Although it fails in a few sections, it manages to be a fun "pick up and play" game.
Definitely surprised.
The demo imo was worth around a 6/10.
So, where to start.
Well, the story is pretty interesting. You're a soldier in the american cavalry during the massacre at the battle of little bighorn. You witness custer's last stand and just as things get epicly FUBAR, a big blob appears and a guy comes out and saves your bum.
But let's talk about the section before that, shall we?
It's fun as hell. Firing at native american cavalry circling around a hill is quite exhilarating. Of course, this brings up one of the issues i had with the realism: Why would shooting the rider kill the horse?
Fun stuff anyway.
Anyhow, after you're saved, you come in a big clean room. There's an ugly monitor screen in front of you, and this is where it gets kinda "as if".
You're presented to an apparently female "mission operator" type mission-impossilbe style person who sets you on your missions called "mother". hell of a weird name. But why do you only see her eyes and why does she have a tat above them? Anyhow, the clichéd "mute hero" thing doesn't work in this game.
You're playing as a soldier pulled from his time to fight in battles in the future, after your supposed death and battles in the past. And before each battle you'd expect your character to say "And what was this war about?"
Well, he's mute. as i said before. It doesn't work to well with the context, but it passes.
So, they want you to go back in time and fix problems with the time frame caused by an exterior organisation.
The story only starts boiling up in the last few missions, leaving you in the dark about the big hot tamale until the end.
The guns are highly varied, which is good, to say the least. The real treat is being able to wield futuristic weapons in battles set in the past. Nothing is nearly as exhilarating as mowing down a confederate line with a machine gun.
Throughout your missions, you'll be aided by a guy called Dexter. He has a cowboy hat at all times. how fun. and he's a firefighter who appears to have disappeared at 9/11 by the sounds of it.
He's a funny-as-hell character who swears all the time and says random funny BS.
There's some real "OMGCOOOOL" battles at times. Like at the end of one civil war battle you'll be advancing down a street clearing it of confederates and your allies will actually move down the street in formation and you can just join them and fire your fun-to-shoot musket as they do.
It has a lot of run and gun to it, so it's nice and old-fashioned, with a bit of a "OMGBOOOMZORZ BATTLE" twist. There's A LOT of soldiers on screen at any one time, which can make for some seriously intense battles.
however, the game tends to suffer from frame rate hitches because of that. Bummer. So you need a fairly powerful PC if you intend to run this at maximum settings.
The physics and effects are just great, so that's a plus.
The music is also pretty good, really giving you a unique feeling of "OMG I ARE IN DA CIVIL WOOORE BOOMZORZ".
Now let's go to the bad parts.
Most of the voice acting is just flat-out bad, but it's mildly excusable since it's an indy game, and it's hard to get voice actors if you're going indy. Mother, Dexter and Dr. Koell are well-acted, thankfully.
The frame rate hitches, as i said before.
The story only really unfolds very late.
The mute main character was a bad idea.
It's easy
Not enough use of cannons for make benefit glorious nation of whatever nation who's enemies you're blowing up.
And the last level can be a bit confusing, as well as having a bit of disappointment in that you can't steal the swords and shields from the Romans. bugger.
Overall, a pretty good game, and it's nice and long. It had a few story hitches, and some gameplay sections just didn't feel right.
I should point out that there's no multiplayer which is a huge shame since it would have been perfect for this game.
So when the price reaches something along the lines of 40< dollars, run to the store with 40< dollars to buy it. Currently, at the price of 50+ dollars, it feels a bit expensive.