Arm-Chair Generals rejoice!
During play, you view the map in a top-down, omnipotent view point, allowing you to see your entire army. Familiarity with the topography of the map is as crucial to having a sizeable army as well. Manuevering a small, but effective set of units in strategic choke-points can fend off an advancing enemy force.
A large variety of units are available in the game, but not all are immediately at your command from the start. As you progress through campaign, more of the advanced units become unlocked, adding more and more layers of depth into each progressing mission. To up the ante, each army has a commander on the map who has the capability to perform special attacks as well as passive upgrades to your army. The commander is represented by a giant, spider-like mech that is sort of like the big-daddy of your army. It can take large amounts of damage as well as dish it out. Different commanders enjoy unique specialities (one can attack all enemies within a certain radius all at once while giving his units a larger max-health). These special powers are based on a power meter that must be filled up before it can be trigged, which means you have to be smart about when you activiate it.
At the start of every game, there is usually mad dash to secure resources that are necessary to expand your military might. Factories and Oil Refineries are structures that you must capture if you hope to win, but the enemy has the same objective in mind as well. In order to capture one of these, an infantry unit must be placed on it for an entire round, so be sure to provide adequete protection for him as well.
Art wise, the game looks and sounds fantastic for an Arcade game. The animations are simple but solid, and the sound of the cannons blasting are satisifying and pack a punch. Guns will blast in a life-like manner and units will explode an impressive explosion of particles. Appropriately, structures on the map (your HQ, oil refineries, and factories) also play animations that give the over world map some excitment. So far, I haven't noticed any weather effects, but I've only played half-way through the single-player campaign.
In addition, it's important for me to mention that you can save in-game while fighting. This is insurmountaly useful, since some missions can take up to 2 hours. This also lets players to take some bold risks. By saving your game, you can try out a strategy to see what happens, and if it back fires or gets you whiped out, you can simply re-load the game from your last save and try something else. Another important note, the AI in this game takes their turn really fast, so you won't have to labriously watch the computer move each individual unilt while you await your turn.
There are some annoying issues with the game, but as minor as it is, it should be mentioned. The music in the game doesn't fit. It's more of a peaceful melody than it is an Army-On-The-March. It isn't bad or irritating, it's just odd. You'll notice it right away. Another annoying thing about the game is that there isn't an "undo" feature, meaning that once you move a unit, it's for good. I've had numerous times when I acciently moved a unit to the wrong spot, or attacked the wrong guy. The visual hud elements and character art is disspointing. Given the high quality of everything else in the game, the 2D art is shockingly amateurish, as you can tell by viewing the cover art. Lastly, the Y-Button is irritatingly mapped to be the "End Turn". Maybe it's just my own mistake, but I've often hit the Y-Button accidently and skipped a turn. Believe me, it will happen to you. However, all these are really just minor annoyances and don't detract from the fundamental experience of the game.
In all, if you enjoy turn-based strategy games in the vein of Advanced Wars, you're going to fit right into this game.
EDIT: It is now almost a year old when I first posted this review. I booted up the game after months of none-usage and noticed that the game has me clocked in at 25 hours. When I loaded up Oblivion, it said I had clocked in 24 hours, and I beat that game and did most of the side missions. This tells you how much content is in this little game and how the time will just fly by.
EDIT AGAIN: It's been about 6 months since I last edited this, and I've clocked in almost 60 hours now. That's more than I what I put into Oblivion and Mass Effect combined.