Stellaris

Generally a very good game and has a lot of potential for customization. Does rely a fair bit on your ability to tell and create your own stories

no help from the "tutorial"
and the community is mostly toxic when asking questions. some are sympathetic by saying "i've had to adapt to the changes in the game by changing my style and learning things over and over, but I also had 100+ hours invested into the game, so that wasn't very difficult for me."

A basic tutorial where you're actually walked step by step thru things wouldn't be out of fkn line considering the scope of this game. Civilization clears this game without question

After effectively completely redesigning the game five times over, it's time to update the AI.

Really hard to get started! The instructions are very unclear when learning to play, even with the full tutorial engaged. It looks great, but it's really difficult to understand how to even make things happen.

This felt like one of those movies that started out really great, but halfway through gets derailed... and you keep with it because the first half had such promise... but then it never delivers and you're left disappointed.
The first part of the game was great. Exploring around and claiming new systems, watching the border of your civilization grow in increments. The feeling of urgency, trying outrace the other civilizations for claim on this or that. Developing your research, and building your fleets. It was exciting finding new planets that were habitable, and sending colony ships to establish new worlds. There was this great feeling that it was all leading somewhere.
After borders are established, you find yourself asking, "Hmmm, what now?" This isn't a problem for too long, as there is diplomacy to consider, colonies to develop, ships to design, fleets to build, outposts to be fortified. It's all leading up to something...

From diplomacy to trading this game claims to have it all. except after about 25 hours you'll realize it offers all these things at the most superficial level. Here's Diplomacy: You can improve relations, which doesn't really do anything except make them willing to trade, or maybe eventually become your vassal. Sounds cool, right? Except they never want to trade resources on a monthly basis, which eliminates the usefulness of diplomacy altogether. You can do individual trades, where I'll give you X of this for X of that, but it's absolutely tedious to do so. When you're dealing with over 20k units of a resources, it would be nice to be able to just type into the text field "20000". Nope. You gotta sit there and click to increase the amount by 100 at a time. So, if you want to trade 20k energy credits for X amount of dark matter, you have to sit there and click, click, click, click. And that's just for once resource in the trade. Say you want to trade 5 or 6 different things.. Click, click, click.. The whole process makes trading so tedious, and half the time I'm just trying to get rid of resources or gain favor with whoever I'm trading with.
Except gaining favor doesn't matter. It benefits you in no way to gain favor with other civilizations. Doesn't offer you resources. They can become your vassal, except if they do it literally doesn't affect you at all. You don't get access to their resources, and if you do... or something does happen... it's not obvious to the point that a first time player would notice.
And that's what you begin to realize after 40 hours. Nothing you do outside of managing your resources really matters. You uplifted a species into sentience? Cool. It doesn't affect anything except you get to read some pop-ups about their progress. If it adds a new race to your civilization, I didn't notice. By 40 hours I had tons of different species roaming around. But here's the thing: I had no sense of that. There's all this stuff supposedly happening, but no visual representation of it actually happening. I know that's probably too much to ask for in a simulation of this scope, but my mind goes to games like roller coaster tycoon or Theme park, or even Sim City and Rimworld, where you can SEE the progress you're making, you can see the little models roaming around your creation. Here you can't tell what your pops are doing... how they're living... it's all just a few words of text that left me feeling disconnected and dispassionate about what I was building.

It was just a bunch of symbols on a world map, and numbers corresponding to your resources. And the resource mechanics, while not difficult to balance, aren't exactly clear either. You build a new district or building, but the effects don't immediately take place. They go up after a "tic" or two. When you have about 20 different colonies to manage, and all types of buildings and districts are going up at once, it's hard to gauge exactly how resources will fluctuate. Sometimes i'd see drastic changes, once having a massive surplus and the next operating at a deficit. Sure, I could have paid more attention to all the details of upkeep and how much this or that costs... but there seriously is information overloading going on, and at some point you just want to get on with it. After a while I felt like I wasn't playing an empire simulator, but rather just an economy simulator. Constantly jumping between screens to build this or that.
And that's another thing that started to drive me nuts after a while. You can't unpause the game for longer than 5 seconds without being overwhelmed by notifications. You get pinged with a new notification so often that it's nearly impossible to focus on the task at hand. You're constantly distracted by something, and it left me feeling like I'd forgotten something, or something else needed tending to.

