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. Fahrenheit88
    May 9, 2016
    10
    Stellaris has everything that a space-games enthusiast seeks: kickass graphics, constantly changing stories and adventures full of pop-culture references, and a well-structured balance between exploration and expansion. From the first minute, this game will leave an ever lasting impression on you, and you will know that whenever you play any future space strategy games in the future, youStellaris has everything that a space-games enthusiast seeks: kickass graphics, constantly changing stories and adventures full of pop-culture references, and a well-structured balance between exploration and expansion. From the first minute, this game will leave an ever lasting impression on you, and you will know that whenever you play any future space strategy games in the future, you will ALWAYS compare them to Stellaris. That is how perfect this game is. It is a must buy for any space strategy fan and should not under any circumstances be missed. Buy it and support Paradox, the new God of Mass Strategy Games!… Expand
  2. 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
  3. Karameni
    May 16, 2016
    0
    An unplayable beyond the early game beta version of a game, that could've been good.

    1. Massive lags past 60-70 years. 2. Ship AI is braindead and combat itself is extremely buggy (sometimes only part of a fleet does actual fightning while rest of my ships just stand there doing nothing outside the actual combat) 3. Sector AI is braindead, it uses slaves who get malus to producing    An unplayable beyond the early game beta version of a game, that could've been good.

    1. Massive lags past 60-70 years.

    2. Ship AI is braindead and combat itself is extremely buggy (sometimes only part of a fleet does actual fightning while rest of my ships just stand there doing nothing outside the actual combat)

    3. Sector AI is braindead, it uses slaves who get malus to producing science to produce science and option to enforce AI to respect tile resources doesnt work.

    4. War AI is insane sending single trooper transports to capture you capital for years, losing every time.

    5. Events are bugged and just dont work as intended frequently.

    Verdict: 0/10, because they are selling people an early beta instead of a functional game.    … Expand
  4. JaPeLi
    Oct 10, 2018
    8
    Stellaris is a lot of fun for a lot of reasons. It also has a great deal of flaws. The game itself is vast, and in typical Paradox style, it has several expansions which add more content to the game. However, even without all the DLC’s, the game is expansive.
    Stellaris focuses heavily on strategy and exploration, and it does these things very well. You start off the game as a space-faring    Stellaris is a lot of fun for a lot of reasons. It also has a great deal of flaws. The game itself is vast, and in typical Paradox style, it has several expansions which add more content to the game. However, even without all the DLC’s, the game is expansive.
    Stellaris focuses heavily on strategy and exploration, and it does these things very well. You start off the game as a space-faring empire, which has just discovered interstellar travel. Your empire is heavily customizable – for example, I started off on a frozen planet run by a deeply religious xenophilic race of blue humanoids, led by an elite group of priests, which co-evolved with a species of servile tortoises. The game does customization very well, and this offers a great deal of replayability to the game.
    The game can be loosely divided into 3 sections – the early, mid, and late game. These correspond to – in a default game – 100 and 300 years after you begin. Each section from the mid-game on, has its own special events, which can occur depending on several factors. I won’t spoil any of them, but they are generally a lot of fun and provide a brief respite from the otherwise bland portions of the game.

    And that is one of my main issues with Stellaris – the “bland” portions of the game. Once your empires borders and opinions of other empires have already been established, they do not change much. What remains is “bland.” Whilst the early game focuses on exploration and colonisation, and establishing borders and strategic points, which is enjoyable; the mid game offers very little in comparison.
    The problem is that the mid-game does away with what Stellaris does very well – exploration. During the mid-game, you generally have explored every system in the galaxy, and encountered every other empire. There is no more exploring to do, and thus no anomalies to find. Thus, you focus on things like research, or (the very limited) diplomacy. Perhaps you become more powerful, your numbers get bigger, but what of it? Until the late game, there is nothing to do, no events to occur, and I have sat through decades (in-game) waiting for something to happen. I generally just left it on in the background whilst I did other things.
    Whilst it does many things well, the game lacks in several important areas, such as the depth (or lack thereof) of diplomacy, the economy, warfare, and of course, the mid-game. Regardless, I still enjoy playing Stellaris, and would recommend it in the hope that these issues are fixed.    … Expand
  5. mackoff
    Nov 2, 2016
    10
    Absolutely awesome game for a real fans of deep and rich strategy. This game will rock your socks off!

    Great system of management and tons of possibilities. Everything packed in very user friendly UI. Best played in a bunch of colleagues when you cooperate, trade, plan and compete for your final glory. This game is complete even now but Paradox will develop it for years bringing    Absolutely awesome game for a real fans of deep and rich strategy. This game will rock your socks off!

