Concept: very good. Single city state survival. Story line, side quests, encounters. Challenges system. Strategy: very good. Not over large research tree (star), crafting, building, survival, fighting. Interface (appearance): a few design flaws, but ok. Good atmosphere, not annoying music. Tactical aspect - negative. The most annoying part of the game (and thea 2 also). You do not know what character will be doing what during the challenge. You can not assign character to be attacker or supporter, they are selected randomly (fire designer who invented this sh..). During attack phase you do not know what opponent will be attacked - left or right one. Fixing this +2 stars. Character develpment. below average. They progress on their own, without control. 38 attributes randomly increasing at level up. Fighter getting craft - easy. Makes this concept with challenges arguable. You can not select what your character will specialize in. It will be good in some. Again no control. Variability (game to game): good. Gods especially at high levels give advantages to make strategy different. Availability of nearby resources can change all game. Would be interesting to have campaign with all races (elves, orcs, etc). All games are long to very long. No rush. Interface convenience: below average. Tons of minor flaws. Selecting different group on the same tile? Go through all groups. Equiping group? 50! clicks to give required amount of food. Group joins other camp for the night? It is disbanded, reequip. Comparing characters - view only 1 at a time. Status (some of them) is checked in the beginning of the round. Your crafter WAS idle and produced nothing. Showing resources hides group and path. Why?
If you do not know what your characters will be doing in combat, it is not tactic. One turn he is melee attacking 10, next turn he can be only ranged 1. Similar in Thea-1 - randomly assigning medic to combat, fighter to support. Designer of that should be fired. Steam has demo, you can try before bying this piece.
