I own this on another platform. I've put my time into it to evaluate it. It's never going to be finished. The ride never ends. It's nothing like what it started out as. It still has late-game performance problems. It's overpriced at above-free. Stellaris might as well be F2P because the DLCs constitute microtranscations for desperately needed and vital to playability bug-fixes and UX enhancements. I've never been as crestfallen about a video game in all my life. For me this is Paradox's E.T., but stupefyingly, people still keep giving Paradox/Tencent money for this abysmal scheme. No support comes from the company or its forums. You may be abused or ignored if you report issues with the software. I would advise running away personally.
To tell you how many hours I spent playing the original and sequel, and then find that you did it again, I just gladly bought this game. And when I can afford to devote time to playing it, it is obvious I will enjoy this masterpiece just as much if not moreso. Thanks too all who made it possible!
This was the Gold Standard game to test by for the better part of a decade. Now it runs smoothly updated for modern x64 bit OSes. What more can I say? It's a legendary FPS with smooth interfaces and still pretty slick graphics, motion and shading. Story is vivid enough to compliment the action. Recommended.
Get the free game. But support Fred & Paul's continuing work by buying these games!!! This is totally worth the price too!
I own this on Steam. I owned it before it was fully released and ever since too. I've invested hundreds of hours in it only to discover endless series of mission-ruining, strategy-impairing, and game-breaking bugs and scripting errors, play-balance issues and like kinds of frustrating, enjoyment-robbing issues with the software. Paradox's strategy seems to be to shut-down and shut-up all criticism of the company in view of the fact they know their software is flawed. It maintains tight control of their forums and even Steam pages to this end. It's as if they're engaging in a bizarre, almost mafia-esque campaign to shutter dissent or serious representations demanding accountability for their practices. Were it not a computer game company (allegedly,) one would hardly be misled believing something worse was behind it! Try criticizing them or their products yourself if you care to get a taste of this treatment and don't believe me! If they're willing to put that much effort into stamping out objections to their policies, I can only imagine what type of company this must be to work for or go up against in their native Sweden! One gets the impression they must enjoy some kind of protected status based on their behavior as a company. In any case, having tried over years now on versions ranging from .8 all the way to 2.2 to enjoy a playthrough without recurring issues with poorly-designed AI, disjunctions in everything from ship transit times, fleet movement behavior and related processes especially related to scripted/scenario events, (not to mention all the one-off undocumented, oftentimes inexplicable no-go travel/selection and AI privilege/cheating bugs/design weaknesses) I can only say it's been a huge exercise in frustration really trying to play this as a game and not an endless beta mess. Their endless "updates" break mods that were the only things keeping it working! The DLC's therefore end up really being only an on-going cash-grab scam. In all recommend avoid!
Yeah it's got issues. My kind of issues! If you're playing this for combat, you missed your calling in the FPS or isometric top-down/3D POV RPG genres! This game is a work of art! The voice acting is indie+ quality, which grooves fine with my expectation and desired output from this studio, of which I full-disclosure indie-backed back in the Kickstarter beginning! Granted, it could use some voice-acting upgrades in any sequel, but I find the work pretty worthwhile as I am not looking for a "Hollywood" release. I have voice-training and could criticize too; it's not the point with this title for me. Lots of sterile RPG releases with polished vocal tracks available on other distro platforms if you want that! I believe the studio has done well on their first retro-style for-profit release and has great room to grow, I see the lack of certain easier-to-implement features (sleep/diurnal cycling, point allocation) as probably more to do with engine limitations being it is based on a popular open-source project to recreate a rogue-like (room-based) RPG galaxy of games. In any case I have had fun playing it so far, find the writing acceptable (but could use more depth overall,) and have been stumped at least twice by retrospectively-obvious puzzle solutions (but they always are!) I've only finished the first quest but have spent hours playing it and am not disappointed (I talk to everyone, try all items everywhere when in doubt, and some Easter Eggs are only found by doing so, and this game seems to respect that tradition, although others have noted a lack of Puns present pared playing peer products!) Four stars with one left for improvement in polish and writing in future releases; major mechanics are all within-spec and expectations for this release.
Our glorious artisan heroes deserve better than to suffer their vision looted from under them by profiteering gluttons without a wit of consideration to the fans and lovers of their artistic work! In the name of True Honor and Good Taste, we declare Fighting Stance towards the malevolent misappropriator!
Contains a spoiler in second paragraph* I played this so much as a kid, alongside Kings Quest 5, that I can say it is one of my top 5 early role-playing adventure games. It is not a straight-forward quest however. It definitely is a role-playing game more than strategy or adventure, but has elements of both. As a female protagonist in a male-dominated gameworld, you find unique advantages and challenges confront you. Also, you must learn to exploit this situation to its fullest in order to successfully negotiate the game's tasks and reach a successful resolution to the case you find you are on. This game is equal parts role-play, adventure, and puzzle ultimately and it requires thoughtful playthrough and more often than not persistence to get the sequence of events right. Admittedly, I resorted to the hint guides after more than a few Whoops moments in numerous playthroughs. **SPOILER** It is possible to dead-end yourself in this game, and it is not the easiest or point and click adventure or mystery game I've played. It is a step up from Myst and a step a step back from a strict puzzle game. It's ultimately a lot of fun but you have to have the will to see it through to the end, and taking notes or memorizing names, faces, and details is a must. It is a real detective adventure! Thanks to GOG for bringing this out. This is a treasured experience of my early gaming life.
It's out now, and I go to open the Stats screen after talking to the adventurer fella in the lodge, and immediately the Exit button glazes over trapping me on the screen. Now it seemed like a great game when I played the demo and that is why I bought it, waited for 1.1 to drop, and this is just a disappointing start. I believe it is a good game still but the bug is disappointing. Will revise review after playing through.
