Recent reviews by LiuChooTrain

Absolutely amazing 4X. Currently superior to main modern competitor Stellaris (although that's RTS). Also, far better than other current civ builders such as Civilization 6. Music/soundtrack is epic. Cheaper than most, as well, and with a reasonable DLC policy.

The learning curve is very steep, but once you get your space legs, this game will fulfill every childhood Star Trek/Wars fed fantasy about starships you can imagine. Sometimes it can feel like you've wasted a bunch of time on this game, like when you die in the last stage of the final boss and permadeath sets in, but as you'll quickly grasp, your sense of strategy is developed by failure.

Best/funnest parts: boarding. Worst: long and boring encounters that occasionally occue in which neither ship can damage the other. Go take a shower or eat a meal with the game running if you hit one of these (will train your crew). Also bad is the fact that a fair amount of your success especially playing as the garbage ships is determined by luck/random generation.

Haven't tried AE content yet. Multiplayer would be dope but I don't see how it could really be implemented.

This is a great game. It really is.

BUT...

Paradox, we will doom you with these negative reviews if you keep up with this outrageous DLC policy. $20 dollars for core features like golden ages, development slots, etc. that should be free patches is not acceptable. DLC should add content, like events and flavor only for certain nations, not core mechanics. When you have this many DLC, none of them should be more than $10.

A little bit overpriced for the features it adds, which really only come into play when things are really close concerning elections. Anyone who's played more than like an hour before will probably barely use the electioneering tools such as publicity stunts or speeches, although manifesto promises are bit fun as they set interesting goals.

Maybe 2-3 dollars would be more reasonable; clones and drones and extremism added more noticable changes, this is in the same vein as social engineering in being borderline worth it. On the fence for this one, sales are good. Crash issues have improved since launch.

Still recommended, although RECENT DLCS AND PATCHES HAVE SERIOUSLY DIMINISHED GAME QUALITY. Like, this game gets more and more complicated and annoying every month. Ex: shattered retreat. Before the patch, armies were easy to defeat; you could, like in real life, win a war after only a couple battles. Now, you oftentimes have to chase the enemy across half the earth to win one stinking county. Paradox, please listen to the fans or else I will forever retreat into my crashy Game of Thrones mod and block updates.

Hella amazing

Best space 4X game ever!
Highly customizable, great graphics, amazing gameplay, interesting tech tree.
Send your giant fleets around the galaxy beating stuff up in cool 3d space battles. Lotsa ship types too.

My only criticism is that there's basically no modding (Star Wars would be awesome).

The greatest political simulator I've encountered so far... good luck saving the US!

AMAZING... Especially blowing giant ships to pieces with canoes. Now, I'm gonna go blow some Spaniards out of the water.

It's even better considering how old this game is. I would love to see a modern remake or update, with features such as some sort of multiplayer and an option to build your own ship from the ground up.