Broken Lines

I think we all remember the worst part of XCOM / XCOM 2, which was inevitably when your last trooper moved just one square too close to an invisible tripwire and 50 Mechtoids woke up and then got to act freely on their immediate turn to eat you while you spat teeth at how the vision system worked (well, didn't.)
Right out of the gate, Broken Lines has a fix for that. It's an odd little hybrid of turn-based planning (well, maybe WEGO would be more accurate) which leads into fixed 8-second action phases where all hell breaks loose at once where your soldiers' actions all process. And, of course, the enemy's.
So things can become massively chaotic quite quickly as both parties, say, lob grenades at each other at once, leaving both frontlines exposed after they go off, or snipers race against the clock to get their aimed killshots off first, or quick thinking on someone's part means that a suppressive volley tears up the dirt you've left behind rather than your face.
Fortunately, the game has a very clear timeline down at the bottom that tells you how long actions take, so you can judge how your plans are shaping up over the 8 second pulse - or any subsequent ones. Like, say, making your shotgunner wait for a few seconds so someone else can lob a smoke grenade, and time his charge forward *after* the smoke cloud goes off.
The one exception to this, mind, is that the action phase instantly stops if you see an enemy unit (or if they see your troopers) and you go back to a planning stage. This takes a lot of the dumb XCOM issue I mentioned first out by giving you a chance to plan and react, while still punishing being too gung-ho (as enemy troops that spot you first will still be ready to shoot in the next 8-second turn while you're running for cover...)
Thematically? Not gotten too far in yet, but I'm intrigued. Something shaky's going on in Not-World-War-Two, and 1944 in this timeline has brought a long-range sabotage mission that ... well, goes horribly wrong before it even starts. (Not a spoiler if you've seen the trailer!) The atmosphere so far is on point, and while I've not worked out much about the masked mystery men you're facing, it's certainly pretty clear that this job has brought you somewhere you REALLY shouldn't be.
In terms of the systems; graphics are mostly good, particularly the buildings and towns (bar some meh faces), the UI is clear, and the systems are pretty easy to get a handle on after the tutorials (though I do recommend doing these before you start the campaign). Only obvious downside? Very iffy VA. I've played for less than 2 hours and I'm already not keen on a few of the regular barks you hear every few actions, and I don't see that improving with time.
Still, can heartily recommend so far, particularly if you either a) like WW2 games, b) like XCOM and/or Darkest Dungeon, and c) you like to approach tactical games slow and methodically.
P.S. Friendly fire isn't. Don't learn that the hard way. I did!

High quality tactical concurrent turn strategy game
I love concurrent turn strategy games since the days of Combat Missions Barbarriosa to Berlin. This game pulls concurrent turn strategy beautifully. It's a stream lined game, not to heavy on micromanaging, but that manages to have depth and true tactical flavor to it.
It's lighter on the RPG elements, as there is no exploration, and leveling and inventory mechanics aren't the strong part of the game. Instead of exploring you have to choose between alternative routes, which gives the game more replayability, as you have to do multiple runs to play all the missions and get the full the story.
The equipment is based in real life WW2 weapons, something that I appreciate and gives realism to the game, but it's an alternate history and the "bad guys" are a mysterious group of masked men. You start with British equipment and upgrade to Russian or German captured weapons.
The story is engaging, and the only complaint I have about it is that it's filled with cliches on Eastern Europe.
I appreciate this running natively on my os of choice, Linux.

Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
Is this game a masterpiece? Sometimes you are surprised by a release that you did not have on your radar, even though it ticks many of the boxes that you care for. This is one of those surprises.
A turn-based strategy game using pause-and-play mechanics and set in WW II is always worth a closer look for me. Orders to your tiny squad are given and then executed simultaneously with those of your enemy, in real time, with automatic pausing enabling you to react to new developements on the battlefield. Works really good.
Use suppression, cover and flanking to get in a good shooting position, your troops will open fire automatically when they see the enemy. Run, kneel, throw grenades, use abilities, don’t run directly at the enemy. Usual stuff. After each fight you have to manage your team, giving them different weapons or unlocking new abilities. Or make decisions.
Every level has some objectives that you must complete. Besides fighting enemies your soldiers talk to each other during the levels. Each soldier in your team has a unique personality, attributes, and relationship with other members. The game tries to show how the human psyche reacts to terrible things they encounter. Sometimes really very tough decisions have to be made… or have you ever shot one of your own, wounded party members? Your soldiers all have their own ideas of what to do, while the experienced ones want to fight the enemy, some rookies just want to go home to mummy. This can lead to infighting between your own troops…
The narrative is cheesy and has nothing to do with real events of WW II. A plane full of Special Ops soldiers on the way to German occupied territory crashes over a mountain in a neutral country. You play the few survivors of this crash, not knowing where they are and what their mission is. They are immediately attacked by guys wearing gas masks and speaking to them in an unknown language, though, so they have to shoot back. Your obvious mission now becomes to lead this squad of soldiers back to friendly territory.
I encountered no real bugs, but the game is a bit unpolished sometimes.
Conclusion:
Squad-based tactical combat with real-time order execution and weird story.

