@spacecadet25 @lt519 Having no ammo, no money, and two DEFCON levels at 1 on Normal sounds like you were struggling at first. Other games don't get chewed out for randomness kicking them in the ass when they are unprepared (Rogue Legacy, FTL, etc). I'm guessing you didn't have this problem on the second play-through because you got better.

The "bad" randomness can be overcome pretty easily and if it can't be your DEFCON shouldn't suffer much at all (one level at most). And the random isn't really that random, after 5 hours I've seen everything many many times already. I doubt our experiences differed much, the game may be random but it has a severely limited number of rooms.

I beat it on Expert last night with no continues, both DEFCON's below 4, and doing the minimum number of missions. I just don't see the problem, especially on Expert with a lot of tougher enemies where you can't work your way out of bad spots as fast.

@spacecadet25 I didn't have a single one of these problems. Sounds like you are just dying too often or making too much of a racket in rooms. Try entering rooms with silenced weapons. Your first move should be to find cover, if there isn't any then melee the closest enemy, and if all else fails open up very quickly with a silenced weapon and clear the closest enemies until you can get to cover. I didn't use a single continue on Normal and only used 3 on Advance (very early until I got used to more Specialists). I felt no "cheapness" at any point. What makes you think enemies are going to line up like ducks in a row for you in every room you enter? You are infiltrating an enemy base...Anyway make sure you make all the officers surrender and use the formula that lowers the DEFCON level by 1 every time. I usually use that coupled with the endurance formula to help me stay alive longer and that helps keep the persistent DEFCON level low.

"Make for a sterling package" Please tell me that was an intentional Archer reference. Just finished my second playthrough on Advance. Beat Normal on PS4 and Advance on Vita. Fun game, going to beat it on Expert now (already 7 plans in).

@DoomZaW Have you seen the price of a Big Mac lately? Outrageous.

How confused are the poor parents going to be when they buy their kid the wrong Xbox that doesn't play Call of Duty?

THIS is how free to play is done. Whole multi-player game, up to a level cap and then you can decide if you want to buy-in or not at a reasonable price.