This might be the first time ive ever agreed with IGN, who gave this a five out of ten. First off, this game is not about skill, it's about save scumming and rng, so understand that off the bat. For instance, you may have to kill a tank at the end of the level, and the only unit capable of killing a tank that you have access to for the mission is your single rocket infantry unit. Well, for some reason, even though there are three rocketeers in your rocket infantry unit, only one of them shoots the rocket, and if he gets picked off, well, instead of one of the other two individuals picking up the rocket, that rocket group just no longer has the ability to shoot rockets, and your sunk. That means you can make it to the end of a three or four hour long mission, just to realize you technically lost way back in the first minute, without realizing it. Added to this is the fact that there are invisible traps or unavoidable ambushes, so, again, you have to cross your fingers that it's not the unit or individual within a unit that you need to beat the mission who gets killed. But it will happen, so, you just run out and see what happens, note where the ambushes, traps, scripted fights, etc are and then reload the game with that information in mind.
The gameplay: This game is about beating the missions before you run out of ammo or units. The enemies never stop coming, never run out of ammo. Oh, did you waste your last grenade half the mission back? turns out you needed to save one to blow up a building at the end of this mission, you get the idea. Most missions allow you to resupply with trucks, which themselves resupply at certain depots. So, the game is about running your trucks back and forth while also moving your infantry forward. The problem is, the pathfinding for everything, these trucks included, is... about as bad as you can imagine. You cannot select a truck that is back at your base and then click for it to drive up to your troops, because it will either get stuck on something or just stop somewhere along the way. This is also true of any unit, but the trucks especially and it's a death shot to the game, in my opinion. If the game is going to be about resupplying with trucks, then you cannot then have the trucks need to be babysat for their entire journey across the map. The other units are equally as bad at pathfinding, but Im not going to go into it. What I will go into is the cover system. It's a good idea, but it's atrociously implemented. Yes, you can hide behind walls for cover...but now your unit doesnt have line of sight, and so won't shoot. There is no option a la dawn of war 2, where you click on an obstacle and your units will take up positions along it. They will do this in buildings, but not out in the field. Therefore, you essentially have to just ferociously click them until they're all gathered behind the wall you want, tell them to lay down, and then remember to tell them to stand up again once the enemy has arrived.
Regardless of all this, the true issue is that its just not the game for me. I don't like contending with pathing in a game, some people dont mind. I don't like having to continually resupply, some people like it. I dont like games with endless enemies, each with endless ammo, some people do. And I detest games that force you to rely on rng for whether or not an integral member of your squad or even a single member of a unit randomly takes the tank blast to the face. Nor do I enjoy games that give you no way to know what's coming besides just save scumming. This last is probably the worst for me, I like games that rely on skill, not on information you got during the previous savegame. But it's fairly pretty, it's well voice acted in a hammy, campy way, it's a good game if you like savescumming, and that's not sarcastic, I can definitely see why people like this game. Unfortunately I can also see why it's not A LOT of people that like it. This game is niche. And it's just...not fun for me, it's a game of ammo and fuel logistics, rng and pressure to try and get it done before you're overrun by endless enemies, as opposed to awesome battles with varied weapons against terminators.