So diplomacy is hollow... that leaves us with war, right? Surely spending a couple hours designing many different ship loadouts with all the fancy new toys I researched ought to lead to some fun, right? So now let's pick a fight with my belligerent neighbor who keeps talking smack. I waged war on him, completely overwhelming his puny ship designs with my superior fleet. I took system after system, eventually subjugating the rude birds under my rule. Sounds fun, right? Not really. Here's combat in Stellaris: You spend several weeks or months of game time moving your fleets into position. You fan the flames of politics to justify the war... and then you launch your shock and awe campaign.
That first battle, I didn't know what to expect when I moved my fleet into range of the enemies fleet. The numbers representing the strength of their fleet were pitiful compared to my own, but still I was nervous. I had no idea how to command my corvettes, frigates, and destroyers. would it be like homeworld? 3d fuzzballs of spacewar mayhem? Nope. 2d, and while visually cool, there was nothing more to it than watching a bunch of ships fly around zapping each other with light and missiles. Coulnd't tell who was who, and there was absolutely no input from me aside from a decision to retreat or not. All it was was watching the numbers of the respective fleets go down until one was left standing.

Some will say that Stellaris was never designed to be tactical, and it's more of a strategy game. I kind of get their point... but the problem isn't even that it's not tactical, or player involved enough, it's that you can't even tell what's going on.

All the time I spent designing all kinds of ships, and I couldn't even tell which one was performing in action. I couldn't pick one out from the other, and had no idea what sort of effect each loadout was making on the battlefield. You know how you think something might work on paper, but in practice its totally different? You can't tell if that's the case here. You just load up your different ships however you want, but at the end it just equates to numbers on a screen, and you have no idea which weapons or combinations of weapons are performing effectively or not.

So, combat was definitely a flop. And the strategic side of the war wasn't really fun either. Just keep a fleet stationed in differect sectors of your domain. No real strategic thought to it whatsoever, except where to attack next.

ON top of that, keeping your ships upgraded is absolutely tedious. As soon as you re-outfit your entire fleet, a new upgrade comes along that requires you to go in and redesign all your ships--AGAIN. And again. and again... and then your ships gotta go to a shipyard to get outfitted... so plan your wars around your next upgrade. It's just tedious and annoying... altogether.. without even the benefit of a payoff. Personally I think adding an option to fight a tactical battle or autoresolve could save this game, and then have some total war warhammer type battles, or battlefleet gothic style, or even homeworld style. ANYTHING...

I bought this for 3 or 4 dollars on sale on Steam and still feel ripped off. The core concept of the game is good, but the implementation of it is poor. It's like a mobile game version of Civ5 in space but they rip out a bunch of the good parts and try to sell it to you for additional money. They hook you in with the cheap price of the base game, but don't mention that you need to pay like $100+ in DLC to get a good experience. If you want all the content then you are looking at $300+.

Steam should honestly add a warning on this game that the DLC FAR outstrips the base price of this game. If you thought Destiny 2 was bad by using a similar tactic, this one is way worse IMO. The tutorial is also terrible and the UI/UX feels like it is from 2007 even though they release regular (paid) updates to this game every year.

My god I hate paradox. I cannot fathom what goes in someones mind with 2000 hours in paradox games.
The fact that the game is 70% DLC by now, as is with every other paradox game, is annoying to me.

If you love geopolitic simulators then you'll love a galacticpolitics simulator, I don't. Just maybe look at the dlcs to get a view over how much the rest of the game costs.

Stellaris has pretty positive reviews, but I think it's just winning by default in the "Master of Orion" style space 4X genre, and hardcore fans of that are overlooking a lot of flaws. There's not much competition besides smaller games by tiny indie studios. I'd only recommend this game to someone who wants to play that genre specifically, not someone who just wants a good game. Why?

1. Performance. This game is 8 years old but it still runs slowly. The coding was not done with optimization in mind at all. It should be fast.

2. Event results are important and opaque. They're not shown or easy to guess. This favors people who look them up online or memorized them. That's bad game design.

3. Too many shallow systems. You can design your own ships, but it's just putting the latest researched things in a few slots. You can manage planet economies, but all the incentives are towards dedicating each world to 1 resource type, so just do that.

