First, of all I have seen people describe this game as all number of TBT, RTT or smart pause type strat... But, this game VERY much feels inspired by Silent Storm Sentinels, especially in the sense that it's a 'Russian Reversal' of the setting of that game: a alternate dystopian post world war 2 where you are a new democratic Germany fighting a kind of communist plot in your government by the Russians, (so this is a bit more fun with that in mind) However, for everything this game gets right and smooths out it lacks a lot of the content and charm of that maschinkrieger beast. (Manning some armor to go against some armor would be pretty cool in this!) you have a ragtag group of soldiers with different skill trees that they can unlock as they gain XP so it is a tactical RPG-lite I suppose. it seems there are 8 MERCs to pick from (Sorry Jagged Alliance 2 fans, that's all you'll get and if they die it's no bueno)

Base Managment is kinda a clicky-chore and very rudimentary. You essentially delegate jobs for food, material, or side missions with special rewards such as Good Quality weapons

The game is pretty straightforeward both in the base and in the field. Your smart pause combat is semi-automated and i have mixed feelings on it. For one, it's really hard to get a tactical sense of control on whats going on. You essentially take cover, wait for the perfect moment (after observing their static patrol routes) and hope for the best. The enemy will also adjust positions, take cover, try to flank you (or worst of all toss a grenade at you) and you typically dont have too much time to really react to anything.

I always find it's a real toss up how the outcome of firefights end. You can save and reload and do it ten times and get wildly different results from doing the same thing

Stealth however is quite solid and very reliable. And you can actually stab every single enemy in this game it seems and almost never have to go loud if you don't want to.

from the 8 or so (that's what I discovered anyway) Partisan soldiers, they each have a different playstyle. Typically, I liked the stealth oriented characters and rifle oriented ones. Everyone else has niche uses (oh but the heavy weapon guy is a beast, especially with a good quality MG-34) I suppose that's good, because the maps/missiosn themselves are pretty satisfying, both the enemy patrol routes and the ways you can approach and assault. Some maps (like forests) lack cover and prove quite difficult to have firefights in. Grenades also have a tendeency to underperform as enemies can run from them. Also weapons are a bit not so straightforward. I found that rifles are b est because they outrange everyone. If you have one 'gunner' (like Bj Blascowitz with the MG-34) that can keep you from getting rushed or flanked as your two riflemen pick targets off. I didnt like other comps so much (except for pure stealth, the guy who can whistle to lure enemies to you is the most OP squaddie in this game)

I do wish there was more weapon variations. I do wish it didn't push characters towards picking things other than rifles. It would also be nice if the partisans who specialize in pistols feel so useless or overall not worth it.. The KGB/Commissar has some really cool abilities as does the Detective who can eliminate three targets at once.. but these skills can only be used about four times a mission total, after that they aren't useful and your stuck with being outranged by every enemy. On top of this, there are very few different kinds of weapons in the game... about 3 in each class. Terrain is also not destructible.

Silent Storm doesn't have a lot of these limitations to the degree this game does, but it's more janky and dated. This game has a few gripes about the interface such as looting bodies and stuff, some UI window weirdness where items can disappear for a second until you go back to it and things like that, so it's not perfect, but its overall a very satisfying game that makes it fun to experiment with the gameplay. It's been a while since I've played on of these. Would recommend if you like these kinds of games. Completed the campaign on easy, and doing some of the subsequent return to battle missions.