As of version 0.6.4 it took me 30 hours to complete what's currently the campaign on Normal difficulty. Mostly the game is, in my opinion, a amazing evolution of the turn based XCOM style strategy game. Instead of having individual characters that you have to micromanage you're given squad leaders that can bring up to 8 squad members with them. This is where the evolution takes place where instead of just running one squad in say XCOM or Xenonauts, your battles are akin to sending out a platoon(if you want) worth of soldiers. That combined with the ability to bring a plethora of vehicle combinations and the bigger maps allows for more tactical decision making on a macro scale rather than just power levelling a few characters and making them stomp everything known to mankind.

Combat wise, it is a improvement over the whole 90% chance to hit and miss meme. All units(except aliens which we'll get to) suffer from a suppression mechanic. Fast firing but inaccurate weapons will suppress a target more easily than a slow firing gun. With each gun also having a specific amount of times it'll fire per attack option all these variables allow your hits to be more consistent and even if you do miss you are rewarded for atleast firing at the target. At 50% suppression a target gains a suppression debuff that hampers their action points and at 75% they're pinned down, losing the ability to do anything for a turn. That mechanic alone is what makes this different from other similar games because it allows actual real life military tactics to take fold in the game and you're actively rewarded for employing them successfully. There's a squad of heavy infantry whose armor can withstand my squad's weapons? Let me pin them down while I have another squad close the gap to rip through that armor. Which brings to light the armor system, every unit has a armor value and every weapon has a armor penetration and armor damage value. Alone this may seem like a issue because a basic infantry gun can't get through a light mech's armor. However, armor damage is where this once again enhances the combat to a more tactical level. You may not be able to penetrate the light mech but you will always apply damage to the armor itself with special ammunition to even make the armor damage even higher. This damage reduces the armor value of the enemy so you do not have to completely take off the armor to be able to do damage. So you can have a special squad of armor rippers who solely just fire at heavily armored things to rip their armor off so your other squads can damage them. The last important thing that needs to be said about combat is that every squad leader is capable of growing mid combat. Each squad leader has a potential attribute assigned to them with a higher number allowing them to gain permanent stat gains more frequently. Having a bad squad leader with a high growth potential incentivizes you to constantly use them because they'll continue to grow via the combat you put them through. This once again helps with the whole attitude of just only bringing the best and ignoring anything else. Overall, the combat system is absolutely amazing for the platoon level combat that happens in this game. Just brute forcing missions by sending a wall of meat at a problem may work until you realize that each squad member is a resource. A resource which does have means of replenishing but its highly possible you can run out of squad members to give to your squad leaders. So the game incentivizes you to actively care about your squads, incentivizes you to actively care about tactics, and rewards you for employing sound tactics while also not being overly punishing if you employ all the tools available to you.

The next thing to talk about is this game's economy. Instead of funds and research points you have a barter system with OCI points that allows you to upgrade your ship. OCI funds you basically get during special events or after completing a operation. Nothing special on that end, unlike the barter system. Right now, the barter system in my opinion needs some work in terms of availability. You can gain equipment from killing enemies, doing specific missions that guarantees a reward for you or get a ship upgrade that will give you a barter item for every vehicle you destroy. This in itself is not the issue, the issue is that the black market where you barter at has a rotating stock. This stock will randomly select certain weapons, vehicles and equipment to spawn in after every operation. The issue with this is that you can completely miss the chance at acquiring some gear if you're unlucky. I completed the campaign and by the end I had two plasma rifles for my vehicles. However, the infantry version never spawned for me until 3 hours after beating the campaign and the only reason I knew the infantry version existed is because I saw it in the cinematic trailer. If someone did not know before hand what equipment is in the game they could possibly go a very long time without even knowing they were missing out on some very unique items. This needs to be worked on, allow the market to expand its stocks as the game goes on or make it a ship upgrade. Anything to prevent people from missing out.

The factions all have a unique twist to them, with pirates being a rinky dink bunch that swarm you with just numbers with no regards for tactics. Aliens are a little bit more heavily armored and employ more AT and indirect fire(mortar and blaster bug). The rebels are a actual standing army that employ combined arms tactics against you. And the Menace, well, they're basically the terminator meets grey goo cosmic horror. Out all of the factions the Menace right now is my least favorite, the same tactics you use on the rebels you can use on the Menace but defeating them in combat is not really rewarding both in terms of loot and in just fun. Hopefully the devs work on them more and I'll amend my review if they do.

Overall, 7/10 game. Even though its a Early Access game its still very fun to play and theres enough meat in the game to get lost in it. There are some images that are still clearly WIP (Tier 2 DMR literally is just a image of a gun saying T2 DMR and the cannon of the heavy tank is just a GMOD style missing texture purple checkboard) but that doesn't affect the game in anyway. The voice actors for the squad leaders are all amazing, each have a differing personality and will interact with each other in a organic way. The art style on the galaxy map has a very Xenonauts meets Starship Troopers vibe to it whereas in a mission its very much grounded sci fi that could possibly exist in our world if we were in that time period. Good game, buy it, devs deserve it.

