Worth it without DLC?

[Rashada]

There is so much added expense with the DLC. Is the base game still worth it?

[Gunny]

Short answer, yes.

Then if you like it you can pick up a DLC one at a time. The free mods are great also.

[Chaosium]

Definitely. Getting the game and enabling all DLCs at first launch is a mistake anyway and a 100% guaranteed way to be completely overwhelmed
Most of them are aimed toward very late game or add something to do once you've "completed" the base game

[Spartan_0078]

I'm in the same boat, pun intended. Can anyone explain why all the DLC is so poorly rated though?

[Sunroc]

Originally posted by Spartan_0078:

I'm in the same boat, pun intended. Can anyone explain why all the DLC is so poorly rated though?

most people expect endless content and gigantic campaigns with every DLC. i've been playing anno 1800 from the beginning and every dlc that came along was always a nice little expansion. there's no reason for the downgrades.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by Spartan_0078:

I'm in the same boat, pun intended. Can anyone explain why all the DLC is so poorly rated though?

The number of reviews on record is very small, because the game and the DLCs weren't openly available on Steam for a long while. With the low number of reviews, every negative one hits like a brick in the ratings.
As for why? There's a good deal of UBI and UPlay bashing that doesn't actually concern the DLCs, themselves, as far as I can see.
The community didn't take kindly to UBI's bait&switch maneuver back when the game was first released.

Originally posted by Rashada:

There is so much added expense with the DLC. Is the base game still worth it?

Definitely. Especially when you're new to the franchise or this genre of games, it's not a bad idea to go with the base game, first. The Gold Edition can overwhelm new players very quickly if they can't handle the mass of content being thrown at them.