Solid D&D game with a few annoying quirks
D&D Tactics sticks pretty close to the rules for D&D. Obviously a lot of feats and skills are non-existent to allow ease of use. You can only use the core D&D races and classes, except that you can also play with psychics and psychic warriors. There is no multi-classing but that isn't such a big deal.
The graphics are passable but I doubt anyone wants to buy this game for the graphics anyways. This type of game is bought for it's gameplay and in that area it excels.
D&D tactics follows the simple formula of town-dungeon-town, etc. While in towns you can purchase items, equip characters, and trade items. Unfortunately, the menu system on the campaign map (where the towns are located), is not very intuitive and can be a downright mess at times. For example, trading items between characters is a headache.
Once you enter a dungeon everything seems to get better. You can explore the map on a grid (unfortunately this is the ONLY option and very time consuming to explore). Once you come into contact with an enemy you will enter a surprise round and then move to regular initiative. Combat is tactical and follows the rules of D&D almost perfectly. For example, if you launch a fireball to a specific point and there is anything in that line between you and the fireball's explosion point it will hit that object and explode there instead. You have to be very careful to maneuver your characters into the optimum position so they can do the most damage.
OK, so now we get to the negatives. As stated before, where you are in a dungeon you are always moving on a grid and must move each character individually which is very time consuming. Also, when in a dungeon, if you destroy all the enemies before opening chests you will NOT get to open them. Therefore you either have to open them before you get into combat via exploration mode or use valuable turns in combat to open them. This can be very frustrating if you have to use one character to pick a lock or cast knock and then have a character with enough strength actually pick up the items.
Now the quirks I mentioned. These can be negative or not depending on who you are and what you want from the game. First of all, metamagic feats don't work like normal. For instance, if you select the "Enlarge Spell" metamagic feat, ALL your spells that can be enlarged will always be enlarged and you don't have to use a higher spell slot for them. One problem with this can be with fireball. Once you choose this feat your fireballs will always be twice normal size which can be a pain in the butt sometimes. This works the same way with all metamagic feats. Another problem I ran into which I assume was unintentional on the part of the developers was that any item can be worn by any character, no matter their class or armor feats. The only exception to this I could find is that druids cannot were metal armor at all (which by normal rules they SHOULD be able to but if they do they will lose their spells for a day). Another problem that arises with armor is that armor and deflection bonuses stack. For those that aren't aware, if you have Full Plate +4 and Bracers of Armor +3, you should only get a +4 bonus since they are both armor bonuses and should not stack. In D&D Tactics you get +7. Another example would be a Ring of Protection +3 and Ring of Protection +2. You should only get +3 if you wear them both at the same time but in Tactics you get +5. If you are like me and prefer to play by the rules, you have to pay extra attention to what you are wearing so you don't stack bonuses of the same type by mistake.
Other than those few things, most of which can be worked around, I think the developers did an excellent job with this game. It does a good job of replicating the D&D battle system.
I would definitely recommend this game to anyone that is a fan of D&D or a fan of turn-based, tactical role-playing games.
(A quick side note to anyone that already has the game. If you are having trouble seeing the battlefield because of the camera, hitting the select button will zoom out.)