I skimmed through some reviews, and it seemed most of them were bothered by bugs that may or may not be there now. Is the Steam release worth trying out?

And how does the thing play? It looks like it's trying to be a Total War game.

i can tell its bad by the cover art

lol

Good for you.

I haven't played the game myself yet, but have been looking into it since it seems like a fun concept.

The original release in 2011 was apparently rushed due to publisher pressure. The developer has since separated from the publisher and continued development on the game and claims that "over a year and 50 patches later, the Kingdom Wars is born with twice as many features and countless improvements over the original game."

The original metacritic page probably doesn't give an accurate view of what the game is now. There's actually a new metacritic page that has more positive sentiments from users (no official reviews yet).

There are still bug complaints, but the developers have been active on the Steam discussion forums, and it seems like they are committed to fixing and expanding on the game. With the influx of resources from the Steam release, they might very well have the means to do it.

I might pick this up considering the reasonable $20 price (and current 25% off sale).