More 4.5 than 5 stars - it most certainly isn't perfect. Tl;dr: Still slightly buggy and with a few places with random difficulty spikes, it nevertheless is a /wonderous/ role-playing adventure with an engrossing story and party members with a lot of character. Technically, it seems mostly solid, at this point. Release had a lot of stumbles, but things are certainly getting better. The earlier stutter-slowdowns have been addressed (for me, at least) and I've not been noticing serious bugs, lately. Others have been complaining, still, so apparently there are still some glitches, but there have been regular bug fix patches, so that /is/ something still being addressed. From a story perspective, this /finally/ feels like a game that plays a worthy successor to the now ancient Baldur's Gate 2. Many quests, mostly the freedom to choose which one you're dealing with, now, and usually considerable freedom in how to deal with ending those quests. Multiple alignments you can aim for, multiple mythic powers to choose between and flavor the path, interesting party members... I've put over 150 hours into enjoying this world, and just kicked off another run through. Mechanically, it's /complex/. Depending on who you are and your play style, you might consider this either a strength or a weakness. On the one hand, you have the ability to work at chinks in your opponents' armor rather than needing to power through. On the other hand, you frequently /need/ to work at the chinks in your opponents' armor rather than being /able/ to power through. This both gives you an immense amount of freedom in character design and places a considerable burdn on learning enough of the rules and gotchas to use those capabilities correctly. As I've mentioned, I quite like most of the party members you can obtain. There are some that I don't want in my party, and want dead ASAP, but even those are interestingly written and interesting concepts. For those willing to be evil, YMMV.
If I could, I'd rate this a 4.5 or 9/10. It's good, it's fun, and it's well done, but it's not outright perfect. To start with - to correct a misconception you may have if you're like me - coming in to this, I thought I was getting a farming game with critters-and-adventure on the side. That's...backwards. Instead, this is more of a (difficult!) adventure and critter-catching game with farming on the side. You get to explore the world, smack the monsters, collect new stuff and weapons, and make new stuff and weapons! Collect absolutely-not-pokemon (and absolutely don't feed them to a magic statue nope), train them to become stronger, and fight alongside them to beat the baddies. Watch for hidden areas and secrets! If you get stuck, call your friends for help or come back later! The combat can be tough, but if you adjust your equipment and critters and /maybe/ grind a bit, you can find a way past. Train yourself and your critters up and make some better tools to advance further. Farming isn't the centerpiece of the game, but it works well for what it is -- and like a lot of other things, talk to people and listen to what they say to help your crops grow better (no crowding!) Plant and water and deal with the bugs and birds to keep them healthy - and maybe spell them to grow faster or find items to help. Be warned! The game does /not/ handhold you and you /do/ have to figure a lot of things out on your own (or join the Discord! People there are quite helpful). You need to /read/ what you can. Don't skip the tutorial! Listen to the mirror's hints! Items don't always tell you exactly what they do - you may have use or place the thing and then interact with it to know more. I've overall found the game quite fun, and have sunk over 50 hours into it so far. The combat is enjoyable and quick, the farming and crafting sufficiently distracting, and the art and music quite nice. A /few/ more hints and helps would be nice, but the community helps with that.
Already have this on Steam, but the launch discount was more than sufficient enticement to get a DRM-free copy. I've had this game for a /long/ time, and keep coming back to it. The sheer scale and complexity (not to mention the massive stompiness of the experimentals in Forged Alliance) is something no other RTS had done at the time, nor has done since. Three different factions with three different strategic approaches to warfare (four, if you must count the alien faction)...it's a blessing that game continues to operate on modern hardware.
After the first few hot-fixes, the game is shaping up to be an overall well-made successor to the old Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series - if you're familiar with them, then you have a general idea what you're getting into in terms of UI and overall behavior. The questing has been good, so far - enough both mainline and random side quests to keep a person occupied. Combat mechanics are about as expected - though if you're not familiar with the nasty things a GM can do to an unprepared adventuring party, this game will quickly show you a few of them. (Take that as a positive or negative, as you like. :P Though at least some of that has supposedly been mitigated since the early patches with additional in game warnings and prep items.) What I've seen of the nation-and-town-building mechanics so far are mostly decent. Advisors can be assigned to tasks for a certain amount of time to handle issues that are facing you. Issues can pop up while you've got all relevant personnel assigned, which on the one hand is irritating, but on the other hand feels very much Working As Designed; if you have all your resources assigned, and new work comes in, what do you _think_ will happen? The only real complaint I have so far with the assignment mechanism is that when your PC is assigned a task, the full period passes immediately, which can result in tasks being missed because you weren't allowed to assign an advisor despite one being available. Overall I'm pleased with the post-patch package so far, and quite enjoying myself.
Were it possible, I'd rate 4 1/2, but since it's not, I'll round up. It's an enjoyable city-builder with limited resource-choices and amounts and a goodly number of buildings and research choices, and for a nice change from a lot of builders, there are difficulty settings with obvious (though simple - mainly starting-cash-based) effects. Depending on the difficulty you start on, Mars will either be harsh or downright unforgiving, so you'll need to conserve your cash and resources and not waste them, and _think_ about how you're building and deploying. Thankfully, you do _not_ have to worry about traffic patterns, though you need to keep in mind that colonists work only in their own domes. It's not perfect. As others have stated, it's lacking a tutorial, though things seem straightforward enough I didn't find that a major negative. Keypress instructions are onscreen if you need them, and buildings and research state what they do. The interactions and resource costs of factories aren't clearly stated, however, which takes learning. There are also some additions that would have really helped in some situations. The big one for me? The question of why your colonists didn't bring _birth control_ along. Later game population growth can balloon out of control, so a 'policy' control mechanism would have been nice. Still overall fun, and I'm glad I purchased.
What little of the game I have been able to play is well done. Controls are acceptable, pacing is good, and strike mode is a blast. The down side is that the game crashes far too often to be seriously playable. Before patching, it was even odds whether completing a mission resulted in a successful update to the save file or a crash-to-desktop. After the latest patch, it has crashed before every single attempt to begin a mission. This is not an improvement. I want to like this game, but am not able to even play it. Disappointing.
