This game deserves more than a few words, but I'll do the short version of a review. Disclaimer: I never played the tabletop game. Pro: - You don't need a manual to get the game mechanics. - It's not punishing. I played it on medium and had fun. - The whole campaign can be played in two whole days. (No need to do it.) - There is enough diversity in enemy and own units and strategic elements - The video scenes are really nice to watch. The main character rough and likable. - At the end You can overrun your enemy with a powerful army, if You like. - There are huge and powerful mechs :) . - The game is rather balanced, the interface works quite well. - You don't have to kill everything on the map to win. Con - There are some rough edges (nothing to serious) - The image of bigger units often covers their adjacent movement fields. - Some strategic questions are a bit anoying: E.g.: How to protect against air? - Some Detachment-Slots do not show their restrictions. - Destroyed enemy units block the path of other units (and cannot be cleared?). - Saves are ordered lexicographically. - Big fights may get a bit tedious. Tipps for a good start - may contain spoilers: - Save from 999 to 001 ;) - Disable detachment mode for moving units - Humans, the race from the campaign, seem to be good for a rather defensive strategy - You don't have to kill everything on the map, just try to get the opponent morale down - the spinning coins on the map, prevent morale from getting down - Range is important. Less than 20 is annoying. More than 27 is fine. - On tedious fights use the target select and autofire buttons - Space can be used to mark a unit as done - After all units are done, you will be asked to end your round - Pointing a unit with a large image in a differnt direction can uncover adjacend squares. Fighting air is tedious: - You may try with at least two battalions of Hydra. - Or just ignore air. There will anyways be losses. - Some mech weapons (e.g. lasers) can fight air
This game could easily earn 4 Stars, if it wasn't for the absolutely predicatable crashes when confronting the Kaak, which renders the Storyline unplayable for me. My Operating System is however Archlinux, so if it works under your System and if you like 4X space simulation games, then don't hesitate to buy it. (You may however consider to wait until it is on sale.) However since there are other Linux users in this world, I feel obliged to give it only two stars - which says: it can be fun partially, but randomly also very frustrating and the Storyline cannot be completed. Of course I must add, that a big deal concerning this game is just to play the economy simulation of a vast universe consisting of many different space-races. So You don't need to play the storyline, and if You avoid the Kaak, You will probably be able to avoid those crashes and to have fun anyway.
