Recent reviews by ruijter

Edit 2:

Played the ♥♥♥♥ out of it. Banger. Especially fun with friends. A series of updates progressively made the game state more enjoyable. The most significant difference I noticed was the introduction of a 15-min AFK timer, which booted the many people who stayed logged in 24/7. Haven't waited in a queue time since. Apparently server capacity was just increased, too, so these issues should not be common in the future.

Edit: Waited another 2 hours (3 total), got in without even remembering the game was open. Played the tutorial, hyped as hell, select a planet, and I crash.

I guess I got to exercise freedom in the tutorial for a bit...

Original: I'm happy for the developers' success, as I've heard amazing things about the game and I expect these issues to be fixed. Nonetheless, I am frustrated.

About $56 CAD, 1 hour of downloading, 20 minutes of troubleshooting (black screen on start-up), and 60 minutes of "Servers at capacity. Please try again later," I cannot recommend this game in its current state.

Being unable to play is one thing—I get it, the developers did not anticipate this level of success—but having no indication of any estimated wait time or position in a queue (if a queue even exists) is, from a consumer perspective, a massive oversight. I could've done anything else with my time. Instead, I've been tabbed out listening to the menu music for over an hour, and I have no idea how many more loops I have left, if I get in at all.

I don't have insight into how queues/timers would be implemented, but as these issues do not seem like they will be quickly resolved (as I understand this has been going on for a week now), a system like this should be a priority. While my first impression of this game might be nuanced because it rests on the laurels of content creators, there will be many other excited players who will be lost because of this experience.

There's nothing else like it. Total time sink for people who want a game that combines skill-based combat, commanding troops, managing parties/towns/kingdoms, dynamic economy, and sandbox. The release was quite buggy, but the developers have been incredibly diligent in their response. They've been releasing patches daily, attending first to the problems that are most pressing. Each time I check the patch notes, I find my biggest gripes fixed.