Paradox Interactive Reviews 100

Challange is one thing, but the AI is just stupidly OP in every single game

I have bought several games in the EU and HoI franchises.
The developers have a habbit of releasing developer diaries to advertise what they were working on.

I used the opportunity to ask questions about the reviews found on this website: Were the working conditions at Paradox Interactive healthy for their developers? How do they respond to the reviews on this website? Why are their games taking 8+ years to finish?
I used this opportunity to criticize their DLC model (full games plus DLC cost more than 200$ in total).

Not even 10 minutes had passed before one of the forum admins threatened to terminate my account on the forum if I ever were to do it again. She even said that since it is their (IE: hers) private property they can do anything they want. My post was deleted by her and I assume this is what usually happens there.
IMO, this is how their maintain positive reviews: they delete critical ones on their own forums

This is the same guy/company that had ignored extremist right-wing content on the forums for years. More on that later.

But never, ever engage with this company. As a client you have no say in what goes on, even if the end product is what you buy. If you complain you are drowned in masses of fans and if you make good points you will be ignored, mobbed or censored.
There are no truly free ways for you to communicate with the company, communication for them is just advertisement from what I saw.

No matter how much money you give them, you're nothing but a pirate to Paradox interactive. You'll be forced to go online (this is all of their games). If their system happens to be "down" or your internet cuts out, you're out. "sorry buddy, I know you paid 60 bucks for this game, but we decide when you play it."

Good quality games fun and the devs keep updating some dlc should be free but I still buy it all and it worth it.

Paradox Interactive’s games are wonderful, I love Cities Skylines, but everything else about them is bad. Their customer service is horrible, their prices is horrible, and the disrespect they show towards their buyers is horrible. We are nothing but a wallet to them.

Prices-
For cities skylines, they charge an initial $60 for the game on console, which is a decent price, but then make you spend another $200+ on DLCs for the full game. So you end up spending $260+ for a game. It’s absolutely outrageous. They care more about making money than they do about releasing a game that is fun WITHOUT overpriced DLCs.

Disrespectful and rude-
I play games on console, and not only do they charge an extra $30 more than on PC ($30 on steam, $60 on Xbox store), they gave up on us. The game is very buggy, and if you don’t buy one of those DLC packs worth over $100, the DLC WILL NOT WORK. On PC they do a good job keeping the game bug-less, but they show no respect to console players. The only way for the game to be good on console is if you buy the overpriced DLCs. Paradox has given up on Console, and we need to bring more awareness to the subject. We pay more for the base game AND get less. It’s a scam if you ask me. Console players bought the game too, now give us what you gave PC buyers.

DO NOT BUY A PARADOX GAME FROM THEIR WEBSITE OR ON CONSOLE!!! IT IS A SCAM!!! Use steam on PC if you are buying a game, if u want to take the risk.

Absolute money grubbing trashcan of an organization. Dont buy any of their games, ever. Whatever you think it will cost, multiply that by 20 to have a playable version.

Their mobile games are the worst, they balance them so you can easily get stuck in situations where your dead, have no gold to revive, and have to use real money transactions or else start over and lose 50+ hours of progress. I hope this company tanks in 2021, I hope every single one of their devs are unemployed and hungry in 6 months.

Paradox Interactive is dishonest company that abuses its monopoly position in grand strategy/4X games genre. They release bones just to sell overpriced meat later, usualy every few months. Their prices are not fair and as soon as possible another company should rise and teach them how to run fair buissiness.

I have recently tried buying Crusader Kings III. It is by all accounts a worth vile product. Unfortunately, they are affiliated with Paradox. A company that have been bought and sold so many times, that it doesn't matter if the product is a space rocket or a three'titted cow. It is all about inflating the value of the company, and no focus on development or support. And of cause it shows. A fine product of their development team is destroyed by their support. Approximently 1 out of four customers are unable to make the game work. But the company don't give a damn. I am one of the 25%, and I WILL REACT. Paradox is forever banned in my purchases. Both for me, and for grand children. The problem is known, but they choose, not to use resources. I can loose 100 bucks. No problem. But when i see on the net, that the problem have been known for 6 month, and not been addressed. Paradox is so on the list. Never again in my generation or the next. WE DO NOT BUY PARADOX even if they have the best product in the future. IT's DONE.

