Is this a scam?

[ThePickNick]

So i was browsing through steam new releases "Featured and recommended" and i saw a screen of this game having 9/10 ratings. once I click on a game to check it out. I saw stunning 41% avg user reviews rating. how is it possible that this game puts a screenshot of game with an almost perfect score and has such a low user rating score from over 5k reviews...

https://paste.pics/e611b855894e59b2964ef0ad6d49bff7

[spike2071]

I think PC Gamer gave it a 9/10. A couple of other pro reviewers gave them high 8s.

[bri]

Because a lot of users have agendas other than strictly reviewing the game "as is". You'll see a lot of complaining about the Paradox DLC policy, some whines about it doesn't have feature x, y, or z from one of the other Paradox titles (whether it would make sense in the setting or not) and so on. Then there are the ones that legitimately had technical issues.

Of course one contributing reason is the steam set-up with a simple up or down vote that really eliminates any sort of nuance where most reviews have subjective scaling...

[curtadamsCA]

There's no scam. The user reviews are skewed very low - there was some kind of smear campaign, and a number of people are venting against the existence of DLCs, etc. There are some legitimate negative reviews as well. OTOH 9/10 is too high, given some significant bugs and lack of polish. The Metacritic of 81% is closer to the mark.

You're just comparing one source which is skewed high with another that's skewed crazy low.

[comsubpac]

There was no campaign and the vast majority of negative reviews doesn't even mention any DLC.

The game had many issues at release (mainly the bad performance) and it took Paradox nearly a week to fix those at least for some but they introduced new game breaking bugs in the process. Naturally people are not very happy with a game that is barely playable or not even playable at all.

Even those that did not experience any performance issues and where able to start the game often feel that the game is unfinished, has a bad UI and lacks deepth and flavor.

[Fingusa of the East]

All I can say is: check videos by longtime community members like Rimmy, ISP or Arch. They have all explained, objectively, why the game is extremely sub-par. Do not listen to fanboys on the forums. Heck, buy the game, play it for two hours and make your own opinion. You can refund it just like I did after two hours.

Also, be wary that Paradox have paid a lot of content creators either in money or in free game. Make sure to check video descriptions etc. before you start believing whatever they say, as they have to write it there legally.

That is all.

[oldirty`]

The game is very solid.

The problems is that fans of the company expected something bigger and more complex.

New players are probably overwhelmed and didnt know what to expect, a game with very little gameplay but lots of stats and data.

Compared to other strategy games its very good, compared to other paradox titles its a bit boring.

[bri]

Also, be wary that Paradox have paid a lot of content creators either in money or in free game. Make sure to check video descriptions etc. before you start believing whatever they say, as they have to write it there legally.

I assume you have evidence to back this claim? Actually I can say with near 100% certainty that you don't and are just trying to push an agenda...

[DecayWolf]

Originally posted by oldirty`:

The game is very solid.

The problems is that fans of the company expected something bigger and more complex.

New players are probably overwhelmed and didnt know what to expect, a game with very little gameplay but lots of stats and data.

Compared to other strategy games its very good, compared to other paradox titles its a bit boring.

For starters the game is very shallow. The amount of options are limited, and there is what works best and what doesn't, kinda of limiting the real gameply options which is already pretty slim.
No seriously tell me what is complex about this game?
You basically give everyone a job, declare war and expand, rinse repeat. Pick the easy targets to build man power and be smart in your expansion to preserve it and always be ready for the next war.
Beyond that, is about selecting divine prayers, laws and ideology for reducing agressive expansion and tyranny. That's the entire game right there for you, which can be understood in less than 20 minutes.

The game does have a lot of bugs, people were complaining about lag, sluttering, crashes, and all that, between others I personally didn't got any of these.
However some family members even when employed, still stay as unemployed, some family members simply cannot be found to be given a job, generating a scourned family because there ain't anyone avaliable to hire.

I also found a quite mind blowing bug, that after turning a kingdom into my vassal, he no longer would join wars with me. Also I couldn't absorb his territory. Turning him into a completely useless waste of space, which otherwise would've been more useful if lett alone as a alliance.
Also the same kingdom still holded his previous alliances and it's own vassals for quite a while, until he finally started dropping em.
The AI is also dumb as a brick overall, and would easily get destroyed by stupid movement in the world map, but not only that, the AI doesn't seems to care about alliances that won't give em a slim advantage and would be fine if the player exploit his troops and make him die n' bleed for the player, for absolutely no gain for the AI faction itself. Furthermore there's absolutely no penalty for declaring war on your old allies and get his lands, once they're weakened because of you.

There's also bugs on the AI behavior, trade not working as intended, and others alike.

There's absolutely no freaking way this game is a 9/10, nor a 'solid' game, not at THIS stage at least.

Also, let's thanks the devs for corrupting the people's with ironman save file.

[Blazerules]

Game is just bad, that's all there is to it. It's worse than day 1 CK2 (year 2012) and day 1 EU4 (year 2013). Game might get better in 2-5 years to the point of being ok or even great in 6+ years time. But that time hasnt come.

[curtadamsCA]

Actually if you just expand you will run into very serious problems in provincial rebellions and in falling behind in tech. And if you just "fire and forget" your office selection your young characters won't get married and your character selection will collapse. You have to do a fair amount in peacetime to keep a country going. It just takes a while for all this to catch up with you. It's EU that's just got a "go to war, work off AE" cycle, with some interruptions for historical events.

[damianvincent]

Paradox games are not a scam. Probably looking a critical reviews. The game is awesome, 10/10 fo rme

[David McMurdo]

What you describe is quite common. Look up even giants like Civilization VI. As someone else said, when people review games on Steam they're often reviews of protest over expense, DLC policy, etc. I wouldn't do such a thing myself, but I understand it, since it's the clearest way that the average person can make their displeasure known. Personally, I really enjoy Imperator.

[DecayWolf]

Originally posted by curtadamsCA:

Actually if you just expand you will run into very serious problems in provincial rebellions and in falling behind in tech. And if you just "fire and forget" your office selection your young characters won't get married and your character selection will collapse. You have to do a fair amount in peacetime to keep a country going. It just takes a while for all this to catch up with you. It's EU that's just got a "go to war, work off AE" cycle, with some interruptions for historical events.

Stability 3, gives 3 unrest.
there's 2 laws which gives 1 unrest each.
Minimal taxes also gives 1 unrest.

Only with that you have already -6 unrest.

Now, combine this with a good governor and place a happiness edict on new regions with different religion/culture and you'll end with something like +0.30 - 0.40 per month, most likely.
Then once your loyalty have gone very high, cycle it with culture/religion conversion, chances are the province will still stay on positive loyalty, but if it's not just cycle again, however chances are it won't be needed anymore.

As for general loyalty, I never got a single guy which I could give a job disloyal.
There are so many ways to boost general loyalty per month, and scourned can be fixed so easily...

SHALLOW GAME.

[Cheese]

I don't get how that you have assimilated people with low taxes and a maxed stable country equates to it being shallow. Seems like you're doing everything on macro at a cost so you wouldn't have to micro.

[koskeusko]

9/10 is kinda cowpoop, because on scale from 1/10 to 10/10, average game should be 5/10, and 9/10 is like 3 Michelin stars restaurant. 10/10 is best game ever created by God himself. In */10, i'd say Imperator is 5/10. Average meh strategy game. I dunno if i'd ever paid any attention to this one if it wasnt PDX. But cant say that game is really bad or something.

Right now its like The Sims without any DLCs. And we know that there will be ~20 DLCs, and each of those will cost as game itself.