Recent reviews by Slappy Joe

Could be nostalgia for the ARMA 2 mod speaking, but this is a real stinker. The graphics are actually quite nice, but good luck staying connected to a server for more than five minutes, and if you do, good luck actually having it load any items. The inventory interface is godawful, the basic mechanics of say, swinging a crowbar to kill a zombie still barely work, and now they want me to pay for DLC?

Can't speak to their later monetization efforts, but the core game here is very good. Lots of opportunities for unique procedural gameplay, and it rewards attention to detail and long-term planning. Whether you're a pious volcel queen or a cannibal Sultan with extraordinary sperm, eventually you'll meet your demise, and you'd better have set up the right succession laws or else your kids are gonna torture each other to death for 20 years. But you also can't just leave one doughy sadist son in charge who'll immediately blow the family fortune on mercenaries.

I do wish the interface was more user-friendly. I did eventually reach a point where I was looking past it like the green code in the Matrix, but there's no reason that there can't be a clear "War Target" button for instance when it's such a huge part of winning even the tiniest peasant uprising. But overall it does a good job of conveying a LOT of information in a compact and responsive way, and I haven't played any of the prior games so I can't compare it to those.