Recent reviews by Fewt

From the ashes of depravity rises the phoenix of quality. How else to describe The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe?

Such a revolutionary step forward in the lineage of one of the most beloved video game properties of all time!

The additions and changes made to this expansion will surely resonate in the annals of the history of all media ever made.

It is perhaps true to say that no mistakes are forever etched in stone for the stone into which The Stanley Parable was carved has itself been transmuted, offering a message of hope to those who have ever erred in their judgement.

You are not beyond redemption. You may change, and you may become more, so much more than you were before. If there is any message to be taken from The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It is this..

What a fortune a privilege, a joy it is to have had such an experience, it leaves me hopeful that as a community - as a world, there is time for us to become our greater selves as great as we ever could dream of in our wildest, most ambitious visions for a brighter future.

Like any game of Paradox that is based on it's more older engines, it has a learning curve.

My main reasons for recommending this game:
Mods
Kaiserreich : http://cs.servegame.com/kaiserreich/. They even have their own forum, although they also have the mod on the paradox forum, but you can't see that unless you register the game. Anyway, apart from the Kaisserreich mods there is an enormous variety of excellent mods that far outstrips any other WW II game that Paradox or other developers have produced. This game has excellent moddability.

Strategy
The strategy in this game is excellent, although the economy side is a little underdeveloped compared to Arsenal of Democracy. The strategy in this game with the available missions on land, air and sea far outstrips anything other games can represent.

AI
The AI is competent, the AI will destroy you if you don't follow your plan. If you deviate too often from your set plan the AI will absolutely destroy you since they are competent at doing the missions. The ability to control your puppets or the smaller countries in your alliance makes up for any incompetence they might present. The expeditionary forces ability gives you the ability to help your ally in need without the hassle of controlling them yourselves.

Tech teams
The number of tech teams is based on your Industrial Capacity, this means the more IC the more tech teams. The tech teams are a better alternative than the HOI3 model of just leadership points. The techteams have certain areas where they are competent in and the level determines how good they are. This means that some nations have an edge in some areas of research.

A short simple review on why the game is worth the money:

My reasons for recommending this game:

Automation;
Some reviews state the steep learning curve and the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ UI. Nonsense, this game can be fully automatized and you can watch it run itself ! This in itself presents you the opportunity to learn this game. Each game you play (I would, as a starter advise a smaller galaxy) you can put different parts of your empire on automation and learn other parts until you grasp the entire game. On top of that the automation is actually good and competent enough to do diplomacy and war.

The only minor annoying thing is the management of invasion and troop transports. Sometimes the AI takes a really long time to put together a proper fleet to attack a planet and take it over with an invasion. From experience I can say this should be improved as the AI tends to put single troop transports in every fleet or strike force. The AI should first and foremost create a proper invasion fleet and then it can assign troop transports wherever.

Civilian Economy
Excellent design due to you, as a player, not being able to influence it directly. The civilian economy is semi-independent and takes care of all trade and resource transport across your empire. If you mismanage your civilian economy by bad military escort or having to few resources of one type, you are in trouble since you cannot influence it directly. The civilian economy needs time to build up from disasters and from the start of the game. Your job as a player is to provide them with enough planets, asteroids and last but not least security so that they can do their job of transporting resources. You might think this semi-independent economy is irritating, but its not it add a layer of strategic depth that is most satisfying to play with.

Race policy
You can be a genocidal maniac or the benevolent empire that is there to save all. The only slightly irritating thing is the fact that you can only select FAMILY of the race, not specific races. correction: You can only set policies for your own family and all other races, which I find arbitrary and a bad design option. What does this mean you say ? There are a lot and I mean a lot of races (not counting mods) and these races are divided by family. You have insectoids, humanoids, reptiles, etc.

These are my main reasons for that this game is far better than any other 4x space game out there.