Sword of the Stars 2 had one of the worst launches ever. At present condition (January) the code is quite playable, game is sometimes even fun. Kerberos will upgrade the game and it seems to be getting better and better. [Feb 2012]
On the one hand, the bare bones of the game are there, the potential is there, and I wouldn't trust many devs outside of Kerberos to patch this to a decent state. On the other, regardless, it's going to take at least a few months to patch it to a state where it's not just "sort of playable", it's actually enjoyable. But if you feel like helping nurture a game to completion, by all means fork out. Those of you who are more cautious, hang back a few months, it should be cool by then.
Game has come a long way since it's horrible, bungled launch. Maybe not as much of a classic as the original SotS was, but with a bit more TLC and polish from Paradox, this game could easily become supremely awesome. A shame that Paradox has dropped the ball on this.
New Player to SOTS:
It has been a little over a year since release, and with the release of the enhanced edition it is now ready to play, and at such a low cost, as a result I would recommend this game to any fan of 4X games. There are many features and lots to do, however it is complicated in areas, which will make the casual crows hate it, but when has the casual crowd ever played space 4X games...
Pro's: Faction differences - particularly in it's travel methods
Mission System - initially seems worse when you get started but when you have a large empire you notice how intuitive it actually is
Combat - looks great and is very tactical
Graphics - Game looks amazing
Con's:
Load times - game has long load times, at times
CTD - game occasionally crashes, however you can see all the patches for this and it auto saves regularly
It's just a little bit boring right now. If you want to show Paradox and Kerberos your support, then by all means go buy it, but regardless of whether you pick it up now or not, it'll probably take a couple of months of patches to be the game it was meant to be.
Bottom line is that on paper, this is an incredibly deep and varied game, but time and again, the reach of the programmers vastly exceeds their grasp. Even months after release, there's so little in this game that's working as intended, that only the most desperate die-hard fan of the genre should even consider this game.
I love the ideas at play here, but the horrific implementation adds complexity and obfuscation with little commensurate gain in strategic depth. I hope Kerberos' constant patching (the week-plus since launch has already seen several updates) will eventually turn this into the game it could be. Right now, it's a mess that everyone should avoid.
While the game came out in bad shape. Those times are now long gone. Today The game Is pretty Amazing now. Sure there a some bugs here and there,and a few "missing" features. But compared to how it was at the start, its nothing that disturbs the game play at all. I love playing this game now.
This game has a troubled history to say the least. But the developers have been beating it into shape via relentless patching and support and it's now fairly close to its intended glory.
It's not yet in a 1.0 state, but it's definitely getting there. And since the game can be found for a very cheap price, I'd definitely recommend it.
May 29th, 2012 - 7 out of 10 Already the game has improved. The time has been greatly reduced for turns. Even at turn 80 they only take 5 - 10 seconds and lag between screens has been cut down. However, the UI is still missing many things that would considered standard in other games of the same type, and the only way to learn the game is to search through the SOTS2 wiki, the kerberos forums, and just playing it. However, I am enjoying it quite a bit and so I would rate it a seven now, but only for those people who really like this type of game. May 23rd 2012 - 5 out of 10
I got this game because I am big fan of Paradox and was hoping for a good 4X game. For those of you still looking at this game and wondering "Is it ready?" I would have to answer that it is not. I have no problems with it crashing to desktop but there are still three major issues that I've noticed after playing it for seven hours. Delay between turns is still pretty terrible. I have 8 GB of RAM, an excellent video card and CPU but after turn 50 (which is very early in the game) the time between turns became significant. Second, the UI is pretty terrible, revealing almost nothing about the game. Parts of the screen are cut off, information is easy to find, you can't even look at a planet and tell what buildings or space stations it has. I am mainly comparing this to Europa Universalis III a great game by Paradox which displays all the information seamlessly. Finally, in addition to the bad UI it is very difficult to understand how to do even the most basic actions, or to understand what various techs, governmental skills, and ships do. They do have both a beginners guide and a manual for the game, which I have read before and after playing, yet they are sparse and do not contain anything but the most basic generalities. Underneath all these problems I think there is an interesting game, but its not there yet and I hope it becomes what they say it will. On the other hand, some of the UI seems so terrible that it should really be redone entirely and I don't have much hope of that. As the game improves (hopefully) I plan to adjust the score.
Sequel to one of my favorite strategy games of all time, SOTS 2 is prime example of ambitions overgrowing actual capabilities. Launch of the game was a disaster: it wasn't even a beta. Now, after tons of patches and free expansion with new playable race, Sots 2 is definitely better at every aspect - but it still falls way short of meeting expectations. It's very complex game, with great variety of options and possible strategies - however, it is also one of the least approachable games I have ever seen. Unclear interface, cryptic tooltips and utter lack of any tutorial in game are obstacles for any new players. If you manage to overcome them, you will find good sides of this game - and they are plenty. However, they all fade when you realize that AI is COMPLETELY broken, and does not present any threat whatsoever. Seriously - computer controlled empires not only cannot beat player, they also fail to defend against random encounters game throws at them and often collapse due to missmanegement of economy and mounting debt. I am willing to bet that anyone giving this game super-high score has not played it long enough to actually measure AI capabilities. Maybe after another year it will get acceptable - for now, if you value single player at least, I recommend to stay away from this game.
Finally bought this game because some reviewers suggested that many bugs had been fixed. Unfortunately many remain and the game frequently crashes. It is also a pity that the developers have produced a sequel with longer lags and less visual appeal than the original.
SummaryIn Sword of the Stars 2, gamers will be reaquianted with the original six races from Swords of the Stars I and its expansions as well as reveal the dark secret of the original series, the Suul’ka - an ancient race that is responsible for tampering with the Liir, Zuul, and other races in the SotS universe! Not limited to another entire ne...