The game's tactical combat engine is first rate, improving on the one introduced in Brigade E5.
It offers up a much greater degree of control that is much more sophisticated than any other we've seen in a PC tactical combat game.
Characters can move about in a variety of stances, quick turn around corners with weapons at the ready, hose areas with surpressing fire, pump rounds through walls and floors, and a myriad other things.
Weapons jam, get dirty, get worn, get shot out of your hands. Fatigue and adrenaline can affect your character's aim and reaction times. Inventory is handled in such a way that not only are you limited as to what you can carry, but deciding where to place gear on our person has an effect on combat. Keeping a spare magazine in an ammo bandolier will allow you to fish it out much more quickly than if you have it in your front pocket, jumbled up with a wad of cash and some credit cards.
It's a shame that the strategic overlayer is so lacking in comparison to the combat engine.
The story is pretty incoherent even if you have played E5. Basically, you're in the country neighbouring the one from E5 and you've been hired by the Russian mafia to track down a man for them. After that, it's pretty random. You wander around, trying to find odd jobs that'll earn you enough money to buy better gear and hire some mercenaries to flush out your squad. Problem is, almost nobody is willing to hire you in the beginning phases of the game because you don't have enough of a reputation. You're basically funnelled into siding with one of two main factions and then given some pretty tough initial assignments (get ready to reload your game, a lot). the middle stages of the game are probably the best portions. Once you've got enough cash to hire a few mrecs to fight alongside you, the battles become much more interesting and engaging.
At least until you start to upgrade to the really hi tech weapons. Once you start getting the latest gen assault rifles, machine guns, and sniper rifles, the game starts to bog down. The problem lies with the way the tactical maps are loaded. If you're on the attack, your team is dropped into a spawn zone, tightly bunched up. It becomes a mad dash for cover as the baddies blaze away at you. If they're packing the good weapons, it's nearly impossible to escape the spawn zone without taking a lot of damage.
The reverse is also true. When you're defending a map, the enemies spawn into brightly lit entry points and it's simply a matter of hosing these points down with grenades and bursts and most of the enemy will be cut to shreds as soon as they show up.
Once the battle is over, you then have to suffer through a rather tedious inventory scavenger hunt. Looting the gear off all the bodies, then emptying the pockets of all the backpacks, vests, and webbing is painfull. Then you've got to pack the stuff into whatever available inventory slots you've got and try to lug it off to a merchant to sell it.
They really need to automate this feature better.
Graphics are pretty spartan but get the job done. Sounds aren't much better. The weapons sound good, but the voice acting is very limited (this is actually a good thing considering the quality of voice talent).
7.62 is a good tactical combat game, but falls down on the strategic portion. I like to play it, but if you're more interested in an engaging story and interesting missions, characters, and locations than the tactical combat aspects, you might want to steer clear.