SotS II : The Lords of Winter was released last week in an appalling state.

Depending on your tolerance for sloppy releases, you'll either feel entirely robbed or now employed as a beta-tester.

At best the game is in early Beta stage. The forums of both devs (http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=22033) and publisher (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?567065-State-of-the-Game) are full of apologies and promises of future improvement.

While it is true Paradox and Kerberos are likely to support this game for a long time and eventually bring it to playable state, having looked myself at the state of the game, I would suggest you do not part with your $40 to buy this early Beta unless you are willing to wait months to have a playable game.

Good to know.

I picked up the original when it was on sale for $5 over the weekend and have been enjoying it alot. Seems like the closest thing to Master of Orion you can get from recent years. After that I was super bummed to hear that Sword of the Stars II was super busted.

So far Kerberus has released something like four patches for SotS II and are promising to do three or four a week until things are fixed. How the game was ever released in such a state is beyond me. The only thing I can figure is that they ran out of money to fund development and released it to try and build up enough cash to finish it. A rather deplorable tactic no matter how you look at it. After playing the first I have high hopes for the second but I'll agree you shouldn't spend any money on it for at least a couple months.

Why would anyone start playing a new game when Skyrim is on the horizon?

@Ravenlight said:

Why would anyone start playing a new game when Skyrim is on the horizon?

Because a space 4x game is completely the same as some fantasy action rpg, yup.

I was secretly looking forward to this game too, kind of a bummer. Guess I'll buy this later off a steam sale or something after they've fixed it.

@Ravenlight: 4x games are a totally different bag than an open world RPG. While I'm sure Skyrim will be amazing sometimes I just want to start a huge intergalactic war.

What the hell is Sword of the Stars?

Have you ever played Master of Orion or Civilization? It's a 4x game (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) in space. You can choose from one of six different races with their own unique attributes and expand from a homeworld to try and conquer the galaxy. It's one of those games with almost endless replayability and will consume endless days of your life.

For the record Paradox are now offering freebies or refunds for this game. If anyone got conned out of $40 for this early Beta game it might be worth contacting Paradox at :

support@paradoxplaza.com

This is the reply I got today (all personal info removed) after some light arm twisting and I have requested a refund :

Johannes, Nov-03 14:45 (CET):

Hello xxx,

Due to all problems with the release of Sword Of The Stars II we've made the decision to give you the "Liir & Morrigi", "Hiver & Tarka" and "Suulka" DLC as compensation for those who chooses to keep the game. These will automatically be added to your account sometime before November 30th and you don't need to do anything.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568294-Free-DLCs-until-Nov-30th

If you still want that refund, please send me the following information:

- Steam ID

- Activation code

- Outlet you bought from

- Impulse/Gamestop ID (Only if you bought the game from Impulse)

Confirm if you want a refund, if that's the case, and provide this information and I'll arrange it.

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More information about Sword of the Stars II could be found on the games wikipage: http://sots2.rorschach.net/SotS2_Codex

There is a new version of the game manual is now available for download: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?567741-Manual-1.1

---

Kind Regards,

Johannes

xxx xxx, Nov-01 21:06 (CET):

Hello Johannes,

This is the same reply you have made to all people complaining about SotS II. Your reply has been posted on numerous forums and suggests that the refund promise is a mere stalling tactic.

A clear offer of refund was made by your CEO, Fred Wester, on your own bulletin boards. The same offer was made by Susana Meza Graham, your Head of publishing. Surely both know your products are distributed on Steam ? So surely you guys may have anticipated having to offer refunds through that platform ?

I pre-paid for a working game. Not an early Beta release. A few bugs on release is a totally understandable situation. But not such a sloppy and incomplete release as the one SotS II has suffered.

I hold Paradox responsible for this situation given that they are the publisher of this game.

Regards,

xxx xxx

Johannes, Nov-01 15:33 (CET):

Hello xxx,

We apologize for all the problems with Sword Of The Stars II. We are currently working on some kind of solution on how to handle your request for a refund. Please be patient and we'll contact you again in the beginning of next week with a solution.

Sorry for all the inconvenience this game has caused you.

Kind Regards,

Johannes

Ashamed I really want to play this game. Every time I look on steam its something I want. But then I go to their forums and notice that a ton of features are not implemented and or broken really lets me down. I mean it's great to see them patching and all, but I'd rather see they just waited to put the game out. The only thing I can see now is a nice price drop down the road.

I can confirm I got a refund for SotS II. I really like this genre and so will likely buy the game back when it's finally up to scratch and half the price.

Has this game improved? I was about to buy it when I saw all the bad stuff that was said about the release.