Recent reviews by Jean Louis Bourgain

4/10

pros:
+ content-wise it is good. You have mission trees rework, good unit model(I absolutely adore the Southern Chinese ones), cool music all in one pack

++ unique government reforms

+++ I love prussian blue

cons:

--- Poor communication with the community. Paradox is not addressing many of the problems/suggestions posted in the forum and players' voices are more often than not ignored (and inevitably they resort to mods)

----- Arrogant attitudes. The dev team is obsessing over Fars's color while bugs like missing expanding empire CB or impassable canal aren't fixed. There are no apologies whatsoever.

----- 3 patches later they still haven't fixed the Ming floods properly. I mean, grab a kid on the streets, teach them 2 hours of basic knowledge of coding, they will know how to write a if... else... statement properly. This is not a joke.

I felt like Paradox should have learnt their lessons after Leviathan but it seems that they haven't.

overall a solid 9/10

pros:
great story. 10/10
the solar system is well-crafted with amazing details. You can actually learn something new every loop even after 50 hours of playing. (I only know I can meditate until... very recently) 10/10
brings back the long-lost feeling of exploration. Of childish awe, of being utterly lost and (die) in various unexpected sense. 10/10
Sometimes it's pure luck. You stumble upon something and it surprisingly takes you to the next stage. Sometimes you have to look up for a guide. But when you figure out something (big or small) all by yourself, you will surely remember it for a long time. I major in math so I would say it is the same feeling as solving a math problem. This game literally tries to tell you that knowledge is the best award. Best take-away message ever. 10/10
dlc is a pant-wetting experience 8/10

cons:
stutter. I've played these games on different laptops and tried different settings but it seems that it cannot be avoided. Could be really annoying. 5/10
I would say that the storyline and the design of the dlc is also a resounding 10/10, but it is exhausting to go back to the same place and repeat the same procedure 20 times in a row. I suggest exploring the base game and the dlc at the same time. 8/10
It's not in general a relaxing or comforting experience. It actually took me 2 years from first time taking off to actually beat the base game and dlc because I wanted to finish it with my (rather pathetic) brainpower. I felt like I am constantly proposing a theory and carrying out an experiment to proceed to the next stage. But once an experiment fails, it is a daunting and excruciating process to re-set everything even if there are shortcuts for nearly every place. So it is really easy to burn out :(

I cried. Refreshingly honest. Way beyond transient pleasure