Recent reviews by Spaceman Ryan

The mixed reviews are understandable, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. Somehow the Naval system is even more of a joke than HoI4's, and in true PDX style the AI doesn't have any clue how to fulfill the primary objective, modernizing your government and growing an economy.

Despite all that, the game looks and feels great. Development is ongoing and feels responsive, a welcome change after the Star Trek: Infinite debacle. Victoria 3 is enjoyable in its current form, and has earned an upvote, with an eye to future development.

Great game, although it requires a good bit of dlc to reach its full potential. Keep an eye out for sales or the odd humble bundle and you can get the full experience for a discounted price.

Also worth noting this is a wonderful gateway into paradox’s other offerings. This was my first paradox game, and I immediately loved it. These days Europa Universalis 4 and Victoria 3 get more of my playtime, but Stellaris also earned several hundred hours before falling into the backlog. Each of these games is sublime in their own ways. If you like HoI4 but feel something is missing, be it economy, politics, time period, or enjoy it and want to try something similar, check out Paradox’s other offerings.

I really wanted to love this game. Star Trek and Paradox, some amazing potential. Unfortunately there is not nearly enough to distinguish this from Stellaris. Admittedly, I only tried the Federation for an hour or so, but in that time I got a good sense of exactly how the game operates.

Needs to be much bigger in scope, a few years of the Paradox DLC treatment and maybe it will be what we all want it to be. However there is no guarantee of ANY DLC, no roadmap for where the developer's next steps will be, and as far as I've seen, no acknowledgement of the general disappointment that seems to surround this release. I'm justifiably worried this game will go the way of Imperator: Rome and be forgotten within a year. At least with games like Victoria 3 that had a rocky release, there was an offering that included multiple pieces of unreleased DLC. Feel how you'd like to feel about the general scummy behavior of selling unmade dlc for an unfinished, unreleased game, but at least that signals to the player that there is some level of commitment to the game going forward.

For my money, I'm refunding while I can, and will be expecting to see this game in the bargain bin within a few sales. Maybe its worth $10 in its current state. Maybe it will be worth $40 in a few years with a bunch of DLC included. For now though, it is not a good purchase unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket.

FWIW: This is the first game I have ever refunded for general low quality, and it was from Paradox of all companies. And a Star Trek game! It kills me.

Months later, still addicted. The free update made an already great game even better.