Stellaris (PC)

Stellaris is a grand space strategy sim brought to you by the same studio that gave us Crusader Kings, Victoria, and one of my all time favorites, Europa Universalis. Of course I am talking about those Swedes over at Paradox, and their penchant for creating games with huge amounts of depth. When I heard about the game, my first thought was “could this style of gameplay hold up … in space?”

Big Bang

In the beginning of the game you choose the species you want to play as, from among several species groups: Mammalian, Reptilian, Avian, Arthropid, etc. You can choose from a list of pre-made races with predetermined characteristics, or you can create your own species build by choosing from various Traits and Ethos types. This was one of my favorite parts of the game. Your species can have any appearance – from humans, to crabs, to blobs. You want to be a war-mongering religious zealot that looks like a ferret? Then go for it. Or you want to have diplomatic Zen-like culture but look like a species-destroying? That’s your choice. The point is, the game allows you the freedom to set your own path from the very beginning. You also get to choose the type of government you want employ, with each one changing something about the gameplay experience. This something that can have fun with.

My God, It's Full of Stars!

Stellaris utilizes the same Clausewitz game engine as Europa Universalis 4. Just like with EU4, I found that if you’ve never used it before it can take a little time to get used to. The tutorial in Stellaris is much more in-depth than the one offered by EU4, and can give you a good head start. In the beginning of the game you are given a capital planet in a solar system contain various other objects you can explore. They give you a construction ship as well as a science ship. These two are the most important ships you will have when starting out. The key to the game in the beginning is to find resources, collect them, and expand. If you don’t, you can easily get trapped between two other races and have to fight for territory and said resources in what should be your own back yard.

So you start off slow and have to manage your budget of the two main resources Energy Credits and Minerals. There are also other things that need to be budgeted such as influence, physics research, society research, and engineering research – but more on that later. The first step is to utilize your science ship in order to scan planets for those resources. Once you find them you have to build a construction ship to capture and collect them. It can be slow going for a while, especially if you don’t have the resources to grow. Just as in other Paradox games, budgeting and growth go hand-in-hand, but this can be extremely frustrating at times.

Once you’ve started this process, you’re on your way to exploring the cosmos, which will ultimately lead you to repeat the above process, as well as discover alien races. You have ability to trade with these races, make war on them, or sign treaties. Once you meet your first alien species the game pics up the pace, though it can still feel like a crawl at times. At this point you can expand and colonize other planets, set up frontier outposts to control larger areas of space, and also set up sectors that can be more easily managed.

One of the more frustrating parts of Stellaris for me personally was the Homeworld functions. Your Homeworld allows you to generate all of the resources listed above using citizens that live on it. They only allow you 16 tiles per world on which to collect resources, with various buildings used for upgrades. The part that can get frustrating is when things such as starvation come into play. This is where the game can be difficult, because you don’t seem to have any control over this problem. I found that once I colonized a planet I would have to wait for my race to reproduce enough in order to have the workers to actually capitalize on the resources I desired.

It's a Trap!

Warfare in Stellaris is pretty simple. Build a fleet, then fly the fleet over to the enemy and start a space battle. Your fleets will have a numerical value, so make sure that yours is a greater number than those of the enemy’s. One of the things that I enjoyed is that there are NO transport ships; each army that you build automatically comes with a transport ship (like in the first Crusader Kings game). This makes attacking your enemies a very seamless process. You don’t have to leave you troops on the planet because you miscounted them – they just go automatically.

If you’re someone who really likes a lot of graphically intense battles, then this is not your game. The combat graphics are pretty basic, and definitely not the focus. As a whole, the graphics of the game are what I would call average. Nothing that will wow you, but the game does have its moments where it can be really beautiful – the stars, for example.


Summary

In all the Paradox games I've played, the main strength has never been the technical marvels like graphics and sound. The real strength is always in the gameplay, tremendous depth, and the user's ability to make the world that they're playing in be what they want it to be. And on all these points, Stellaris really does deliver. For the player who desires a game that can be challenging as well as fun, this game is worth a look. It doesn't quite reach the level of Europa Universalis IV, but what does?


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2017-04-15 23:16:39... -

Key Ples


2017-01-15 13:48:25... - Dan

Please may I have a key? It would be lovely to try this game, and give a review!


2016-12-20 22:22:30... -

Key Please


2016-10-13 07:40:16... - gregoire

always wanted to try it.


2016-09-10 15:15:14... - Bence HD

good game


2016-09-01 22:30:29... - Marko7003

Hmmm


2016-08-23 22:28:52... - Aaronlr11

I world love to have a key if this so I can makes for videos for my YouTube channel


2016-08-22 12:58:05... - james

i would love to have a key so i can live stream the game on twitch


2016-08-21 03:13:51... - Elliot

I will love this game, please, I want a key. :)


2016-08-20 19:30:29... - Артём

Key please
буду благодарен за ключ


2016-08-20 16:24:56... - Влад

в принципе выглядит не плохо а на деле?если не сложно ключик пожалуйста!


2016-08-20 00:46:35... - Serega

Key please


2016-08-18 00:57:25... - Lyk

Key please , would love to review on steam and test for myself


2016-08-13 15:22:57... - yunussaka

bana anahtar verın


2016-08-11 00:21:56... - yerson

por favor una llave ayudenme


2016-08-09 23:05:27... - Batuhan

Can you give ,me a key please??
Email:


2016-08-09 09:18:22... - Cristian

key pls


2016-08-08 23:51:39... - deivid

a key pls


2016-08-08 12:14:30... - namkhoai

can you give me akey pls


2016-08-06 22:50:25... - Tagz

nice


2016-08-06 20:53:45... - juster

give me key


2016-08-04 16:51:19... - Andrei750238

I saw few games like this, but fewer I have tested. I would like to test your product. It seems to have potential but we'll see...
I promise to write a review right here. Of course, this if I will recive a Key.
Email:


2016-08-04 03:20:27... - Rehan

Can you give ,me a key please??
Email:


Stellaris Review
Stellaris Review
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Stellaris Review
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Stellaris Review
Stellaris Review
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