Stellaris

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 984 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 742 out of 984
  2. Mixed: 133 out of 984
  3. Negative: 109 out of 984

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  1. Fokstrot
    May 18, 2016
    4
    If you're expecting the depth of EU, CK, Vic, etc., then this is not much present, diplomacy, trade in gameplay not affected and exist in very primitive form. Race each other do not differ, except for the exterior, with a completely formulaic behavior, their attitude towards to you is divided into - positive and negative... which in principle, does not matter. I got the strong impression,If you're expecting the depth of EU, CK, Vic, etc., then this is not much present, diplomacy, trade in gameplay not affected and exist in very primitive form. Race each other do not differ, except for the exterior, with a completely formulaic behavior, their attitude towards to you is divided into - positive and negative... which in principle, does not matter. I got the strong impression, after wandering through the styryl desert space Stellaris that from the game carefully cut 90% of content to the publication of a couple of dozen DLC.I don't mind DLC that make the game do something new, but in this case, decided not to bother and just cut all that is possible.
    On the background of the above mentioned games, this product looks not very convincing and lowers the bar set by the developer.    … Expand
  2. Renzokuken
    Dec 26, 2018
    4
    Stellaris in 2018 is actually a pretty good game, it's an engaging 4x/grand strategy combo with cool visuals, engaging writing and a ton of stuff to discover and play around with. So why the low score? Well Paradox sell this game as a finished product when in reality it's more of a perpetual early access title. Their development methodology goes something like, release patch > patch is aStellaris in 2018 is actually a pretty good game, it's an engaging 4x/grand strategy combo with cool visuals, engaging writing and a ton of stuff to discover and play around with. So why the low score? Well Paradox sell this game as a finished product when in reality it's more of a perpetual early access title. Their development methodology goes something like, release patch > patch is a buggy mess > have users report issues and fix them > repeat. This leads to a ton of time spent playing a version of the game that has issues. Right now they're pretty severe with the latest expansion release they broke the enemy AI, End-game crisis AI and caused horrendous performance issues.

    So, it's a good game, but impossible for me to recommend based purely on the anti-consumer practices of the developers.    … Expand
  3. meiscritic
    May 22, 2016
    4
    Just played Stellaris and I have to say, very very disappointing. The game has tons of mechanics but so less usability that you'll hate it. I adore games with complex mechanics but this one absolutely messed up the execution. This game is way too bureaucratic. The graphics are lacklustre and soundtrack is bad, but those are just addendum. There is little strategy involved and almost no innovation.
  4. itmo
    May 10, 2016
    4
    First off, this is not a 4X game, it is not a strategy game when pitted against other games in the same genre. This is a story driven space game with some basic management, zero player interaction combat (the combat in this game is similar to watching grass dry) and for a real time game, it plays extremely slow. If you are looking for a Masters of Orion killer, this is not it, this couldFirst off, this is not a 4X game, it is not a strategy game when pitted against other games in the same genre. This is a story driven space game with some basic management, zero player interaction combat (the combat in this game is similar to watching grass dry) and for a real time game, it plays extremely slow. If you are looking for a Masters of Orion killer, this is not it, this could actually be better suited as a mobile game, as it seems to have been dumbed down for the masses.

    The best way to summarise, this game is that is a polished but bland game that has little longevity, very little innovation and very little strategy.    … Expand
  5. Nemyue
    May 26, 2016
    4
    The first impression was F*cking great.

    For the first several hours, I was like 'F*ck yeah! this is some quality 4x game that I've been waiting for that long!'. The BGM and atmosphere were nice. But after that several hours, you will notice this game is missing too many things. Yeah i mean it. It's incomplete. For example, slaves never start revolt even if they are extremely    The first impression was F*cking great.

    For the first several hours, I was like 'F*ck yeah! this is some quality 4x game that I've been waiting for that long!'. The BGM and atmosphere were nice.

    But after that several hours, you will notice this game is missing too many things. Yeah i mean it. It's incomplete.

    For example, slaves never start revolt even if they are extremely unhappy. And Arc Emitter does not deal AOE damage(It says it has chance to do that). I think the devs meant to make it to do something special but it's not in it yet. There are so many suspicious things but i can not remember.

    Also there's no unique government types, factions and weapons. They are all the same but it has different valuables that make numerical differences. I guess the devs never tried games like Endless Legend or many other strategy games.

    Some might say 'it's just released, give it a time.', 'it worth 20 hours gameplay. so i am happy with that' and etc. F*ck that logic. whoever think like that I presume they are slaves of greedy game devs. Since when it's okay to release incomplete games?

    Paradox announced their upcoming 'free' updates. Good god.
    If you have no will to improve the game, just reveal all the scripts like XCOM2 developer did.
    People will make it much better.    … Expand
  6. fredhorrigan
    Jun 3, 2016
    4
    A shallow skeleton of a game, almost every feature is either shallow, poorly implemented or simply absent (spying? what's that?)

