Recent reviews by Gentlemen

Genuinely a terrible experience. Gaijin has somehow found the way to combine predatory monetary practices seamlessly with the worst aspects of live service gaming. You might be told that the game is free to play from the game's marketing, but unless you are willing to drop money on a premium timed subscription don't expect to progress beyond low tier props. If you are playing this game to enjoy arcade in WW2 propeller aircraft you can make the argument to play Warthunder, but don't even bother playing if you want to fly modern aircraft unless you're willing to pay hundreds of dollars or waste a hundred hours of game time playing with filler aircraft that is hopelessly unbalanced against you. If you're playing this game to fly your country's planes you'll also be disappointing if you're not from one of the larger nations as the smaller trees are somehow even worse to play and grind through.

TL;DR: WarThunder is what you get when predatory micro transactions meets live service bloat that will never be balanced.

This dev and community team has proven that it is possible to break the terrible standards found too often across the gaming sphere. They have listened to us time and time again, even going against their own publisher for us. Truly a GOTY title. Truly the most democratic company

Frankly, this game is something that is often over-hated, mainly because of the price tag (which is justified) and because of the game's similarity to other titles. For those who are new to the Civ experience, CIV:BE is a great and interactive experience. I've poured too much time into it and if you like strategy games, the content here will provide more than enough entertainment, action, and wonder. If you buy the game at a discount (I recommend sales either on steam or on steam key sites, the game is dirt cheap in either case. Also, I payed full price) and can recognize the significant gameplay and graphical improvements made over Alpha Centauri, a game so old that some players will be younger than it, CIV:BE is a perfectly enjoyable experience either alone or with friends.