The only thing that I find sad from a gameplay perspective is the fact that this game does not really encourage the player to keep as many units alive as possible. They can be considered to be a health bar, but fewer units mean it’s easier to dodge. So if we lose half of the squad on the first level, it doesn’t feel like a big loss. Maybe a score that would carry over could change this (so you can get 95+90+85 instead of 50+49+49), but I can’t see it on the menu screen. Perhaps it’s shown after you lose everyone?