Quote Originally Posted by Husar View Post
The delivery service is slow...


Sheesh, no kidding. How long have you been waiting, Husar?

Anyways, my review:

I would say its a sold game, as of NOW. IF, and only IF, CA continues to patch the game, fix a few base AI issues(naval transports), and continue improving the stability of the game(I've personally had one CTD in my time playing, but others are apparently having a lot of trouble), THEN I would say that this game has the potential to be great. The base AI in this game is a lot more sensible from a diplomatic sense(though it can be overly stubborn); it will not just attack you because it has nothing else to do, in my experience. However, it will attempt attacks if it sees an open chance to take a city; the Huron, in particular, have been oddly stalwart it well-timed strategic backstabs, in my experience.

For land battles, sans the bugs(again, they DO need to be fixed), I've found the AI to be fairly competent. Yes, it sometimes does something puzzling, but other times, can be stalwart. This seems a decent deal to me thus far; I'd like more consistency from the "stalwart", but it certainly can get by. The battles are pretty balanced, in the sense that there really isn't a single "uber unit" although howitzers get pretty close when you've researched the full tech tree due to percussive shells; however, they are still far from insurmountable. Plus, the AI does a nice job of keeping up on technology, in my epxierence.

Naval battles are a bit odd. I'm still trying to get them properly figured out. They can be quite fun at times, but other times can be totally lopsided(such as when you end up with Ships of the Line battling galleys). The AI seems to handle itself well enough from the battle perspective; however, it needs to do a generally better job of getting its top ships built instead of a brig spam.

The campaign map is quite pretty; however, from a functionality standpoint, is generally adequate. It should be noted, however, that adequate is a vast improvement over the last two titles. The AI does a fantastic job of taking advantage of unprotected towns/mines/plantations/docks and sending small raiding parties to pillage these structures. Unfortunately, it seems to overvalue these same structures on their own land, occasionally leading to an under-protected city. Flint-locked armed citizenry, which join the battle of the defender in city battles, DO help to offset this, and are a nicely implemented featuer in general, in my view.

All in all: I give the game 8/10 thus far; however, all the correct pieces are in place to make this game a 9.5 if they keep working on it and updating it.