1up.com Review - C

Nice to hear that he's re-reviewing the game at a later date.  Honestly, a C is fair for the current state of the game.

The game definitely deserves a re-review. I am glad this guy acknowledged that the game has issues and its not fair to make a stone review at this point in time.

You know, it says a lot about Stardock that most people seem to forgive the problems with their multiplayer connections.  I think the company is awesome and am happy I purchased both Sins of a Solar Empire and Demigod.  I do hope, however, that these issues are resolved quickly and that they learn from this misstep in the future.  It really doesn't take long for loving fans to turn into frustrated players!

Best of luck on the fixes; I hope I can get some non-bot multiplayer going when I get back home on Sunday!

I disagree, a game should be reviewed as is, on release. If they release a game like this, they should get slammed for it. So then the next time they release a game they will do it properly. You never learn unless your hand is slapped. If everyone is all nice and sympathetic the system just gets worse and worse and worse until it eats itself.

Yah I agree with nivina.

If your appendix bursts in the middle of an exam clearly you deserve a failing grade even if you come back next week and complete it perfectly.

Zero tolerance! Developers should just take it on the chin, chalk several years of development up to experience, forfeit the income on the game and fund the next project with a magic sack on money that flew out of the toilet.

 "Sometimes I wish I could just have one giant goddamn walking castle to worry about. Ideally, it would also have a hammer for hitting guys. And maybe a tower with a laser on it. "

"Getting a copy right now is a little like buying an impenetrable plexiglass box containing a unicorn made out of bacon."

Gold

Not much that can be done about it. Multiplayer isn't fully functional which is dissapointing for many.

That's idiotic.

Sorry but all that would result in is publishers being sent copies much later so that they could be sure there isn't some gotcha that crops up in the first week.

That already happens bad enough. Look at Empire Total War and Dawn of War 2. When did their reviews come out? Quite a bit later. Why? To give the devs time to put out patches. 

You think Stardock and GPG are partying right now? Fuck, there have been Stardock people online 24 hours a day, literally, helping people working with people.

Well, I see what you're saying, but I don't think developers or publishers should be rewarded for pushing a game out before it's really done.  Yes, smaller developers and publishers don't have the money to hold a game back for a long time, but when you release a game and it's, quite honestly, in Beta-esque condition, you shouldn't get good reviews based on how good the game might be once it gets fully fleshed out.  You release a game, you ought to be ready for people to say what they will about the "finished" product.  Demigod could have used as much as another half year of development, testing, and polishing time.  It's unfortunate that it didn't get it.

This makes a lot of sense, if your trying to teach a dog not to crap on the carpet.  However, a review is supposed to give users a valuable opinion on how good a game is and how much they may enjoy it.  It is not about using rigid nonsensical rules to constrain that opinion, and using operant conditioning as a rationalization for punishing the developer.  The reviewer here pointed out the facts as he saw them and imo gave good advice on what the game is and what it will become.  

If everyone had to constantly teach each other a lesson, or make things even for a wrongdoing, there would be no need for our world to eatself - it would already be rotten through and through.

"That already happens bad enough. Look at Empire Total War and Dawn of War 2. When did their reviews come out? Quite a bit later. Why? To give the devs time to put out patches. "

Why is everyone so convinced there is a giant conspiracy against Demigod? I bought both ETW and DoW2 on release day and both worked FINE in multiplayer.

The game was working just fine in the Beta PossiblyImpossible. I think its extremely unfair to expect Stardock to anticipate unforseen issues and problems that only come to light when a hundred thousand people slam the servers.

Here's my take on it:

I think it's pretty much a known fact that the main reason that so many problems were caused is due to the piracy of the game (Obviously, they didn't prepare for it as much as they should, but they also didn't know that gamestop would release the game early either...)

Anyways, they went out on a limb for all of us by not putting any DRM in their game.  I'm willing to go out on a limb for them and allow some extra time for troubleshooting upon release.  It's a worthwhile trade to me at least.

Finally, a review that I approve of  !  The point of a review is to show potential players whether a game is worthwhile.  What is the point of a review that is outdated two weeks after it is published?  It is better to re-review if it improves significantly.  The re-review shouldn't be quite as high-scoring as a game that is great right from the beginning, but it should still be kept accurate. 

Really i thought a review was overall rating of everything the game had to offer.. as well as it's fault and pro's so that other people could make an iformed descision as to weather or not it might appeal to thier senses.... so when they released that review awhile back about that car that had the gas tank that exploded..when rear ended.. according to you that shouldn't matter cuz the car drove fine?? and they fixed it later on.. so noone should've ever know it wasa death trap?? that makes no sense at all..Like we should give them a break for releasing a multiplayer game with non working multiplayer? what about the games that realease on time that work? they shouldn't sell more than the games that dont?... there should be no penalty?? then who the fuck would realease working games on time??? Reviews are there to nit pick the crap out of everything wrong and right with a game.. so that people dont waste thier money.. its reviews that claim its great and dont tell you everything that piss everyone off...PS... what on god's green earth can you potentially gather from a review written less than a week after the game is out anyway..who cares?? the best reviews come from players who've been playing for awhile and have a understand of the game to make a review that outlines all of the pros and cons.. the game doens't even FULL WORK how can you REVIEW IT?

Well, life isn't fair.  But honestly, it's not all that unfair to say that both Stardock and GPG should have been prepared and the game needed more time in development and testing.

Things were okay in Beta - for stretches.  You could hardly say that the game ever seemed in a finished state in Beta.  But we got the typical line - "you guys have an old version, things will be much better in release!"  Guess what?  They aren't better.

Stardock / GPG chose to do a Pre-order only beta and never did a server stress test, so it's their own problem that their servers were not prepared for the load, and likewise it's their problem that they didn't have a larger sample set for connectivity testing. 

It's true that it is to some extent player's fault that they can't connect to one another; if they just set up their network settings correctly, they wouldn't have any problems.  But the fact is that the industry standard for games of this type doesn't require players to do that, and Stardock should have taken that into account.  Maybe in a perfect world the P2P system works better, but clearly it's not a perfect world, and systems like the one in place for WC3 are far more functional with a playerbase largely populated by people who have no idea what "port forwarding" means and who have no interest in going to the trouble of finding out.  That's just reality, and Stardock should have planned for it.

Furthermore, Frogboy has admitted that they should have done more research on the impact of piracy and changed the game so that retail copies didn't automatically maker server requests.  They have nobody to blame but themselves.

Finally, the problems with the game go beyond multiplayer issues, and the reviews haven't been bad just because of those issues (although it's true that those issues are the main reason).  The game lacks content.  Just look at the Gamespot review: A dearth of content and multiplayer issues are mentioned as the two main problems.  GPG should not be surprised that a game with only 8 Demigods, 8 maps, no significant single player content, and a rather slim online client (by industry standards) doesn't get rave reviews.  If the game had at least 4 more months of development and testing time, they could have added another couple Demigods / maps, and perhaps gotten some more feedback on the online client and made it more robust.  Such was not the case, and so the game isn't as good as it could have been.  End of story.

It is a great review, and he's being honest! Glad he's going to change in a later date!

I think a big problem here is i want to play this game NOW. Not weeks from now when they fix it. It is unfair to expect me to pay 40 dollers now to not be able to play this game online. Had this game had a good single player, this conversation would not be on here, but thats not the case. I for one hope for a regrade, but the current rating should stand until then, warning people that if they buy the game NOW, they get C quality.

I don't see why it should get a regrade. Other games don't, no matter how much they have improved later on. Regrading it would be unfair.