it is a combination of city development and tactical if simply combat. But in every game I have played I run into a frustrating AI boost....kill an opposing hero lead army and a turn later that hero will return with vastly larger new army, usually strong to win the next battle. This occurs on all difficulties, all the way down to 'pawn' level. It is an AI cheat meant to supplant a poorly coded AI and it removes all real strategy from the game; what's the point of defeating an enemy army when it will just appear a turn later much stronger. I found the only way to advance in the game was to avoid combat with opposing armies and just focus on raiding their resources. For me, this is really boring.
Pretty generic horror story.....find oneself in a environment where you constantly receive missions from NPC that otherwise have little impact on the character or story until the forced twist at the end of game. Player never feels in control, just a drone taking orders. Keyboard and video caused me motion sickness. Game felt more like a FPS than survival horror....lighting was annoying, not scary and monsters did not cause fear anymore than a Fallout series Raider ....they were just there to be shot. Technically, I found little problems with the PC port....no bugs or framerate issues. Graphics were good for the time and still present enough detail to give the illusion of realism once the player is into the game. Voice acting did not detract from game so must be considered a plus. Probably would have given 3 stars except I really thought the game felt grindy due to the lack of player initiative and choice - straight up 'on rails' game. That may not bother some people and the docking of that extra star would not apply to them.