    Might be worth playing after a few years of patches and with a several dozen DLCs but right now the game offers nothing besides the novelty of naming a space empire after your favorite meme.
  7. SH1
    Dec 25, 2016
    4
    I am in two minds about Stellaris so I settled for a score of 4. I feel that it is a good concept, but it is somewhat ruined by the implementation.

    The good points: * Very addictive concept * The science ships remind me of Star Control 2 and could have been a separate game. The bad points: * Badly optimized: I get stuttering on my new cutting edge computer, and this is    I am in two minds about Stellaris so I settled for a score of 4. I feel that it is a good concept, but it is somewhat ruined by the implementation.

    The good points:

    * Very addictive concept

    * The science ships remind me of Star Control 2 and could have been a separate game.

    The bad points:

    * Badly optimized: I get stuttering on my new cutting edge computer, and this is months after release. In a way it feels like I am playing on a WPF interface.

    * Cheating AI: When I wanted to fight my first battle, the computer had more resources than it could have had with the available infrastructure.

    * The science ships: Science ships requires constant babysitting. Sometimes it encounters a hostile fleet. Instead of flying around it, it just stops. It is not uncommon for me to have science ships sitting idle.

    * The game pace: I am not sure if I should play Stellaris "offline" by setting up science ship exploration/research/build queues, and then come back later, or whether I should look after it all the time. When I look after it all the time, entire months go by where nothing happens and it is a waste of my time. If I leave it running in the background while doing other things (ex. go outside for exercise) I will come back to find that a bunch of stuff happened that needs my attention.

    * Game stagnation: It is possible to loose a game in Stellaris, but the computer will never tell you that you lost. This could happen through a combination of things, for example there are 4 empires left on the map. They are all in alliances. There is no way to further grow your empire. You can build ships and do research indefinitely and never win.    … Expand
  8. Apostrophe
    Jun 6, 2016
    4
    Just a bad and boring game. Paradox-style solutions to common "problems" in 4x games are generally OK-ish in the scope of games like Crusader Kings and EU, but fail miserably in Stellaris.

    Without going into to much details, for example in this game the decision of going wide or tall does not exist, because going wide does not in any way influence development rate of your starting    Just a bad and boring game. Paradox-style solutions to common "problems" in 4x games are generally OK-ish in the scope of games like Crusader Kings and EU, but fail miserably in Stellaris.

    Without going into to much details, for example in this game the decision of going wide or tall does not exist, because going wide does not in any way influence development rate of your starting colonies. To prevent blobing they add a silly research penalty and mandatory cap on planets you can directly control before making them into sectors (basically vassals with a twist). Instead of designing a game system where the player actually has a strategic choice between going tall or wide going wide is the only real option, so they penalize it with a steep reseach penalty and a roadblock. Does it work? No, because no matter how much you trail in tech you are going to catch up soon and your economy will be much stronger.

    Warscore, Paradox staple system to prevent big empires to just steamroll acros the universe. Basically a limit of how much planets you can take in a single war trough a pece deal. Silly thing is how it scales, not with your economy or military power dictating how much you can assimilate, but with size of enemy empire. The bigger it is the more you can take... Does it work? No, because in this game doomstacking is a necessity, no supply lines,non-existant fleet range, so in short infinite power projection. You win one war there is no way enemy can recover in 10 years. Instead of designing a game where defensive wars are actually easier and cheaper, with limited power projection and effective ways for smaller empires to defend its just bigger doomstack wins it all. Warscore system is just a boring way do delay the inevitable.

    Also in this game you can play a xenophobe race than purges (basically genocide) all aliens. So I conquer all their planets, land armies, destroy all their military and what? I must peace out and get 3-4 of their planets to get and option to kill them all and repopulate the planet? Why cant I do that during the war?

    Now on top of these two Paradox - staple solution that will never get changed and are more than enough reason to skip this one, add piss-poor UI (it looks nice at least, and its good to have something nice to look at when you pause the game to click ~200 times every 10 minutes), pathetic AI, unfinished mechanics, game breaking bugs, broken combat system etc. They will probably fix these, and demand ~100e in DLC content for stuff that should be in game from day one.    … Expand
  9. Gaarq
    Feb 11, 2020
    4
    stellaris is a typical paradox game, with all the good and bad aspects related. it is a complex, vast 4X game with some new interesting concepts in the field. on the other hand, it is underdeveloped, still full of bugs. it is not even worth to start to play years after the release and after the many patches issued, cos it is sold as open beta - modable, but not to the degree you may fullystellaris is a typical paradox game, with all the good and bad aspects related. it is a complex, vast 4X game with some new interesting concepts in the field. on the other hand, it is underdeveloped, still full of bugs. it is not even worth to start to play years after the release and after the many patches issued, cos it is sold as open beta - modable, but not to the degree you may fully rectify some heavy bugs. recently, i resigned to play, cos developer makes new DLCs with bright new bugs keeping the old ones. i fell in love with the game concept, but definitely not with its realisation, no matter how hard i tried (1000+ hours played).… Expand
  10. ShapeLayers
    Jun 5, 2017
    4
    +
    1. Крутые возможности по созданию своей империи.
    -
    1. Ужасная анимация в UI
    2. Дизайнер UI точно ничего не курил перед тем как создать это детище?
    3. Очень посредственные 3D модели

