One of the biggest disappointments in my steam library, mostly because it could be great.

This game had immense potential but it is so incredibly flawed that I have given up hope on it being fixed. It is a very interesting, underutilized scenario, and the developer is not wrong about opening up the door to westerners to the very interesting time period and place.
The game also has some pretty unique mechanics that are fun and have potential to be immersive. (Though it can feel a bit spreadsheet-ey)

Unfortunately thats where most of the positive ends. Youll see that many negative, and even positive, reviews harp on the interface/UI.

Bruh, it's worse than you think.

This isnt just a case of too many clicks and annoying, tedious window switching (and believe me its horrible in this regard). Its a case of the developer clearly having no unified vision before designing this atrocity.

Example: Your characters need to have intel on other character in order to know the resources they have (cool) but some information panels will literally provide you this information separately. You can search for characters, and for some reason this window will also display their resources, independent of the intel mechanic. Stupid.

This (cumbersome) interface to search for characters will also be needed since other parts of the interface that display characters will, for some inexplicable reason, not allow you to just click on said character to see them (Government screen for example).

Oh and when it comes to characters: Good luck trying to find what traits the characters have. Think you could just click on a character? Come on now dont be silly - that screen just gives you actions you can perform on the character. Why would i want to know their traits in the same window that allows me to interact with them, right?

To actually see character traits you have to.. and i cant believe this, know which province the character is in, move to the province, click the province info button, click on the show character button, and mouse over the character in question. Fun fact: Mousing over provides SOME but not all of these traits. At some point this starts to feel insulting.
Nevermind that this is literally a game built around its characters and their personalities. Why in gods name isnt this information more readily available. Btw this province screen also shows you present characters even though this is also supposed to be reliant on the intel mechanic.... Goodbye immersion

Its so bad that I have difficulty even finding out what the name of my faction is mid game. This may seem strange but note that most of us playing will not be chinese, and we will easily forget the names of even our own characters due to unfamiliarity of the language and setting. I dont understand how it was made this cumbersome. It almost seems intentional. If you want to guide people to an interesting setting then holy hell make it easy to get engaged.

So thats scratching the surface of the interface. Its trash.

But the game has other issues. Many of the mechanics seem rushed, and you arent provided with the feedback you need to not only play the game well (not super important to me) but to get immersed (very important to me). A lot of calculations are done under the hood, and you are left wondering "just how realistic is the game trying to be" - Does recruiting into a low moral army affect my recruitment numbers? Does province size matter? What defines province size? Is it agriculture output? Is it province type? Is it province traits? Is it an invisible value? Does it even exist? No ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idea. Maybe the information exists somewhere but I can't find it, and Im done searching The game is riddled with these types of things. Combat is "interesting" in that a lot of cool things seem to affect it (cavalry, moral, traits, etc) but its all so opaque that it just leaves you guessing.

Ai is also trash. Each factions does have its own goals and behaviour, so some of the high level decision making may be due to the setting (this explanation often seems like a cop out honestly), but its very very clear that the AI does not know how to use the games mechanics like avoiding army starvation, even in cases where its a no-brainer.

There are also other brain melting design decisions. Apparently there is a tacked on, real time mode for uprisings in shanghai or whatever. Now i havent messed with that , so take this with a grain of salt, but the fact that this is even in the game just blows my mind. I imagine: "This is so cool and out of left field!" - Nah it sucks even in theory.

With all that said, the dev is responsive, and this is obviously a big plus. He's also fairly open to criticism. Unfortunately I also think he thinks that "people just need to learn how to play it", but nah. A lot of people that stop playing know whats going on and they have just learned that the game is very flawed. It isnt that difficult to grasp for seasoned players. Its just opaque in its mechanisms and tedious. Just because X information is technically available on Y random screen, or Z makes sense because of opaque unclear mechanic W doent mean its acceptable.

Again this is a disappointment precisely because it had so much potential, so maybe its worth messing with when on sale, but I think most people will go through the same steps I did which is why I am giving it a negative rating:

1. Interesting lets give it a go
2. Hmm ok i see potential
3. ♥♥♥♥ this interface dude
4. Christ, this interface
5. Ok i have learned how things work, i think i can handle the interface
6. Man really cool game, im so immersed, warlord china is awesome and more games need to use it
7. Wait wtf is this
8. ♥♥♥♥ makes no sense
9. Uhm ok what is the AI doing, and why is this particular thing scripted like this
10. ♥♥♥♥ this other part of the interface that i actually need to play
11. My immersion is dwindling
12. Ive had enough

With that said I did get it on sale and I will still mess around, but my time would probably be used better elsewhere

edit: Non windows builds are also updated later and the dev seems to have a "meh" attitude around this which I think is concerning

edit again: This is fairly minor but the game tries to be immersive when it comes to china, but all of the help windows etc are very informal and feel like the developer needed a reason to inject his own (western!) personality into the game. Maybe this is a taste thing but i find it a bit obnoxious. More time should have been spent on providing actual information (which does exist in the form of admittedly good guides outside of the game). Examples of this are also found in the options screen with setting like "Make my eyes bleed" with no explanation.

Bro just tell us wtf your ♥♥♥♥♥♥ option does

Really want to like this game. It has some pretty fun moments and is set in a unique and interesting point in history. What really lets the game down though is the UI. Navigating the various menus, trying to find important info about characters and different factions is just a nightmare. For the level of complexity this game has it is in dire need of a better interface to provide the player with useful information.

Another suggestion to help with large faction management would be some kind of end turn report. Ie what did my 6 guys on AI management do last turn. It would help to know what they were doing to make some better decisions. Ie we're they building roads or encouraging opium plantations?