    Great system of management and tons of possibilities. Everything packed in very user friendly UI.

    Best played in a bunch of colleagues when you cooperate, trade, plan and compete for your final glory.

    This game is complete even now but Paradox will develop it for years bringing us a lot of fun and discover.

    Best strategy game i played so far in 2016, strongly recomended!    … Expand
  6. ayls01
    Dec 19, 2016
    10
    This game is one of the best 4x experiences I tried, this after the patches have greatly improved and expanded content over and over again .
    In clonclusion is a very good buy, and I do not regret anything.
    Cons: a hard learning curve
  7. Juggulator
    May 19, 2016
    8
    Really good game a bit of a learning curve but i love the setting as well as being able to create your own faction. One thing i don't really like is your policies being limited by your starting species traits as i find it rather annoying that you cannot change your play style as dynamically however still one of the best Grand strategies i have played in a long time.
  8. 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
  9. SirDiddles
    Jun 6, 2016
    5
    Stellaris is a very good game with a few serious flaws that affect, well everything.

    The good points: 1. you can design your own race, probably could use more points in traits to actually be able to customize your race a bit more, but still its a good attempt. 2. graphics are quite good when they are working correctly. 3. overall game design is good with a few caveats. 4. you can    Stellaris is a very good game with a few serious flaws that affect, well everything.

    The good points:
    1. you can design your own race, probably could use more points in traits to actually be able to customize your race a bit more, but still its a good attempt.
    2. graphics are quite good when they are working correctly.
    3. overall game design is good with a few caveats.
    4. you can design your own ships, sort of.

    The bad points:
    1. As with most 4X games, this one really suffers from a poor AI. I won't go in to details, it would be a very long list.
    2. I just started the game and my combat fleet has 4 ships, my neighbor i just met has thousands of ships.
    3. Ship design: it would seem like you can custom design your own ships but here are your choices: (depending on the platform) you can put 1 large weapon, 2 medium weapons, or 4 small weapons. Quite often it won't let you build the design you want without pressing the 'auto-complete' button which changes your ship design.
    4. Combat: you have no control over your ships once they engage. You put all long range weapons on your ships, guess what ?, you are going to point blank range for fighting.
    5. Game killing mid game slow down: has nothing at all to do with how good your system is according to the developers, even on their beast machines they get ridiculous slow down. Rather than build a new platform that uses multi-threading and optimization, they used an older gaming platform that assumes you are only using a single core with limited ram. By turn 200 you are experiencing a massive performance slow down of the game, by turn 300 (if you can actually make it there) the game is unplayable, a single click on anything in game may take 30 or more seconds before it responds, if at all. Making it to end game is all but impossible. So you play for a bit, then start a new game. Frustrating.

    So in short:
    1. you can design you own race, poorly.
    2. you can design you own ships, poorly.
    3. you can engage in combat, poorly.
    4. you can play the game to a point, then you have to start a new game.    … Expand
  10. Twinkobell
    May 14, 2016
    7
    This is a beta DEMO in the disguise of an end product. Supporters will insist that game will be improved with DLCs and patches in the future. Haters will cry about the incomplete state of the game. It's a culture shock from knowing Paradox Interactive business models. Nobody likes this. It's like buying a car, but the engine and windows are paid upgrades.
  11. czarinabox
    Jun 7, 2016
    6
    Stellaris has a great early game, with some of the best space exploration I’ve seen in a game, but if you were expecting it to be like other Paradox grand strategy games once the mid game set up you will probably be disappointed.

    The early game’s event chains and micromanagement of science ships and planet upgrades works really well. There isn’t too much to focus on and exploring the    Stellaris has a great early game, with some of the best space exploration I’ve seen in a game, but if you were expecting it to be like other Paradox grand strategy games once the mid game set up you will probably be disappointed.

    The early game’s event chains and micromanagement of science ships and planet upgrades works really well. There isn’t too much to focus on and exploring the space around you is really fun and engaging. In my second game I was disappointed to find out that many of the space monsters would be the same from game to game, which decreases that sense of an unknown galaxy that captured me in my first playthrough, but the other parts of the early game are very strong.

