SH is nearly exactly like the X^ universe game series in terms of gameplay, mods and difficulty. If you're looking for instant gratification out of the box you'll be sorely dissapointed, but if you take the time to read the manuals and the forums (just the manual in both cases I think will still leave you really green and not get the full potential of the game) both games have nearly infinite possibilities.
The one aspect that I wish SH had that the X universe games have heavily benefitted from is having many of the game's actual programmers are also some of the biggest mod contributors to the game. Many of the mods for the games are unbelievable; though I would say that the quality and dedication of both SH and X^ communites is about equal, having programmers that are also hard core players and modders gives everyone an enormouse edge. Major bugs/physics problems are discovered by the people in the position to change them in future patches rather than have them propogate through each game like a few have with the SH series.
I can emphatize for the companies desire to have good DRM, but we're not talking about software that costs $200,000+ to license! Have faith in your customers, especially in this genre we're not talking about a bunch of irresponsible kids that are proud of how many cracked programs they have on their computer. Even if SH were shareware, I'd still pay the $20 because its worth it, and want to see newer better ones come out. As earlier pointed out SH5 was marketed to the wrong crowd which I think's 100% on the mark; not many people under 25 or 30 are going to have the interest in this series (of course any that do are always welcome with open arms, having the younger generation learn about what war was really like is outstanding) and spend the hours just learning how to play the game to the point that its enjoyable. Those of us that do aren't going to worry about DRM since we've go no reason not to buy a legit copy in the first place.
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