Shadows of Forbidden Gods is a very unique strategy/sim game, and this would be enough for me to recommend it. There's just nothing quite like it on the market right now, which is difficult to say for many games.
You play an evil deity seeking to destroy a traditional fantasy world for one reason or another. You move your secretive minions across the map, cause wacky high-jinks, and cast the occasional spell. The world feels alive, AI characters are running around the map doing all sorts of stuff, and kingdoms are waging their own politics.
Even though it's impressive, it still has some significant flaws on release. I'll start with those.

Negatives:

• Awful interface. The game takes clear inspiration from Crusader Kings 2, including from its infamously unapproachable UI design. Many graphic design decisions create accessibility issues. Example: the player often has to choose from a variety of colour-coded options. To my knowledge, the game has no colour-blind accessibility option.
  
• Poor optimisation in some areas. If you're not using an SSD, you may be faced with considerable load times.
  
• While the tutorial does a good job of walking you through the basics, I don't think it gives the player a good enough impression of what they can do. This is partially compensated for by the wordy hint system. I think a couple more tutorials covering advanced mechanics and strategies would've still been better.

The game has an overall janky feel, but that's more on the game's presentation rather than the technical side. I experienced no noticeable bugs or performance issues during gameplay, despite playing on a budget machine.

Positives:

• Variety of gameplay styles on offer. This is less of a strategy game and more of a sandbox. The gods you get to play change things up dramatically, but the world itself also provides you with a ton of options on how to achieve your goals. You can mix and match and mess around infinitely. This also means a ton of replay value for the price.
  
• Simulated world. The game's characters live their own lives, and it really shows. The game takes a lot of cues from Crusader Kings 2 in how its map gameplay works, and just like in that game, you don't even have to play to see interesting things. There is a ton of entertainment value in just the simulated world and characters. I hope in the future it becomes even better and more sophisticated.
  
• Great modding support and community. There are tons of mods available for the game already, from new gods to spice up your gameplay to various quality of life improvements.
  
• Impressive customisability. The setup screen is somewhat cumbersome, but it lets you modify a ton of options. This means that you can tailor the game's difficulty in a very precise manner out of the gate, as well as turn on and off various gameplay systems to your desire.

Overall, Shadows of Forbidden Gods is very much a hidden gem. If you're a fan of map games, you should definitely check this one out.

Shadows of Forbidden Gods is a very unique strategy/sim game, and this would be enough for me to recommend it. There's just nothing quite like it on the market right now, which is difficult to say for many games. You play an evil deity seeking to destroy a traditional fantasy world for one reason or another. You move your secretive minions across the map, cause wacky high-jinks, and cast the occasional spell. The world feels alive, AI characters are running around the map doing all sorts of stuff, and kingdoms are waging their own politics. Even though it's impressive, it still has some significant flaws on release. I'll start with those. [b]Negatives:[/b] [list] [*] Awful interface. The game takes clear inspiration from Crusader Kings 2, including from its infamously unapproachable UI design. Many graphic design decisions create accessibility issues. Example: the player often has to choose from a variety of colour-coded options. To my knowledge, the game has no colour-blind accessibility option. [*] Poor optimisation in some areas. If you're not using an SSD, you may be faced with considerable load times. [*] While the tutorial does a good job of walking you through the basics, I don't think it gives the player a good enough impression of what they can do. This is partially compensated for by the wordy hint system. I think a couple more tutorials covering advanced mechanics and strategies would've still been better. [/list] The game has an overall janky feel, but that's more on the game's presentation rather than the technical side. I experienced no noticeable bugs or performance issues during gameplay, despite playing on a budget machine. [b]Positives:[/b] [list] [*] Variety of gameplay styles on offer. This is less of a strategy game and more of a sandbox. The gods you get to play change things up dramatically, but the world itself also provides you with a ton of options on how to achieve your goals. You can mix and match and mess around infinitely. This also means a ton of replay value for the price. [*] Simulated world. The game's characters live their own lives, and it really shows. The game takes a lot of cues from Crusader Kings 2 in how its map gameplay works, and just like in that game, you don't even have to play to see interesting things. There is a ton of entertainment value in just the simulated world and characters. I hope in the future it becomes even better and more sophisticated. [*] Great modding support and community. There are tons of mods available for the game already, from new gods to spice up your gameplay to various quality of life improvements. [*] Impressive customisability. The setup screen is somewhat cumbersome, but it lets you modify a ton of options. This means that you can tailor the game's difficulty in a very precise manner out of the gate, as well as turn on and off various gameplay systems to your desire. [/list] Overall, Shadows of Forbidden Gods is very much a hidden gem. If you're a fan of map games, you should definitely check this one out.