Recent reviews by Trotwood

Amazing.

Tight and streamlined mmo.

Amazing

Good and polished fantasy 4x

If yiu removed the negative reviews regarding this game being too like the original, this game would rank among the best rated 4x fantasy games out there. It has its flaws, but as a 4x fan it has way more going for it than against it.

Highly recommend the renaissance mod as it gives some much needed updates to an older game from which the developers have moved on.

Excellent game. Although id wait for a sale to snag all the dlc. Its all imo, basically essential; but a tad overpriced. But if you like 4x at all you owe it to yourself to own this title.

Nominated this game for the "just five more minutes award" :-)

Game had potential, but is incomplete and abandoned.

Wizards chess meets mtg and a tactical board game. Unique and wonderful, support these rare gems.

Theres some good news at the bottoms folks, promise. =-) but first, the bad.

Cant recommend it as is. The game needs a few patches under it's belt for several reasons. I'll just list the big ones (in my opinion) here.

1) Folks cant reliably know what specs are required to run this game. the minimum/recommended seem to have wildly inconsistent results from the community. Some old rigs are doing fine, other new beasts are failing hard. So wait for them to iron out these bugs in order to know if you can even run it over 5 fps in late game.

2) basic gameplay features need to be ironed out. things such as fleet imbalances, (no reason to build anything other than corvettes atm) and lack of options for fleet formations. Everything rushes to stabbing distance and lives there in a blob until somebody comes out the victor. Regardless of combat computers, range of weapons etc. Now, nobody expects this game to focus on combat, I DONT WANT THIS GAME TO FOCUS ON COMBAT. I want a "Grand Strategy" gane. But this current implementation just seems sloppy, underdeveloped and lazy. Also, sectors need ALOT of work. Defense stations are all but pointless, fortification bonuses for ground combat make little to no-sense, etc, etc. Lots of little stuff that adds up quickly, but it's pretty much across the board IMO.

3) ai. in all aspects, needs love. my allies declare war on someone, then head to my homeworld to join my fleet, completely abandoning the border they share with the enemy. They literally warp immediatley to my homeworld in time of war, and their programming consists of "follow my fleet around like a puppy" until war ends. This strikes me as horribly lazy programming. The ai's reactions to end game crisis is also piss-poor.

Honestly, this list could go on, and I'll be the first to admit my points are a bit vague and poorly elaborated on. but a quick search on the forums for any of these topics will result in smarter, more eloquent people giving detailed write up.

The good news! Paradox has acknowledged most if not ALL of these issues in their development diary and have indicated that they have fixes in the works for most of them, and thats GREAT.

But. Thats in the future, this is now. and as of now I cant recommend this game, despite it's potential.

Wait for the relaunch. Reaaaaly want this game to be good. It has so much potential. But right now it just feels half baked. City spam is ridonkulous. Also, the devs have ditched a CURRENTLY "RELEASED" AND PAID FOR GAME, to release a mobile game /app. This does not leave a good taste in my mouth. That said, they have promised a relaunch in Q1 2016. Time will tell.