Buy It?
 

Should I buy it? I have just read a 'rave' review in an English gaming magazine. I notice that it has by far the biggest following of any of the games on the Shrapnel Board.

Re: Buy It?
 

Depends on what you like. If you like 4X games then the answer is YES. If you are not sure try the demo, it give you a good sampling of the full game.

Re: Buy It?
 

Best game I ever paid money for (or stole for that matter). If I was to put a cost per hour of all the time I've spent playing SE4, checking into mods, or learning things off this forum, it probably would be about $.02 per hour. Pretty good value if you ask me.

If you enjoy 4X games, this one is hard to beat. You may get 1 or 2 that might be 'prettier' on the surface, but when you factor in customizeability, variety of gameplay, replayability, and vendor support, I think you'll find there isn't a lot out there that even holds a candle to this one.

And Yes, I'm biased. I love the game. It's the only game (of mine, not my kids') still on my harddrive after months of play....

Re: Buy It?
 

I bought the game because of a review. It was my first excursion into turn-based strategy. While I was dissapointed with solo play, I tried PBEM and was hooked. Like rdouglass, I've gotten more value for my money than any other game I've purchased.

Re: Buy It?
 

I too suggest getting the Demo first. This game has one of the most fully functional demo's of any game out there.

The demo can be played PBEM, if you kind find someone else on the demo to play you. You can mod it. You can do almost everything with the demo you can with the retail game. It's limited to 100 turns though.

If after playing the demo you find yourself hooked like the rest of us, by all means buy it.

Geo

Re: Buy It?
 

And if you do try the demo, you might want to get the History.txt from the latest patch just so you can see what's been changed -- the patches have never been ported to the demo, methinks.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

Re: Buy It?
 

Don't waste your time! You should purchase the game now!

Re: Buy It?
 

The game is great, it has everything a 4x should. The best part, though, is that the designer is so accessable and open to suggestions. You'll know what I mean when you send him an email and get a response the same day.

Buy the game!

Re: Buy It?
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
Don't waste your time! You should purchase the game now!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's what I was going to say. But I got discouraged by the complaining in the other thread. Forget him!

Buy the game now! Buy two while you at it and give one as a gift. lol

Geo

Re: Buy It?
 

PLEASE I BEG OF YOU IGNORE THE OTHER THREAD, now with that done BUY IT if your worried about mail ordering ect. don't even think about it shrapnel is more than overly gracious than needed when buying the game Online. Just don't screw up on the order form (been there done that!) it causes it to take longer but you'll still get it... Because shrapnel is god.

Re: Buy It?
 

I went to 4 stores looking for this game before I caught on. I ordered it and had it in about 4 days. Its not perfect, but it has great support and is really a good game overall. Moo3 is going to have to live up to the hype to beat it and I haven't seen a game live up to its hype yet http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Buy It?
 

Just a word of warning:
"The general surgeon warns you, that SE IV might be harmful to your social life due to addictive playing and modding"

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif

Re: Buy It?
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sirkit:
...if your worried about mail ordering ect. don't even think about it shrapnel is more than overly gracious than needed when buying the game Online. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll vouch for that. When I received my copy, the CD was cracked, so I couldn't play it. Talk about FRUSTRATION! But I emailed Shrapnel with my problem.... right when they were switching over from the email-based to the web-based support system. After 4 days of undeliverable mail to the support email addy in the manual (NOW tell me about frustration!!!), I finally figured out they had switched systems and posted my problem on the support web-board.

2 HOURS later, ON THE WEEKEND, I had a reply in my email. 3 days later, I had a new disk (uncracked, thank god!) Of coarse, by this time, I was so addicted to the demo that I had a nervous twitch every time I thought about that cracked CD! Even now that twitch comes back, but only when I'm stressed out. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif


...just thought my story would help dispell any doubts about customer support....

Re: Buy It?
 

It took two and a half hours to download the demo. so I have not had time to play it yet. Thank you for your help. I have only just learned what 4X stands for - Explore, Exploit, Expand and Exterminate.
I have played various games but only really stuck with Age of Empires II.

Re: Buy It?
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
Don't waste your time! You should purchase the game now!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Here, Here! I agree buy it now! you'll be glad you did!



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mottlee@gte.net
"Kill em all let God sort em out"

Re: Buy It?
 

I can't remember the Last time I was so addicted to a game, well maybe Civ II when it first came out and Wasteland way back when. Despite its few faults it's a really good game. I've very rarely, if ever, seen a game where the designer supports gamers and modders so well. Most games might make allowances for you to mod parts of it but usually at your own risk. But Aaron has given us some really excellent support beyond what is involved with the baseline vanilla Version of the game. The other really great thing is that Aaron seems to be very commited to continually upgrading/improving the game. The gaming community on this board is godsend too. I've posted lots of questions about various issues with the game and modding it and almost without fail I will get a reply from someone with good advice very quickly. If you like 4x games and especially if you like to tinker with modifying games then definately get this one.