    Вывод: Хочется бэкнуть игру.
  11. Astalid
    Feb 22, 2018
    4
    I do not understand why developers delete wormholes and left only one FTL style. But without wormholes globalm map strategy is sux, cause too easy - u can block entire ways to your empire
  12. MrWhiny
    Jun 27, 2019
    4
    Very nice buggy game pdx you really did well! With the latest updates game itself become much more buggy mess than before, very nice LOL...

    - Terraforming bugs, you can no longer terraform barren or nanite worlds! (Fixed on 2.3.2) - Invasion bug, your soldier's just disappearing without any f*cking reason on ground combat?! - Army disappearing on map, my army just vanished while    Very nice buggy game pdx you really did well! With the latest updates game itself become much more buggy mess than before, very nice LOL...

    - Terraforming bugs, you can no longer terraform barren or nanite worlds! (Fixed on 2.3.2)
    - Invasion bug, your soldier's just disappearing without any f*cking reason on ground combat?!
    - Army disappearing on map, my army just vanished while staying on my home world?? Very f*cking annoying!
    - AI dumb as f*ck, even much more dumber than before! It can't handle the new economic system, don't know what the do and most of time ai rely on cheats! Without cheats ai can't do sh*t! So this dumb ai mechanics and cheats sweep away the "strategy" from the game! Because you can't really hurt the ai economy with war or taking over their systems!
    - So much calculation going on in the game! So that means performance loss (A LOT!!) Because this "ancient relic" *cough clausewitz engine can't handle too much calculation... Now with lot of population be prepare the worst! Especially in very large galaxy with more than 10 ai empire. Why the game need to calculate every pop rather than just a planet itself? Pop number should be just statistic number on planets so the engine itself no need to calculate every pop, just calculate the planet and run the pop numbers as simulation on background... With this method game need to calculate max 100 or 150 planet on large galaxy instead of calculating thousand of thousand pop. Just an another poorly implemented game mechanic! Unacceptable!
    - UI some time freaking out like a maniac LoL. (Most of time in trade menus)
    - Still, there is no diplomacy overhaul, diplomacy just so bland and boring!
    - Don't join the federation or ai will ruin your empire! Like declaring war on fallen empire LMAO. Also ai just spam corvettes for federation fleet, be prepare for 200 corvettes on federation fleet, this is so stupid!
    - Scourge (end game crisis) still have bugs, infestation bug! Somehow you can't clear infestation from planets with bombardment! So you need colossus, all hail the mighty colossus LoL. (Yeah you need to buy DLC for fixing this sh*t lmao)

    And list goes on and on, and pdx really like the threat their customers as beta testers! I don't want to be beta tester i want to enjoy the game but no! Test the game find bugs and glitches report back to pdx and hope for the patch, patch will release and new bugs will appear in the game, so you need repeat to process, again and again! I paid this game pdx you suppose to deliver full product with least amount of bugs! I'm not your beta tester paradox! Period!....    … Expand
  13. Dotasarr
    Feb 5, 2020
    4
    The game started great, but with every DLC, they break something, to the point that now the game is almost completely broken
  14. kamil0101
    Oct 26, 2021
    4
    An interesting game to play on the Xbox Game Pass for a few afternoons, but not much longer than that. It was fun figuring the game out, peeling off more and more layers of the game mechanics, then managing planets, assigning planets' "pops" to jobs in order optimise various outputs. But after working this out and winning a few systems in my first ever war, I did not see a reason why IAn interesting game to play on the Xbox Game Pass for a few afternoons, but not much longer than that. It was fun figuring the game out, peeling off more and more layers of the game mechanics, then managing planets, assigning planets' "pops" to jobs in order optimise various outputs. But after working this out and winning a few systems in my first ever war, I did not see a reason why I should keep on playing. I already knew what the game would be like: a "rinse and repeat" cycle of optimising resource output, upgrading fleets, waiting for the truce to expire before winning a couple more meaningless systems in another meaningless war.

    A major problem with this game is its theme: there is none. The sci-fi veneer is quite poor.

    We know nothing about the species that are available to play, there is no story, they are completely random (in fact, I believe they *can* be randomised). Which makes interaction with AI opponents a dull affair, in which you only care about their strength relative to yours.

