So, I was thinking about TSoG. It's a great game. The combat is intuitive, the dialogue grammatically correct, and the characters practically develop themselves. But there are a few things that bother me about TSoG, and instead of just getting frustrated and not buying the game, I'd like to see if what I have to say resonates with anyone on the forums, and maybe even help to make the game better.
TSoG plays like a standard tactical RPG; you've got a mission, so you have to complete it. You talk to a random character, and you pursue a side-quest to spice things up a bit. The gameplay is simplistic and formulaic -- but then you realize the depths TSoG has to offer you. In a standard tactical RPG, you'll probably unlock all content through playing the main storyline, clicking around for cool dialogue options, and coming back to the same character over and over to have the same conversation go all the different ways it can go, because only one of them does anything for you. In TSoG, if you make the wrong move in a conversation, you have to fight and kill someone when you only wanted to recruit them. Sometimes, you have to push your moral boundaries in order to get the best results; if you play by the rules, you're going to, sooner or later, realize that you're shortchanging yourself, even if you are trying to stay on the moral side.
The main character is responsible for taking the initiative completely in a lot of regards; so much so that Griffin doesn't feel like the leader any more, but just the guy you report to to say, "Hey, I took down a camp of bandits by myself. What now?" The storyline isn't strictly linear, and you can make a lot of ingame decisions that decide your fate as a leader. In short, you have way more control in TSoG than you ever will in 96.3% of games.
Why am I saying this? Because TSoG gives you all this content, and then promptly limits itself. The way your talks with Griffin go feel like a clunky entity that could be replaced with a list of missions and checkboxes. The conversation structures itself around the mission, even if a small attempt has been made to avoid this. Because of this conversational structure, the player's expectation of the gameplay revolves around this impressioning first mission assignment. If the conversation were more centered around the idea of doing your best as a tactician (and really, the only one who can organize for squat; nothing would get done if it weren't for Duvalier) and behind-the-scenes orchestrator of the Resistance rather than focusing on the linear progression of events as they come, the player's mind would be more open to the fact that the world isn't just a bunch of side-quests; the world is many opportunities to help the Resistance and improve its situation.
What I'm trying to say is that as is, the wide range of things you can do in TSoG feel more like distractions from a main goal than a unified, cohesive rebellion simulation (which is now how I view the game more; not just a strategy game, but a management sort of game), and I think that that could be fixed somewhat by changing some of the first dialogue you have with Griffin the first time you visit HQ.