I don't know how long reviews usually take to land, but I agree it is starting to smell a little funny. I mean, Stardock spent their dough on developing this game, not a marketing scheme. I would think that that would not make it ineligible for professional reviews. I see sites like Rock Paper Shotgun review indie games all the time with real good heart as well, so where's FE?

I have two theories, although they are just trains of thought more than something I fiercely believe.

First, I think reviewers are holding back to see what other reviewers are saying. With E:wom in the past, they are unsure how to treat FE. Maybe they don't want to stand out, be "that guy" that perhaps gave a really bad game a great review, or a really good game a really bad review?

Second, I _hope_ reviewers started playing it and find themselves lost in the content the game offers (as in - they feel they have to play through scenarios and sandbox to give a proper review). 

It is also possible that they follow some kind of review schedule, basically "feeding the websites" with a certain number of reviews every week. They'd do this to keep interest in the website even. So if there's a week where lots of good games come out, they spread the reviews over the next month if they're in for a cold patch.

I thought Elemental: War of Magic was an excellent game, but marred by bugs which gave it mediocre reviews at launch, and thus bad sales.  That's a hard thing to overcome.  I'm willing to bet that Stardock was just being a bit reserved with early release versions of the game for reviews until they were certain it was fully cooked to avoid the fiasco that was Elemental at launch.  Secondly, the game released near the end of the month, which is an awkward time for reviews and magazines: Magazines already have their print material in for publishing and mailing.  

I think it's a bit off to suggest anything fishy is going on.  It could also, as Heavenfall suggests, be part of a PR idea to stagger reviews in order to save on PR costs.

Reviews will assuredly appear in the next few weeks, Qutsemnie.  You clearly have interest in the game, so just hold out for a bit if you have concerns. 

the game has too much stuff in it and there's a massive learning curve. to review it properly would mean spending 50-100 hours with the game. otherwise you can only answer whether it was fun initially, not whether it has lasting value (which is why people even bother learning how to play 4X games)

anyways, most reviewers don't actually play strategy games properly before reviewing them (it would just take too long, and they would actually have to be strategy gamers)

it isn't that hard to write a few paragraphs about the game without really playing it (which happens all the time), but everyone's probably waiting on someone to go first so they can attach a "credible" number (meaning close to whatever the other guy picked) between 1 and 10 to their synopsis of what's in the game.

Give it time. It may take awhile because a lot of games have come out recently and this is a game that takes awhile to play.

Did I read somewhere here or was it one of Brad's videos before release... Anyways, I believe the statement was to the effect of reviewers being swamped.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but it would be pretty bad if this was the case. They should trust their own opinion, rather than waiting to see what others say. Unless they're waiting to copy/paste someone elses review of course.