Let’s be real, Warhounds looks and feels like it was made on a tight budget by a handful of people. The animations are pretty stiff, you will notice some minor bugs, the camera sometimes goes crazy, and some UI menus look like a mobile app from 2018. If you are looking for a polished AAA cinematic experience, this ain't it.

But man... once you get into the actual tactical gameplay, you can feel that the devs put their hearts into it. The gunplay is incredibly punchy, every single piece of tactical gear drastically changes how you approach a mission, and the mercenaries actually have distinct personalities instead of being faceless bots. It has that old school soul that modern big budget games completely lost.

It’s rough around the edges and definately needs patches, but the core gameplay loop is addictive as hell. Solid recommend if you can look past the budget limitations.

I can't remember a worse impression I had in 20 mins for a game I thought I might really love, having shoved 100+ hours into various X-Com and JA entries (and the more involved ballistics of Phoenix Point), just the worst UI I've seen in a genre that desperately needs clear UI, and a genre I personally work in and know it's really not that hard to make a non-terrible UI if you've played any of these games in the last 20 years instead of waxing nostalgic about Jagged Alliance and X-Com while ignoring any progress made in UI clarity in the 21st century.

1. No combat log, so any of the below issues are much harder to notice for yourself.

2. No indicator on an attack preview of HOW MANY SHOTS YOU FIRE, I had to cover over my weapon in the corner to find out - my assault rifle in fact doesn't do 1-2 damage, but fires 3 shots (very unclearly phrased as the shotgun saying "Bullets: 5" which is distinct from it having 3 ammo to fire. And shotguns fire shot, not bullets.) It should be INCREDIBLY obvious - say, with a combat log - of what I'm looking at. Does my shotgun roll a 20% chance 5 times to see if someone gets hit, and each hit deals 1 damage, if I shoot it at someone in cover and further away? What did "scratch" mean in this context - it still killed the guy... again, a log would help...

3. An attack preview that just blinks your max possible normal damage even if you're on average going to do a tiny fraction of it.

4. Apparently there are crits? An enemy shotgunner rushed my person, and I shot them point blank with an AR that showed I'd destroy their 1 armor and deal 3/6 of their HP as damage, but they died instantly because I got crits. The UI didn't even show crits as a thing that exists!

5. So if somebody shoots from behind hard cover, they step around the corner and get a 100% hit chance on someone you flank. But flanking from soft cover to soft cover has an 80% hit chance because my person just shoots through their own cover instead of leaning around it? Why? Is this an option?

6. You can't skip cutscenes - I just wanted to space to skip past lines that I could read faster than they were delivered, but apparently not an option. I just Alt-F4'd and committed to refund when trapped in a cutscene after the first semi-proper fight.

I didn't really see anything else jump out at me as positive, and this is way too big a pile of "huh, what, why?"

If the devs would like to pay *me* to keep playing their game and explain how to make a modern tactical UI clean, informative and responsive, I guess I would, but I'm certainly asking for my own money back. I'd find this a bit shaky as a day 1 of early access - no indicator on the attack preview of how many shots you fire, really? - but calling this straight to 1.0 is a travesty.

Okay, so I generally don't leave reviews when I have so little playtime, as I am usually concerned about loving the game but running into the "two hour surprise" as I like to call it... but I feel this time it is warranted. This game is rough as heck around the edges, as one would expect it to be for (assumedly) *just* hitting 1.0 and launching to the public. I happen to think the asking price is a bit high for a title that is frankly, being put into its proving ground/crucible stage. An even twenty I feel would go a longer way, when it comes to luring in curious buyers. All that being said, there is a lot of heart here. I enjoyed the character interactions and dialogue in the tutorial section, even if there was an odd moment where Julia's voice went Brit for a line or two. The nod I found myself smiling at the most was when they address the "commander" and the mercs present looked to the screen. I admit, I am a sucker for things like that. The gameplay so far has been good! Tighter than expected and definitely scratching that XCOM itch. The customization needs a lot of work, but I am happy it is there as I am also a sucker for making my operators look a certain way and more or less match, like a proper private professional army.

I also feel I have to say this due to the one negative review: Shotguns have the lowest AP rating, so it stands to reason you are only going to shred an armored enemy's armor and do little else. I happen to KNOW for a fact this is how it is as I tested the AP power of the tutorial squad in both missions before you get your "Avenger" to reference XCOM2.

Look... We all have seen plenty of dim attempts and blatant cashgrabs/shovelware. I could be hoodwinked but I don't feel Warhounds is one of these situations. I'm willing to be forgiving, but not ignorant of a game that shows promise and I really think Warhounds shows this promise. I'm a Refund Ranger, just like any other person who is careful with their money. It isn't exactly easy for me to go over the two hour mark with Steam titles these days, but this game kept my attention. I just personally find it disheartening that one negative review that really doesn't even objectively point out the game's flaws is enough for so many people to pass on a game that deserves at least an honest chance. Like literally the only valid complaint in the one negative review to me is the camera. Yes, the camera angle could use improvement, as no one finds it entertaining to look at the inside of terrain as one of your operators blows someone away. I could go on, but this is a review, not Mt. Soapbox.

So far, this game while certainly in need of polish, I feel is in a decent playable state.

Pros:
That all too familiar XCOM/Jagged Alliance action patricians like us have grown to love.
Customization of your mercenaries.
Freedom from those moments where you flank an enemy with a 80%+ chance to hit and completely miss. However, while I noticed I didn't miss those sorts of high chance shots, I also noticed that a hit doesn't always guarantee a crit or a full kill. I have, at least once, gotten close to where I had an 80% or higher chance to hit and only "scratch" the enemy.
The voice acting is fine, and I find myself so far liking how the cast is obviously having fun.
Controller support for sure! I always wondered why XCOM2 didn't have controller support on Steam, considering that it released on console. I just couldn't get into it on Steam, knowing I put hundreds of hours into a version on Xbox that had full controller support. Being able to plug my gamepad in and play Warhounds was unironically one of the most exciting parts of my gameplay so far.

Cons:
The asking price, for sure. I'm sorry, but I just don't feel this game should be 30 bucks. (29.74 specifically for me as a Yank)
The character customization/outfitting, while enjoyable for me who likes making everyone look similar and simple, needs quite a bit of TLC. XCOM's customization has never been super stellar, which is exactly why in this department I can't be anywhere near as lenient. You can do at least as well as Firaxis, Everplay!

Overall, right now my score for this game is a solid 6/10 (slightly above average). Definitely room for improvement, because I know full well that 1.0 isn't the end of this game's development cycle. When you think you're done improving, that is when you fail. And please, if anyone is going through the reviews, trying to decide based on these if you are even going to bother, don't listen to the negative reviews that don't even bother to put their gripes into a digestible perspective. I've seen way too many games with potential become abandoned over tripe such as that. Make YOUR OWN decision based on YOUR OWN experiences. Don't let any review, good or bad, control your mind when it comes to a game. We have a two hour refund window for a reason!