4. Too much accumulation of tiny bonuses. +5% here, +10% here, sure it adds up, but the bonuses barely affect strategy. Instead of making the player want to do something different, they just average out into gradual overall improvements, with each individual bonus being forgettable.

5. It pushes DLC hard, and there's a lot of it. If you get the base game, it still shows all the items you can't use because you don't have that DLC yet. It's annoying and in poor taste.

It was a great game until they started mass producing dlc for outrageous prices. Do better paradox.

I feel like it's hard to review any Paradox game on it's own merits for two reasons:

One, all of them are - well no it'd be uncharitable to say they're all the same, each game does have its own idiosyncrasies and strengths. It's that once you've played 10 minutes of a paradox game you have more or less the broad experience of any of them. Queue up research, queue up buildings, turn on 4x speed and then wait for something to happen. It's not even that the waiting is particularly long or intolerable, it's just the fact it's the neutral state of the game, especially once you're efficient at setting up and automating early game. Sometimes nothing really interesting happens for minutes at a time and so it's hard to really review a game play loop that consists of around 50% waiting because whether everything else is worth the investment is almost wholly predicated on your tolerance for waiting. I tolerate it fine, but not a single friend I've gotten it for has been able to sit through even half a campaign. You're either the target demo or you're not and if you don't know if you are, you're probably not.

Two, the other reason it's hard to review a paradox game is because infamously for their products about half of the game is scattered across ~40 DLC, making an accurate portrayal hard to nail down. Do I review only the base game even though that hasn't been my experience for years? Do I review the game in its entirety and give a complete view even if it means using the DLC packs I don't recommend? Or do I only talk about the ones I think are good and just let you figure out the rest? Which one of these is even the 'real' Stellaris? It's easy to mislead people into thinking they'll necessarily have the same experience as I am describing out of the box, only to be disappointed when the space dragons are from a dlc, so I need to make sure I mention that. When I start needing to make a spreadsheet just to discuss the game to make sure I'm not lying to people about its content, I think that's another point against recommending it to people outside the community.

Now my issue isn't that the DLC exists, I get it, you can't have large company with shareholders and lots of employees update a complicated game in perpetuity for absolutely free, that's just not the real world as much as we wish it was. My issue is a combination of the volume, age, and price of the DLC working against the players. There is a lot of ancient DLC that adds features that other DLC later built off of, like Megacorp. I can't actually imagine playing without Megacorp, because in addition to adding mechanics the game feels absolutely naked without, it simultaneously adds value to other DLCs; e.x. Buy the necroids species and you get a unique civic for a corporate death cult. There's plenty of interactions like that and I would like the fact that old content kept adding value to new content... if Megacorp wasn't also still for sale separately too. And still $20- half the price of the entire base game. For an expansion that's 6 years old. It sucks too because now the newer DLC, instead of getting to build off the assumption of the older DLC , it ends up actually having ADDITIONAL pay-walled options instead of extra value. Instead of being a cute interaction, it's a double pay walled civic perk for $30 - you need BOTH to use it and it's not even a good one. It's really just unacceptable that 5+ year old DLC haven't been rolled into the base game, I refuse to believe whatever they'd lose on 'new' sales is more than what they're already losing by maintaining this impenetrable money wall that keeps out perspective players and pisses off older ones until they stop spending.

Even if you want to argue that age doesn't depreciate the value of DLC (I disagree), then you still have to contend with the fact the volume of the DLC is a nightmare for anyone new or curious about the game - and that's not good for growing or even maintaining the player base. It's approaching an on-boarding cost that is simply unreasonable for anyone but true Dire Whales, and I do not believe Stellaris is the type of game to hold a Genshin tier whale pod that'll keep it afloat, it's just not that type of game. I started playing Stellaris shortly after it came out, I bought only the DLC I wanted as they came out and never felt salty about spending $10 or $20 once or sometimes twice a year to support a game I'm still enjoying. But anyone playing now has to purchase this entire back catalog - and if they want the same experience they need to buy years of DLC all at the same time instead of getting to space it out over years like I did to make the price tag easier to swallow. Sure, you don't NEED it, but that loops back around to, well, that's like half the features of the game. Maybe the review you read didn't mention that the one thing you wanted to try out is one of those DLC features - so now you have to do research before you buy it to make sure you're getting the experience you want. It's a mess of a purchasing decision that adds layers of complication it doesn't need as if TRYING to scare people away from spending money on it. It's truly baffling. If you have to choose between spending $300 on a full game or $30 on half a game, I feel like most are going to rightly choose "buy something else entirely". And I honestly think they're right to.

