Game won't launch - STEAM

I have had a similar issue for quite awhile now. The game just reports that it crashed, can't even get to a menu to change settings. Steam Validation ALWAYS reports that one file is corrupt, reaquires that file, than reports that one file is corrupt. I do not believe that the game actually works. I'm not super keen on giving access to my files to EVERYONE on the internet, but I suppose the developer just isn't interested in supporting their product.

Until this is resolved, I certainly will not be purchasing another piece of software from Stardock.

I've never had an issue; in fact, I did an install on the lowest-spec portable PC I own yesterday; a Pentium (new version) N3540 with 4 GB of RAM (technically below spec even for Escalation 2.92 - which has lower specs than the base game).  Yet the benchmark ran.  Yes; this is the Steam version that Humble gave away last week.  If an N3540 can deal (even a subspec N3540 - which this is) maybe there are other issues? (Display drivers?  Other drivers?  Factor Y?)