Reviews from

in the past


Firaxis has designed another fantastic battle system, as is to be expected.

The storyline wasn't bad, and the social sim elements were suprisingly good, though both felt like they dragged too long. The game could have done from being a good 20 hours shorter.

The combat mechanics and progression are fantastic. 5/5.
The writing and therefore the relationship management mechanic, which are a crucial part of the game, are terrible. 1/5.
The graphics are terrible for a 2022 engine. Seems like Firaxis just took their XCOM engine and shoved narrative animation into it, and it does not work. 2/5.

The combat and progression is SO good, the game is quite tolerable if you skip all the narrative and relationship management you can. But you still have to pay attention to everything your skipping to make sure you catch enough context to interact with the relationship mechanic appropriately enough to effectively progress your abilities.

This game could have been a 5/5 with compelling writing. As it stands it's one of the most overrated games out there because the writing is SO bad while simultaneously being SO necessary to pay attention to for combat progression.