    When you get to the mid game, though, it really doesn’t live up to the expectations of a GSG in space. The factions you encounter are fairly interchangeable and have little character, and the fact that so many of them have no desire to go to war leads to a somewhat boring game. Fallen Empires provide some interesting variety, but mainly ignore you unless provoked. There is no threatening France or Ottomans from EUIV to force you to seek strong allies, and conquering new systems only to give them away to a sector just feels like conquest for conquest’s sake. In EUIV I feel like I’m bettering my nation’s position against threats, but the threats seem to be mainly lacking until late game.

    The late game crises that can happen do help to spice things up, but that only matters if you play to there. I only played to the end game a few times because I kept wanting to restart to play more of the early game again. I was very excited for a space game, but the setting on top of the characterless factions makes it difficult to keep track of who is who and where things are. I have to reorient myself every time I load a game to remind myself which space animal is which. There are also no familiar cities or landmarks to anchor yourself, only randomly named systems that mean nothing. I’m not taking East Prussia from the Teutons or reuniting the Italian peninsula to create a new Rome, I’m taking some system whose name I won’t remember from some random space animal with a ridiculous and hard to remember name. I don’t know if there is a fix to this or not, but I doubt I’ll be playing much more Stellaris until expansions start coming out, especially considering all the other excellent games releasing this year.    … Expand
  12. Chaotic-Entropy
    May 15, 2016
    7
    Best described as a flawed gem. The game is great to start with, everything is interesting and shiny but it quickly devolves from there in to a land of inefficient empire management, poor ergonomics for their UI design and missing/broken mid to late game content.

    I seriously get the feeling that the devs were told to put all their effort in to the early game, get the game out sooner,    Best described as a flawed gem. The game is great to start with, everything is interesting and shiny but it quickly devolves from there in to a land of inefficient empire management, poor ergonomics for their UI design and missing/broken mid to late game content.

    I seriously get the feeling that the devs were told to put all their effort in to the early game, get the game out sooner, and then fill in the gaps later. Just put enough interesting content in to the start in order to get positive early reviews. Then when they're 20-40 hours in, and realise how shallow/needlessly clunky to operate it is, we'll already have their positive reviews and they won't go back and change.

    I hope that the game gets a lot of patching and a lot of content added, not just DLC, but actual feature completion. Lots of bugs, lots of half thought out mechanics and pointless busy work.

    Don't get me wrong, it's a great foundation and I think it could go on to be a classic, but it's an alpha/beta build at best. No one has done any significant end-to-end testing on this besides the players it seems.    … Expand
  13. Babinski
    May 16, 2016
    6
    As it stands now, it is a half made game with a lot of issues. I can't help but feel a little bit disappointed with Paradox, this game had and still has so much potential, but I guess we are gonna have to wait another year to see it.
  14. Thilus
    Jul 13, 2016
    6
    I've got a problem with Stellaris. Because the game is good. But it is also an unpolished product. You could even call it unfinished. Bare bones that still need a lot more on their frame. The situation is similar to Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV - both of those games are 2-4 years old and only just recently CK2 has become what I think Paradox wanted it to be from theI've got a problem with Stellaris. Because the game is good. But it is also an unpolished product. You could even call it unfinished. Bare bones that still need a lot more on their frame. The situation is similar to Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV - both of those games are 2-4 years old and only just recently CK2 has become what I think Paradox wanted it to be from the begining. EU4 is the same, only I don't think they published all the DLCs quite yet.

    Stellaris might be another great game in PI portfolio, but not before there's a ton of updates and expansion packs. Right now there is a lot to work on - the diplomacy sucks (my biggest mistake was to start the game as a peaceful race of scientists, and not because the other races conquered me, but because after a while I couldn't expand more without resorting to violence, which was prohibited by my people), the military part is limited to say the least (you can build your own ships, but why bother when you have the auto-upgrade option that gives you good results), and there is no real goal to achieve, other that "conquer the whole galaxy, unless you're a peaceful race in which case you can't".