(I will not address the subscription because I don't want to encourage it)

I waffled a lot on whether to ultimately give it a thumbs up or down because at the end of the day I do enjoy the game. I still put 8 hours into a new campaign every few months and I enjoy doing it. I prefer to review a game on it's own merits and what it is now, rather than what it could be or my feelings on any developer politics. But in the end it equally feels dishonest to anyone looking for genuine advice about it's worth if I said I recommended it. I think the only type of person this game is unarguably for is the kind of person who already knows it's for them and very few others, especially in its current state.

I hesitated on Stellaris for a long time. I'd see promotions for it but couldn't wrap my head around what it is. It wasn't until I tried Crusader Kings 3 that I realized Paradox's unique style and approaches to games. (Which can be good and bad but more on that later.) Stellaris is a strategy game in spirit of the Civilization series. You basically take control of a stellar empire and try to build your way up in the galaxy,. Much like the Civ series, there are multiple paths to a victory and even if you lose, you can still keep playing after someone is declared the victor. Once you wrap your head around the formula, it's pretty fun.

So the good? Stellaris is an excellent strategy game. There are loads of technologies, civics, ethics and more in the game. The models and graphics all look good for what it is. The music is stellar (ha!) and keeps you in the mood while in a long marathon session. I really enjoy the politics in the game and the depth of the technology trees.

The bad: The most common complaint of any Paradox game is the DLC. If you look at it from the standpoint of buying the game and waiting to buy the DLC somewhere down the line during a steam sale, it isn't so bad. But much like the Sims, jumping into the series after the release of like 15 DLCs is daunting and expensive. Luckily, they released the monthly subscription pack that while optional, gives you access to all the DLC. I like it in ways because sometimes you may not be playing it as much so you can always cancel it.

Overall: I am really enjoying the game. I had a few weeks off for Christmas break from work. I got Indiana Jones on gamepass for PC. Played a little bit of it and ended up back on Stellaris for 3 days in a row instead. (not a knock, Indiana Jones is fun but I guess I ended up preferring to play Stellaris.) Here's hoping for many more hours. Oh, did I mention the mods? Paradox games are often mod friendly. You can find just about anything you want for this game! Even Star Wars and Star Trek total conversions!

It's a very intricate and complicated game. But if you like strategy resource management games that have tech trees and an infinite amount of scenarios this is the game for you. The learning curve is very steep but I have put in 40 hours into the game and can see myself coming back to this game for years to come when I get that itch to build a civilization and conquer the galaxy!

Really wanted to like Stellaris, but it's turned into the typical buggy Paradox DLC mill. I even bought a few because I was excited for the game, but no luck. It feels like there's no vision or roadmap for the game and it's just a constant flavor of the month churn of power creeping DLC.

Very interesting game but vanilla is missing content and everything cool is hidden behind a paywall. This dlc business model in which you have to spent 282€ for the entire game and some those dlc packages even have a bad to modest rating is dissapointing.

DLC exhaustion, if you have money to burn have fun. otherwise keep scrolling.

This is a convoluted mess with no direction and no objectives. You will have to take a college course to get started. If you hate reading like I do, stay away from this.

Are you serious!! I log in today and I can't play any of my saves, local or cloud because I haven't purchased 1 D L C and 1 texture pack.. I have played this game for years on multiple accounts, spent tons of money on everything but these 2 items (which aren't even the newest) because i didn't want them ,or a dang subscription and now I can't play my saves!! So this is the benefits of loyalty. This WAS my go to game everyday for years and it's over because of money grubbing greed... I will be uninstalling, how sad

Couldn't get past that the base game instantly recommends getting at least 3 other DLC's to get the base experience...

The game is just unplayable without the DLC's yet the amount they charge is ridiculous. The complete edition is now on sale for $125, $280 being the original price.

The game without DLC's is just barren and boring, most new people will end up losing interest in the game without ever even finishing their first campaign. And if they don't, they will on their 2/4th campaign because everything happening will just be predictable and a waiting game of constant micromanaging. Without any exciting stuff happening after the year 2250/2300.