    The systems are all pretty much identical except for their resource output and the colour of the star, so I explore them only because I have to, not because I'm genuinely interested to find out what's round the corner (first encounter events were fun though). It is different from other comparable games: in Civilization, for instance, discovering edges of the continent, strategic resources, natural wonders, city-states all matters and makes exploration interesting. In Europa Universalis or its spin-offs like Crusader Kings you don't really discover anything but you play on the real world map, which adds meaning to your conquests: it's more fun to say "I conquered France" than "I won 6 star systems, all identical and randomly generated". It doesn't help that planets suitable for colonisation are fairly rare and a great majority of systems are empty points on the map which you can't do anything interesting with, other than mine them for resources.

    The game is horrifically time consuming. I did not finish my game, I abandoned it in what I believe was early mid-game, to which point I got after spending maybe 15 hours. You could finish a infamously lengthy RPG game like The Witcher 3 or watch all 11 seasons of Modern Family in the time at this rate it takes to finish a single game of Stellaris. And you'd have way more fun doing so.    … Expand
  15. Horrux
    May 19, 2016
    3
    This game should be called "Galaxy Universalis I". It's a much more appropriate title given that Paradox have merely dressed up EU4 as a space game. All the mechanics of the base EU4 game are present in Stellaris. I write BASE GAME because, like in EU4 where your allies won't be helpful unless you get the DLC for that, same goes for Stellaris.

    If you love EU4 and love space games,    This game should be called "Galaxy Universalis I". It's a much more appropriate title given that Paradox have merely dressed up EU4 as a space game. All the mechanics of the base EU4 game are present in Stellaris. I write BASE GAME because, like in EU4 where your allies won't be helpful unless you get the DLC for that, same goes for Stellaris.

    If you love EU4 and love space games, you'll like this. If you don't know EU4, then I'll describe what I mean in more detail for you... This is a "Grand" strategy game, which means there is little to no micromanagement. It's all very macro.

    For example, you can manage UP TO 5 planets directly, and the rest have to go to sectors, which are AI-managed. But then again "managing" is a strong word, it's more like "overseeing". You can tell the sector AI to focus on minerals, military, science, or energy production, and set a tax rate of 0%, 25%, 50% or 75%. That's it, your job is done. Well, you can assign a governor to a sector, for some bonuses. You can design ships, but only in a very limited way. The automatic, self-updating ship designs are mostly sufficient. And so on.

    But for all that "macro-ness", the game is sorely lacking in utility. For example, in a war, you want assault troops. But you have to raise them from each world, tell each of them where to go, and so on. Oh, and once the war is over, you have to do the process in reverse. There are no rally points or any "Land all assault armies on nearest owned planet" button. So you have to spend your time click-clicking like mad to get these guys back on the ground.

    Oh, and don't even get me started on the fleets... Sure, you can split a fleet in two, or merge two fleets. You can even transfer individual ships to a new fleet... INDIVIDUALLY. That is, you have to slowly and painfully scroll through your fleet's ship list, which can be hundreds long and is NOT SORTED, and select the individual ship you want to move. Good luck having fun when you are doing that 50 times.

    I am confident most of these things will be fixed through patches and DLC. But therein lies the problem: EU4 already has "The Art of War". They already have the code. Except it's not in this game. It will be, mark my words, sold as a DLC for this game as well, while it really should be a core mechanic of the game. Plus it wouldn't even be new content, as it would require only a slight tweak on the EU4 code.

    I am very afraid that Paradox is pulling an Activision on us: release game after game with the same core mechanics and sell you tons of DLC for each. If so, I am very displeased.

    Score: 10
    Graphics and sound are great. Performance is OK. Game doesn't crash. However:
    -1 for bugs
    -1 for core mechanics being absent
    -1 for no innovation
    -1 for being a space-age clone of EU4

    Final tally 6/10    … Expand
  16. mojitsu
    May 29, 2016
    3
    As of 1.0.3 the game is not finished... after 100+ hours I don't recommend buying it. Late game bad performance even on high end PC, retarded AI and stupid combat system. The good thing is game support mods and chances are it's gonna become a fully grown title in 1-2 years with the support of mod creators.
  17. Sne
    May 20, 2016
    3
    Unfinished product. Not "unpolished", just incomplete.

    It pretends to be real time, but the turns are just short. Don't worry, they grow longer the more you play. Much longer. In fact, after a couple decades in game a turn that took a fraction of a second at the start now takes a fraction of a minute. Pause doesn't actually stop the action, it's just a temporary off switch for the    Unfinished product. Not "unpolished", just incomplete.

