A lovingly created story that pulls the player in, great graphics and though not perfect, one of best games the PS3 has.
The story is, mostly, excellent, taking a small group of characters within the squad and following them, watching how they evolve as people in a time of war. It manages moments of humour as well as moments of sadness, the dialogue is good and well voiced, it pulls the player in and makes them want to see the next part, makes them want to play the side stories to learn a little more about the characters. Story does lose steam near the end sadly but overall is excellent.
The battle system by itself is a 6/10 thanks to the way each character is different and do enough to make a person care to see them alive rather then killed. The graphics remain excellent but the system in it self is flawed. Your troops ability to fire on approaching enemies is pathetic even with the best guns, sometimes an enemy can wander right in front without being shot at while the enemy troops are far better at it. It is not much of a test in terms of wits but you are forced into one or two options, play aggressively to win quickly or play a lot of skirmishes to get to a good level. Rewards are based on a mixture of completion, wiping our enemy aces/leaders/tanks but the majority depends on the speed of the victory, huge rewards for A. Without getting A, you miss out on superior weapons rewards and will have to skirmish a lot to afford upgrades and to level up your troops sufficiently to do the next certain missions. Early on getting A is very hard due to tight time limits and the inaccuracy of snipers and lancers, requiring loading up which takes a long time, to take that shot again or end up getting B then having to skirmish a few times to make up for it.
As your troops get better, you miss less and it gets a lot easier but by that time, some people may have left through frustration or boredom with the skirmishes. It is a solid system but a often frustrating one for quite some time.
This is a game that comes across as made with tender loving care, given a bed time story before the makers went home at night. This is a game with little touches, each member of your squad given a carefully crafted biography that you learn the more you use them, each character given a different personality and voice, their own phrases, their own skills and flaws. They give details for the types of guns you come across, information on the history and little side stories. It is always a pleasure to play a game that is so good but the little details make it extra special.
As a story, as an rpg of sorts this is an excellent game but not for strategy game lovers.