83% of Stellaris owners never conquered another nations planet according to the steam achievements.
94.1% of Stellaris owners never have finished and won a singleplayer campaign

Even the starter edition is $50, now at an all time low because of the winter sales at $18. Yet for this price they only give you 2 DLC's (Utopia and Synthetic Dawn). 2 great expansions but still only a incredibly small addition to what this game has to offer at such a steep price.

Not a singular new player stumbling upon Stellaris is willing to put down $150 for a bunch of DLC's, instead they'll buy the cheaper versions without any or very little DLC's. And be quickly disappointed (in most cases) as these versions only hold 5/100th of what the game has to offer. And if they do enjoy it, they'll have to spend a bunch of money on additional DLC's just to prolong their enjoyment of the game

I really feel like this is a huge reason why most of the influx of new players during sales instantly vanishes the next month, and why the multiplayer scene is rotten and dying.

First, the game is great. One of the best 4x games ever made.

So why do I not recommend it? Mostly because of Paradox's development strategy of constantly releasing more and more content - stuffing the game like Homer being served donuts in hell - has created a unique feeling of ennui. Stellaris and Crusader Kings have proven that there indeed can be too much of a good thing.

I shouldn't feel exhausted at the idea of playing the game, but I do. The knowledge of all the DLC and expansions, some I have some I don't, some I need some are optional. It's just... exhausting. The subscription service they offer to unlock all DLC for a monthly fee is a solution sure, but I don't like it. It is gross to me and feels like the type of thing you'd see in a cash vampire mobile game. but Paradox games nowadays are cash vampires... so I guess they're a match made in heaven.

Tl;dr Great game, I hate it.

This game is bad.
There is no game here.

When you start it, it is like crack-cocaine: NEW SCREEN HERE NEW POPUP THERE NEW LORE HERE NEW CONTACT THERE NEW EMPIRE HERE, etc.

And that high keeps you going for hours, you transfer saves - everytime you log in you are instantly hooked, sucked into it, stuck like a parasite to an organ...until you lean away from your monitor.

And when you lean away from your monitor - you realize that there is nothing inside this game. Nothing.
There is no strategy, there is no variety, there is no progression, there is no INCENTIVE to play this game, like AT ALL.

Your goverment type choice, your species choice, basically everything in the starting screen before you are spawned in the game DOES NOT matter.

It doesn't matter for one simple reason - it means nothing. It doesn't matter if you are a pacifist, an egalitarian, a democracy, a dictatorship, etc...it changes NOTHING about how the game is played.
Which is a huge fucking letdown considering how eagerly the game presents you with such customization.
And the game...is played pretty simply:

BUILD SHIP.
CONQUER OTHER TO BUILD MORE SHIP.
CONQUER EVERYONE.
WIN.

Amazing.
And that wouldn't be the problem i+f there was anything else. But there isn't. The "anomalies", "excavations" don't really fucking matter - what matters is what type of resource you are going to get after clicking the "accept" button. And even then, it doesn't matter what "resource" do you get, because the resource that you need is ALLOY. TO BUILD MORE SHIP.

It doesn't fucking matter if you you want to build allies, be peaceful or avoid confrontation. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Because WAR in this game is THE ONLY was to win it.

If the combat would save it - it would be much fucking better, but the combat by far SUCKS the most ASS imaginable. COMBAT in a video game of this type is supposed to be A THRILLING, BALLS TO THE WALL KIND OF EXPERIENCE, where you look at every unit, how it falls, how it operates, what fucking damage it has, etc. STELLARIS prefers to do it pretty simply: PRESS BUTTON MORE NUMBER WIN.

That's IT. PRESS BUTTON, MORE NUMBER = WIN. LESS NUMBER = LOSE.
THEN WHY THE FUCK DO YOU NEED SHIP "UPGRADES" THAT CHANGE NOTHING?
WEAPON "UPGRADES" THAT CHANGE THE SPRITE COLOR FROM BLUE TO RED?
WHY CAN'T I SELECT A FUCKING TECH TREE, WHY DOES A FUCKING TECH TREE HAS GOT BE FUCKING RANDOM???

War is the only way to win this game.

