Others have talked about the mechanics and story, both of which are decent for a game of this genre. None of the high-star reviews mention that the game is buggy though. It lost the customization of one of my party members randomly, and then crashed in the middle of a cutscene which caused a key story party member to not join my party. Replaying the mission or cutscene didn't fix the problem, so somehow it saved that I'd completed the mission in "story mode" but didn't save that I should have had a new party member as a result. Beware if you're playing this game and anything starts looking or acting funny: save, quit, and restart the game so you don't suffer my fate of a busted save file.
Full Disclosure: I am okay at FPS/action video games, but not stellar. I'm generally easy to please so long as a game isn't annoyingly repetitive, cryptic, or punishing. I had never heard of this game before it went on sale here, I bought it because of all the glowing reviews. Many of them seem to be written by folk who played this when it first came out re-purchasing it for nostalgia, so I thought I'd add my two cents from the perspective of someone just now trying it for the first time. I didn't touch multiplayer, but I understand there is a small community of folk who still play online. Like many older games' multiplayer modes, I imagine your best bet is to get a group of buddies together and play with folk you know. Other reviewers have already done an excellent job of summarizing the basic story and mechanics, so I won't cloud the water with my own rendition of that material. The Good: Story - A bit shallow by storytelling standards, but for an action game it isn't bad at all. The characters are fleshed out nicely and the cutscenes are genuinely funny. Bonus points for creating unique races & settings, liberal use of Cockney accents, and an instruction manual that has fun explaining the world and its inhabitants. Sound - Some sound effects can get repetitive, but on the whole the sounds work fine, the music does its job nicely, and I didn't encounter any significant sound glitches. The Acceptable: Graphics - Nothing fancy by today's standards (with all effects on, they're around old-school World of Warcraft's level of detail), but perfectly fine if you're used to playing older games. Controls - If you aren't familiar with PC-based FPS controls you're going to have a tough time, otherwise it's easy enough to adapt to each race after playing a couple of missions. The controls more or less work well, but can feel a bit unresponsive on Delphi and Kabuto. Gyrocopter and Reaperski (i.e., vehicle) controls suck, but are usable. I had no end of trouble with the Reaperski race missions, but only had to cheat past the last one. On Windows 7, run this in XP Compatibility Mode or else some controls might not work right (Mecc group commanding in my case). Difficulty - The overall difficulty curve is a bit wobbly, but mostly progresses in a linear fashion. Once I got the hang of a combat strategy for each race (I went with mobility & long-range attacks for Meccs, hit & run for Delphi, smash & grab for Kabuto), most missions were easy/medium difficutly for me. The base building takes time to get used to, but isn't bad once you learn a good build order and how to pace base defense with acquiring resources. At least one mission per race seemed unnecessarily difficult and took me multiple tries to complete, but other than the final Reaperski race I was eventually able to beat all of them. Thinking outside the box definitely helps when confronting numerous or powerful foes. The Bad: Instructions - Even with the fun-to-read manual, several aspects of the game are not well documented. The instruction manual doesn't summarize or provide a "Quick Controls" list, and leaves out some potentially useful information (e.g., how to control minions, how to get off of a vehicle, etc.). That said, if you're okay with learning as you go and a bit of trial & error, you should be fine. No Checkpoints - The game uses mission-based progression, but there is no quick save or checkpoint feature while in a mission. For the base-building missions, having to restart doesn't reset your base, but for other types of missions be prepared to lose up to an hour of work if you fail right before the end. Summary: I'm glad I bought and played this game. It was annoying and frustrating at times, but overall it's a good open-world action shooter that's different enough to be interesting and made by folks with a sense of humor. I agree with the nostalgia reviewers that Giants: Citizen Kabuto's entertaining twists on action shooter gameplay make it worth the purchase. If you're okay with slogging through a few annoying missions (or don't mind cheating past them) and can look past minor control issues and slightly dated graphics, this is a fun way to spend a weekend or two.