    I will wait for the game to develop further because as of now it's just a below average product that will make you "WOW!" for several sitting, after which you will quickly notice that deep down it offers very little. At least for now.    … Expand
  15. vezon
    Jun 14, 2016
    6
    When I first saw its first gameplay trailers and then actual gameplay footage from I was really, really hyped.
    And indeed at first glance the game design looks excelent, but in the end it doesn't work.
    Lets start with the good part. I love the soundtracks. The exploration at first is a nice touch. The interface, aesthetics is nicely done. But the gameplay, I don't, get it, I don't feel    When I first saw its first gameplay trailers and then actual gameplay footage from I was really, really hyped.
    And indeed at first glance the game design looks excelent, but in the end it doesn't work.
    Lets start with the good part. I love the soundtracks. The exploration at first is a nice touch. The interface, aesthetics is nicely done.
    But the gameplay, I don't, get it, I don't feel it.
    For example. The game limits u to have direct control only over a few planets, to alleviate the micromanagement and yet I don't recall any other 4x games that I wasted so many time in planet management and the worst part is that its tedious and boring.
    How so, u would ask? Every system like planet management, ship design, battle system, diplomacy is extremely streamlined. I could leave a lot of things in the hands of the AI,( and u would think with such simple rules should handle it nice, but nope, its broken it a lots of places) but than u would ask what should I do? And when u go down and try to fine tune some planets, stations, mines, designs, etc its sooo tedious and boring.
    When I played DistantWorlds my only complain, despite it had excellent automatization tools, it was still not enough. But here aiming to the same level of grandeur u have one level of automation but NO TOOLS.
    So in this game u have 2 choices. U could do a lot of things but its extremely simple and tedious because of the lack of tools or u do almost nothing.
    And also the state of the game its not really finished. There a bugs (like different bonuses don't work), half late game and start to get a lot of 1-2s freezes in battles. But this are patch-able.
    I know paradox model of development and in the future will add a lot of nuances through out expansions but I fear those will not resolve my main issue with this game.    … Expand
  16. deathmachinept
    May 23, 2016
    6
    The game is a 7.0 but deserves for me a 6 for pre-order DLC, buggy on late game, selling over 30$ and not being DRM-FREE(sold on day 1 in GoG)

    It's a good ride but it gets ugly and really buggy the more you play, it has the quality of HoI 3 and CK II when they came out it's a decent foundation but it's somewhat bland and lacks features compared to previous games like Imperium Galactica    The game is a 7.0 but deserves for me a 6 for pre-order DLC, buggy on late game, selling over 30$ and not being DRM-FREE(sold on day 1 in GoG)

    It's a good ride but it gets ugly and really buggy the more you play, it has the quality of HoI 3 and CK II when they came out it's a decent foundation but it's somewhat bland and lacks features compared to previous games like Imperium Galactica 2, Galactic Civ 2, Space Empires IV or SW Rebellion.

    You could compared Stellaris to Stardrive I in terms of polish except it plays somewhat better on huge battles as both these two games choose to set up battles on the same map instead of having an instance like IG 2, Rebellion and Total Wars games do. But you will still get huge frame drops and slow downs when you get into big battles.

    The Good
    - Researching is fresh & interesting, techs take in account the way you play, if you build robots you are more likely to get tech related to A.I. and robots etc.. but it's still a bit arcade and unrealistic, it could take some queues from sword of the stars.
    - Nice foundation for a game.
    - A simplified pop system from Victoria game.
    - Potential storylines and interesting quests and events - I came across and interesting quest with backstory which was definitely the high point up of the game for me.

    The Bad
    - Music is repetitive
    - Tutorial is really bad still surprising to this paradox hasn't made a real attempt at a good tutorial, for example you never know what advantages a federation brings, tutorial quests can be very hard to unlock like building a station to study primitive species.
    Also if you deactivate and active the tutorial quests on the same game it gets reset to the first mission loosing all the progress you had made.
    - Gameplay Information is hard to get to(Example there is no quick way to only show strategic resources on the map/primitive empires or unexplored systems.
    - There are no tactics when you are on combat, you can't set you ships to stay far or get really close, not even run from enemy ships they always charge head on.
    - UI is not the prettiest and it's simplified this means there is more information hidden and takes more clicks to get to, you also never know if there features hidden away or not implemented.
    - Some quests get broken easily, some have no information, some don't trigger.
    - Collecting debris easily become unrewarding and an annoyance, for me this a complete miss it should give resources and a chance at acquiring unresearch technologies plus it should have an option to autocollect debris and not always have an associated research requirement on the situation log.
    - There are not enough resource sinks in mid and late game you will eventually just cap and don't have anything that requires massive value of resources like building a huge monument etc..
    - No logistics if you compared to stardrive where you produce food and resources and you can ship this with transports to planets that need them, here food is a local planet resource and there are no trade routes between your planets or other empires.
    - No espionage mechanic.
    - Late game events/crisis are buggy and stop working mid way, example a trigger for a quest gets trigger by A.I. players and you can't never trigger it again or a big menace stops building attack fleets and conquering after you beat it's 3 large fleets.