And that would NOT be a problem if this game was sold as "CONQUER AND KILL EVERYTHING". Then, there wouldn't be a problem and I would never buy it. But the game tells you that it's an "EMPIRE BUILDING SIMULATOR", which it is not.

It would NOT be a problem if the game did not have USELESS ESPIONAGE MECHANICS.
it would not be a PROBLEM if the game did NOT have "DIPLOMACY"!!

This game's capital G GAMEPLAY is: "click on windows and click on pop-up's and click on alerts and double click on "hyperlanes" and triple click to build an army and quadruple click to add more ships".

Technology DOES NOT MATTER. Espionage DOES NOT MATTER. Allegiances and federations DO NOT MATTER.

I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK IF THE CATFUCKER'S FEDERATION HAS ESTABLISHED A COMMERICIAL AGREEMENT WITH THE PUSSYRIDDEN BULLDOZERS!!

ALERTS ARE USELESS!! "RANDOM EVENTS" ARE MORBIDLY PATHETIC GARBAGE.
TECH TREES ARE A CRIME AGAINST INTELLIGENCE. RANDOM "ALLIES" ARE CARDBOARD CUTOUTS OF NUMBERS
THIS GAME IS ALL. ABOUT. NUMBERS.
AND EVEN AMONGST ALL OF THOSE NUMBERS, ONLY THE "DAMAGE" NUMBERS COUNT
IT'S MADNESS!!

This game is literally like crack-cocaine. It greets you with this overwhelming "complexity", "freedom" and "choice", only for you to come down hard as a fucking asteroid from it. "There is nothing there, is it?"

It's empty. There is no game here.

It also seems that this game has a sentiment "modded is better". If your game needs mods to be good - your game sucks HUGE BALLS.

And don't get me started on the "DLC's". They are not "DLC's". They are THE GAME.
And paying for this "GAME" with all it's DLC's is an endavour only rich kiddies with oil rig daddies can afford.

There probably would be nothing bad in it if there was a game to play here. But there is no game.

You can imagine that you are playing a game - but there still is none.

A completely unrewarding, shallow, and frankly, piss-boring experience. It is rare that I come across a game that has such little in it and it makes me mad.

FUCK YOU PARADOX FOR MAKING ME BELIEVE IN A GOOD GAME FOR ONCE!!

P.S: Good atmosphere. Astonishingly good OST. Great concept.
Terrible
Fucking
Execution.

As someone who has spent over 258 hours immersed in Stellaris, I can confidently say it’s one of the most rewarding and engaging grand strategy games out there. The depth of customization, from crafting your empire's ethos and traits to designing fleets and managing interstellar diplomacy, keeps every playthrough fresh and exciting.

The game's storytelling is phenomenal, with rich narrative arcs generated dynamically by your decisions and the unique galaxy you explore. Whether you're forging alliances, waging wars, or encountering ancient mysteries, the sense of discovery and agency is unparalleled.

Stellaris also excels in its accessibility for new players while offering complexity for veterans. The evolving mechanics through updates and DLCs continue to enhance gameplay, adding layers of strategy and creativity.

If you're a fan of science fiction, strategy, or simply creating your vision of an intergalactic empire, Stellaris is a must-play. With 258+ hours under my belt, I can attest that the replayability and sheer enjoyment are out of this world!

if you have a large wallet then it would be worth it but if you don't have some of the main-line DLC you will be missing out on major parts of the game that really make this game shine,

This game helped me stay distracted enough to quit smoking after 20 years.. been 8 years now i quit. Clearly remember playing this over and over again to not think about smoking. was great!

Can't finish a game of multiplayer due to constant crashes and desyncs. Only buy if you intend to play single player.

It's a great game, just wish the DLC would come down in price for the older ones. but I have them all now (sales and birthday treats) and game is just massive with them all!

In short, great game, too expensive DLC, even if DLC adds lots of variety and hits me in the FOMO

Loaded up the game with utopia DLC for the first time. Encountered some robot-bug looking race. They ask for protection. Easy vassal pog. 1 year later and they fracture and get replaced by a rebellion or something. New faction then gets vassalized by rival. Declare war on rival and reclaim land for robot-bug buddies. Robot-bug buddies then want to stop paying. Declare war and claim all the land for myself. 10/10

Best science fiction strategy game ever created. I have been playing it for years and I still love it.

