Is review rating real?

[Panda]

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

[sirwak515]

I like the game.

[Phanta Cat]

What are the major issues?

[EleventhStar]

negative reviews usually come in spikes when something particularly bad happens, and then over time they get cancelled out by the steady over time flow of positive reviews. so now 4 years in those steady over time positive reviews add up to so much that even a big negative spike doesnt do much.

though honestly, considereing it's been as low as 60% in the past, it's not completely impossible that steam has decided not to count some of the negative reviews, as they sometimes do. But i'd be a lot of hassle to figure that out.

taking a quick look at the grapth though, there seems to be a rather large number of reviews posted since november 2019 compared to before, so maybe it's the new steam layout that prompts more people to write reviews, thus "artificially" creating more positive reviews.

[EleventhStar]

like for real november 2019 almost matched amount of reviews in launch month. that has to be some change on steam that causes that.

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

I feel the same way.

So many positive reviews comparing to how buggy Stellaris itself is out of all PDX games.

Nevermind the hot-button topic that is performance.

So many parts of game feels completely disconnected from each other and at same have multiple overlap features.

Warfare is so tedious and unfun on top of non-functional sector/planet automation AI.

It is indeed bizarrely that the reviews don't reflect on all issues I listed out and more.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

Such as?

[hackbackwards]

I have nothing but fun playing this game. Heavily modded, large galaxies, centuries-long games - yeah there's hiccups but it's a huge-ass game and incredibly fun.

Probably the reason majority of reviews are positive is because majority of people like the game.

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

Such as?

Everything I listed earlier and more.

[Fenris]

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

It was a good game with a lot of potential, 3 years ago.
But Paradox are bad when adding new features which are almost always uninspired and unfinished since.
Most of the new features are + basic % in some number areas (almost always the 3 or 4 same stats). But always limited by an anti-snowball philosophy which gives to Stellaris a boring sense of evolution during the game.
And Paradox are very bad for QoL, debug, optimization, etc...
They are more focused to sell more DLCs (overpriced compared to the content they offer) than working to solve the problems of their game, too.

The game looks like more an excel game than a real game with a good interface and look. All the spaceships which are beautiful in trailers are not especially like this ingame, you don't have the same camera control as the trailers. And 99% of the time you won't look at your ships (you can't control them during the fights so...) and only look at general map and your uninspired numbers to min/max.

So, yes the game is correct and provides some enjoyment, especially for the players who likes RP and like to do their own specie. But for the game itself, it's slow, not really complex (nothing to see it like a "great" strategy game, it's only a lambda 4X) and rather uninspired for the mechanisms/gameplay. And boooring (playing in "very fast" speed option, and avoid to play when you're exhausted late in the night, are your best friends in Stellaris)

So yes, it's correct but largely overrated by the paradox fans who think to be an elite from "grand' strategy and give to Stellaris a lot of good reviews. And they are numerous coming from the old Paradox games/titles.

Ps: The game is very good at the beginning too (anomalies, events, etc..), so it gives a very good feeling at the beginning, but the mid and late game are far from be as good. (To not say meh) despite the numbers of expansions/dlcs.
And a lot of players does their reviews without finish a game, most of the time. And only after playing an handfull of hours, so at the beginning. This is an another reason for Stellaris to be overrated.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

You might want to specify what your talking about.

Originally posted by Vyndicu:

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

I feel the same way.

So many positive reviews comparing to how buggy Stellaris itself is out of all PDX games.

Nevermind the hot-button topic that is performance.

So many parts of game feels completely disconnected from each other and at same have multiple overlap features.

Warfare is so tedious and unfun on top of non-functional sector/planet automation AI.

It is indeed bizarrely that the reviews don't reflect on all issues I listed out and more.

Performance is certainly an issue in the late game. But considering the length of Stellaris games you can still get great value out of the game even if you were to stop each game at that point.

As far as I've gone myself its never been unplayable either. To be honest its more likely to get bored of your current playthrough then reach the part where it becomes too slow. (atm, using the beta branch)

Warfare can be a bit annoying with claims and what not. But I wouldnt call it tedious and unfun because the spacebattles and fleet movements themselves are pretty good. Not amazing, but definately a league above most other modern space 4x.

Originally posted by Vyndicu:

So many parts of game feels completely disconnected from each other and at same have multiple overlap features.

I dont feel that at all.
This is the first 4x game in a long time I've managed to continue playing for more then maybe a few dozen hours. And thats not just because 4x games arent what they used to, but also because I get easily bored with doing 'the same thing' these days. This game tends to be engaging for a longer time I guess. Or it remains ''fun longer'' if you want to call it that.

So you'll have to explain yourself in more detail if you want me to understand why you'd give this game a negative review for anything other then ''I personally dont like it''

[R131]

the game is awsome it just desyncs even when they fix it it just happens later ingame but worst

[Cryten]

Compared to anything else of the same scale out there stellaris is quite reasonable on the bugs. The more stable 4X real time games tend to be smaller scope and less complex in order to reduce potential bugs. Then again even the majority of other real time 4X games which tend to be the same or worse tend not to have the same scope.

All told I suspect that what you are experiencing @MerryPanda is that public discourse tends to be more negative. As those who are satisfied are often content not to need to advertise this fact. Happy to leave a thumbs up on the review page but not needing to talk about it all the time in the forums. Unless your a bored fellow like me.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by EleventhStar:

like for real november 2019 almost matched amount of reviews in launch month. that has to be some change on steam that causes that.

I believe November/December was the Steam awards thing where people were given a badge for reviewing a game they played. I don't know why the review surge continues beyond that point, perhaps another generic badge I'm not aware of or people just got a taste for it. It's the same for pretty much every game on Steam though, a huge spike in reviews Nov/Dec and nearly as much every month since.

As far as Stellaris in particular, there are 57k reviews that are counted out of 79k total reviews, meaning 22k reviews are being removed from the rating and graphs. These are mostly going to be people who didn't buy the game on Steam, but I believe there was a Chinese review bomb at one point for the game that was probably nixed, the usual localization demand bomb many games have gotten.

[ByTheNumbers]

Originally posted by MerryPanda:

Sorry if it sounds strange or provoking, but does anybody else can't believe "very positive" review rating... How can it be possible with the current game state or am I missing something?

Oh it's very possible. Pick any game on Steam and look at their reviews. You'll see a very large chunk of reviews are by idiots who like to use reviews as a space to throw out a meme, or they can't be bothered to write anything resembling a review.

[MozarteanChaos]

a game can be both bad and fun
that may factor into it