You know what, it sucked me back in, and I got more expansions for it. While the 2.0 fiasco is still a black mark on the lead designer's record, I'm willing to admit that Wiz did enough to finally distinguish this game from other Paradox titles he's done, and I'm willing to fess up when I am wrong. As with 2.6.3 fixing the most prevalent out of sync multiplayer errors, this game is fun for yourself and friends alike.






Old review below.
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I can't endorse a game that got the Star Wars Galaxies NGE treatment. 2.0 is a betrayal to those who bought in at the game's start, and completely removed the game's distictiveness compared to EU4. I will not buy another game with a dev team headed by Martin Anward (Wiz).

For a little more detail, an except from a conversation with a friend:

It was a betrayal from the game at launch. Previously the game was a lot more unique from the other Paradox grand strategy titles because there were more than 1 type of FTL travel, (there was 5, you get one of 3 to start.)

And the zones of control weren't bound to stars, it was actually a sphere of influence based on how big your presence in a star system is, and you'd control a bigger area around the star for it, including completely enveloping other stars that other empires might control.

Now it plays more like EU4 because that's all the game's design director knows, and he got pressured into making the game like it is now because of a vocal minority that had complete control over the reddit moderation team.

I've just been revisiting it to see if it's at least gotten the same feel, but in a different flavor, and honestly, it's not nearly as bad as it was at the 2.0 launch.