This game looks Kinda interesting, but is actually just a conglomeration of menus and charts. Its like playing a PowerPoint presentation.

Very good game although the amount of content locked behind DLC is annoying.

Fun. From loreless war criminals to a lore filled Empire. It's simply just fun. The lore you can find and the head cannon you can create is awesome. I find the game fun. From console commands to iron man mode, I find it fun. Would recommend

I have played this game quite a bit. It's a great game. It's deep and engaging and everything I like about a 4X game. I played Master of Orion when it was released, I have been hooked on space civilization games for a very long time. So, of course I will recommend this game because it is a very good and well made game.

Having stated all this: I want Paradox to stop adding to this game - I really despise this "new" business model of continual development. It's a bit much. Expansion Packs were a concession at first for Devs and Players to build on enjoyable success - but not these projects are designed to never be finished.

- It wreaks havoc in the modding arena because the player base eventually gets spread over varying DLCs.
- it is has questionable value over time because invariably some of the DLCs are not worth the coin.
- it is off putting - who wants to play a game without buying all the DLCs - many will simply choose not to and move on to a newer title.

tldr: Great game, stop with the DLC deluge - the business model ruins the fun.

Game constantly crashes during launch. Iv been playing it on an off for a year, steam would not refund me when I found out that it constantly crashes. Great game, just with it would stop crashing.

>Be Stellaris
>245 different species
>Hundreds of star systems
>Thousands of mods
>Huge replayability
>Hundreds of different ways to play the game
>Game full of oppertunities and different stories to be told
>Be me
>Still only play Xenophobic Imperial Humans
>Still buy all species packs so I am able to exterminate them to
10/10 would purge again

Stellaris is my first real experience with Paradox, and on a larger scale, 4X games in general. I literally don't realize where the hours go when I'm playing it. Extremely deep and detailed mechanics make Stellaris insanely replayable. You'll never run out of ideas to do in a playthrough.

At the time of writing this review I've played the game for 75 hours and I still haven't seen the infamous end-game crisis. Hell, I don't even know how the game ends and someone wins. That's how insanely big it is. I just keep restarting my games in favor of implementing a better idea, only for it to fail even more miserably :D

Be warned though, you'll have to give it time, maybe watch a few tutorials as well. So the barrier to entry, on a complexity level alone, is already high. And is made even higher with Paradox's business model for the game and its DLCs. You simply don't want to spend that much money on a single game. I get that. So if you do decide to give Stellaris a shot, I'd recommend picking up the Starter Edition and then expanding your collection with each discount sale (Stellaris goes on sale a lot) if you enjoy it.

Currently while writing this comment I have about 30 hours of total playtime (6 on my PC and around 25 on my ps5). Stellaris was an honest shocker to me the first time I tried it. The UI seemed so complex as I had never played a Paradox title before. When I came back to the game after about 6 months I was instantly enveloped into the complexities of this game. Over about a week and a half of delving into this game, I can proudly say that this is a game that I don't think i'll play 24/7, but will definitely boot it up every couple months to see what I can get up to.

100 Hours in...After spending 10+ hours of watching youtube, visiting Reddit post, and having multiple campaigns failing due to the learning curve. I Finally can increase the difficult of the game from ensign and fight stronger AI. 10/10 would put myself through this torture again.

This game is a masterclass in strategy gaming, blending deep customization, rich storytelling, and expansive galactic exploration. Its dynamic events and endless replayability make every playthrough unique and exciting!

What more can one write about a game that has more than 120K reviews already?
Most of the positive things they write about it are accurate and most of the negative things they write about the publisher company and their business model are also fairly true.

I keep coming back to it for the epic soundtrack and the replayability value. There is always something you haven't tried before and even the same empire can play quite differently with different starting parameters (like galaxy shape/size, number of inhabitable planets or hyperlane density etc).

It's a good game, but it's full of bugs and Paradox is too busy making DLCs to fix them. I really hope they change their business practices.

It sounds fun to be able to play a customizable race, until you play a devouring swarm intent on eating everything only to be forced into peace for several years because of the games mechanics. It is incredibly dumb that while roleplaying as the tyranids my entire plan is haulted because the game says so. Also instead of destroying enemy fleets they just magically disappear and reappear somewhere else a year later to cause issues again (same for your fleets, so its actually really hard to lose or kill fleets)

They removed content to resell as a DLC? I've played previous verions of this game as it updates all the game time for some reason. And you could change the hair color's and customize the rulers alot more. IDK why they would remove build in features to then try and resell for more desperate money. Says alot about the company, and who you're dollars are going to.

