Distant Worlds 2

Unfinished 3D-ish re-hash of the first game's 2D-ish graphics. That's it. Much of the same bugs are still here. The same AI is still here. But there's just less of it: none of the DLC released over DW1's lifetime is present in DW2. Instead it's slowly being added, in identical form, as DLC for DW2. No, really. The DLC for this game is the stuff that was either DLC for the first game, or was already present in the first game. So this is quite literally a gameplay downgrade, for a minor graphical upgrade. But the game has serious memory leaks and can't run without crashes. About sums up 2020s games.

I have owned DW2 for some time but let it sit unplayed for way too long. Finally put some time in and it is, right now, my favorite 4x space game. There is a lot under the hood so if you think you will just pick this game up and dominate...sorry. This is a title you take time with, to learn, to explore, to just play. Almost everything can be automated so let that be your guide as you learn the systems at your pace. You may ask, why would you take the time to learn this game? For me, its rather simple...along with Stellaris, this is one of those few games that allow me to imagine and to live out my own "space opera". Speaking of Stellaris, I like DW2 more because of the battles. While Stellaris battles are whirling balls of light, DW2 battles feel and look like actual scifi fleet battles. One final suggestion though...the music is very bad. Grab a music mod and install. Other than that, take your time and have fun.

I really want to love this game but all it does is crash and crash and crash and crash and crash. I've never seen anything like it.

Very interesting concept but bad quality of life, balance issues, and the game's mechanics are too vaguely explained, and too poorly visualised. I feel fascinated and frustrated at the same time. Most quality issues are weird in the sense that they are both glaring and trivial to fix, but somehow they aren't fixed. I don't get it. Maybe the developers don't play their own game, or maybe they only play it with all the automation enabled (not exactly my cup of tea). The game is prone to crashes, roughly one in 10 hours of play. Reducing the autosave interval is a must. This interval is in game minutes, not real life minutes, so it does not save while paused. If you have been doing something during pause you risk losing all that progress to a crash if you do not remember to save manually. If you really need to scratch a space 4X itch you might get something out of this, the game is far from horrible, but prepare to suffer. And unlike me you still have a chance to support a more caring developer instead.

Does not work in Linux

Slower paced than Stellaris and I like the automation much better. There is a learning curve but just like Stellaris I can pause and take stock of what is going on. Also I like the tech tree layout so you can def. plan and decide where to allocate your research points. I will say its not a pretty game but I also do not think this takes away from the experience that much. Def. worth giving this a shot.

Got nothing much to add which was not already said in other Reviews. Only thing i would advise, is to treat this game more like a 'Space Empire Simulator'(like a Aurora 4X light) than a Game where you min/max to beat the AI on Hardest Difficulty or something like that. Set your own Goal and Starting Conditions before starting a new Game and kinda RP through it with your Empire(once you got the hang of things). Use Automation for things that you find tedious/unfun and don't worry if its not doing a Perfect Job, it usually doesn't matter much. That way you get the most out of the Game in my opinion.

Nearly 3 years since it was released and it is finally worth playing (forget what Steam says, I've more hours than this, I just decided it was finally worth buying too). I've also got a tremendous amount of hours on the originals, back when Steam was just some crazy new thing. It still is far from perfect, and all things considered original DW was a better game, especially before they added the leaders. There was already far too much RNG shennanigans that detracts from the strategy aspect, but it especially ruined the espionage system for me. Unfortunately they've doubled down on it in the sequel too. A lot of questionable decisions made this time around, and not enough focus on just fixing what was wrong with DW1, which honestly a modern UI and smoother running with less bugs and it would have been enough for me to gladly throw down money (even full price). As far as all the rave reviews, welcome to the age of mediocracy, where we praise every half-assed attempt at anything. Still more fun than Stellaris, and not as much $ to shell out on ♥♥♥♥ DLC (which I'm sure makes this greedy ass Matrix's less favored 4x child). So for all my complaints, I'm still going to give this a thumbs up. There really just aren't a lot of good alternatives these days, especially if you find playing Stellaris as exciting as watching paint dry.

I've played galactic strategy games for as long as PC's have been around and this is my favorite, by far. It's a very deep game and creates a very satisfying experience. Also, at the tougher settings, it's a very challenging game - which I much prefer over the "follow the story line and win every time" type game. The options and flexibility of the set up make for great replayability.