It's nothing new or exciting, but this turn based tactical shooter reminded me of Jagged Alliance (in a good way).
The story is nothing to write home about: it's a pretty straight generic shooter story involving Russia, Khazakstan, and "rebels", and your unit of US special forces troops. The story is told through very bland text sequences with portraits of the bad guys sliding about (no animation/movie sequences).
But this game is about the combat -- you'll guide a myriad of different soldiers across 100+ levels and likely 20+ hours via turn based tactical combat while viewing the battlefield from a 3d bird's eye view. There's some good variety, with soldiers good at heavy gunning, sniping, stealth, 'technical' (setting up turrets, traps), rocket propelled grenade launchers, etc. The gameplay is introduced with very good, short, and focused early levels as you learn a new soldier's skills. Each soldier has his/her own personality, but those too are pretty bland and cliche -- there's no clever banter to speak of, and you'll get attached to some of your soldiers because they're deadly, not because you 'care' about the characters... So be it.
It should be noted that while you do "level up" your soldiers, this is most definitely NOT an RPG -- it's a linear progression with no options, and your "stats" is just a soldeir's ht points, and there is also no notion of buying or outfitting your soldiers -- each soldier type gets a static set of weapons.
The good:
* Long campaign with good level variety
* Complex, detailed, and well designed combat areas that do a nice job using the 3DS' 3D capabilities to show off hills, platforms, etc.
* The graphics are small, but detailed and nice looking. There's not much animation, but everything is crisp, and the user interface provides a ton of information about everything from weapon ranges to line of sight. Everything you'll need to work your tactics.
* Lots of variability in difficulty that you can set -- it's easy to match your skill level.
The not-so-good:
* Bland audio -- no voice overs, very little in the way of music or sound effects.
* Bland story and characters
* Some of the tactical aspects are strangely executed... buildings provide some cover, but you can walk through the walls, trees provide ground level cover, etc.
* Would've been nice to have some elements of currency and a 'shop' to give you options in upgrading/outfitting your soldiers with better/cooler gear.
Overall, it's a solid game, if not exciting. Well worth picking up if you're in the mood for a turn based strategy game.