izigame.me

"It's like a top-down Alien: Isolation, with Marines"
Currently 6.2 hours into the game. I usually don't write reviews, but this game was interesting enough for me to write one.
It's not perfect. The environments and sounds are on point and great, but the marines and people are less detailed than I expected. Also, the squad leader screaming "DOUBLE TIME" or "MOVE IT YOU SLUGS" when I'm having them quietly walk around an area is OBNOXIOUS. But that's a minor gripe.
The game is actually a hardcore stealth game. I'm not yet at the point where I'm allowed to research and equip my troopers yet; but I can already see the game loop:
Basically, your squad of 4 (currently) marines drop into a persistent map, with an APC that provides fire support. You sneak around the area as one "unit", similar to games like Ground Control, and complete objectives. During the exploration, you're finding Datapads, ammo, and resources; as well as corpses to loot. You can deploy various tools like portable motion trackers and sentry turrets, weld and unweld doors, and activate certain areas support features (like the colony's security cameras).
Now, since the world is persistent, anything you place will be still there when you come back to the mission area. That's a good and bad thing. Portable Motion Trackers can help illuminate where the Xenos are, but can also be destroyed by them if they spot one; or, you can use one of those Trackers as a way to lure Xenos away from an area or to an ambush spot. However, and more importantly, anything you loot and take with you will NOT respawn in the area. Meaning if you completely loot out an armory or area storage, that's it. Use your resources wisely. I believe later on in the game they force a time limit to complete the game, so the game wants you constantly on the move and stressed.
Speaking of Stress, that's a major mechanic in this game; as well as the unique "death dial" (as I call it). You are constantly, CONSTANTLY, on a time limit in this game. The game plays in real time, as well; so you'll have to make decisions on the fly, such as when to engage Xenos and when to throw in the towel and call it quits:
Stress: Each time your forces engage with Xenos or are in the "hunted" mode on the "death dial", they gain stress. Get enough of it and your marine/marines will get various debuffs, based on their Traits; shaking hands, clumsy, insubordinate, panicked. The more stress, the more debuffs, the worse your marines fight. You can mediate it by using some of your heath tokens to take pills or weld a room closed to provide a rest zone for the squad, by using your engineering tokens.
So based on that, you want to keep your stress low for your squad, right?
Hence why this game is actually a stealth game more than an action game. It's better to never engage in fighting with the Xenos; not just because of stress, but the now covered "death dial".
Death Dial (how I call it): When you land, the Xenos are usually asleep or very idle. They don't really perceive a threat and don't really patrol. This is called Undetected mode. When your forces engage with the Xenos (for example, killing one), the hive wakes up and goes into Hunt mode. During this time, Xenos will step out of their spawn holes, littered around the map, and investigate the area where the last Xeno was killed. During this time, your squad will be gaining stress as a constant rate while the Hunt is active. It's your option to engage the Xenos or to hide from them, as you wait for the Hunt to dial down until it goes back to Undetected.
However, during this time, you have another dial called "Aggression" slowly increasing. Every time the Xenos go on a Hunt, the Aggression dial slowly spins up from Easy -> Medium -> Hard; only stopping when the Hunt ends and the status goes to Undetected. It never dials back; basically setting a doomsday clock on every mission (and the main reason the game starts allowing for tactical retreats). Each time the dial goes to a new level, you get an Invasion. The game basically warns you that you have 30 seconds to prepare, wherever you are, for a Xeno rush. Suddenly 10s of Xenos will swarm your position in an attempt to kill/kidnap your marines. Surviving that onslaught allows you to continue in the new dial setting. Also, each time the dials go up, that dictates the levels Xenomorphs; on Medium, more Xenos start patrolling and move faster, and during each Hunt, you're going to get 2-3 Xenos now investigating (or more, depending on difficulty) at a time. On Hard, Invasions happen on the dial now, with special larger Xenos now in the invasion waves. By this point, if you're not succeeding in the mission, it's better to ex-filtrate and try it again later.
So, the game actively punishes you for engaging the Xenos; which makes sense, but it really does make you think if it's even worth engaging any Xenos at all. Limited ammo and resources, stress, and each firefight making the level harder? I'd stick to sneaking around.
HINT: One exception is the APC, however. This thing will be your BEST friend throughout the game. It allows your squad to travel around the map in style, protecting your squad and automatically engaging any Xenos while travelling or where it's parked. At least in the first level, I'd use the APC as "cover" and a "shield" during Invasion/Hunts; as well as a way to engage Xenos, as it's guns DO NOT TRIGGER DETECTION/HUNTS. This means this vehicle is a Xeno killing machine and your best way to attempt to engage Xenos. I usually keep the APC in my "engagement zone" and retreat to it when there's a Hunt/Invasion happening and let the gun on it kill everything, while my Marines take cover and stay quiet.
This strategy won't work everywhere, but on maps with large terrain and open spaces, use your APC to your fullest capabilities. And plant as many motion trackers on the map as possible to get a full view of the entire map and track Xeno patrol paths.
So, that being said, haven't seen many bugs, but controlling a whole squad at once is... awkward(?), but you get used to it and it becomes fine. No manual saving either, entire game is checkpoint/autosave based, with the difficulty setting how frequently they happen. It's also hard, Xenos pretty much 3 shot (depending on difficulty) your Marines if they get close enough, as well as randomly spilling acid on them via their death throws, so it's best to keep your distance from all Xenos at all times.
If you got this far, and this sounds appealing, then you're going to enjoy this game.
But if you're going into this like Aliens: Colonial Marines? You're gonna have a bad time.