Recent reviews by Valerius

CKII is a deep game and has a STEEP learning curve. The first few hours you will be completely lost. The next week you'll occasionally think you've lost your mind.

Even after serveral hundred hours I still find surprises.

Give yourself some time to learn the basics and it becomes a amazingly deep and adictive game.

First I have to say : This will be a good game....eventually. It is (obviously) very similar to Civ 5, but for me at least they have changed enough that I do not feel ripped off paying full price.

I haven't had much time to play, but this game clearly would have greatly benefited from a later release.

The Health system is like happiness, but much much worse. There are far fewer sources than Civ 5, and if you want to play a "sprawling" colony your going to be VERY limited on how large you can make those settlements.

The amound of space between players is just sad. I would have expected alot of exploration but players are just too close. They exploration phase is pretty fun, but it is sooooo short. It just seems players are much closer together than they were in Civ 5.

The balance between the virtues (social policies) and affinities (idealogies) could use more alot work.

And finally there is just an overall lack of polish in the game.

The splash screens before the intro? No sound.
The "click to accept" screen before the game? No graphics. Just text on a black backround.
You completed production in one of your cities? Great, but what exactly finished building?
I could go on for pages, but honestly, why bother?

I'm sure they will fix all these little issues eventually. But right now the game is so unpolished it feels like a late beta, and not a final release.