    It pretends to be real time, but the turns are just short. Don't worry, they grow longer the more you play. Much longer. In fact, after a couple decades in game a turn that took a fraction of a second at the start now takes a fraction of a minute. Pause doesn't actually stop the action, it's just a temporary off switch for the automatic next turn thing, and can also take a while to kick in. You will find yourself tapping space twice, unsure if it worked.

    Many little features are missing, like clearing last order on the queue. It's painfully annoying to wait several real time seconds for the orders to be acknowledged in the first place. I cannot imagine what kind of hardware would that game need to work fluidly, or at least make the battles seem less like trying to play StarCraft with someone from antipodes on V.90 while your dog pirates mp3s on the same line. In fact, I vividly remember it was better 18 years ago. In actual real time, and the AI was smarter.

    Speaking of which, evasive behavior is totally broken and it's better to just disable it most of the time. Top tier ship AI adds bonuses to stats but is stupider than lower tier algorithm and will kill your support battleships and you can't do anything about it. Micromanaging fleets to attack neutral targets is useless, as either it ends up annoying you or straight up doesn't work, especially on "alien vessels". Chains of events are buggy in similar ways. Some are impossible to start, some impossible to end. Some undo after finishing, leaving you with confused, passive objects sitting there, clogging up your systems. And you can't even shoot them.

    Sector management is overcomplicated (for something designed to reduce micromanagement) and the AI governing it is insanely inefficient. It doesn't take control of starports from you, but there is no interface for managing starports left. Increasing micromanagement... Personally, I develop the planets individually and when they're half cooked I add them to one, single sector. It has the minimal potential to break your special resources. But it still can, you have to keep watch on the automation system. Ironically.

    War is based on making an OK fleet (enough to take on space amoebas) and aggressively flying around the enemy territory until they give up and cede a planet, apparently. They won't take your planets, because despite the presence of a battle predictor thingy, it doesn't work for the AI players.

    So maybe ship designer? Well, it has some nifty ideas, but the number of available components seems small and boring. Automatic designer makes your ships weak and expensive. Especially the military stations end up silly. Never build the auto designs. You can even save them to a custom class and then build it, but doing it from the auto design will force you to disband ships. It feels there should be an option of refitting a ship to a different class. Essentially, one of the most enjoyable thing to do in MoO or GalCiv, in Stellaris became a chore.

    There seem to be no special ships, weapons or buildings. Maybe I didn't play long enough, but as I mentioned the game becomes unplayable due to slowdown pretty quickly. There are no wonders in this game. It's not very imaginative at all. This is barely sci-fi.

    Diplomacy feels messy, unclear and restrictive, as most other empires will always find a reason to refuse literally any attempts at trade. Except if they got allied with someone who miraculously isn't a jerk, then you can weasel your way in to get the silly crystals you wanted. But beware, from now on you'll get an endless, impossible to disable barrage of federation votes.

    In conclusion, Stellaris is great if you have a terminator rig from outer space, don't care about roleplaying a story, broken quests, factions or AI, and either abuse or can be bothered to use the demented sector mechanic. Exploring you do only for amoeba strike ships, expanding makes the game sluggish, exploiting is made annyoing through bad economic AI, and extermination is something you won't look at because it stutters and you can barely see anything anyway. This is not a real 4X game. Just play Master of Orion 2.    … Expand
  18. Teleman
    Jun 2, 2016
    3
    Very shallow beneath the surface. Any intelligent person will be unable to play after the 3rd playthrough. Basically we are talking about a game won by beating everyone and all the fancy modifiers, ship designer etc. are just there for novelty. Gameplay is a chore after the second game since its less about strategy thanks to random techs and more about baby sitting science ships and pops.
  19. bladex
    May 15, 2016
    3
    this is the most boring space sim i have ever played. all you will be doing the whole time is staring at a screen and waiting!

    you never get enough influence meaning expanding will be slow and long. the battles are a joke all you do is a build a fleet, click on another fleet and than sit back and watch you don't have ANY control of the battle once it starts! most of the time you    this is the most boring space sim i have ever played. all you will be doing the whole time is staring at a screen and waiting!

    you never get enough influence meaning expanding will be slow and long.

    the battles are a joke all you do is a build a fleet, click on another fleet and than sit back and watch you don't have ANY control of the battle once it starts!

    most of the time you will be sending ships out to survey and nothing much else.

    you will also have to constantly hire new scientists etc because they will die and this will use all your influence points always!

    bad design, bad system, bad battles bad game all round! you nailed it with skylines paradox but you failed miserably with this!    … Expand
  20. LegendsmithAU
    Nov 2, 2017
    3
    Stellaris is not a game that I would recommend. While it seems to offer a wide universe to play in with many different options, this is not really the case.
    There is a really fundamental problem in the game's design. The uninteresting big number vs big number "doomstack" fleet battles are just a symptom of this.
    But why? Lets look at where the game's complexity. It appears to be in its    Stellaris is not a game that I would recommend. While it seems to offer a wide universe to play in with many different options, this is not really the case.
    There is a really fundamental problem in the game's design. The uninteresting big number vs big number "doomstack" fleet battles are just a symptom of this.

