After about 40 minutes I felt I was done with the game. Can't complain given the price tag, but this is a weak recommend at best. It won't take you long to figure out how to play, and despite the random elements the game is heavily player favoured due to first mover advantage, so you have to get pretty unlucky not to win.

If you are bored and have a few dollars spare, this will pass the time for 30-60 minutes.

It's not a bad game, but I just can't recommend it, because there is no reason to play it instead of one of the better games like Shogun 2, Rome 2, or Warhammer 2. Pharaoh is another entry in the series which fails to fix any of the fundamental issues with the franchise, but doesn't add anything to make up for it.

The fundamental problem is with the battles. The unit variety is not very good, which is understandable given the setting of the game. But the lack of cavalry or artillery is combined a common problem with all of the TW games: units have really high morale, and will pretty much all fight to the death. This means heavy infantry is king, because every fight becomes about grinding out your opponent. Flanking seems to do nothing - you can have an enemy heavy infantry unit isolated and entirely surrounded, but it can still kill hundreds of lower quality troops without breaking. Chariots are not very good, and the battle maps are just too small to take advantage of them. The enemy battle AI is once again unimpressive.

There are loads of improvements to the campaign map, which are all welcome, but it doesn't matter because the core gameplay of battles isn't good. I feel bad for the developers because a lot of work has gone into this game, and there are plenty of good ideas, but the basic concept of just releasing ANOTHER iteration of the same old systems was doomed from the start. CA cannot keep releasing the same game over and over, they need to go back to the drawing board and rebuild their systems from the ground up.

Stick to Warhammer or the older historical titles.

Up there with the very best of the best roguelikes & deckbuilders. 10/10.

Easily best turn based party roguelike on the market

Easily the best game of its genre. The game has its problems around the edges but the core gameplay loop of evading the killer or trying to nab the survivors is fun for hundreds of hours. It's a competitive asymmetrical arena style game with a horror aesthetic, rather than an actual horror game.

An unbelievable experience, Best horror game and best Alien game of all time.

Deep as a puddle, Empire of Sin's mechanics fail to impress. Don't waste your time.

A well designed game with a good narrative on top. What more can you want?

The only complaint I have is that it does not have the replayability I would expect from a roguelike.

At its core, Mechanicus is a good turn based tactics game, but the WH40k aesthetic takes it to the next level. Easily the best WH40k game since the original Dawn of War. Like XCOM, it struggles to keep the difficult consistent throughout the game; there is a difficulty spike in the early midgame, but by the end game your units are blasting through the enemies with ease. However it's a great game with a tonne of interesting build options. Definitely worth a shot.

If you want an arcade style roguelike, there is no superior game.