Frozen Synapse 2
Open World Tactics Frozen Synapse 2 brings you classic tactical gameplay with a new twist: it's set within a vast procedurally generated city. We're calling it "open world tactics" – a combination of grand strategy and simultaneous-turn-based combat. In single player, Frozen Synapse 2 tasks you with defending the city of Markov Geist against an array of threats from within and without. Set up bases, deploy your forces and then enter any building or engage a target anywhere on the map: you define your own strategy. When you're ready to take tactical control, the camera will zoom down to your units, enabling you to make your plan and test it out. When you hit the "Prime" button, your moves are locked in and you must see how they play out against your opponent's plan.
Steam User 205
If you are holding off because of the mixed reviews about how buggy the game was on launch, don't. The game has been polished significantly over the last few months and I havent run into any significant problems so far.
EDIT: It also bears mentioning that the multiplayer is dead - even less active than Frozen Synapse 1.
Steam User 67
Ambitious single player campaign running on an immense city/faction simulation. Tactical and multiplayer stay true to the original, but are improved by more diverse units and mechanical refinements. Beautiful. Excellent soundtrack.
disclosure: was a beta tester; purchased game.
Steam User 30
I hesitantly recommend the game in its current state. Overall, the gameplay is solid (frustrating but rewarding). The issue is that the game often crashes, quests cannot be fullfilled (a squad was unable to access a building as the prompt disappeared) and are eventually failed due to time lapse. If these issues are resolved then I'd have no problem recommending this to anyone with a love for turn based strategy.
Steam User 28
Might write more later, but the majority of the issues stated in the negative reviews have been fixed. The game is much more stable than it used to be.
Steam User 14
Really fun game that feels true to the Frozen Synapse gameplay, and a kind of real-time city strategy the likes of which I don't think I've ever seen before. To summarize, this game is basically Frozen Synapse + Mount and Blade Warband, but in kind of a bad way. Since Frozen Synapse (I'll call it FS from now on) is a squad tactics game, there's some weirdness where it borrows from the Warband formula. For example, because it considers itself a tactics game, there's no auto-resolve feature, meaning you have to play through every single fight, even overwhelming ones you'll definitely win. And also because of this, the AI is designed to try it's absolute best to win, which includes what I'd call "badgering tactics". Some peaceful factions, will constantly call you begging for stuff, and even when you invest significant money into keep your relationship good, if you don't eventually give them what they ask they'll attack you, and you want to avoid war as much as possible.
Not because you won't win.. If you put in the time you can win almost every single encounter, unless you're completely outnumbered and far from support. But because then when you go anywhere, or own any property, that faction will send harrying forces, that have no real chance of victory, but will stop your squad from progressing and take up 20 minutes of your real time. That might sound fine in theory, but let me step back a little.
There's like 11 factions, who each have at least 6 squads (you start with one), and when you start playing at scale you'll have at least 6 squads and 4-5 properties that all need defending. This means even completing very simple jobs, like "deliver this here" can take over 3 hours realtime because of how many times you can get attacked moving 4 blocks, both the squad that is on a mission and any defensive forces you have. It's extremely tedious gameplay and NEEDS to be tweaked for any living human to realistically play.
I also had 90% consistent crashes when fighting in certain areas, which resets the entire encounter. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but when that represents a 30-ish minute loss of progress through no fault of your own.. it's a big deal.
I would really like the format of this game if it was made a little less tedious, had customization options, or if I could fight against real human players in the city sandbox that would fight more reasonably. Overall I just think everything needs to be turned down so I can actually play.
Steam User 18
TL;DR
I loved FS1, and I'm loving FS2 — bugs, clunky UI and all. Nothing beats the feeling when a plan comes together flawlessly. And nothing beats the incredible WTF!! moments of surprise (and admiration) when your opponent out-plays you. (Because it means they out-thought you.) Highly recommened.
Overview
Highly recommended — clunky UI, bugs, and all. These things can be fixed. They are being fixed. And even with them, there is no better simultaneous turn strategy game on the market, especially not re: small-team tactics.
Perhaps Mode7 made a poor business decision by officially "releasing" the game when it was still in what we gamers might consider an "early access" state. From the reviews, at least, it apprears they are paying a bit of a price for that choice. Which is too bad, because their game-design choices are brilliant.
Game Design
Multiplayer is even more dynamic than it was in FS1, because camping is no longer the default winning strategy.
Turn off Story Missions, and the city sandbox is epic! You'll still have global objective(s) to pursue, but the gameplay will be entirely dynamic. And odds are that decisions you make at the strategic layer mean you will never be fielding the "perfect" squad in the tactical layer. Or maybe you send that perfect squad out on a mission, but things go sidewise on the mission itself, and then your team is hounded on the journey home and has to fight several additional (and deadly) skirmishes on the way — all emergent. It's great.
The music. 'nuf said.
I also really enjoy the evocative yet minimalist art design. What else should a cyberpunk Neuromancer-type netscape look like?
UI
Could the UI be better? Yes.
Does it stop me from playing the game? No.
Does it stop me from doing exactly what I want to do in the game? No.
Glitches & Crashes
Are the glitches and crashes annoying? Sure.
Does the game work more than it crashes? Yes.
What is my game-crash to gameplay ratio? About 1:10 (i.e, 1-crash every 10-hours or so)
Does that make me one of the lucky ones? I have no idea. But this is accurate per my experience.
Do I believe Mode7 will fix these issues? I don't have to believe, because they are and have been.
General
So is FS2 fun or what? It's stupid fun! Nothing beats the feeling when a plan comes together flawlessly. And nothing beats the incredible WTF!! moments of surprise (and admiration) when your opponent out-plays you. (Because it means they out-thought you.)
Was FS2 worth the wait? Absolutely!
Conclusion
I loved FS1, and I'm loving FS2 — bugs, clunky UI and all.
Steam User 17
Feels good to have Frozen Synapse back.
For prospective buyers: Hold out until some bugfix patches are out, especially for single player. Multiplayer has been fine for me, though.