You don't have to play this game long to see the brilliance shine through.

The tactical gameplay is a straight forward delight. Every level is a mini open environment in which you can experiment as much as you'd like to find optimal ways of dispatching enemies to complete varied objectives both in story missions as well as optional challenge missions.

Characters can be freely swapped between during turns to use their actions in whatever order you wish which means that experimentation is the name of the game. Don't like how something played out? Rewind the entire turn and try something else until you like the results you have.

As for the characters, each is equipped with unique class abilities that expand and improve as you tailor their ability perks to your preferred style. As levels increase their complexity, the arsenal of abilities and characters in your squad increases in stride so you should never hit a point that feels insurmountable though some optional objectives may be out of reach depending on the task. Abilities range from small things such as increased damage to more open concepts like switching places with an enemy unit, having your decoy attack rather than just pull aggro, or gaining an additional set of movement points after using an attack.

You will have a blast as you commit creative acts of defenestration upon your enemies (or just shoot them if you like being boring).

The art style is strikingly unique and a gorgeous take on cell shading with lower fidelity geometry. The creative use of wizard and magic iconic staves and wands re-imagined in SWAT tactical fashion is an amusing sight. You've probably never imagined a swat shield paired with a censer as a weapon, but that's what you get here. The extra outfits are generally more than simple color swaps and while they don't do anything for gameplay directly they give just one more progression point to strive for if you should like.

The controls are excellent and easy to learn with a snappy UI that makes it clear what each action does and won't have you ending a turn without warning while still, in that extra act of verification that you're done, never feel onerously sluggish.

The story is the expected deliciously sarcastic tone typical of the developers previous titles. You can delve into all the optional dialogue for character and plot exploration as you like OR you can simply hit the final listed option to get on with it ASAP for those in a hurry.

An altogether excellent game that is worth every penny. Quite possibly the most complete game I've had to pleasure to play this year at launch. No bugs, good performance, and exactly as advertised with no regrets.

You don't have to play this game long to see the brilliance shine through. The tactical gameplay is a straight forward delight. Every level is a mini open environment in which you can experiment as much as you'd like to find optimal ways of dispatching enemies to complete varied objectives both in story missions as well as optional challenge missions. Characters can be freely swapped between during turns to use their actions in whatever order you wish which means that experimentation is the name of the game. Don't like how something played out? Rewind the entire turn and try something else until you like the results you have. As for the characters, each is equipped with unique class abilities that expand and improve as you tailor their ability perks to your preferred style. As levels increase their complexity, the arsenal of abilities and characters in your squad increases in stride so you should never hit a point that feels insurmountable though some optional objectives may be out of reach depending on the task. Abilities range from small things such as increased damage to more open concepts like switching places with an enemy unit, having your decoy attack rather than just pull aggro, or gaining an additional set of movement points after using an attack. You will have a blast as you commit creative acts of defenestration upon your enemies (or just shoot them if you like being boring). The art style is strikingly unique and a gorgeous take on cell shading with lower fidelity geometry. The creative use of wizard and magic iconic staves and wands re-imagined in SWAT tactical fashion is an amusing sight. You've probably never imagined a swat shield paired with a censer as a weapon, but that's what you get here. The extra outfits are generally more than simple color swaps and while they don't do anything for gameplay directly they give just one more progression point to strive for if you should like. The controls are excellent and easy to learn with a snappy UI that makes it clear what each action does and won't have you ending a turn without warning while still, in that extra act of verification that you're done, never feel onerously sluggish. The story is the expected deliciously sarcastic tone typical of the developers previous titles. You can delve into all the optional dialogue for character and plot exploration as you like OR you can simply hit the final listed option to get on with it ASAP for those in a hurry. An altogether excellent game that is worth every penny. Quite possibly the most complete game I've had to pleasure to play this year at launch. No bugs, good performance, and exactly as advertised with no regrets.