Thoughts on the Matter

My first post on tumblr start off with a short non-specific rant on the latest Paradox Interactive release Sword of the Stars II by Kerberos Productions.

Before I get started though let me first clear up the fact that I was previously a loyal customer of Paradox Interactive up until the release of Europa Universalis 3. With EU3 they lost any goodwill they had accrued with me at that point. The game was released in such a poor condition that I was, frankly, stupified how a company can stay afloat with such a poor track record.

Now fast forward a couple of years and nothing has changed. Sword of the Stars II was released in an unplayable state and here I’m talking about the actual “intended” release and not the “accidental” (parentheses, hell yeah!) alpha/beta version that they originally put on Steam.

From everything that’s available for us at the moment there’s not much difference between the two versions. One major difference seems to be is that the non-working options menu that was in the alpha/beta is now completely unavailable. Think about that for a second. Just take your time and mull it over. The options menu. In a PC game. That’s supposed to be the retail version. Not available. And this is just the peak of the iceberg! How anyone at Paradox or Kerberos could in clear conscience allow a game so clearly unfinished to be released is beyond me.

While Paradox has a history of buggy releases that take time to fix what we’re seeing here seems to be in a completely different ballpark with its advertised features missing, a huge amount of bugs and broken design elements. Reading the overall response from Paradox makes me think that they’ve invested heavily into this game. What has been surprising is that they seem to be in a much heavier damage control mode than I remember them being with their own releases.

Considering that I enjoyed the Sword of the Stars Complete that I got on a Steam sale I’m pretty bummed that this game seems to be firmly in the DO NOT BUY sector. After all, there’s not many games out there for the discerning 4x space strategists.

You can read more on Sword of the Stars II and it’s release issues on:

Something Awful 
Quarter to Three 
Official Forums at Paradox Plaza