    But why? Lets look at where the game's complexity. It appears to be in its in ethics and government system, you have factions and influence and such. But apart from that?
    Military, economy and even diplomacy are extremely simplistic and homogenised. Is it any surprise fleet combat is such? It's big numbers v numbers because that's all that matters. Only things that either have a big number or are in large numbers matter. Look at planets, losing one doesn't matter that much in mid or late game. Planets are only valuable based on the fraction of your empire's energy, minerals, or science they produce. Large empires can easily absorb the loss of multiple planets without really much consequence as they represent a small fraction of their 500 mineral per second income. There's no depth. For such a large game Stellaris is actually rather shallow. Things like the endgame crises and War in Heaven (DLC) are fun, but what are they hanging on? Nothing much really. They are there there to distract from the blandness of the normal gameplay.

    There were some major complaints with the game a number of patches ago. There was nothing to do. There were no mid game events worth talking about. The game was really hollow apart from the early game rush to colonise, the late game crisis, and final empire steamroll.
    That shows how the game is so shallow that it needs such events to remain interesting. The developers have said that they're not interested in making the economy deeper. That has really dampened my interest in the game, as it should yours, because it means this problem will never be fixed.

    Other paradox titles like the Europa games game mechanics that aren't massively complex but there's other non-event features that provide depth. In the EU games just having terrain creates actual choices because you need to choose how to deal with it. While income is just ducats you do have choices in how you acquire and spend it. Trade, production, and taxes are all different ways and are still important. You can focus on one, make choices in how you spend your resources to enhance it. Even if you're not focusing on say, trade it's still a good idea to put a little bit of effort into interacting with that system during the game. You can take into account things like the trade goods of resources, how they change in value. You can interact with it with armies, you can scorch the earth and loot places. Trade values change over time.

    Stellaris has none of this. Planet colonisation is very simple; you colonise, you build one of the three production buildings over the entire surface plus a unity building. In the early game you might take tile resources into account but later in the game the production bonus buildings, and things like assist research mean that you should make your planets produce one resource so you can apply the planetary bonuses to as many production buildings as possible.
    You have a farm planet(s) too of course but those barely need touching and in any case sectors will ensure that you have more than enough food. Energy credits are near worthless past early game, they exist to be converted into minerals and that's basically it. I'm quite sure you could remove energy credits from the game entirely and there wouldn't be a fundamental shift in the gameplay of Stellaris.
    Diplomacy is very simple, and has little choice. There's standard pacts, there's federations, but can you demand a planet diplomatically? Can you demand anything, or offer something in support? Can you buy or sell ships? No.
    Combat is quite simple as we know, but even worse than that is the meaninglessness of ship designs. There are a few designs that are the best and we all know, or soon will, what those are; mono-composition fleets of corvettes or artillery/lance battleships (or whatever the current hotness is). Why build anything else? Why research anything else? Fleet combat is so simple to boil down; just like the rest of the game.

    There's very little actual choice in Stellaris. There's no terrain, so you don't need to chose which way to reach your enemies. There's no trade routes so you never choose where to provide value, or what trade good to take control of, and you can never raid trade routes unlike other Paradox games. There's no economy to speak of so you can never choose to focus on this product/component/whatever over another. Even Hearts of Iron has that. Ship design is an illusory choice. You think you have options but you don't really have meaningful choices. Planetary management has very little in the way of choice, and "Sectors" take even that away from you.
    Shallow gameplay, do not recommend.    … Expand
  21. Darlf
    Dec 16, 2018
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. nowa aktualizacja dodała więcej chaosu i dysbalansu niż trudność wynikającej z dobrze zrobionej mechaniki bez aktualizacja najnowszej 6 bo gra miała mnóstwo głupich małych błędów ale tera to ledwie 3 bo gra to 1 wielki błąd… Expand
  22. deadsanta
    May 24, 2016
    2
    A game with some potential, it is currently quite broken for many people, especially if you have a high-rez screen, which for some bizarro reason Paradox decided not to support. Currently on my native 4k rez screen, all the UI font is microscopic, and work arounds listed on site, in workshop do NOT fix the problems. Playing at different resolutions than native causes my graphics to glitchA game with some potential, it is currently quite broken for many people, especially if you have a high-rez screen, which for some bizarro reason Paradox decided not to support. Currently on my native 4k rez screen, all the UI font is microscopic, and work arounds listed on site, in workshop do NOT fix the problems. Playing at different resolutions than native causes my graphics to glitch in another known and as yet unfixed bug, and I cannot be resetting my native screen rez to play just one game.

