Ixamyakxim: So no work today and I really didn't have anything else going on this afternoon... and I decided to fire this up. Some quick and dirty early impressions...
Performance - turn on VSync and at least on my computer (i5, Win 7, 1060 playing at 1080p) I don't even get my GPU humming on the early maps. So far it's only like 15 - 20 guys involved but it runs nice and smooth. It's pretty too. I've fought on mostly open hill lands and your little guys look neat moving about.
It's actually kinda unnerving (in a good way) when you engage in first contact. All of a sudden you hear a few rifle cracks and you're not sure where it's coming from. Sort of survey the grounds and (you're moving with your guys, right?) watch which way your dudes are engaging and you can start to get a bead on advancing troops. It's kind of cool to watch your little guys move along the terrain as well - they'll crouch and move up hills and sort of stick to cover. It looks "realistic" without requiring a ton of micromanagement.
The game definately tosses you in the deep end. You sort of don't have anything to go by except the keystrokes menu. If you've played Mount and Blade you sort of get the idea of what to do first and what NOT to do (DON'T attack 25 guys with your 6, idiot!).
Some nice stats to dump points into off the bat, again reminiscent of Mount and Blade. Core stats that give you a boost and that allow you to advance secondary stats beyond "walls" of weak core stats. Stuff that lets you heal your guys quicker, have more guys, loot more gear, move along the map faster, etc.
Cons are 1) you sort of don't get any direction at the start. Again, if you've played Mount and Blade you "get" this, but if you haven't it might be frustrating.
2) You can't really pan around the map. You might get a quest to deliver something to X, but not have an idea where X is. So maybe you're meant to sort of find your footing first and get an idea of where stuff is, but I wouldn't mind being able to move that main world map around a bit more.
Also, looks like Save Anywhere. INCLUDING "in mission." I haven't used the "In realtime shooting mission" save yet so I can't speak to whether or not it saves RIGHT THEN AND THERE or just at a beginning of mission checkpoint, but you can absolutely do some sort of save in combat.
And devs - pet peeve of mine - let me name my saves! I'd love this as a feature if you can swing it. Anyway, looking forward to putting in a solid night of this one later today.
You should add this as a review, it was very helpful in getting an honest look at the gameplay. Colour me interested.