Couldn't be worse than the first one, right? ... right?

Circumstances have changed for Epsilon. In the case of Takedown: Red Sabre, the investor they had on-board abandoned them without notice, so their Creative Director (and mission scripter) had to go find a new publisher or investor to secure enough funding to produce the game (Kickstarter money was meant to prove demand exists to investors, and isn't actually enough to make a polished game). That means for the next six months, only part of the team could work on the game (ten people total, minus one in admin, minus the Creative Director himself, so eight people), until they had 505 Games acquire the rights and act as their publisher. From there, 505 Games gave them... All of nine months... To finish and release the PC version, as well as produce an Xbox 360 port for Xbox Live. So 15 months to make a game on two platforms on a team of ten people (or nine excluding admin). Oh and one of them got into a vehicular accident, so make that seven excluding the admin.

Despite releasing multiple patches to fix as much as they could, plus free DLC to lure us back in, 505 Games dropped support and Serellan can't produce anymore patches to further polish the game. This is where circumstances changed. Epsilon is being developed at Serellan's own pace and will be released in parts like Early Access, etc. This isn't going to be treated like a traditional retail product where all of it has to be done in one go. Will it be better than Takedown? Good question, who knows? But circumstances are definitely different this time around, where there won't be as many distractions that can disrupt game development (and all staff are out of the hospital and back at work - did I mention another ended up in the hospital? No? Well now you know).

Rather than give them a chance, just watch what they're doing and if you like what you see, then consider buying their game in the future. Don't touch your wallet now. These are developers who share as much as they can, and are very approachable to talk to. So keep an eye on their development, and then make an opinion if Epsilon will suck or not. For now though, I look forward to finding out more about the game when the website launches. The community has a few teaser information here and there already (we saw a model of a glock, optics for rifles, hypothetical story scenarios, etc.), but not enough to fully understand what the game is. Oh and the storyboard artist for AMC's The Walking Dead is also on-staff for Epsilon, so that's interesting.

I'm a fan of the genre so i'll keep an eye on it, consider the first game a practice run and cross fingers for the dream that is modern PC rainbow six.
Though the anime concept art has me worried already.

I think so long as it doesn't go the full mainstream, "Call of Duty"-esque route that Rainbow Six is going with Siege, it'll already a leg up in the tactical shooter world.

Wholeheartedly agree with both of you. The survey Serellan released was to gauge if there was still a large enough niche audience for hardcore tactical shooters, and oddly enough there still is, which is why they stopped development on Project Pi (next game was to be a Sci-Fi strategy shooter), and started Epsilon. (You'd think the overwhelming majority would vote on Serellan to disband, which was an actual option, but apparently not.)

It's a risk to serve a smaller audience, but Epsilon wouldn't exist in the first place if it's going to follow what's mainstream, because well... They have other genres they were already looking into, and there's no point attempting to reinvent the wheel when AAA companies can do a more polished job. Heck, I wouldn't even call Call of Duty as a negative descriptor anymore, because Treyarch Studios (with Black Ops 2) and Sledgehammer Games (Advanced Warfare) have put a crapton of effort to do something new with it.

But in the case of Rainbow Six... Yeah I know what you mean. I'm really hoping the slower-pacing and gadget changes will help (never was a fan of Attack/Defend though, with the exception of games like Due Process and Intruder).

As for the look of the game. I don't know if they're aiming for any variation of an animé-style (it was a point of discussion in the forums where people begged NOT to do that, but not enough info and too early to make a solid opinion), but this overall look does stand out from other tactical shooters which is the important part. With Takedown: Red Sabre giving Serellan a bad reputation, they need to do something to grab our attention from other tactical shooters. How they're going to KEEP our attention is entirely up to their future actions during the course of development.

And that's why I'm saying thank you for considering this game and keeping an eye on this for however long you wish. What's important is that you are willing to glance at their website or forums, and see if their development updates interest you. I'm also in full agreement to save your money and wait until they can prove themselves to you.