Gameplay;
The game gives you plenty of build freedom and most options are viable, which are required factors because weapon/tech rewards are random, experimentaion is encouraged, and there's no way to go back on skill upgrades. All of this together means that while there is probably an optimal way to play, you won't find it at first and you'll be able to improve from the struggle rather than just lose. The combat resource logic was new to me; the same points share across the squad for tactics, weapon energy, and movement with no cap on bonus movement. So my preferred strategy naturally evolved into 1 dude sprinting laps around the map gathering resources for the next guy to nuke everyone, and this was so effective that I recommend actively avoiding it. The campaign seems balanced for Hard since my first-time Normal Ironman playthrough still had 40% of the game countdown timer left at the end. The final boss is available pretty early and the game just ends when he dies, so if you're having fun with your current team adopt a completionist mindset to extend the experience.
Style/Feel;
Gothic chanting and every type of organ blasting through undurground tombs every fight, multiple-choice events with no indication whether you picked the best or worst option regardless of how good or bad (usually bad) the outcome is, and glorious explodey rewards for Suffering Not every xenos you see; this is a 40k game. As with most 40k games audio is the standout superstar, polished effects and gory story fight for silver, and everyone just hopes the duct-tape and junkmetal auditorium has few enough bugs that everything doesn't fall apart. UI snags were easily solved by reselecting something or wiggling the camera, the game worked fine and the experience flowed well enough despite time at base adding up quickly in the jungle of menus. There is some jank around what qualifies as an 'attack' or 'ranged weapon' in different situations, but I couldn't tell how much of this was intentional.