As of version 0.6.4 it took me 30 hours to complete what's currently the campaign on Normal difficulty. Mostly the game is, in my opinion, a amazing evolution of the turn based XCOM style strategy game. Instead of having individual characters that you have to micromanage you're given squad leaders that can bring up to 8 squad members with them. This is where the evolution takes place where instead of just running one squad in say XCOM or Xenonauts, your battles are akin to sending out a platoon(if you want) worth of soldiers. That combined with the ability to bring a plethora of vehicle combinations and the bigger maps allows for more tactical decision making on a macro scale rather than just power levelling a few characters and making them stomp everything known to mankind. Combat wise, it is a improvement over the whole 90% chance to hit and miss meme. All units(except aliens which we'll get to) suffer from a suppression mechanic. Fast firing but inaccurate weapons will suppress a target more easily than a slow firing gun. With each gun also having a specific amount of times it'll fire per attack option all these variables allow your hits to be more consistent and even if you do miss you are rewarded for atleast firing at the target. At 50% suppression a target gains a suppression debuff that hampers their action points and at 75% they're pinned down, losing the ability to do anything for a turn. That mechanic alone is what makes this different from other similar games because it allows actual real life military tactics to take fold in the game and you're actively rewarded for employing them successfully. There's a squad of heavy infantry whose armor can withstand my squad's weapons? Let me pin them down while I have another squad close the gap to rip through that armor. Which brings to light the armor system, every unit has a armor value and every weapon has a armor penetration and armor damage value. Alone this may seem like a issue because a basic infantry gun can't get through a light mech's armor. However, armor damage is where this once again enhances the combat to a more tactical level. You may not be able to penetrate the light mech but you will always apply damage to the armor itself with special ammunition to even make the armor damage even higher. This damage reduces the armor value of the enemy so you do not have to completely take off the armor to be able to do damage. So you can have a special squad of armor rippers who solely just fire at heavily armored things to rip their armor off so your other squads can damage them. The last important thing that needs to be said about combat is that every squad leader is capable of growing mid combat. Each squad leader has a potential attribute assigned to them with a higher number allowing them to gain permanent stat gains more frequently. Having a bad squad leader with a high growth potential incentivizes you to constantly use them because they'll continue to grow via the combat you put them through. This once again helps with the whole attitude of just only bringing the best and ignoring anything else. Overall, the combat system is absolutely amazing for the platoon level combat that happens in this game. Just brute forcing missions by sending a wall of meat at a problem may work until you realize that each squad member is a resource. A resource which does have means of replenishing but its highly possible you can run out of squad members to give to your squad leaders. So the game incentivizes you to actively care about your squads, incentivizes you to actively care about tactics, and rewards you for employing sound tactics while also not being overly punishing if you employ all the tools available to you. The next thing to talk about is this game's economy. Instead of funds and research points you have a barter system with OCI points that allows you to upgrade your ship. OCI funds you basically get during special events or after completing a operation. Nothing special on that end, unlike the barter system. Right now, the barter system in my opinion needs some work in terms of availability. You can gain equipment from killing enemies, doing specific missions that guarantees a reward for you or get a ship upgrade that will give you a barter item for every vehicle you destroy. This in itself is not the issue, the issue is that the black market where you barter at has a rotating stock. This stock will randomly select certain weapons, vehicles and equipment to spawn in after every operation. The issue with this is that you can completely miss the chance at acquiring some gear if you're unlucky. I completed the campaign and by the end I had two plasma rifles for my vehicles. However, the infantry version never spawned for me until 3 hours after beating the campaign and the only reason I knew the infantry version existed is because I saw it in the cinematic trailer. If someone did not know before hand what equipment is in the game they could possibly go a very long time without even knowing they were missing out on some very unique items. This needs to be worked on, allow the market to expand its stocks as the game goes on or make it a ship upgrade. Anything to prevent people from missing out. The factions all have a unique twist to them, with pirates being a rinky dink bunch that swarm you with just numbers with no regards for tactics. Aliens are a little bit more heavily armored and employ more AT and indirect fire(mortar and blaster bug). The rebels are a actual standing army that employ combined arms tactics against you. And the Menace, well, [spoiler]they're basically the terminator meets grey goo cosmic horror[/spoiler]. Out all of the factions the Menace right now is my least favorite, the same tactics you use on the rebels you can use on the Menace but defeating them in combat is not really rewarding both in terms of loot and in just fun. Hopefully the devs work on them more and I'll amend my review if they do. Overall, 7/10 game. Even though its a Early Access game its still very fun to play and theres enough meat in the game to get lost in it. There are some images that are still clearly WIP (Tier 2 DMR literally is just a image of a gun saying T2 DMR and the cannon of the heavy tank is just a GMOD style missing texture purple checkboard) but that doesn't affect the game in anyway. The voice actors for the squad leaders are all amazing, each have a differing personality and will interact with each other in a organic way. The art style on the galaxy map has a very Xenonauts meets Starship Troopers vibe to it whereas in a mission its very much grounded sci fi that could possibly exist in our world if we were in that time period. Good game, buy it, devs deserve it.