Across the Obelisk Review (UMMMMMMM)
Small update: The devs made a post addressing the partnership with paradox, and promptly ignored the issue of players being unable to play the game due to the launcher. Once again passing the responsibility to the consumer to handle fixing the game and using work-arounds instead of just delivering a working product. If you know the history of the paradox launcher you know the chances of them fixing it is slim to none, and going off what I'm seeing on the official discord it seems like the devs will be using the 'wait them out' strategy while complaining about review bombs as if people unable to play the game they purchased is unworthy of a negative review.
The most important thing to say is that if you have played paradox games before (with their launcher) and know for a fact you can launch, and are okay with your data being sold (read the TOS, also google it, its not exactly hidden), then this game is a great purchase and I sincerely hope you give it a try. The reason this is a negative review is because whats different from other paradox games: they introduced the launcher two or so years post launch.
Why is this different? Because when you buy a paradox game and you can't get past the launcher... you just refund it. No harm no foul, right? But introducing a launcher two years after release means (some) players who have bought and supported this game in the time before it was even published by paradox (it use to be independent) can no longer play the game they purchased.
Not only that though, but this denies the 'don't like it, don't buy it' principle. The paradox launcher is known to sell your data. When we purchased this game two years ago (or anytime before the update), we didn't agree to our data being sold. If we had a problem with this we wouldn't have bought it. But its too late, isn't it? The introduction of the launcher changed the terms post-purchase.
Thats not the only reason for the negative review though. The devs of the game, who i genuinely believe have the best of intentions, are unable to handle criticisms or the consequences of their own actions. When they made a deal with paradox they presumably received a lot of benefit and support. It might even have saved this game, I don't know. That is a good consequence of that decision, but the bad consequences are that paradox have some level of control and leeway in terms of what happens; like forcing a launcher. Why I bring this up is because, on the official discord, the devs seem to be subtly trying to shift blame to paradox (they probably can't outright do it due to... conflicts). And its not the first time either. If you've seen the reviews on the DLC you'll notice a common trend of pricing issues. Guess what the response was to all that drama? 'lol paradox'.
And no, using a player work around (you can find it on steam discussions, guides, and i think i saw it posted as a review) is not adequate. Heading down the path in which responsibility of the games integrity is shifted to the consumer instead of the company is not a good thing. If the solution to the game's potential future problems amounts to 'players have to fix it themselves' then this game is headed for disaster.
And one more point; the devs (and some of the white knights on the discord server) seem to think this game is being review bombed. The argument is mostly that its not reviewing the gameplay itself. So I'm just going to say this quickly; do you think the inability to experience the gameplay due to you including a launcher that is known to be terrible (seriously, just google plethora of problems surrounding the paradox launcher) is grounds for a bad review? When they literally cannot get into the game to experience said gameplay anymore?
The devs are good people. No, i truly believe that. They are willing to listen to the community in regards to feedback, but not to criticism. They are the kind of people who got into game dev to make great games, but they are not the kind of people prepared for public facing positions. They did what was necessary to keep their game alive by signing with paradox, and thats a good thing, but are unwilling to accept the negative consequences associated for that decision.