Stellaris

Stellaris is a new grand strategy masterpiece; one of the best space strategy game on the market.

A stunning first step into space for strategy's superstars - and a great gateway to their other games. [July 2016, p.76]

Stellaris captures the craziness and fun of sci-fi in an engaging, infinitely replayable strategy game.

Ultimately Paradox has created a brilliant and lasting experience in Stellaris; one that allows players to cultivate an empire that spans entire galaxies. It is both wonderful and appropriately grand.

Stellaris is simply an excellent strategy game.

Superb RTS & exploration game, Paradox has launched maybe best RTS of the year with impressive results, best is the influence of our choices, worst are some areas of the AI.

Stellaris is immense, so deep and complex that sometimes is hard to picture all its possibilities. Without a doubt, this is a great game with a lot of love and effort put into it, and the potential to steal many hours of our time.

While this almost feels like "Sim Universe" at times, the core difference is in something for which to strive and active threats beyond your own mishandling of resources and the occasional fire to put out. There's a whole universe out there, and I can't wait to play through Stellaris as many times as it takes to experience the whole thing.

As many other videogames developed by Paradox, Stellaris speaks to a very small niche. Complex and uncompromising, it shows an impressive effort to bring the gameplay of a Grand Strategy Game into the space.

Calling Stellaris Europa Universalis in space is probably reductive, but it was the first thing I did in this review not because they are almost exactly alike, but because, when I put away my empires and get on with my day, the stories that have played out in these digital worlds embed themselves in my brain, and I so desperately want to tell people about them. Both games tickle the part of my brain that wants every battle to have some greater context, every move I make to be part of a larger narrative. Stellaris manages to do this without history to lean on, though, and does so with aplomb.

Whether you're a Paradox pro or newcomer, Stellaris invites you to a grand strategy experience like no other. With its beautiful visuals, deep exploration mechanics, inspiring soundtrack and intriguing mysteries, Stellaris is bound to make you boldly go where no man - or woman - has gone before.

Unreasonable expectation of perfection aside, Stellaris is a expertly blended mosaic of 4X, grand strategy and self-created narrative. For the relatively small niche that this game occupies, it is the undisputed master and commander.

Stellaris is easy to comprehend and exciting to execute, which is a perfect combination for a genre notoriously difficult to break into.

Stellaris is simply wonderful. If you enjoy grand strategy games then you’ll love this. If you don’t then this could be the one to change your mind. If you’ve been too intimidated to try the genre before now, then here’s your ideal starting point.

It was really hard for me to break away from Stellaris’ grip to write this review. It’s one of those gems you launch in the evening for a moment but quit at dawn. [07/2016, p.50]

A sort of best-of compilation of gameplay mechanics from other Paradox games, Stellaris is one of the greatest strategies this studio has published so far. So, put on your space suit, rev up the thrusters and head into the stars - the galaxy is waiting for you.

Stellaris presents an Elon Musk level of innovation - it's a really engrossing cosmic strategy that kept me entertained for long hours. There are some cracks on the surface (passive AI and a dull middle part of the game) but they don't matter. Stellaris is extremely pleasant and in the future - after some improvements - can become a true revelation.

Stellaris is one of the best strategy games that we can find on the market nowadays. It has an amazing big scale design, passion, soul and can keep us playing for hours and hours.

From the modular ship constructor system and the impressive (if automatic) fleet battles, to the ethical tensions between interstellar neighbours reminiscent of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, to the endless moddability that'll allow, no doubt, classic sci-fi reskins (the likes of Dune spring to mind), I can't wait for Stellaris to be the game it is so obviously going to be. For now, though, it's still struggling with escape velocity on its mission to the stars.

A blisteringly fun early game can be dampened somewhat by the bloated middle and late stages, but Stellaris is another example of Paradox Interactive showcasing that they are the kings of grand strategy, and is a game that every fan of the genre should have in their collection.

Stellaris would be better if released a little bit later. Could someone say for what reason developers remove traditional Swedish AI aggressiveness’ tuning from the game? After all the boring mid game due to the inactivity of the computer opponents is Stellaris's main problem at the moment. [Issue#210, p.82]

Though Stellaris has its blemishes and can bog down in the middle, it’s an intergalactic success more often than not. It looks and sounds superb, and provides an infinity varied experience through its random elements.

Stellaris’ early game is full of exploration and promise, and the small nuggets of fiction I picked up after discovering an abandoned research station or dissecting the corpse of a space giant helped draw me into the fantasy that I was truly exploring the unknown. Unfortunately, the game eventually settles into a grind as you either try to convince neighboring aliens to become your vassals or slowly build up an army to forcefully take over their worlds. The rewarding moments are still there, but they’re spaced out significantly. Taking over the galaxy turns out to be a lot of work, but it’s a worthwhile mission for would-be explorers.

Stellaris successfully brings Paradox grand strategies to interstellar level, but feels at this stage too barebones at places. While the early game exploration and expansion is interesting and tense, and the late game crises bring welcome change to a step in 4X games that often becomes boring mopping up, the mid game is too often a boring slog with too few things happening both with your own empire and your passive neighbours. The feeling is further strengthened by the lack of espionage and any real internal or external trading. I have faith that Stellaris will improve greatly with patches and DLC, as Paradox games have done, but for now Stellaris is only an another decent game in its genre. [June/July 2016]

Right now, Stellaris is a very good space-based strategy game, but a few months down the road, it could evolve into a fantastic one.

