TLDR: I think the game still needs some optimization work. The framerate on some levels drops as low as 10 from 60 during the enemy turn in particular. I have a suspicion this is Denuvo related. Further, even for minor wounds, the wound recovery time is way too long and needs to be balanced better. I have had some at 40+ days for minor wounds. This means you cannot use the same character and build them up as per the RPG element of the game. The audio in-game is very good, but not outside of it. The story doesn't make much sense lore-wise either. So while the author is, in my opinion, qualified, I am left wondering if it was double-checked by somebody more familiar with the lore? The interactions between the Imperial factions stand out to me as lore-breaking in particular.

Special mention to the outrageous price for two items, one character and all the twitch loot you can get by watching streamers for hours on end. I think they need a better marketing department, to be honest. Charging people so much for things that should be in the base game is not acceptable.

Full review:

Do you like X-COM? Do you like 40k? On paper, this should be the game for you.

Overall the gameplay is good, though wound recovery time needs balancing. 40+ days for minor wounds isn't acceptable. I mention this as even weapons that lore-wise would damage Aegis Armour rarely do so regularly. This would be forgivable if wound recovery did not take so long. Some of the abilities that show up at random are either useless or absurdly powerful. Due to being randomized, they often affect mission outcomes greatly. Imagine fighting through a mission that was super hard, only to know you likely have to reload and hope that ability does not spawn again. This is incredibly frustrating. Otherwise, I think the game is very good; though I'm not too fond of cover being up to 100%, I think it should be capped at 80-90%.

Sound-wise, the voices and battle sounds are great. Honestly, they are some of the best I have seen from a 40k game. Outside of battles, minus the voice acting, it is subpar. This takes away from the immersiveness of the setting. I had hoped for better.

Story-wise, I think several missions come across as filler and do not contribute meaningfully to the story in any way. When you have the Inquisitor, Astropath and other characters written so well, it sucks having to grind through meaningless missions that do not contribute overall. Dawn of War 2 at least had missions that were grindy, but there was a purpose overall to do them. Here it feels like you get a small reward, but that is all. I would like to see that improved. The interactions between the Imperial factions also needs to be improved as well.

Performance-wise, it can be all over the place. My system is high-end, so getting frame rates as slow as 10 on the enemy's turn is not great and takes away from gameplay. I note this only happens on some maps, whereas others are near perfect 60 across the board. I would hope the developers optimize it some more and hopefully remove Denuvo.

Finally, one cannot neglect to mention the marketing team deciding to make players watch over 10 twitch streams for items. Who thought that was a great idea? Further, the items + characters in the special edition could have easily been included in the base game. Neither adds anything meaningful to the experience, as far as I can tell.

In conclusion, I would give this game a 7 overall, but it is a 6 due to the crappy marketing and value for DLC proposition. I hope the devs know that this would be a solid game with more optimization. Perhaps market it better next time? Buy it on sale.

EDIT: The Devs were kind enough to give the community the twitch items in an upcoming update. I am bumping my overall score to 6.5/10. It is good to see devs listening to the community. Now please remove Denuvo.

TLDR: I think the game still needs some optimization work. The framerate on some levels drops as low as 10 from 60 during the enemy turn in particular. I have a suspicion this is Denuvo related. Further, even for minor wounds, the wound recovery time is way too long and needs to be balanced better. I have had some at 40+ days for minor wounds. This means you cannot use the same character and build them up as per the RPG element of the game. The audio in-game is very good, but not outside of it. The story doesn't make much sense lore-wise either. So while the author is, in my opinion, qualified, I am left wondering if it was double-checked by somebody more familiar with the lore? The interactions between the Imperial factions stand out to me as lore-breaking in particular. Special mention to the outrageous price for two items, one character and all the twitch loot you can get by watching streamers for hours on end. I think they need a better marketing department, to be honest. Charging people so much for things that should be in the base game is not acceptable. Full review: Do you like X-COM? Do you like 40k? On paper, this should be the game for you. Overall the gameplay is good, though wound recovery time needs balancing. 40+ days for minor wounds isn't acceptable. I mention this as even weapons that lore-wise would damage Aegis Armour rarely do so regularly. This would be forgivable if wound recovery did not take so long. Some of the abilities that show up at random are either useless or absurdly powerful. Due to being randomized, they often affect mission outcomes greatly. Imagine fighting through a mission that was super hard, only to know you likely have to reload and hope that ability does not spawn again. This is incredibly frustrating. Otherwise, I think the game is very good; though I'm not too fond of cover being up to 100%, I think it should be capped at 80-90%. Sound-wise, the voices and battle sounds are great. Honestly, they are some of the best I have seen from a 40k game. Outside of battles, minus the voice acting, it is subpar. This takes away from the immersiveness of the setting. I had hoped for better. Story-wise, I think several missions come across as filler and do not contribute meaningfully to the story in any way. When you have the Inquisitor, Astropath and other characters written so well, it sucks having to grind through meaningless missions that do not contribute overall. Dawn of War 2 at least had missions that were grindy, but there was a purpose overall to do them. Here it feels like you get a small reward, but that is all. I would like to see that improved. The interactions between the Imperial factions also needs to be improved as well. Performance-wise, it can be all over the place. My system is high-end, so getting frame rates as slow as 10 on the enemy's turn is not great and takes away from gameplay. I note this only happens on some maps, whereas others are near perfect 60 across the board. I would hope the developers optimize it some more and hopefully remove Denuvo. Finally, one cannot neglect to mention the marketing team deciding to make players watch over 10 twitch streams for items. Who thought that was a great idea? Further, the items + characters in the special edition could have easily been included in the base game. Neither adds anything meaningful to the experience, as far as I can tell. In conclusion, I would give this game a 7 overall, but it is a 6 due to the crappy marketing and value for DLC proposition. I hope the devs know that this would be a solid game with more optimization. Perhaps market it better next time? Buy it on sale. EDIT: The Devs were kind enough to give the community the twitch items in an upcoming update. I am bumping my overall score to 6.5/10. It is good to see devs listening to the community. Now please remove Denuvo.