Should I buy this game right now?

If you think you'll be fine with limited game feedback and a few random UI issues you should give it a go.  Basically you have to do a lot of digging yourself for infornation.  

Multiplayer is not enabled right now.

 And for the fun factor everyone will have a different answer I think it is a lot of fun.  Been playing it till (okay past) bed time each night!

I'm loving playing it and have been recommending it to others.

Multiplayer will be coming in a week or so I think.

Yes. It is fun. I find that I time-travel while playing it. Meaning when I start an hour of playing feels like about 10 minutes have past. A good sign.

Yes, it has problems, but I am still having a lot of fun.  Patches should only make it better.

Well, it all depends on who you ask. Some people are still experiencing some bugs and crashes (though I think some has been blown out of proportion). I am not having any problems with it right now. I think it's a game well worth purchasing (obviously because I have it) seeing as I pre-ordered, and have played the beta. Yes, it's true there are things that can be tweaked, but in my mind, for being just released, the game is great. I mean, they put out the pre 0 day build on sunday (well, really monday morning to be accurate), then had the gold++ patch, then day 0, then another hotfix. That was all by Tuesday night. So, I would say yes, becuase even if you DO have some crashes/bugs, you know they will be fixed shortly, and won't need to wait 6 months for it to get resolved.

Sounds like a resounding "yes". Thanks guys

I say YES! Get it now!
Its a fantastic game!
Sure there are some problems but what game doesnt have issues?

The game wont be for everyone, but for those who love a Deep and strategic game, this is a must buy imo.

I was on the fence about this game yesterday but after buyign it and playing, man am I glad i got it!

I have not had any crashes in 6+ hours of playing the game.

Most of the terrible things are pretty exaggerated, because as a rule of thumb people on the internet are unable to remain rational

The game has its issues, some late-game balancing stuff is out of whack, and with lots of new players over the beta some new hardware conflicts/crasshes have popped up. Honestly, I can't recommend one or the other. I'd say unless you're confident in the buy and don't mind putting up with some funkyness while the appropriate changes go out in patches, you can grab it. It plays just fine for most people as far as not crashing, and the devs are already listening to and participating a bit in balance discussions. If you don't feel confident, then wait a bit and keep a lookout on the forums about patch change logs to see the kind of things that get fixed.

I think you'd be better off asking for opinions on whichever parts of the game concern you (and being more specific than "is it fun?" since that's highly subjective), rather than asking people to tell you if you should buy it or not

Multiplayer will be up next week.

The patch yesterday fixed a lot of the crash problems. Some ATI hardware on Windows 7 64 bit still might be having some issues, but there's a lot fewer problems today then yesterday.

I'd say that if you're concerned about the hardware issue, wait for a demo. If you want a perfect game right now, I'd say wait a couple months. If you're willing to deal with some spots being rough around the edges, the general consensus among people is that it's pretty fun.

I have spent 5 hours playing with the latest patch, all of the issues I was having,  multiple crashes per hour, lack of polish and massive bugs, are gone. I'm sure there are still issues, but I'm very happy playing the game in sandbox mode right now.

Win7 x64, Core 2 quad, Ati 4890 10.7 drivers. No crashes

If you are a strategy nut and play more then 1 strategy game at  time (not just civ4 or galciv2).  Then I would suggest you get this now, it's pretty fun and any problems will be fixed in the future.  THis is if you are an addict and tend to play multiple sessions in a row (nonstop) or if you are in a big Fantasy turnbased phase and can't get enough of MOM, AOW:SM, and HOMM3/5. 

If you are more casual, then I would suggest wait it out.  Especially if you're the type of player that only plays maybe 1 full sandbox session a month and take a break.  Since odds are you want to play 1 good session and take a lot of time doing it, the experience will be more rewarding once the game has been tweaked.

Another way of explaining it is if you are looking to only play 1 fantasy turnbased strategy game and don't have time for others.  Then you are looking for the end all be all fantasy strat game which this game is 2 expansions from being so I would say wait.   If you hop around from varios strategy games like galciv2, MOO, Civ4, ect... then this is another game to add to that list cause it's a pretty solid 4x game.

The 2 major problems as I see it with Elemental is stabilty (CTDs) and passive AI.  Personally I have only gotten a handful of CTDs on my windows7 64 bit machine with a Radeon HD5700 and 4 gigs of ram but none of those crashes were repeatable (use autosave after every turn).  The AI is as solid as MOM or AOW but not up to stardock standards but I'm sure it will be improved on as time goes by.

What I can say about Elemental is that it's different enough from other 4x games that it can stand on it's own even with comparisons to Master of Magic.

