I really want to like this game, and I'm trying to be as objective as possible as I play it. However, the lack of fog of war just removes almost all the tension that battles in the original game had for me. You never knew when you opened that door if there might be a guy with an assault rifle on the other side of it. Being able to see every enemy on the map just seems to trivialize the tactical experience (although the gunfights still seem super deadly). It would make sense that they simply disabled fog of war, too, since your mercs still spot enemies on their own. Hopefully they re-implement this later. Or at worst, maybe with as much modding as JA2 got, this whole game could become something better.
Also, no personal mercenary? What the hell?! "Robocop vs Bill Gates", I was all set to answer questions like this again and make my own in-game avatar, and it's super disappointing not to have the option. It's hard to believe it's purely about balance, because you'll simply have to buy a mercenary that fits the role your own merc would have fit, anyway.