I'm seeing some reviews where people are getting frustrated by the play style and character management. I also realized my review read more like the opening to an old Prima or BradyGames strategy guide than a review, so I'm moving part of it to the guides section to help make the game a bit easier for newcomers. This is just seven tips to making the game a little easier to new players - especially since the game is in a Humble Bundle right now.

1) The best starter is the Jazz Musician. His giving the party resistance to Sanity Loss will really help. The first partner you get in Chapter One is the second best character in the game. So use these in every scenario you can. The third best is either the writer, or the character you pick up in Arkham Asylum. No, it's not Batman. The writer will help with the Doom Clock and is a good fighter while the Doctor ups your initiative and has double skills while having no weaknesses. Both are good tertiary choices.

2) Guns are your friends. Again, this will become more apparent the farther into the game you go and you finally start to get bullets up the wazoo. Have you ever played Space Hulk, either in tabletop or video game form? Treat combat like that. Shoot and Overwatch. Multiple characters on overwatch is your best defensive move. Enemy takes a step and gets shot. Repeat until all characters' Overwatch is done. It's amazingly effective, even in boss fights. Good bye Tyranids...I mean Lovecraftian fiendish thingies.

3) Melee is fine, but know three things about it - you have to use action points to move closer to the enemy, it's never as effective as a bullet, and most status effects that your weapons give you aren't actually effective at all. Bosses tend to be immune to them, and using a melee character on them means you just moved a guy into damage dealing range without setting off the other characters' Overwatch. Unfortunately, in the early goings, bullets are rare so you will need a melee character or two. Just make sure they have healing items on them.

4) Magic sucks. There is always a better option to magic - including direct damage and healing. Healing items do twice the hit point repair of magic, and guns do more damage than the one direct damage spellbook. As well, magic has a 50% Wild Cast and that means anything, from doing extra damage to your enemy, to hurting your own guys to healing someone else in the battle - be they friend or foe. With the doom clock ticking down in every round of combat, magic is the least best option. You don't want to freaking heal a boss for 10 damage after you blew up his minion for 3, right? There is one person that negates Wild Casting more or less, but she is the last character you get, and she has an awful initiative and sucks at combat, Do not be tempted by her. You wouldn't just start casting "Summon Dimensional Shambler" willy nilly in the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG - so don't cast spells here unless you have a choice.

5) Use those Pocket Watches - but use them at the right time. A Pocket Watch resets the Doom Clock to zero, so use them regularly when you find them. However, there is no point in using them if the clock is just at one or two. Wait until it is almost full and then use them - even if it is in combat. This will make your life so much easier.

6) A lot of items take up space. As mentioned earlier, conditions do little to nothing and they go away quickly. This is true for your guys as it is for the enemies, so don't waste an item slot on condition healing items. Use it on weapons, clocks, or something that heals Hit Points. There are a lot of inventory red herrings in the game, and with such a limited inventory for your team (makes Diablo 2's inventory look spacious), you need to min/max like a D&D 3.0/Pathfinder player.

7) Finally, with the final battle, it can be really, REALLY easy if you just shoot away the part of the battle that isn't the boss. I'm trying to not give spoilers, but it took me three rounds to kill it and I only took damage once using the following method - GUNS ON the NOT-BOSS, and then overwatch. Easy as an Akuma Vs. Dan pairing.

8) Finally, the game is unforgiving. You can't go back and replay any old missions AND once you beat the game your save is deleted. So if you are a trophy hunter (and I'm not), you will have to invest a lot of time (or get lucky) to get the suicide by smoking and Matricide trophies. I never even had a chance to get the former and the latter I misjudged by a fraction of a centimeter and don't feel like playing another ten hours to get it. Just a head's up on those pieces.

That's it for now. I can add more based on reader questions if you get frustrated with some parts of the game. Again, this is not a walkthrough or a Cheevo guide. This is just meant to make things a little easier for new players who are having trouble with managing their characters or who might be tempted to play in spite of the negative reviews (Several of which are well deserved) the game has garnered.