Wartales

Good groundwork, lots of continuing work to be done. Not a diamond yet, but with polish it could be. 6.5/10 with 9/10 potential. The first 15 or so hours in this game are amazing, they built a cool world for you to explore. Great mini-games, great XCOM like combat, mid tier RPG system, cool art style, wonderful blending of Mount and Blade with XCOM with multiple other influences sprinkled in.
Then you get to the 20-25 hour mark and realize that the game just becomes an incredible grind to get better gear. Your character levels don't really matter, your character abilities don't really matter without great gear, and your party size is almost more a hindrance than a help as enemy groups will ALWAYS scale with you. If you are super lucky you might get a single group of enemies that have the same unit amount as you. While this is usually isn't an issue as your characters are more powerful then the enemy, it makes you feel like you NEVER get ahead. You will NEVER have an advantage over the enemy due to numbers, which makes having a large company feel worthless. In cases like the rat hives, and in wolf packs great! In cases of bandits and high level opponents this is so painful.(Note that the enemies will not scale with the total level of your characters, they will scale with the highest level character. Having a group of 6 with 1 lvl 7, and 5 lvl 5s will get you an enemy group of lvl 7s.) To the devs credit, the enemies do NOT scale their abilities, they will always remain the same(exception for faction abilities that show with certain groups later on) making certain enemy groups easy to defeat at nearly any level.
Here are a few more notes:
-If you don't have the materials to create better gear, you will find yourself traveling vast portions of the map wasting your food and money, clicking on farmable resources that you wish you could buy in excess(wood, leather, ghost hides), only to get trapped in the gameplay loop of, mission->money->resources->crafting with looting speeding the process along.
-Heal system makes sense, and is well thought out.
-Armor system is painful and makes you want to pull your teeth out. Having to pay to consistently repair the armor on ALL my characters felt like an intentional method to slow the game down in order to stretch game time. Having an armor durability system allowing the armor to break, offering less protection at lower condition makes more sense, this system seriously sucks.
-Food is a cool system and does a good job of putting a survival element feeling into the game. You will rarely go hungry, and food sources are easy to come across, or buy. No issues to speak of with this.
-The amount of resources around the map is pitiful given how often you are expected to have them.(Purely map collected resource points: wood, flowers, iron, mushrooms, etc.)
-Many resources can only be acquired from certain mobs, makes perfect sense, but the amount you receive is hardly worth the effort. Killing an entire pack of 8-10 wolves can reward you with 3-5 leather. An incredible waste of time that again serves to lengthen the game as this resource is fairly difficult to buy but incredibly important.
-Crime and stealing is a very odd mechanic. It just makes no sense. The patrols are incredibly easy to dodge, the detriments are nearly nonexistent as your crime only lasts for as long as you can. Just makes no sense to me at all. That being said, its super useful and can help you avoid a lot of costs.
-World map items are genius. The pinion mechanic is brilliant and more mechanics similar to this would really make the game shine.
-Combat is easy to grasp and presents similar to XCOM. It is very odd that status effects never appear to end without player intervention. Poisoning and Burning can quickly become very dangerous for the unprepared player. Burning patches of ground continuing to burn during rainstorms, and poison clouds that never dissipate is another oddity.
