Leviathan, the latest expansion for classic strategy game Europa Universalis IV, has had a rocky launch. So rocky that, uh, it has become the worst-rated product available on Steam.
It’s an unexpected turn of events, because EUIV is one of the all-time greats, a Paradox grand strategy game that eight years after release still commands a sizeable and active fanbase. Yet Paradox also recently made the decision to hand development of EUIV expansions off to a new studio based in Spain, and the quality of Leviathan (and its associated update) has been so poor, and so riddled with bugs and seemingly incomplete and untested features, that disappointed fans have taken to Steam to vent their displeasure.
At time of posting only 10% of the reviews for Leviathan are positive, which comfortably makes this the worst-reviewed game of all time on Steam, with the next-worst being Airport Simulator 2014 at 12%.
And while it’s easy to chalk this kind of thing up to anGrY fANs, in this case they really do have a point! Leviathan is expensive for an expansion to an eight-year-old game—it’s AUD$29 here, which translates to USD$22—and for that kind of money people are expecting...well, something that at least works.
Instead, here are some of the Steam reviews giving details on why they left negative feedback:
There are still placeholders or wrong art uses with the sikh and zoroastrian religions.
Do not buy Leviathan in this state, Paradox released a completely unfinished and buggy expansion.
Probably the worst release they’ve made, from someone who defended them for a lot of time. A real shame that they did not learn from Emperor and this feels even more rushed. Half the art is missing, many mechanics are bugged or imba. This might become real good in a few hotfixes, but right now this is a disaster.
Interestingly, the manager of the studio responsible for the expansion, Paradox Tinto, issued this apology earlier on the company’s forums, before deleting it (it was saved and later posted on the game’s subreddit).
A patch issued since has solved some of the more glaring technical issues, but the fundamental problems with the expansion that folks are having will obviously take a bit longer to get to.