It starts slow, be patient. It will pay off.
This is why there are adventure games. Something's always happening. Loved it! Comparable to The Longest Journey and Primordia. And beautiful, every single scene.
I'd love to love this. Hotkeys for everything. Challenging, as you make tradeoffs every turn, and you absolutely can fail. And beautiful, and things work as they should, and really tactical. But I don't feel clever when I finish a level, neither do I care about the story. (The characters feel fake, and the writing forced.) The posed challenges are random frustrations more than anything else. Like the ever-increasing cooldown time of weapons, or the stacked penalties for spending too many turns on a level. This may capture the true spirit of an espionage agency though, but in a "here's more paperwork" way, rather than in a "can you save the day" way. It *does* keep you thinking and worried and wanting to finish well. But it's more addiction than joy, for the perfectionist workaholic.
Such a refined game, a lesson in game design. You can tell the perfectionist design, art direction and the tireless testing in this really polished title. Games very rarely hold my interest for long enough to play through, but this just kept hitting the balance between relaxing and challenging so I kept coming back to it to finish it. This is no hack and slash or Sonic, it's a puzzle game. But as you progress, the game gives you alternative ways to beat the levels, e.g. a killer style, a stealth style etc. so you can even decide between strategies before going for a level. Or when re-doing a level, which I have also done just for the fun of it :) The game is tight. Not too much, not too little of anything to overwhelm or to bore. The art and visual effects support the game experience very well. It's easy to overlook the genius of it, as it feels so simple and natural that you don't notice it as a thing. Cheesy voice-overs though :)