Gameplay Mechanics: 9/10
Narrative: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound and Music: 9/10
Replayability: 10/10
Innovation: 9/10

Stellaris is arguably the best space 4X game available today, offering an unparalleled blend of empire building, exploration, diplomacy, and warfare. Its gameplay mechanics are incredibly rich, providing players with the tools to shape their civilizations from scratch. Customizing species traits, government ethics, and technological paths creates a highly personalized experience, while strategic depth in diplomacy, economy, and combat ensures long-term engagement. For its depth and versatility, gameplay scores a strong 9/10.

The storyline, however, is the game’s only weak point. While Stellaris excels at emergent storytelling through procedurally generated events, anomalies, and crises, it lacks a formal campaign or structured narrative. This absence might leave players seeking a cohesive story feeling slightly underwhelmed. As a result, the narrative scores a 7/10.

Visually, Stellaris delivers a stunning portrayal of the cosmos. From starship designs to planetary landscapes, the game captures the grandeur of space exploration, even if its graphical fidelity is not cutting-edge. Graphics earn a solid 8/10.

The sound and music are a triumph, with a sweeping, atmospheric score that immerses players in the vastness of the galaxy. Every sound effect, from the hum of space travel to the ominous signals of impending crises, enhances the experience. This dimension scores a 9/10.

Replayability is where Stellaris truly stands out. The procedural generation, diverse customization options, and constant updates make every playthrough unique. Coupled with expansions, it ensures a near-endless replay value, earning a perfect 10/10.

Innovation is another strength, as Stellaris seamlessly blends 4X and grand strategy elements. Its Ethics system, varied FTL methods, and galaxy-wide crises are standout features that push the genre forward. For this, innovation scores a 9/10.

In summary, Stellaris is a masterclass in 4X strategy, delivering an endlessly replayable and deeply engaging experience. While it lacks a formal story, its gameplay and emergent narratives more than make up for it, solidifying its place as the definitive space strategy game.

boycott paradox interactive! they will robb you and close to mock you for not being able to legally do anything about the money you feed them for products that remain broken and unfixed! shameless thieves the lot of them! *spits*

Stellaris is an absolute must-play. The complexity of empire-building, strategic depth, and vast galaxy exploration are perfectly balanced. Each decision—from planetary management to interstellar diplomacy—requires thoughtful consideration and offers a rewarding challenge. The game's adaptive AI and dynamic events ensure that no two playthroughs are the same, keeping the experience fresh and engaging. For anyone who loves mastering intricate strategies and conquering the stars, Stellaris is the ultimate 4X experience.

Stellaris is a must get if you like grand strategy and space themed games, though the combat and a few other mechanics can get repetitive after a few games every playthrough is different. you can play as a star nation that treasures diplomacy over war. or an exterminator that seeks to commit mass genocide on a galactic scale. and everything else in between. while there are over 20 dlc's you need to buy to get access to all of the games content, you only really need a few (Utopia and Megacorp to name a few) to experience most of what the game offers. and once you get board of the base game you can download one of the tens of thousands of mods on the steam workshop which can completely change your game. if are looking for a new game to try, i would highly recommend checking Stellaris out.

I love trying to play this game. I don't often know what I'm doing and I've never completed a game... But I find it fun to try my best and do what I can.

Don't like the game? No worries just wait a year and every core system will become unrecognisable through forced dlc updates

This is 4X strategy game that focuses more on storytelling and providing players opportunities to role-play with their chosen or created civilization. It has a carefully calibrated balance of managements depth, enough to be engaging, but without delving too deeply into simulating the intricacies of ruling different aspects of interstellar empire, as it is in games like Space Empires V.

I can recommend this game both to fans of the strategy genre and to those who is unfamiliar with it, but who enjoy compelling, both player-driven and emergent stories.

Great game, it gets a lot of love from it's developers, like most Paradox games. It is a very special title because it has no historical basis like other Paradox games, which does give you more freedom in playing the game, although it has les story behind it but the stories are good. The only thing which counts for every Paradox game is that it has a lot of expensive DLC.