The graphics are art. Incredibly well crafted. It does not leave unfilled ugly gaps or suffering of repetitive empty areas. Very detailed and beautiful with those little dust on lights, vast deserts and gardens and those wonderful tech areas and catacombs. Everything echoes and amplifies the feelings, that you could have if you are in such places - long forgotten, abandoned from eons, lying there for eternity, filled only with their ghosts and memories... Old catacombs, machinery of unknown origins that are still functioning, hidden incredible cities "under your very nose", jungles with incredible creatures, somehow not just extras - they fit perfectly and are part of the world in way that I can actually from time to tam ask myself "I wonder what are they doing now"... The accompanying friend is unique also and so well crafted, that he alone have sort of story told for the way he joins you - and that story have it's own morals and questions. And it is so well told in the course of the game that you do not even think of it as a story - he is just another part of the world, so important in the very way he comes to you, that this alone with it's morals is part of you yourself and his story is not separate but part of yours. Somehow poetic review but I cannot write anything else because of the feelings this game inspired in me. Very hard but rewarding game (for me at least). It feels like the endless struggle is somehow part of the plot. The sounds and soundtrack are perfectly resonating in you, the lonely nostalgic, sad feeling shining with revelations giving you hope... This is one of the very few games I can think of, that having so deep meaning in the story and conveyed Properly, make you think deeply in the bitter end. For a man with his woes, alone, against a world and universe and fate... In struggle futile as fight against the universe's laws... Puzzles require (and in my case develop) mind flexibility - sometimes you just think the wrong, the ordinary way.
This is it. The game. I own it on 2 discs retail version and I can say this is one of the best games I have ever played and still play. You make researches, you construct your own things, you choose your own tactics. Beautifully drawn and animated - I like it very much - being a big fan of this type and style of graphics. Details are everything - for example there are tracks and footsteps in the grass that you can see after someone passed where you go and longer you pass through that place the stronger the tracks - until you get bare ground. This and other such details impressed me even in the beginning of the game. Story is wonderful - I think there is very good atmosphere in the game with different branches to develop your own path in the story. So in this way it is story telling and it is non-linear. Heroes interact without inconsistency and I was never left to wonder why my character started to act like it is not himself because of plot. No stupid plot-holes with "ah it will be fine". You actually feel like you are part of the world you play in. It just all fits perfectly. There is also nice love story in the game which I really enjoy. You talk, take decisions etc. without being left to wonder that "Ah if I had choice I would act different way - but that is the script". One of the best single player campaigns I ever had played (all of them and even without the mods). Your men are everything - not the buildings, not the vehicles - you keep your men and women and they progress, the get special skills - you can begin with scared bunch of people and end with professionals - soldiers, engineers, mechanics, scientists - and all that matters - for example the better the engineer - the better defense of the building... And neither vehicles neither the buildings are worth anything if your people are gone. There is single and multiplayer, also scripting language and a bunch of tools to make your own heroes and scenarios. It is good.