Content-rich and challenging 4x strategy that is too superficial in some areas.

It's not polished and sometimes slow-moving, but full of cool sci-fi stories once you get into it.

Hybrid strategy Stellaris promises a vibrant and changing universe for your space adventure. Although it doesn´t achieve its magnificent goals, it’s close enough to be a great game for every galactic strategist and explorer.

If you’re new to the genre, then this is no doubt an excellent place to start – but there’s a clear argument that it might be better to wait until a few of the planned expansions and improvements have been released before taking the plunge.

A tremendous return to form from Paradox. The title manages to mix complex strategy mechanics with a more lenient attitude towards newcomers to great success, granting a level of flexibility of play rarely seen in the genre.

Stellaris is currently rushed and rough around the edges, but has the makings of a great 4X epic.

Stellaris has a lot of depth: any aspect of your civilization is fully customizable. The game is at it best when everything comes together perfectly, but that does not quite happen in the middle of the game. But, the more time you invest, the more dynamic the in-game action gets.

eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. What better game to define the 4X genre than Stellaris? Creating and ruling your empire is brilliant in this game. On top of that, the music is beautiful.

Give Paradox a bit of time to streamline the design and spice up the game with more more content, and we will be fully satisfied.

Stellaris is almost as big as the universe itself, at the point that you risk losing yourself in a galaxy of info, menus and gameplay possibilities. The new game from Paradox is truly captivating and challenging, despite some minor issues (especially with the AI). Stellaris is a new star, bound to grow bigger and bigger over time.

Stellaris was going to draw in the genre buffs with its intricacies, that was practically a given; Paradox’s masterstroke was enabling it to get its hooks into the rest of us.

Stellaris captures the wonder of exploring space and colonizing the stars, but gets bogged down when the borders freeze and negotiations start. A solid foundation of things to come and an excellent entry-level grand strategy game, this will hopefully be a good start for a greater experience to come.

Stellaris is a wonderful game that perfectly blends 4X with Paradox' flagship strategic staples. Empire management is approachable yet deep and rewarding, and if it feels a bit lacking it just means you had too much EUIV or CK2.

Stellaris is great. Maybe not Crusader Kings II great yet—give it a few expansions to fill out—but it’s a compelling bit of player-directed science fiction. Freed from the chains of history Paradox has created something creative and bold and inspiring, something that illuminates just how vast and unknowable space is and how tiny our place in it...Still there’s something reassuring, watching the decades and centuries tick by and the tendrils of civilization creep across the galaxy, thinking “That could be us someday.” Maybe.

There’s a few minor niggles, but it’s compelling and it’s easy to lose yourself in Stellaris for hours at a time, as you build your empire and explore both the galaxy and the stories that it can contain.

All the galactic flavour and themes of a 4X space title, married to the mechanics of Paradox's recent grand strategy offerings. Stellaris has a space opera tale of gene manipulation, Federation politics, or colonial slavery for everyone.

Stellaris is a competent strategy game that lets you explore the universe and take over different worlds while taking care of your own race. It is not without problems, but the game will captivate you for hours and hours on end.

What I'm most hoping for are official, bolt-on replacements for systems like diplomacy and ship building, which just aren’t quite as polished as I’d like to see at release.

A deep and complete 4X strategic game that allows the player to create and rule his own empire, but with a serious lack of rhythm.

In theory, Stellaris looks like it has been tailor-made for me. What other game allows me to create an empire of mushroom-people, conquer the neighboring lizard-civilization and change their DNA in order to make them my personal slave-race? Only in Stellaris. Sadly though, there are a lot of technical issues that drag the game down. Constant stuttering and frame-drops as soon as there are a couple more things happening on the screen. Even on PCs with the most current hardware – no improvement. Because of that, the endgame becomes nigh unplayable. Which is so much more frustrating, when Stellaris does so many things right, in order to make every phase of the game as interesting as possible. The console-port on the other hand, has been done very well. Most of the complex menus and UIs were skillfully adapted for handling it via gamepad.

Enormous potential, but desperately needs a modding community to realise it. [Issue#252, p.64]

Stellaris simply communicates its tangle of resources, currencies and modifiers with improbable elegance. [July 2016, p.112]

Stellaris is a game that begs you to explore but with erratic sector AI and trait conflicting win conditions it is a confusing and at times unexciting game to play.

Stellaris brings a lot of fresh elements to the space strategy genre, but - after a promising start - the gameplay changes into more tedious management. At some point you can't help but feel it would be more interesting to start again with a fresh save and abandon our civilization: special events disappear, errors make it impossible to finish missions and the enemy AI is never very smart in combat.

Stellaris is strange in that it wants you to play on its terms, but within that you have amazing latitude. Its emphasis on exploration is exhilarating. It makes each run feel inviting and special. But that doesn't always hold.

The early game promises an instant strategy classic, but Stellaris is unable to maintain that pace.

Like Mass Effect, Dune, Foundation, and countless other sci-fi universes, it builds its extraterrestrial world from the ground up. Stellaris only borrows from all of their palettes to paint its own picture of the night sky—and a game about aliens feels all the less foreign as a result.

Stellaris feels like two games of completely different quality. One game offers boring linear stand-offs against a tame AI, the other is an excellent multiplayer platform.

Stellaris’ great ideas for space strategy are mostly undone by a static, dull mid-game.

A disappointingly flawed grand strategy game, which for every good idea seems to have another that works actively against it.