Recent reviews by Kraken

The game is good; unlike many others, in this game, you actually build your empire instead of just fighting mindlessly. It features almost everything: development, diplomacy, wars, culture, religion, and much more. You can also learn many interesting facts about history, including past empires and their characteristics, natural wonders, famous scientists, warriors, writers, and so on.
I recommend it!
The only downside is the poor AI. If you want to build something on your own in offline mode, be prepared for the fact that the difficulty only affects the game's balance based on the principle of 'you have a stick, your opponent has a sword; you have 1 unit, your opponents have 3; bots will frequently make decisions that just don’t make sense.' while the AI is reminiscent of games from the mid-2000s.

Well, I’ve spent a total of 87 hours in this game, and I can confidently say it didn’t live up to my expectations. I don’t recommend wasting your time or money on it. At first, it seemed like it would be an exciting strategy game about building your kingdom, developing settlements, engaging in real diplomacy, and managing a state. But it turned out to be nothing like that.

The game is not about building your own empire, planning city development, or making complex diplomatic decisions. It literally boils down to the same thing: endless war. You’re constantly running around looking for lords because, without them, you can’t do anything. You fight, recruit, fight again, recruit more lords – and the cycle repeats. It becomes incredibly monotonous and boring.

This game doesn’t give you the opportunity to create something of your own. Instead, you’re forced to constantly participate in wars. It’s not about development and creation; it’s about endless battles that quickly become tiresome due to their repetitiveness and lack of variety. The game offers no real strategy or sense of progress. You’re just stuck in place, doing the same things over and over again.

Nostalgia for Counter-Strike 1.6, and over time, for CSGO, fuels my desire to play this legendary game. But why do I give it a poor rating, you might ask? I'll try to answer briefly, though it won't be short anyway. The thing is, this game is like a beloved dish you crave to enjoy, but there's always something wrong with it: either it's too raw, underseasoned, or instead of salt, they added sugar, and every time, you simply can't fully enjoy it due to someone else's cooking mistakes! More specific examples of problems are as follows: the shooting mechanics in the game are quite difficult; the simple logic of aiming and shooting in this game is flawed, and if you say "that's part of the challenge," you're wrong - often, you'll see how you can aim at a target 30 meters away and end up hitting the ground near your feet, defying the laws of physics. Eventually, you might get used to this kind of shooting and hone your skills over time, BUT the random effect undermines this refined shooting system. Look at the pro scene; even pro players often fail due to "It didn't hit", meaning the same random effect interfered with their shooting skills, which is impossible to overcome.
And now, delving deeper into the mire, after playing this game (aside from LAN), you'll often encounter hit registration problems that have almost never been fixed since CSGO times, often simply being ignored. If at the beginning of your tough player journey you don't feel this pain, the more you face strong opponents, the more important your shots will become, determining the fate of rounds or even the entire game. Imagine this: a challenging match where you're carrying your whole team, and then that moment when you're about to achieve an ace and hear applause from your teammates... But the server tells you, 'Sorry, your AWP shot didn't register, better luck next time,' and you lose because of an unregistered hit. That's the moment of intense pain. And yes, you can't solve the hit registration problem no matter how rarely it occurs.
The next problem with the game, not just in LAN, will be the same hit registration issues, but often against you. This is a perfect method of inflicting pain, real pain. Imagine a situation where you dash behind a wall, and suddenly you're an unreachable target for the enemy, but BAM, congratulations, you're dead; a hit is registered a meter behind you. The feeling in that moment is impossible to convey. And with this, you can't do anything; again, even if this phenomenon doesn't happen often.
Let's talk about CHEATERS in this game separately. The damned cheaters don't let you enjoy the game, and thanks to them, you'll again experience large doses of real pain. The frustration is incredible. And you can't do anything about cheaters because the reporting system from Valve works like a bicycle without wheels: no matter how much you pedal, you can't get anywhere. It seems like there's hardly any fight against cheaters in this game; it appears that the developers have simply given up on it.
I still have a lot more I want to mention in this review, but instead of writing it all to you, I have an endless desire to jab someone in the ribs. Primarily, I want to jab to cheaters who turn this game into a dumpster, and secondarily, I want to jab the developers who do almost NOTHING about the numerous problems in the game.
The game is cool; at first, I wanted to write a good review, but then I remembered that it's still Counter-Strike 2, not Counter-Strike 1.6.

How to ruin excellent game? Refer to Valve. Dota is not as before...