I'm sure you've thought of making the combat mode in a turn-based way (e.g. similar to how it's done in Fallout), but I'm interested in the arguments against it..
The way it's currently handled is slightly arcadey, kinda like it was in the Cold Zero game (not sure if you've played it - it was pretty OK except for the combat model). The old Deadline was somewhat like this, though the latter was a squad based one (managing multiple players in a non-turn based game was rather impractical so you had to rely on your team's AI).
BTW, how do you get that cross-hair targeting mode? My comments are based on without it as I couldn't figure how to trigger it.
Otherwise, I love the perspective and the graphics and the arcade-adventure potential of this, though, I presume the switch to 4096 colors has caused this slightly dithering look of the graphics (kinda like Win95 games - e.g. Hunter/Hunted)? Also, sometimes I notice a slight performance issue while moving and the screen is scrolling.
BTW, just for the reference, WC: Privateer, UFO and Syndicate would be in my top favorite games of all times; I'd add the Tie Fighter, the first Jagged Alliance and the first System Shock to that list.. (the sequels were much better technically, but the original games made a stronger impression).
I enjoyed that 386 era games the most; I think it was a great balance between the graphics and the gameplay (much better and deeper games than Amiga/Atari and yet still simple enough to allow imagination to kick in). The software 3D era that followed (early pentiums) was terrible and later as the 3D accelerated graphics progressed, the games are becoming more and more tedious for me as little is left to the imagination.
