I'm assuming you know a bit about the setting and style of the game and just want to know about whether it's something to spend your time doing. Here's my bullet list:
Mixed Blessings
- The complexity of the game gives it a steep learning curve. But that same complexity also offers meaningful choices. Exploring the various systems of the game is rewarding and fun.
- The random nature of advancement is a blessing and a curse. It keeps you coming back for more and mitigates against the "cookie cutter build" problem that one could get--you have to make due with what you get, which forces you to explore different systems and subsystems in the game. On the other hand, it can be frustrating and tremendously time consuming to get some of the skills or builds you really want to explore, and some people will just be lucky with really powerful combinations due to luck.
Downers:
- I would like more options to fiddle with appearances and otherwise have my team be individualized as "my dudes." As it is, you can't change your dudes after you make them, can't rename them or give them fancy new nicknames, can't move your stadium, can't change the colors after it's set, etc. You can only change your motto.
- Also, the functionality of some features is opaque. I don't understand sponsors, stadiums, coach levels, and the special blue-grey currency. It looks nifty, but because their functionality is not transparent, these features have a look-but-don't-touch sensibility.
- I would also like a way to note whether someone is a respectable player--there is no friending or whathaveyou or any way to recall whether I played against someone before.
- The old voice actors for the announcers had funnier lines.
- Some frustrating combos in the tabletop version persist, such as claw-mightyblow-pileon, and some skills are still not worthwhile at all whereas some are really really useful (block, dodge, guard).
Happy Face:
- Online play is very accessible and the community hasn't devolved into the usual morass of rudeness.
- Games are very much a thinking person's game. Time limits are set just right--enough to give some focused consideration, but always pressured to act and you can run out of time if you dawdle a bit much.
- Stat tracking can be fun to browse.
- It's genuinely fun.
- The most useful skills are spread out--such as block, dodge, and guard--so there are meaningful choices to make.
The initial reviewer should note that all players who preordered got both Lizardmen and Wood Elves--not just one or the other. Cyanide changed that recently.
Highly recommended to people who like turned based games, and also highly recommend to people who perhaps usually don't like playing against other people online.