This is a work of art

It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book, except that it's a point-and-click rpg game. It handles a lot of heavy topics, but it does so maturely, and there's a good amount of humor as well.

😁

This review is to discuss the main differences to the interface between this version and the old. Firstly, with the new scheme and graphical improvements, it is much easier to learn the game than previously. Besides the graphical improvements, the changes to the labor interface have made assigning tasks easier to manage, as generally dwarfs can do any job now unless restricted, when previously it was the inverse. This does mean that it is more difficult to micro-manage them, however.
At the present time, there do not seem to be readable combat logs, which aren't strictly necessary, but do add in the process of learning the game and in storytelling.
Finally, most of the hotkeys have been changed, which means I have to re-learn that part of my muscle-memory or rebind everything.
That said, these are more of minor annoyances for me rather than flaws and will probably only be relevant to you if you're a returning player. It is still one of the best and highest-detailed games I have ever seen and I recommend trying it if you're interested.

The way everything is handled in this game is very detailed without being excessively complicated.

Very good game design.

The enemies seem a bit too spongy at times. I understand that the idea is to use specific weapons on specific enemies in specific ways, but that takes a lot of choice out of it. Also, the ability to get resources just anywhere by using certain items makes me think about logistics instead of tactics, which takes a lot of the excitement out of it.
Additionally, whenever your health or ammo is low, there's large element on the hud saying as much, which is more of a distraction than a benefit in my opinion and there is no option to turn it off. I also never understood the trend of covering the screen in strawberry jelly when on low health.
Graphically it looks okay, but the story didn't seem particularly interesting to me. I understand that some people might enjoy the game, but it's not for me.

It's quite a bit different from Half-life with its enemy AI, puzzle design, and ammo capacity; which irritates me at times, but there was a significant amount of effort put into the project and I can respect that.

If you like the base game, then you'll probably enjoy this, too. The main differences are that a good number of skills now do stress damage to the enemy and one can decide the turn order of one's units. The most annoying thing I've encountered is when the enemy's strategy is to debuff your units while increasing their stress, but it can be manageable as long as you remove important targets before it can snowball. As the multiplayer component of a game about making the best of a bad situation, it provides an interesting and unique challenge.

As a Half-Life game in VR, it meets my expectations. Compared to most other games on such a platform, it feels more complete. Every aspect of it seems carefully planed and executed, and with the amount of work put into its visuals, it can be spectacularly convincing. The only thing I disliked about it was that there isn't a proper jump button, but given that actually jumping could make some people nauseous, I can forgive that. Outside of the new technology, this feels very much like a proper Half-Life game and I recommend trying it out to anyone who has the means to do so.