From what can I say after 3h of play, game feels pretty good, even it could be deeper and far better if more complex looting/gear/wound system system would be in place. Maybe I am expecting too much from games like these as I am JA2 veteran...

Excellent first impression.
Game is the love child of x-com tactics with darkest dungeon squad management.
Core gameplay is a excellent blend of turn by turn / real time. (if you're wondering how this is even possible, you get a turn of 8seconds to combine action and orders, and your actions as well as your ennemies' are happening simultaneously inside this 8second phase)
You have a lot of possible option to customize each individual soldier to fit the role you need it to. Except that most of the important tactical "trait" are acquired through characters interactions (mostly tied to unexpected events or dilemma decision).
Like Darkest Dungeon, there's no "quick save cheese" meaning that if you mess up a story event or dilemma, it's done.
Mission selection also has a very nice concept of "make your own story" in a very RPG manner. At every chapter, you decide the next mission amongst a bunch. For example, your squad has to raid a plane : do you decide to do it ASAP by day in order to scavenge as much as possible, knowing that the enemy was there before, or do you go at night when they'll be less enemies but with the possibility that the plane has already been raided?
I can't touch the story so far, I thought I signed up for some Warsaw grade of war atrocities against germanish soldiers, but instead I'm killing masked, grunting faceless squad of unidentified things. 3 hours in, it has a very nice mystery to it.
I also really like the characters interactions and story event. Should I steal food from civilians or be an upstanding military and leave them be even though I might as well have my squad starve?
So far, the game is a true love at first sight kind of Pc tactics

I really like games where you gradually throw everything you have at the enemy, your resources dwindling over time. On the hard difficulty, this is one of those games, since obtained wounds are permanent. If characters go down twice, they will die. So you have a gradually slinking cast of healthy men to send out on missions, some stronger than others. Eventually, you resort to putting wounded men back in to the line of fire, risking their lives to tilt the odds in your favor. This experience, in my opinion, sets the hard difficulty above the others in terms of fun and replayability.
My boner for dwindling resource management aside, Broken Lines is a far more solid game than I thought it would be when I first picked it up off of the Steam store. The blend between realtime action and turn based planning works really well. The missions aren't too hard, even on hard difficulty, but if you mess up even once, things can take a turn for the worse real fast. Coupled with the permanent injuries I told you about in the previous paragraph, this can make a campaign go from doable to butt-clenchingly hard in a single stroke of bad decisions. And that's a really good thing, if you ask me.
Weapon balance, I find a bit tilted in favor of submachineguns over shotguns, to the point where I don't ever use the latter, but that's nothing that can't be fixed in a later patch. Heck, maybe my opinion will sway more towards shotguns as I progress through game! For now, it feels that 2-3 SMGs + 2 rifles can tackle just about anything thrown at them, especially coupled with a few explosives and plenty of heals. The short range on shotguns puts characters in too much risk to make them worth it.
Overall, Broken Lines isn't the best game I've ever played, but it's pretty darn decent in its own right. A pleasant surprise! Maybe not a diamond in the rough, but a solid nugget of gold that could one day form a shiny piece of jewelry, if given a tiny bit more polish.

Broken Lines is a time based turn based strategy game where you control a group of soldiers who have crash landed in enemy territory and are trying to find their way out. In the 8.4 hours I have played, I have completed the tutorials and once through the campaign on normal difficulty. There are multiple endings, so there is replayability, especially for those who are into completing all the endings.
It is a pleasure to play - the controls were nice and fluid, and you can't fault the UI. Via dialog, decision making, and some good storytelling, you get to know the characters and have some kind of affiliation with them. In no time, you'll be choosing your favourite soldiers more than the others and hoping they'll win all the arguments (Connor, oh you wicked sharpshooter you). The time based turn based element (akin to Frozen Synapse) was an absolute joy, and the pause time function when you come across new enemies is also super handy. Though note - this only kicks in when you encounter a new enemy. If you have already encountered a new enemy and another one appears, it won't pause again, which to me was a downside.
Chance to hit depending on cover and elevation too was also a clever system I liked to. The interface tells you what chances you have to hit and what chances they have to hit you as you move the cursor around looking for a position to go. I liked that a lot.
Then there is camp between missions, which reminded me somewhat of Darkest Dungeon. Here, you can interact with your characters, upgrade their skills and weapons and then choose which mission to embark on next.
Graphically it looks clean, colourful and smooth. Likewise with the sound, the soundtrack reminds me of This War of Mine at times, and the voice acting is passable.
One tactical issue I had found - one is, if you want a soldier to move in exactly the same spot as a soldier who is currently there, but will be moving away, this can't be done. You have to place the soldier next to the current soldiers spot, otherwise you'll end up clicking on him/her instead. Annoying when you're wanting to use the exact same cover as they are.
Overall, I recommend Broken Lines. It's not too in depth to put off casual players, and hardcore players of X-Com and such like may get a satisfying casual experience from it. At its sale price of £14.99 I feel I've got my monies worth, and I'm sure I'll return to it again for another blast.
Recommended.