-Character RPG elements are mid-tier to lacking. While you do have the ability to customize your characters, many of the abilities that you get(whether active or passive) feel very similar and offers limited amount of playstyles with certain characters. Your characters stats do effect the gameplay, but only slightly, as the largest bonuses are gained through equipment bonuses and not necessarily through experience. Late game a high level character with many aptitude points will be better than a low level character, but a low level character with the best gear in the game vs a high level character with lvl 1 gear is no contest, The gear level makes a MUUUUCH bigger difference than the character stats. This is my biggest issue with the game as it feels that there is no point to developing your characters as the gear means much more than their stats.The exception to this is character professions
-Character professions are a very cool element added to the game, HOWEVER characters being locked to one profession really sucks. If characters were able to still reach level 2-3 in other professions while specializing to reach level 5 in one main would make much more sense, and would offer much more options in team composition. The game uses this system to inflate the amount of characters you need in your party as you need more characters to fill all the professions. Additionally, you gain profession experience at painful rates. Thieves gain experience at a very fast rate, while anglers and cooks xp bars move like molasses. Regularly this would be no issue as character professions would be an afterthought and could be put to the side, however in this game many important recipes and buildings that offer numerous buffs are hidden behind character professions that much be individually developed. Don't like smithing? Too bad its really important or you are going to spend a ton of time farming. Don't like crafting your own medicine? Pay the price in time spent in the town at the apothecary and you will never be able to get too far from town. Don't care for the camp layout system? Too bad, it matters where your characters go and that you cook better food and create useful tools. My point is that the game gets so micromanaged at times that you feel as though you cannot even accomplish some of the simplest tasks without needing to make a mission out of it.
-Capturing injured enemies and animals is a wonderful mechanic but its incredibly underpowered and should be avoided unless attempting to capture a powerful animal. The animal that you capture will be considered a new company member and will artificially inflate your company numbers against the next enemies you encounter. Perfectly fine if you have captured or bought a bear, but a wolf, or a boar? They are nothing but fodder and will get you killed against enemies more powerful than them.
This title has so much potential and I can see a truly awesome game that just needs some polish.

It's ok in the early game but a few hours in and the cracks start to show. The turn order for combat always goes you, then them, then you, then them and so on. This means the best strategy for all combat situations is to lock the person who's turn is next in combat with you. This makes all fights seem relatively the same. The bigger your party gets the bigger other parties get, which seems fine at first but it actually means a smaller party is probably better to have rather than a big one. I also feel like combat is bloated with too many unnecessary effects and status effects.
Game is fine but I feel it can be a lot better and has some room for improvement.

WAIT FOR FULL RELEASE!
This game is very appealing, the combat is very pleasant, even a bit innovative, graphics are nice, mechanics are quite intelligent, difficulty is not hand holding, it's well coded, it's not poorly optimized, and you can right now get 50-100hrs of fun.
but you really are better off if you wait.
A crapton more content is planned, and way more important, the map is unique, it's hand crafted, unlike battlebrothers, it will always be the same from one playthrough to another, this means this game is ment to be played once or twice, and if, like me, you've played it in EA, any future additions will come as less appealing since you'll have new regions but will still be playing in an environment you already know. The charm of this game comes from exploration and surprises, but will you play again for sure if any novelty is diluted in an already old experience?
Wait. It's without doubts a good game now, it will be a good game, do you want to have 50hrs of immediate fun or 200 in the future?

in the past couple years i've often found myself in front of my PC staring at a screen and wondering where all of the joy and excitement ran off to. some days i turn my computer on purely out of habit to then realise that there's noting i want to play.
Have I grown out of games?
are games no longer fun?
or am i just a different person to the cheery eyed youth i see in pictures of the past?
This game proved to me that the real problem is games because this is the first game that i've genuinely enjoyed and looked forward to getting home from work to play in literal years. 10/10. A true masterpiece of the low fantasy setting with a innovative UI and story. the combat is nothing new but its reliable and well built.

Do I recommend this game? Well, that depends a lot on what kind of gamer you are. It's going to vary by taste, and by nuances of that taste. I'll break it down, but the TL;DR is "Medieval X-Com".
Story: No overarching story, but...
Wartales is in a weird place here, because there is a lot of worldbuilding going into this, but you won't be told any of it. Very show, no tell. You're just dropped into this world, and there aren't any conversation trees.
But each region has its own self-contained story. Often involving choosing between a couple of factions. So far, I haven't had any where I didn't flip-flop between them. Which is fine, you're a mercenary company. You literally owe no one allegiance. And once you've done the whole plot thing, you can go swing by the blacksmith to buy your reward, a book that unlocks +5 armor repair per unit of scrap. It's "efficient repair" as the big reward from each region's plot. Granted, they all stack, and each tier of equipment has substantially more and more armor points to bolt on top of your squishy peeps to keep them not-dead-yet. So it's... it has value, it's just... very far from being an exciting and interesting reward, compared to a lot of other perks you can unlock
Progression: A little from column A...
