I was originally interested in SOC just for the pixel art, and it turns out there’s a really deep game here, too! It took me to about mission 3 for some of the strategy elements to click (you won’t beat mission 3 if they don’t!) and wow it made beating the big bads feel like a real accomplishment! I’ve seen others compare it to Heroes of Might and Magic, which I haven’t played—to me it is a cross between Medieval II: Total War and Final Fantasy Tactics. The writing is strong, but can use some polishing as is expected with early access games. I have encountered a few bugs but nothing game-breaking.
The art direction, writing, and gameplay mechanics are superb. The characters are interesting and sympathetic and realistic. The gameplay is a really fun take on D&D style combat with as little frustration as possible. This is an amazing game. It's just not ready for release. I have multiple CTDs (Crash to Desktop) per hour. The game freezes. It slows to a crawl. It crashes on saves. It crashes on loads. It crashes on area transitions. It will fill up 16GB of RAM (this is due to a bug; it doesn't actually need this much RAM). My advice is to wait until Obsidian actually fixes the game and stops 'balancing' the combat mechanics.
