Stellaris - PC Review - by Eivmoe : To infinity... ⋆ Moé Reviews

Stellaris PC Review by Eivmoe of We Touch Games
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
Developer: Paradox Development Studio Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release Date: May 9, 2016

What could be better than conquering the world? Well what about conquering planets, or galaxies? Or even entire species? If that got your attention, then Stellaris is the game for you. Stellaris a great modern 4X strategy game from the already highly respectable developers Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive, who have made games in this genre before; Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, and Hearts of Iron to name a few.

Compared to many other 4x strategy games this one is massive, with tons of new stuff to learn, ranging from creating your own factions, government, your ethics, appearance, name, traits, ruler, even how your city looks and your own flag! Let’s not forget about starting weapons and FTL method! Just starting this game is a learning experience for what you want to do. Unless you take one of the 8 preset “empires” you have to choose from. Reptilian, avian, mammal, arthropod, and more… and that is before you’ve even gotten into the game!

So what’s left before you can start the game? Well you’ve got the size of your galaxy, be it medium (default) 600 stars, a huge 1000, or tiny with just 150 stars. If size was not enough customization, you are also able to change the shape; elliptical, spiral, 2 arms, 4 arms or just a nice ring.

Can we play now? Nope now time to think about how you want your AI enemies to behave or start? Do you want them fighting on an equal level and starting on the ground just as you did or do you want every single enemy be a few decades ahead of you, or even centuries! That is not the only difficulty either, as you can change around how AI empires get economy, research, and how likely they are to ally with players.

There is also a special mode for those that desire so in their play-through, an “Ironman mode”, which is a personal favourite, where console cheats are disabled, game is saved to only a single file, meaning one screw up in this game mode and you can’t just go back to an earlier save! This may not be something new, but it is definitely a giant plus to have it natively in-game. This offers a more fun play-through if you choose to play without it, since who doesn’t remember the old “Tuck Tuck Tuck” from Age of Empires 3? While that particular cheat is not in this game, it does offer a whole other range of fun options to play with.

Now that you are finally in the game itself, you face the challenge of figuring out how you want to play the game, domination or conquest are the two options you have, but you may find others as you explore and get further into the game. If you are familiar with the genre, this is where the fun starts and off you go with mechanics you are already used to. Population control, focus on exploring or science, multitasking, it all starts here and the early months will usually be the ones that send you on the direction of what you want to go.

However, if you are a new player, this is where you will have a bigger problem. While it is not the easiest to learn, the tutorial that is given while playing the game normally is majorly helpful and eases new players into the game or even older veterans who’ve gone a bit rusty. Your situational log is your key to progress and remembering what you were doing, which always can point you in a direction you may need to go.

The tech tree is not your usual ‘pick one and see the entire tree and what it unlocks in the future’, you get three seemingly random research options you can go after, which often hit in between 3 major policies, Physics, Society and Engineering. Within these there are even more choices for you to pick which your scientist will specialize in; Industry, Rocketry, Voidcraft, Statecraft, New Worlds, and Biology to name a few.

Unlike a town centre in older games, here you have an entire planet as your starting operation. Control the population through the food you make, get energy minerals from other planets, or harvest them on your own. The space you have for buildings or population is limited to how many “tiles” a planet has. This works as your population limiter, some tiles are destroyed or just empty, and it is your mission to fix that and get the best balance between every resource on the planets you have.

Not every planet is habitable, either some are asteroids or stars. There are also some planets gained from research that you have to terraform. A colony ship isn’t given at starting either, if you found a planet that can habitat your race, then having researched one so you can send ships is a key element. Seeing as you get a seemingly random research option, when you get one, it is of utmost importance in starting it as fast as possible.

Armies, spaceships? So you just want to conquer and destroy, or maybe want to explore the entire 1000 stars before even doing anything else? That is done from your spaceport. Here create science ships to explore, boost the speed of your construction in space, get more construction ships, or get an early lead by destroying an enemy using your first military spaceship: the corvette.

So you researched for a different core, or weapon, but your normal corvettes don’t automatically pick it up? Then go to the ship designer tab where you can customize your own ships with everything you’ve unlocked, a core for the ship to hold heavier weapons? Many small weapons? Or just be a beefy distraction as your glass cannons come in later? It is all possible with the different designs you make for the ships, which is unlocked through your research.

Yet all of this is still just barely scratching the surface of the game! There is a lot more to explore and learn within the game that is definitely worth catching for anyone who enjoys 4X games or space games in general. While the game offers little new to a solid genre, it does already perfect what it have, so check it out.