This is his entire hater post, plus his stats on the Steam forums.
recklessa

Join Date: Oct 2012
Reputation: 0
Posts: 4
Steam and Data Realms are lying and stealing from customers
Once upon a time a plucky young game developer ambitiously decided he was going to make a sprawling and creative 2d shooter\strategy hybrid. It would have a variety of factions and weapons, its own physics engine, a sprawling campaign, and an intense online multiplayer experience. But alas, as the years became a decade he realized the task was beyond him. So to cut his losses, he decided to make his broken sandbox toy look as much like a game as possible and sell it on Steam. The developer is Dan "Data" Tabar, and the game is Cortex Command.

I've been following the development of this game for years, so I was thrilled to see it finally being released as a complete game on Steam. $18 seemed like a lot for an indie release, but the trailer makes it look fantastic, and I enjoy supporting independent developers. Everything on the Steam page indicates this Data finally reached his goal of a complete game.

Only after I buy the game and install it, at which point Steam refuses to offer refunds, does a window pop up telling me the game is still in development. This is a tremendous understatement. The tutorial tells you virtually nothing about playing the game and is impossibly difficult for beginners. The text isn't even formatted correctly for the screen resolution.

When I attempt to play the actual game, which is composed of a minimal campaign, I have to restart the campaign three times before I even know how to land troops on the planet. When I finally do, they first get stuck in hole in the middle of the map. I tap escape looking for instructions, and the game quits to windows. I try again. My soldiers explode instantly when they touch the ground. I haven't been able to play through a full game, but I've heard there isn't even a win condition.

So I go to the Steam Cortex Command forum to see what other users think. Predictably, several are angry and asking for refunds. The developer himself comes on and explains that there was a misunderstanding, the game was never supposed to be advertised as finished. He then gets angry, tells everyone to deal with it, and stops responding. He lets his small army of loyal followers respond for him, telling people that it's their job to make the game they just paid money for playable by hunting for mods in various other forums.

I asked for a refund from Steam, but they are hiding behind their EULA agreement and refusing refunds, despite the fact that they (hopefully) unintentionally lied to paying customers. I'm very disappointed by this. I've always counted on Steam's quality control in the past while buying dozens of Indie games. There have been plenty that weren't for me, but all of them have been in a playable state. It's a shame to see this developer taking advantage of people's confidence in Steam to make a quick buck while destroying that confidence in the process.

Needless to say, I won't be supporting indie developers through Steam in the future, and do not buy this game.

He's entitled to his opinion and interpretation of Data's customer management.

This made me go back onto the Steam discussion forum for Cortex and the community hub
The hub is still in a bit of a state with people complaining but at least the forum contains some helpful information for new players
I wouldn't worry about anyone badmouthing the game or Data anymore

Every point he raises is valid. Also, shouldn't this be in Game Discussion? Get talk about Cortex Command outta Off Topic.

Steam Forum > General Discussion

sounds about right tbh

He made every valid point except for the part about the game being finished
Who here even plays CC anymore

I don't.
Have they made any big updates or anything? I stopped following the development.

I'll probably play a bit again when Steam Workshop gets integrated
If just to help promote the good mods

Cortex Command sucks.

It really does.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, FatZombie.

I never said he's bad for saying that to the game or anything related to opinions...
EDIT:
April Fool'd ._.

"Well you sure fooled me"

Oh god no.