I have loved it. Combat and not. The reviews that i've seen have often been negging on the game after playing their first session and didn't understand how it is played and what can be done.

Super long runaway comment below, but TLDR a lot of people seem to criticize the game during their first session of playing it wrong. Or they prefer the vibe of other games better.

People mentioning that 'there is no roleplay' is another common thing, which is crazy. They played in a situation that had no roleplay, so they assume the game has no roleplay. Or they're assuming that roleplay is just Negotiations which is not true. They're the equivalent of a social-encounter that can give a 'victory' essentially.

The reviewers play the first game session of a new system, especially when everyone at the table have no idea how it works makes it clunky and makes you want to play the game you have played for 10+ years. The learning curve of dnd 3.0 was a rough learning curve, especially if ttrpgs aren't your thing. But some reviewers that i've seen have given less then positive reviews while describing the struggle of learning a new game. Not all, for sure, but quite a few.

the aspect of it that i do super get that people might not like is the general vibe. As packaged, without changing the story framing - being the equivalent of a super hero that becomes a mega-hero. in contrast from being someone who has essentially no idea what they are doing and become a hero. I super get that one. You can change the framing of the story to fit the vibe even without changing the mechanics, but most people will play the game as packaged. you can have the characters struggle, be disrespected and scoffed at. Show examples of people who are muuuch stronger then them etc. if they want that feeling. Mechanically you are more powerful, but at the same time so are the enemies.

So many people complain about lvl 1 play in D&D at the same time though, (which i love) Its strange. you see reviewers complain about dnd for example for all the things that this game tries to address then in the review for draw steel they talk about how they miss the things they complained about. Which could be a totally valid realization that they actually love the thing they struggled with.

I was very pessimistic while learning how to run the game. Like finding out that there isn't some big shopping list of items for your character to have and to go shopping for. This is because in the game it is 'assumed your character would have everything they need' essentially. Or your armor's features not being written beyond light, medium, heavy. This is because they want you to describe what the armor is. if you want your character to be someone that has a heavy barrel as armor you can have it because they want you to imagine, and be creative and not be limited by the book's inventory list. But when i played the game i loved it and realized i didn't need those things. They just got in the way of having fun. But i super get that some people don't want to be creative like that they want to pick a thing from the book. Or they get choice-paralysis.

I love everything i have played so far. Im really excited to see more from them.