Thanks for enlightening.
Guess I either played it after they've fixed it, or haven't played too much.
Maybe. I don't know if they ever fixed it, because the release version was so much worse than vanilla Endless Space that I never really went back.
As for metacritic, I think I'm quite reluctant towards them, because in many cases I don't exactly understand how and why they "appraised" certain game.
One of the metacritic user reviews on DIsharmony is mine. I think I was pretty clear in exactly what I didn't like.
Especially when no alpha label is presented, yet game is far, very-very far from being "fun" (or "stable"). And good luck telling anything negative about it anywhere but in reviews - tags now are moderated and some well-deserved ones are removed and forbidden, because devs are "offended", and posting anything negative (even if polite) met with banhammer.
So it works both ways, I think.
Tags are an organizational tool, not for commentary. The reviews are for commentary. Steam is far from the only place to enforce tag restrictions like that.