Gamma Release - Time for Reviews?

Since Planetary Annihilation has officially left Beta and is on sale once again - this time with a discount that can hardly be meant to keep out those who don't want/expect to fund a game still in development - this might be as close to a proper release as it can get.
Although it has been stated repeatedly that Planetary Annihilation will be continuously worked upon there has to come a point in time at which the game will be judged based on the things it delivers instead of those that it promises and that point could be upon us quite soon.
So what do you think? Will we see reviews cropping up in the near future? Or does the Beta/Gamma/whatever shield still hold?

I'd hope that we don't see too many reviews as yet. While it's absolutely fantastic to see so many new players on the back of the Gamma release, I'm afraid that many of them weren't fully aware of the fact that they were buying into a work in progress. Having lots of reviews around the place wouldn't help that either.

I hope reviewers will save themselves for the actual release.

The game isn't done yet. To review the game now would be very bad. It might get pretty good scores but nowhere near as good of a score as they could get once the game is actually complete and polished.
You just have to look at the current problem with planets not showing up and the generating of the planets never ending. That is game breaking, and to review that.... you can guess what that would do to the scores, no?

And bad reviews, even if the game improves over time, will always stay bad reviews and turn people off from the game.

Needs more updates first.

You just a short reminder: I am not asking if reviews at this point in time would be bad for the game - they most certainly would - but whether the current Gamma release and price-drop will lead to reviews of the game. Kind of like a reaction to the almost-release of PA, so to speak. So what do you guys think?

They might, and it's not like people could be stopped if they did.

But as has been said, this Gamma is essentially beta 2.0

Let us hope this whole Gamma-sale thing doesn't come back to bite Uber in their, well, backs in the end. By the by, does anybody know if the ongoing development is still covered by the kickstarter funds? Would make sense if it weren't, given all those sales and the fact that the original release window has been abandoned, too.

It's too early for reviews. But a preview of gamma is definitely possible. A preview if done correctly could help boost PA's reputation.

Gamma is just a new name for beta, its not at all close to a full release yet.
Not that that will stop people, but everything is too subject to change right now to give a review that will still be relevant in a few months.

you can't even invade established planets yet, its not done

The game has been a regular best seller on steam. If they have exhausted the ks funds, they are still doing fine, especially considering all the new hires

A proper release is a proper release. This doesn't qualify.

You can write your own reviews on Steam like I did. That way you can be honest and not have to worry about some random person writing a bad review based on 30 seconds of gameplay and no solid info.

I am neither willing to review the game myself at this point (since it doesn't deliver fully yet, although I deem it fit for review regarding its de-facto release when it was first on a sale) nor am I too worried about Steam reviews - most of them don't hold much water either way.
I am wondering when we will see the first reviews from major sites, magazines, youtubers and what their stance on the game's state and that whole ongoing development thingy will be.

To be honest, who cares? In the end all a review is, is a person's opinion. When it comes down to it I don't put too much water in reviews that aren't objective(i.e. stating only facts, not opinions or "feelings").

As far as I can tell PA is in the realm of "niche market" and as such is being primarily blackballed by larger news group. Although, I do hope that they'll take notice, especially with the Esports side of PA.

That my friend IS news. But, I wouldn't hold your breath for any big reviews(and/or good reviews) any time soon.

Total Biscuit.
Jimquisition: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8681-Early-Access

Since the line between release and pre-release becomes blurry as some games are in constant development, it becomes harder and harder to objectively measure a games quality. Related video:

In the end I think you, as a game consumer, should use different sources of reviews where you know from what perspective the game under review are approached by the different sources.

I am not holding my breath on others telling me about the game here having my own opinion on PA already.But a game's success these days does still very much depend on the initial impression it makes on the major players of the games press. So this is what this question is about: Will they take to it now that Gamma is upon us? And will they do so kindly? Thus that first impression of the release proper (or perceived) is something that I do hold my breath on.

I've seen previews a few months ago, and the writers acknowledged that the game had potential but wasn't finished, obviously. I would be fine with more previews, but the game is still (presumably) a few months from "final release", so would like for reviews to only appear when this happens. Anything earlier is just unfair.

I think the old style of reviews has become quite obsolete. I would like to see the new norm for sandbox style games to be pretty much un-reviewable - I'm thinking of Minecraft, Kerbal, and (hopefully) Planetary Annihilation, some others of course. Those games will never be DONE, done. They're so moddable, and always finding new players, which funds new features and continued development. They never need sequels because they gradually become a new game over a couple years. I've long despised numerical scores from the would-be taste makers in the media because the numbers do not measure anything and are just random nonsense. I mean, SCORE=7.6 ... what does that mean? Seven and a half of what? So yeah, I hope PA keeps on trying to exhaust the greek alphabet and never finishes. And maybe, never gets reviewed. Keep being awesome, enable your modders, and maybe you won't need metacritic.

7.6 is a direct comparison to a game that scored 7.5.