    In terms of gameplay, it starts out like a great 4x game, but then quickly devolves to spreadsheet gaming, with small incremental +2%-type upgrades to weapons, few ship build options, and zero tactical combat. Having a large empire managed by many AI governors and all your battles managed by horrible AI combat doesn't make for a fun mid-to-endgame, and the emptiness of the diplomacy and lack of engagement with scripted storylines that repeat themselves every game make for a game that quickly loses its' shine.

    Wait a year for mods and fixes, and a 50% sale, IMO.    … Expand
  23. TsukasaHiiragi
    Apr 17, 2017
    2
    :updated: Ended up lower my initial review, essentially this game will piss you off, it'll make you curse at your monitor and enrage you 90% of the time, the other 10% you're endlessly scanning planets and building resource bases, until the AI decides it's time to screw your civilization over.

    Stellaris is that game that couldn't capture the psudo 4X crown from Galactic Civilization,    :updated: Ended up lower my initial review, essentially this game will piss you off, it'll make you curse at your monitor and enrage you 90% of the time, the other 10% you're endlessly scanning planets and building resource bases, until the AI decides it's time to screw your civilization over.

    Stellaris is that game that couldn't capture the psudo 4X crown from Galactic Civilization, mostly due to the fact even nearly a year later - the game is still horribly buggy with many issues, some even gamebreaking not to mention, very obvious cheating AI issues and terrible mid/endgame experience, the biggest problems is related to how Influence and RNG research ruin the game.

    The way influence is handled is one of the biggest crutches in the game, it prevents you from spreading out rapid because it uses up valuable influence, but at the same time - when you don't need to spread out, you'll always have it maxed out...but when you actually 'need' it, you can never get enough of it, this is one of the gameplay issues that affects the game and personally I think the system doesn't work very well.

    Another bad....no HORRIBLE system in the ridiculous RNG system for researching tech, it is quite possible to get royally screwed by a some poor card draws literally possible preventing you access to bigger ships, the entire tech system should be scrapped and redone with a proper tech tree, this is just lazy and bad...half the time, the best method for research is by waging war and scanning the wreckage left behind...heck, ironically sometimes you can scan your own wreck for tech boosts..

    It's kinder sad because what Stellaris attempts to do is over an almost mixture of Command and Conquer mixed with Master of Orion style gameplay, whilst its all highly strategic and obviously has the 4X emphasis, the game falls flat on it's face as soon as the bugs appear. This could have something special if more time had been spent on development before releasing in a very obvious "Alpha" state, I wish steam would honestly stop with the 'early access' because you end up with potentially great games that takes years before they can live up to the potential.

    Another note; players who love 4x // empire building strategy games be careful with this title as it can become quite frustrating, especially early when your trying to get a foothold and you discover your sandwiched between several aggressive species who...magically will almost always hate you and force you to scramble, often turning the game into a no-win situation for the player forcing a restart.

    Summary; Stellaris has (had) potential but being almost nearly a year after launch and many issues still remain, and highly doubt they will be fixed anytime soon. I'm going to assume this title will remain a 'cult' classic, meaning if you really enjoy space empire building games and are willing to put up with many hours to learn the complex structure of the game, and willing to put up with glitches and even gamebreaking bugs, then I'm sure you would enjoy Stellaris, for the rest - I'd be cautious.    … Expand
  24. Corefitz
    Feb 15, 2020
    2
    Game has been unplayable since Le Guin update... tried over and over again.. It's become just another micromanagement game, and I didn't play Stellaris to spend 8/10 of my time just managing my population. ANY aspect of Roleplaying in the game is flat out killed because of the hell that is the micromanaging. I mean.. cmon... changing a core mechanic of a game to fit just 1 DLC, is a REALLYGame has been unplayable since Le Guin update... tried over and over again.. It's become just another micromanagement game, and I didn't play Stellaris to spend 8/10 of my time just managing my population. ANY aspect of Roleplaying in the game is flat out killed because of the hell that is the micromanaging. I mean.. cmon... changing a core mechanic of a game to fit just 1 DLC, is a REALLY REALLY bad move... 400 hours of awesome gameplay, and now there's only the good memories left. what a waste...

    I keep trying to poke the game every once in a while. I still flat out have to give up on it within 7 minutes, solely because of micromanagement. This game had such potential...    … Expand
  25. Nereid
    May 24, 2020
    2
    Good, music, good UI, okayish graphics but the diplomacy is just meh.

    And because the diplomacy is the biggest part in a game like Stellaris, it just deservers 2/10. So, what is wrong with the diplomacy? As soon as you or an AI empires is part of a federation you can't negotiate NAPs or mutual defense pacts anymore. A federation has to fight for their own. Even if there is    Good, music, good UI, okayish graphics but the diplomacy is just meh.

    And because the diplomacy is the biggest part in a game like Stellaris, it just deservers 2/10.

