Paradox games under fire. Review bombing from Chinese players hits Stellaris, Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis
Why did Hearts of Iron IV's alternate path get Stellaris and other Paradox games in trouble? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest backlash.
Review bombing is really getting out of hand these days. Sure, sometimes it leads to funny moments, like the review bombing cape in Helldivers 2, but most of the time, it’s not even about the actual quality of the game. It’s more about frustration with the developers or something completely unrelated. And now, with the whole Paradox situation, we’re seeing a new kind of mess unfold.
When alternate history causes real drama
It all began when a new Hearts of Iron IV Dev Diary was posted on February 13th, introducing an alternate history path for the British Raj (India). Rather than sticking to the historical route where India remains under British rule and later gains independence, players can choose different political paths that drastically reshape its future, ultimately leading to the formation of the Silk Road Empire.
A map with Silk Road Empire in Hearts of Iron IV.Source: Steam
This alternate path, where India forms a larger nation with claims on parts of modern China, has seriously upset some Chinese players. And when I say seriously upset, I mean to the extent that they’re not just review bombing Hearts of Iron IV, but taking out their frustration on almost every Paradox game.
Stellaris' review history hit with negative feedback from Chinese players.Source: Steam DB
Since then, Stellaris, Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings III, and more from Paradox Development Studio games have been hit with negative feedback on Steam from Chinese players. All because of a so-called historical inaccuracy in a game that’s literally built around creating alternate histories, may I remind you.
While we can usually tell when bad reviews are at least somewhat justified – like with Diablo IV, where things were a mess and the PS5 user rating dropped to 2.6 – rather than just spiteful attacks on a developer, situations like this can still hurt a game’s profitability and popularity. We saw a similar case with Helldivers 2 in May 2024, when mass refund requests even put the community manager’s career at risk, and again after the Escalation of Freedom update introduced changes that many players were unhappy with. But at least in those cases, the backlash didn’t escalate to the point of targeting every other project from the developer.
As with every drama like this, review bombing for no real reason will get noticed and who knows, maybe the true fans of all the games caught up in this mess will help set the ratings back on track.
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