Stardock has a phenomenal record of fixing, tweaking, and tinkering with their games long after they have been released.  That said, I think the game is fun and addictive right now.  It certainly isn't perfect, and needs (and will get) improvement.  But it is very playable and very fun right now, at least as far as I'm concerned.  At this point I'm finding the game almost too addictive.

Biggest problem for some people is the learning curve.  But if you stick with it, and read the forums and watch the video tutorials, you should be fine.

tough call, its playable but not everything seems to be working as intended and there is zero documenttion, but its fun.

I would not recommend it to you. If you're patient, and don't mind the feeling you're playing by yourself then go for it. The city building and kingdom/empire building aspect is actually pretty fun. It is neat to see you bringing life and civilization back to a dead world. The gameplay itself is very shallow though, the battles are not very fun and have strategic element to them, and the AI seems to act randomly as if their decisions were based on a dice roll.

If you're a patient person and believe in supporting a company in the hopes of future patches coming out to make the game better then you'll be happy with your purchase.

There are people with issues and people without them. I have barely issues and I'm enjoying it. It can be improved gameplay-wise but being a Stardock game, improvement is a staple. Multiplyaer, as already mentioned, was delayed (we hope it works? ).

As there is going to be a demo of the game, the best thing is to wait for it. Plus keeping an eye on this forum.

absolutely, i recomend this game. It's not perfect, and it has alot of room for improvement, but i can't remember the last time i was drawn into a game so completely. i played all afternoon and evening yesterday, even into the wee hours of this morning. the "one more turn" draw is quite strong.

I was on the fence also.  Judging from what I've seen and read, I would say no.  The problems I see are:

* AI is very weak

* game mechanics aren't implemented enough (ex: high level Magic spells don't scale, no meaningful documentation, bad interface, odd content, etc.)

* Multi-player isn't activated.  The cynical side of me thinks that that is code for "it hasn't been finished yet."  Given the complaints about incomplete game mechanics, MP might be incomplete, not fully tested, not balanced, etc..

* numerous complaints about crashes, so it may be pretty hit or miss as to whether you can play the game

* there are a lot of "give it time" or come back in six months type comments.

* non-trivial amount of "no game is ever finished" and "no game is bug free" comments

* non-trivial amount of well reasoned/rational/polite posts about game problems and negative user reviews

I would wait and check back later.  Or wait for a big price drop.

How about try the game first? You are making a judgement based on others.

New to SD but was aware of them from GC2 praise (MOO fan).

Not surprised by fan base that feel compelled to refute all criticism (valid or otherwise), but has any other SD release met this much day 1 issues? I don't know the answer to that as I have not made a habit of checking the pulse of SD on release day, but given the common denominator sentiment of fans/people who want to be fans saying "it will get better" .. I would wait for that day. This game will not always command $50 AAA-like entry fee, and when it comes down, it will probably be an amazing value (if indeed it does get better).

I think it speaks volumes that Brad so quickly and demonstratively lashed out against the PC Gamer UK article, almost as if he was poised on the defensive (i.e. given enough serum, even Brad would admit this game was rushed).

Normally I would flog a game that did have issues, but the rate at which Stardock has been patching things I have no issues recommending the game. The game honestly needed a few more weeks before release i think, but its released and here we are. For me Stardock's GC2 was more then enough to earn plenty of good will capital to be spent towards Elemental. Demigod, and Sins which there were varrying degrees of involvement are both games i still play regularly and they work fine. (Although people said Demi had random issues, but we only play lan and it worked fine out of the box before the first patch).

So I would say buy the game now, or in 3 months. Either way in the long short or long term you will really enjoy the experince, esspecially when multiplayer is reactivated.

It doesn't seem that way to me. And if a lot of people are complaining about the same things there is probably some truth there worth looking at.

I think the game is not yet finished... Have critical errors, crashes; combat system have inbalance between melee and ranged weapons; stack concept is broken.

But the playing is addictive.

I've been playing without issue for the past two days.  I'd recommend it and, as others have said, it will only get better with the patches and new features that come out later.

I highly doubt it would take 6 months and I really hope I'm right in this I'd expect most of these issues to go away in 1, 2 at the most. The foundation for most of the mechanics is solid, just needs number tweaking to make it mash up well and scale well.

Sure, where's the demo? Or should I pirate the game for review purposes? 

And what's wrong with doing a little research before plonking down money for a product?  Is everyone else's opinion invalid and untrustworthy?

Should you buy it right now?  No.  Should you mark it down to come back to?  Absolutely.  With a solid effort Stardock can make the current mess a great game in 3-6 months.

The game has a lot of silly little issues that need to be worked out.