The progression in this game is largely why I call this Medieval X-Com. Your characters have levels, and at some levels, they get to pick a perk/ability. But also, your company acquires Knowledge, which lets you acquire some benefits for all. And develop upgrades to recipes and camp equipment. Often recipes grant first-time construction bonuses that refund some Knowledge xp. It's a rebate system, which helps balance the way recipes are relevant when you have the ingredients, and useless without them... which helps you learn that while lower-tier recipes helps you save weight and make meal efficiency better, higher tiers have perks.
You'll also gain progression in 4 "paths", groupings of playstyle-related repeatable achievements that grant their own perks... and some hidden advantages that unlock at higher levels, like slotting 2 oils into a weapon, or more options for your battle standard (once acquired).
And then there's the camp equipment. Build a nice tent, raises the cap on valor points... and makes it easier to recover them when resting. Better cook pot with a good cook on it? Reduces the food demand/day, so everybody's happy and resources last longer. This part honestly feels pretty great, when I can see that every upgrade is going to make things better, even if sometimes it's a weird sort of better. I got a healing station, which will cure an injury overnight without spending medicine... first upgrade increases capacity, so you can put 2 people in. The 2nd one, if they do not need treatment, they get the "Drugged up" status effect. Which lets them ignore 1 injury. This is surprisingly handy right now, because I need to grind another level onto my units before I can upgrade their armor again, and they're not all going to cross that threshold at the same time.
There's a couple bits I don't need, but everything really does work together pretty well. Especially now that I've got a bard.
Clever mechanics: So your tank has Depression...
One weird element in this is the willpower/morale system. As you whittle down enemies in a fight, balance shifts, as removing a foe removes its willpower contribution... at one threshold, your side gains a status effect that boosts damage by 50%. At the next, the remaining enemies will, if you allow it, fek off. I love this. Most people/animals are not driven to fight to the last against a superior foe. They *should* want to run, to disengage, to GTFO. That's sensible! This is also why willpower has the lowest cap of any stat. If it could go higher, it would be... destabilizing. You'd have an advantage, but you'd also lose a LOT if/when you lose a unit.
At 15 points, willpower also grants units a last stand. They won't die at 0 hp, they'll just be dying, and first aid can get 'em back on their feet. Depression is a trait some units can have that lowers willpower by 2, so that they can't get there... unless you have a bard in the camp giving everyone +1 to willpower (or have 'em be your camp scholar or bard) and maybe a wee belt trinket that buffs willpower slightly. But that bard effect... if you've got 10-12 people on the field, you have kinda got an extra person-worth of morale that you don't have to feed or pay for... that's not bad.
More: More.
And then you have the surprises that come up later, like cursed villages and catacomb exploration/archaeology... and the largest goddamn city in the world. And boss fights. And quests that unlock new sub-classes.
If you like X-com's formula of missions, management, base improvement, crafting, and resources... and don't mind a lot of little stories to explore instead of an overarching one... this can be a real good time. But if you need direction, and want to work towards an ending... I don't think you're going to find that. There's a lot of dimensions to the gameplay, but they're not all that deep. You'll have a good time, but most of it will be very forgettable.
Looking over some guides leftover from the EA period, I can see that a lot of elements were thrown at the wall to see what sticks. And honestly, it's kind of amazing how much they got to keep, and how much works. It's not entirely graceful, but it's hard to do.
I'd really like to see a sequel or expansion, ideally with a bit of narrative questline carrying us through a story... and leaving some post-game challenges to pursue...
Actually, that's kind of what this feels like. Like the main quest is over and we're cruising the world to clean up sidequests. Huh. Either way, a good time, and I'd kind of like a bit more of it.
