Thank you for the most accurate review of this (awful) game I've seen so far. Most (all?) of the other reviews I've read give it way too much credit and praise, so it's refreshing to see some good open honesty for a change.

I'm sadly one of the gullible people who paid good money for this rubbish (lured by the SMAC successor claims during a moment of weakness) but grew tired of its linear gameplay after just two games, both of which I won on hardest difficulty without even trying. I even used self imposed handicaps in the second game but won with even less effort. The AI is simply non-existent for anyone with any experience of 4x TBS games, and because there's only one way to play (as the review highlights) you can't even make an error in judgement by getting your priorities wrong since you can switch between winning objectives at will because by you're pursing them all at once by default. I'd say it's harder trying not to win than it is to win, and if you want to know how bad the AI is think initial release of Knights of Honor bad.

I swear there's an underground conspiracy going on aimed at ruining the 4x genre, since each 4x game seems to be worse than the last and certainly worse than the 4x game it's trying to succeed/usurp (Civ 5 vs Civ 4, Fallen Enchantress vs MoM, PandoraFC vs SMAC. The older game is far better in each case, Sigh....)

Agreed. Was quite surprised these didn't get any mention at all. Cruise for a Corpse didn't exactly set tht world on fire, but Secret (Future) Wars and Operation Stealth were both excellent entries in the genre (albeit both incredibly frustrating on times)

Otherwise this was a great episode, and by far the best of the season so far. (one of the best ever IMO). Thanks Danny!