No shade to Civ 5, it was just a case of I realized my tastes had changed. It took me a few games to be really playing it for that to be able to sink in.

It’s perhaps not the best example of the broader point, but I would have to write a literal essay to say why I’m lukewarm on Rimworld, and it would probably piss off the gamers.

Sometimes you can spot a critical design decision that experience with the genre can tell you right off the bat it won’t be for you.

Sometimes you have to play through it to realize it doesn’t meet expectations. A lot of the games I play are deep sandboxes that if I like I’ll sink hundreds of hours into, and often come with a very steep learning period. With those the problems can be subtle and take a depth of experience to understand. I have 108 hours in Civ 5 because that’s how long it took me to realize I didn’t like it at all, despite previously being a fan of the series. There are other games I’ve played for longer and wouldn’t recommend if asked because having developed a nuanced understanding of the systems I see how some design decisions undermine the fantasy the game is trying to sell. Sure I enjoyed it well enough at the time, but for someone who likes to engage with depth this sort of perspective can be appreciated in a review so you know the time is better spent elsewhere.

Do you mean Lies of P? If so that one is on my to play list for sure. If it’s on steam/pc I’d appreciate being in the draw

Deep Rock Galactic and Helldivers 2 are the ones I play. Usually at 2 players.