So, it looks like their plan over the next 6 months is going to fix some of the rough edges, and sell more zones as DLC. Quite literally, they're giving me what I was hoping for.
A reason to come back.

I haven't tried the newest co-op update yet, but if you have any interest in medieval-fantasy party management and progression, you should seriously pick this game up. In my opinion, this game is an absolute steal at full price. Shiro Games has carefully crafted party dynamics at a strategic level that set a new bar of expectation for party-based games.
Visuals are great. There are definitely notable differences in region topography and vegetation. Armor/weapons all have different aesthetics to them that make you feel/see their quality before even looking at their stats. Character models and animations (both in towns/combat and on the grand map) suit the art style of the game very well.
Content is where Wartales really shines however. Tavern missions become pretty copy/paste after a while, but the game offers so much to explore in each of its different zones, along with the various professions/crafting available. Stopping to collect herbs so your alchemist can outfit your assassin with poison oil for their blade is awesome. Fishing in order to feed your party just enough to make it to town to collect your bounty money establishes levels of manageable stress that make the game fun. Rooting out a group of bandits from a mine so you can supply your blacksmith with ore for new armor really pushes the risk/reward scale on the player. There's just this overall sense of necessity for every little thing one comes across in Wartales. Exploring ancient ruins and taking on difficult tasks offers some very rewarding features. Having my scholar sift through ancient rubble to discover an antiquated blade that sets my leader leagues above the opposition feels so good. And that's not even covering the party classes and relationships.
Classes are pretty fleshed out. While they're incomplete, there's a level of decision-making surrounding party composition that ensures no two playthroughs are alike. Should I have my brute focus on mobility in order to min/max their usefulness? Or should I build them to draw in as many opponents as possible for combat bonuses in taking on multiple enemies? Do I craft my archer(s) for support or for damage? Choices lie around every click of the mouse when it comes to building your troop. Characters bonding and forming friendships or hateships adds another layer to it all as well. My archer sucks at aiming (for some reason) and hit my warrior in the back. Now they hate each other (imparting combat debuffs when close to one another), but the warrior has gained the eyes-in-the-back-of-their head trait so as to not take anymore friendly missile damage. I've inadvertently used my leader and lieutenant to hold a line so that my rogues can flank for kills. Now they all have this box of love for each other and gain combat bonuses when in close proximity, which, when used appropriately, really turn the tides of future battles. Possibilities are endless.
The story and lore of the game go hand-in-hand. While they aren't the greatest, I really appreciate the setup that Shiro Games has established for Wartales. Each zone possesses its own "story" or theme, which is independent from the rest of the regions. And while your "decisions" don't effect some grandiose campaign that spans the continent, each area is connected to the others through the text and conversations you have. This establishes a level of connection between all of the regions. One area has you working out a refugee problem, where you discover that these refugees are the result of a war occurring in a neighboring zone. Upon travelling to that neighboring zone, you then are engaged in working on resolving the conflict that created the refugee "story" of the previous location. All the while you hear rumors of a plague-ridden area that frankly sounds terrible to explore. When you finally stumble into that very place, you realize that the rumors did the difficulty of that land little justice.
The biggest issue I've had with the game is probably the difficulty scaling. The game ensures that no matter how awesome that weapon you crafted/found is, it only just measures up to your next opponent's ability to defend against it. You never feel like you've gained ground in terms of equipment or levels. I'm not asking to become some demi-god who just slashes through everything, but when you don't get to really feel the power behind the new set of gear you just made, it takes away from the rewarding aspect of putting so much effort into getting there in the first place. Granted, this forces the player to look more to party strengths and actual strategy; yet, there is still something lacking with the balance of it all. I've reached points where I made the best items the game allowed, but the enemies scaled right up to that level, often going even further. My biggest losses have always been late-game, which is not typical with how games scale. An issue that compounds this is losing a member mid and late-game almost ensures you never catch back up. Because Wartales impresses upon the player the task of progression with each character, you can't just find high-ranking mercenaries at your local tavern to replace your level 8 lieutenant. And bringing that level 3 warrior you're trying to replace your lost companion with into combat is almost a complete deathtrap. This places the player in a late-game limbo of being able to recruit people to replace your losses, but being unable to train new recruits to ACTUALLY replace your losses in order to contend with the current difficulty. All that said, I haven't tinkered with the fixed level for each region setting purely because I like adaptive games for a challenge. However, Wartales seems to reach a difficulty where instead of plateau'ing, or getting easier, it just skyrockets in term of the hardship of each confrontation.