A lot of people rip them for basing their business model around releasing many DLCs, and I have to say that I don’t care too much about that. I actually like that for the benefit. The good part of that is that their games (even ones that aren’t A+ titles right away) will be improved and refined and supported for many years, which is really rare in the industry.
I just get upset when they release lame cash-grab DLC. The franchises I like most are Stellaris and Hearts of Iron, and both franchises added underwhelming DLCs recently, especially HOI which released a country pack with no new game mechanics. A little lame guys.
The other criticism worthy thing is their wokeness. Their company has been infected with political activists a bit. They need to be careful and remember that their core audience is wargaming fanatics and not purple haired activists. Stick to your roots and you’ll be fine. I think they don’t want to stick on that path though, which would be sad for the industry.

Never seen a website like paradox interactive and its stupid XSOLLA security payment checking. I tried 4 times to buy a game on their website using paypal as payment method and each time, XSOLLA cancelled my order, but kept the payment. I have to send 14 emails to Paradox Customs service to have my money back.....after more than 2 months.....result I did not get my game and I have to buy it through Steam.
May be a marketing strategy because Paradox Interactive announced the game with 75% of discount but at the end impossible to buy this game. I even tried by credit card but still impossible to buy the game because XSOLLA blocked the payment.
So I don't recommend this website, just a big waste of time. If I could put 0 star I would do it.

I would never buy a Paradox game again, in fact I won’t. Stellaris was and is the last paradox title I will ever own, they only care to milk their consumers of every penny they can. I can tell you this, don’t buy a paradox game without weighing the cost of every big DLC they have, because you have to have them to play, why? Look up prison architect’s recent dlc for the why. Don’t touch this company, and don’t feed it.

i only play eu4 and hoi4, although the hoi4 multiplayer resync is BUSTED, itl have to do. Me and my friend always love playing hoi4, and we reach 1944 in our servers typically :)
and no im not paradox go look at my other reviews

5 Stars for the games
0 Stars for having to spend 200 Bucks for all DLC=the full game

What is it with Paradox and releasing games full of bugs, and not patching them? Take Prison Architect's Psych Ward DLC, with 'Mixed' steam and a lot of reviews also confirming that their DLC breaks the game, including very recent reviews. They're not even here on TrustPilot defending the comments. They seem to like throwing out DLC's like EA does with The Sims to catch at much money as possible. A typical greedy game dev.

And people wonder why I and others will pirate games for free eh?

Probably have 2k plus hours and then some in all of their a lot of their games combined (Eu4,CK2,Hoi4,Stellaris,Vic etc). The price of some of their DLCs(updates really) could buy a better game with more content. Not to mention their are probably hundreds of said DLC's. I have half a brain and decided not to buy their DLC's but after pirating some of their games with all the DLC(out of anger) to see if what would be a $250+ game would be even worth the price, I'm suffice to say that it wouldn't. Probably the worst part is, Paradox could have make good, fun, interesting, strategy games for a fair price. In a different reality. Maybe there is still hope ):

Another grievance: them meddling with city skylines years after it was made and I bought it adding a stupid privacy policy that you need to check to play the game. If you check it they will collect and sell your data to third parties. ugh

(Sorry about the sloppy review it was written in a fit of rage)

I did not have a game closed after purchace but Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron games are dysfunctional Risk-type maps, where nothing has logical interaction yet it is filled with fake features. The games disappoint the strategy fans. Then they release the sequels. This company has never been honest, like say Mojang, Coffee Stain Studios or Tuxedolabs. This review is not about some particular game or taste. All their publicity is a funded campaign filled with buzz and extreme terms "world leader". Their idea is to expand aggressively or die. This is a Neoliberal scam and all of them need to be forced out of office.

I bought a game key from G2A before paradox was a thing, now i suddenly see that i can only get the game if i send a message to paradox support. But then i get this stupid reply back:
“ I'm afraid that if that's the case I won't be able to help you. G2A is not an approved re-seller and often sell keys bought with stolen credit cards, and these cards are then inactivated when it's discovered. You did not do anything wrong, but I'm afraid that you've been tricked and if you want to play Prison Architect again you'll need to purchase an official copy from one of our approved re-sellers:” Useless.

Went down hill in 2016 when they became a public trading company. Now they serve investors and shareholders, not their customers. Lots of unethical, anti-consumer practices. Mostly overcharging for incomplete games, then charging for updates in the form of over priced DLC to not only fix core balance issues, but add it core game play that should have been in the base game. For example, Stellaris is a 4X strategy game, and the vanilla game does not allow you to play a 'tall' empire. This is one of the 2 core ways to play a 4X game. This option was sold back to players in utopia. THen nerfed out, and sold back AGAIN in apocalypse.Do not buy their products. Do not support them. They will cheat you out of your money one way or another.

The System is very broken If you would want something remotely close to this then I would recommend the Total war series from my eyes I've seen.

Want to buy a demo at full game price and later pay 10x as much for the full game? Buy from Paradox.