squid830: OK finally fired up the new version...
...and the English version has Russian text in random places, such as for what I assume is supposed to be "Age" or "Date of Birth"...
...yeah, not looking good so far, if they can't even sort that out.
DD & Ji Ji: Well , at least you received a russian language course as a bonus . =)
I've already got ATOM and Trudograd for that - due to bits in-game (mainly graffiti and the like) not being translated. But then that's not a bug, it's design.
BUT, going back to SG - they HAVE already patched this (a few days ago), and the devs appear to be committed to spending some time on fixing things. Sure, it would have been nice if more stuff had been done in EA - especially since there are some design issues that definitely should have been resolved prior to rollout - but it's definitely not the most unfinished or buggy game I've played - not by a long shot.
So, after fumbling around a bit in the "tutorial", which guides you through in intimate detail until it just throws you in the pool, say "do this thing", then leaves you to it... which is cool, except it looks like 80% of the game is still locked. Since I definitely remember these bits being open from EA, I think it's some kind of tutorial gating thing. Normally I loathe these gating things with a passion, but this game has already got so many options, all of which possibly do something, many of which are unclear, and the clear ones have consequences that are less clear - so in this case, it's probably a good thing I can't yet see all those other detailed screens, since it would only confuse things at this point.
One of the dev's priorities is apparently improving the tutorial. IMO I would prefer if they instead added a nice reference to the game - even if it's a 300 page pdf manual or something like some wargames have. Actually this game really NEEDS a manual of at least 300+ pages, and that's just to go the options and what they do - let alone the intricate details of how things interact inside the game.
That's assuming all the effects are actually complex and not just window-dressing, as is often the case (many times games appear complex when in reality they're very basic). IMO this game is NOT in that category - the complexity seems real to me so far.
Which means that ultimately, we'll be able to do SO many things. Hopefully it won't turn into something like Cyberjudas (from way back when), where you had tons of options but you didn't really have any goals. I guess sandbox mode is like that (and it's good they have it), but it's good there's also a story mode to give you goals (but probably needs more?). Also, at this stage I have no idea how well the mechanics work with respect to the rival "brotherhood" - hopefully it'll be challenging yet not irritatingly so (but considering we're dealing with dueling secret societies, I'm not sure how it can be done without potentially being annoying to some people. since it wouldn't make sense if every action were obvious. Stuff's supposed to be obtuse!).
Anyway, here's hoping this turns into an awesome paradox-beating niche strategy thing...