Overall, Wartales offers a fantastic array of party management and western-inspired medieval fantasy content. I will be trying the co-op with a friend to see if that's worth it and will probably edit this review to include that aspect.
TL;DR: Game is great. Try it out. Or don't. The choice is yours.

I've had 3 people ask me how the game is while I was playing it - so here are the answers to what seems to be the common questions:
Is it "done enough" to play?
Yes. The game is missing a zone and the level cap is at 11 while the final release is expected to be 12. Expect to spend anywhere from 5-10h in a major region, so you will easily get 30+ hours out of this game as it is right now.
Is it buggy?
Not very - the few bugs I encountered have been annoying at worst: I have hit 1 bug in a coop session forcing a battle restart as end turn button was grayed out for me but other player saw the char as taking their turn. Some overland spawns of ore can't seem to be picked up even when right on top of them.
How does coop work? Is the coop good?
Basically you each have a party on the map - on a very tight leash. So to be clear the coop is not "We each have our group on the map doing stuff" - you basically cannot go offscreen from other coop players on the word map. Any combat triggered by any party will suck in the rest of the players. In combat there is no enforced player turn rotation, you should coordinate your turns as who goes when tends to be rather critical for wining encounters. The weakpoint of coop is the inventory system. Yes inventory is sort of shared but not really. Each party has their own inventory but shares access to the camp chest. This is rather awkward as consumables and materials and gear need to be passed around through the chest between players. I would suggest defining 'roles' to help manage that aspect, player 1 does all the food, so they take all the food stuff, player 2 does blacksmithihg, player 3 alchemy and so on.
Also at least currently the players in a coop game are set in stone, who you start a save with is who you must finish it with. You cannot remove or add people mid save.
In short COOP implementation is fully functional and fun but could be better.
All the negative reviews are complaining about food and wages - how bad is it?
It's not that bad if you are used to Battle Brothers. It's very very bad if you are going in thinking that this is Divinity II style RPG where you do not need to constantly feed and pay your companions. I do agree that the mission rewards are far too low and that the constant need to supplement your income via trade and prisoners is suboptimal - but it's workable. Just like in Battle Brothers, the early game is the hard part where you are constantly poor and barely have enough food, but it gets easier as you progress.
In short right now the missions alone will pay just enough to pay your wages, so gear, food, medicine should be created via tradeskills rather than bought.
Is it grindy?
Sort of - a lot of time is wasted walking around the map. Get the "Run" skill asap and it'll make life easier, but a lot of your time will still be spent going from one side of a region to another hitting up resource nodes, looking for beasts to kill for food and herbs for potions and so on. You do not need to spend days of gametime grinding trash for xp, nor is the game stingy with gear or materials for gear upgrades - but it is stingy with food and money.
How is the class balance?
It's good enough with some flaws. While all core classes are viable, not all specializations are great. Beastmaster Archers for example are just not worth it. Hunter is decent but just not nearly as good as Infantryman. The same is really true for all classes, while it could be said that each specialization offers some benefit, the reality is that in all trees one is just simply better and a group of nothing but rangers with disengage is just ridiculous and outshines all other classes imo.
Finally - take some of the negative reviews with a very large grain of salt. Many seem to fundamentally not understand the game mechanics or flat out wrong about them. A constant trend seems to be folks hiring a ton of mercenaries and then going broke and starving as they are now trying to feed, pay, heal and gear up far too many characters. You also do not need a mercenary per trade skill - prisoners can do trade skills just fine and do not need to be paid, just fed.