4X game that didn't just take into consideration walls, but angles of incline and heights. And thankfully the fanbase of the game is still around, there is a large forum with links to many of the 3rd party maps, map creators, and unit creator tools out there. If you're someone who enjoys configurable, challenging gameplay and an interesting story for the Campaign mode (and PVP is still supported), this is worth checking out. Be warned, it does have a bit of a learning curve, I've never found anything in game that gets into details of what a unit can do, so there is trial and error (or internet research) to do!
I couldn't play the game until around August of 2023, so not sure how much had been patched by then. I did get to play the bulk of the game before 2.0 came out. Let's put aside the bugs and look at the technical accomplishment here. This game engine does an amazing job at maintaining immersion. Remember the first Mass Effect game? And even being on the Citadel required long 'elevator rides' so the game could load up the next area? And how often it happened? Contrast that to this game. The world map and even interior of most buildings do a great job at loading seamlessly 'ahead' of you getting there. Yes there are elevators, and I'm sure this is used in pockets not just for effect (like when traveling to the penthouse of a very tall building), but to load things too. It's rarity of these type of 'loading masks' that amazes me. Storytelling, incredibly indepth. Even with just the random conversations you can hear. All of the lore you can pick up on random shards and reading everyone's emails. They have done an amazing job at building out a classic "even the winners are going to lose somehow" dystopian cyberpunk world. Is it a little sad that there are, arguably, no 'good' endings? Yes. Even my personal favorite is bittersweet (no real spoilers, just will say Mr. Blue Eyes). But this is fitting with it. The things I've read by Philip K. Dick (one of the 'Fathers of Cyberpunk', along side the more genre-celebrated William Gibson) rarely had 'happy' endings. Things were ambiguous or bittersweet. 2.0 did things I did not like. The revamp of the Cyberware system, making it more level and point investment dependent and 'skill-tree' like just ... no. Taking away features in (almost all) clothing, especially Armor (and tying it to your Cyberware) also not thrilled about. The bad guys being able to 'trace' you - okay, interesting mechanic, but definitely forced me to change my approach to the game considerably, sadly I treat it mostly as a 'run and gun' now.
