Many of which don't like the game because they believe it to be too woke. Those reviews can be discarded.
This is certainly a
portion of it, but the game has legitimate problems even to people who have approached it completely open to the changes provided. The reasons for the rocky public perception of the game are multifaceted: unfinished UI, bugs, crashes, controversy over the mechanics, and all of this framed in the context of the monetization plan (DLC being worked on and
sold to consumers before the game is, frankly, even ready for release). I would love to live in the world where 2K said "you know what, give it a few more months in the oven" and we got a launch with a functioning UI, far fewer bugs, better balancing of the new mechanics (we all remember the devs being surprised when their epic Modern Age showdown was cut short by an unavoidable early end state on stream, right?) and maybe a few extra Civilizations, so that the controversy could really just boil down to the new mechanics and stupid anti-woke outrage over Harriet Tubman. However, that isn't the case: anti-consumer business practices have led to a shipped product that has incurred scathing criticism from even the people who have had an overall positive experience and were sponsored by Firaxis. I have openly been a big fan of the design decisions made by Firaxis for this installment. I have written paragraphs upon paragraphs in defense of their roster choices. However, at this moment, considering its unpolished state and its high cost, I would
not feel good about recommending the purchase of this game to any of my friends. On Steam, this equals a negative review. Thus, I do not believe that a sizable amount of bad reviews can be simply discarded out the gate. Even ones that may complain about things that I don't see as problems likely have legitimate concerns as well. If someone writes a review complaining that the game is unpolished because of "DEI hires" or too much time spent on "woke," I can disagree with their reasoning, but it doesn't change the fact that what they accuse the true problem of being, an extreme lack of polish, is legitimately present in the game. If the game
was polished, sure, they're obviously just making stuff up to try to justify their anger, but in this situation I'm afraid that it can't be said for certain.