    So, what is wrong with the diplomacy?

    As soon as you or an AI empires is part of a federation you can't negotiate NAPs or mutual defense pacts anymore. A federation has to fight for their own. Even if there is another federation or empire that do have the same enemy you cant defend yourself together. For a federation there are no options to negiotiate an alliance, a pact or something else with another federation. You are just doomed - or you have to disolve the federation (and the AI won't do this).

    Imagine the USA that refuses to join or form the NATO because they are a federation.

    If you just could turn of feds completely Stellaris would deserve 8/10, but you can't.    … Expand
  26. Smiler78
    Nov 6, 2022
    2
    First impressions of a game I had very high hopes for. Love strategy games with a passion so I was excited to play this. I loaded it up, chose my empire and was met with a massive array of icons and options. I have NO IDEA what to do! Just flicking through lots of upgrade trees and options. I don't get it thus far. I have given up for now. I feel like I would have to study it for weeks toFirst impressions of a game I had very high hopes for. Love strategy games with a passion so I was excited to play this. I loaded it up, chose my empire and was met with a massive array of icons and options. I have NO IDEA what to do! Just flicking through lots of upgrade trees and options. I don't get it thus far. I have given up for now. I feel like I would have to study it for weeks to even grasp the basic principles. I'm tired and can't be bothered trying to figure it out. To be continued...… Expand
  27. K1ller
    Feb 27, 2018
    1
    Patch 1.9 and earlier - 8 / 10, patch 2.0 and later 1 / 10. Nice example of how to kill a good game with a totaly moronic gamechanges. Good job Paradox, you are now another company on my "Never buy their games" list.
  28. StrongHarm
    Dec 4, 2017
    1
    I bought it after they screwed it up (12-2017). Wish I would have made my purchase before the DLCs and bad updates.

    I completed an initial 'test playthrough' while reading articles and watching videos about game mechanics and tactics. I then spent about 200 hours on a map and was staying at the same pace as the AI. First, although diplomacy was even across me and all AI, every time I    I bought it after they screwed it up (12-2017). Wish I would have made my purchase before the DLCs and bad updates.

    I completed an initial 'test playthrough' while reading articles and watching videos about game mechanics and tactics. I then spent about 200 hours on a map and was staying at the same pace as the AI. First, although diplomacy was even across me and all AI, every time I attacked someone, everyone else attacked me (no, they didn't have any diplomatic ties). I still held my own. Next, I received a message saying an AI won by owning over 40% of planets, although it clearly showed I had 71/1235 to their 63/1020. I decided to play it through as I had a drake and about a 400k fleet to play with. I went up against a 105k and two 50ks. I paused and checked our loadouts and I was surprised that they were nearly exact, except I had scale armor. The AI fleet had no leaders, and I had two high level admirals. The AI destroyed my fleet and lost only 50 corvettes and 18 battleships. Now, before you start thinking 'this guy must have done something really stupid'.. understand that I've been playing strategy games since before the PC was invented, I worked on fighter jets in the military, and I'm a data intelligence architect; I'm not stupid. I do understand that software updates occur and unbalance the game and it's hard to find every bug, but Stellaris is broken like non-alcoholic beer.. it's cold and tastes good, but then nothing happens... it's a big buildup for nothing but disappointment. I might wait for a few patches and try again, but at this point I would tell anyone who asked that this game had great potential, but turned out to be a waste of time and money.    … Expand
  29. saz
    May 21, 2016
    1
    Good game but the combat is bad. Non-interactive and it ultimately pulls the game down. I was bored after a day of playing. I'll check it out again in a few months.
  30. SoakerCity
    Nov 4, 2018
    1
    This game is not fun, at all. There are so many labrynthian rules, that you cant even attack an enemy planet after a prolonged war because you didnt know how to set the war goals ten hours ago- even though they weren't available. This game is a total piece of **** Its like having a school teacher tut tut tut you the whole time. NOT FUN.

    This game will gobble up your life, with no    This game is not fun, at all. There are so many labrynthian rules, that you cant even attack an enemy planet after a prolonged war because you didnt know how to set the war goals ten hours ago- even though they weren't available. This game is a total piece of **** Its like having a school teacher tut tut tut you the whole time. NOT FUN.

    This game will gobble up your life, with no decent payout. Very far from the accessible MOI type games. Just a series of increasingly bizzare rules. Very ****ty "game". It was better before 2.0. Now its total dog crap.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

99
#99 Best PC Game of 2016
23
#23 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
31
#31 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 57 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 57
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 57
  3. Negative: 1 out of 57
  1. Games Master UK
    Jul 25, 2016
    90
    A stunning first step into space for strategy's superstars - and a great gateway to their other games. [July 2016, p.76]
  2. CD-Action
    Jul 21, 2016
    85
    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]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Jul 11, 2016
    65
    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.
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