    The Ugly
    - Friendly "A.I" just does this, follows your larger fleet nothing more... So consider the scenario of fighting a huge battle in enemy territory and if you happen to create a new fleet slightly larger across the entire galaxy to reinforce the depleted one prepare to have the entire A.I. to disengage and leave you alone fighting so they can group with your larger fleet.
    This also is a reason for poor performance instead of having A.I. spread on multiple fronts of a war they are all one the same place which reduces performance.
    - A.I. never seems to accept border access even if just for civilians this means most quests get broken or post-pone for late game which in turn makes the rewards unrewarding and contribute to a more bland and unfulfilling experience.

    In the end I enjoy much more Stardrive (early access) than Stellaris (at release) and for now you are much better off buying Stardrive if you haven't yet, it has more depth and is way more innovative. Just wait 1 to 2 years for an expansion or a DLCs that adds more depth & content to the game.
    Unfortunately Paradox is starting to get a reputation for releasing okay games that don't really innovate or even measure to their past titles that only get good after one to two years with expansions and with dozens of DLCs.

    This game only shows how technical superior and advance IG 2 was for it's time a game that had real 3D building like sim city, ground battles, space battles, planetary defenses, espionage, trading, research and design, quests and dynamic quests, built-in working tutorial, 3 storyline for each of the 3 races, cutscenes.    … Expand
  17. FGM
    May 21, 2016
    5
    Graphics and music are nicely polished for a game of that type, but not for a game of that price.

    Was hoping for bigger variety of fleet designs, space objects and entities, and for the battles to be more spectacular, and more of a blast when it comes to ships maneuvering, and different weapons. Event chains bug at times, reload fixes it. Army can get stuck at time so you can't use    Graphics and music are nicely polished for a game of that type, but not for a game of that price.

    Was hoping for bigger variety of fleet designs, space objects and entities, and for the battles to be more spectacular, and more of a blast when it comes to ships maneuvering, and different weapons.

    Event chains bug at times, reload fixes it. Army can get stuck at time so you can't use or disband them, yet you pay for them. Resources bug, so you have them, yet you don’t and can't use them. AI has massive problems with management and auto-management is broken.

    War tactics dumbs down to: pick a weaker enemy, stack your fleet in one stack, destroy enemy stack and conquer undefended planets. There is no real defence for planets that could stand a chance against any invasion. One reasonable way to defend systems is to build a ridiculous amount of expensive defence platforms. No point in destroying everything as space stations are transferable when you takeover enemy system, upon winning a war.

    Planetary assault is down to the numbers and no limit on assaulting force size with limit on defending force size, makes it so much easier (quicker than in EU and CK). Fleet is not bound by the invasion and troop transport doesn't need any escort, and you chose if you want to provide orbital support. Like in other Paradox games there is no choices in battles. I'd love to see some mini games with space battles and invasion, so that you can actually make a difference. Doesn't have to be big you know. Sort of a “Heroes of Might and Magic”. It doesn’t have to be Total War straight away. Just dumbed down the Paradox way, would be enough. Something that would give the stronger attacker a slim chance to loose and defender a chance to win. Paradox games always lack in that department and it makes them completely lack epic heroism. CK has the power play, EU has simple diplomacy and Stellaris has even less than EU. I’m sure it would make their games much deeper and enjoyable.

    With no tactical combat, there is nothing you can do for the computer to be better. Other than just let him behave like a$$ to the human, and let him cheat. That's exactly what higher difficulty is about.

    Research is as dull, at the beginning you get the feeling that there is a variety and they actually done something about it. But quickly you realize it's simple and dumbed down to few unique projects, and the rest is a lvl 1 to 3, or lvl 1 to infinity research.

    Each race feels the same, as there is no tech variety. Would love to see separate tech tree paths, which progress through in roleplaying fashion (complete missions to progress research, force you to invade empires and stuff). In the end it would make some technologies inaccessible, if you researched their equivalents and completely different tech tree paths would be nice.

    Variety of space stations is minimal, Frontier, Mining, Research, Terraforming, Observation, Military, Spaceport, Wormhole Generators. Other than for military platforms there is no way of upgrading them, which is well.... boring. There isn't a lot of defence stations and ships variations, I want to see massive gun stations that obliterate destroyers with one shot and stuff, death stars, MASSIVE SPACE STRUCTURES, ARTIFICIAL PLANETS AND CANNON SHIPS!

    Game screams for more weapon types: antimatter, gravity, plasma, ultrasound, microwave, dark matter and beam line of weapons. Planet destroyers, mobile space stations, force fields, stealth technology…. still because everything is dumbed down to one simple number, it doesn't really matter which weapons you use, as long as you keep a healthy ratio.

    Please add Stellar Council made up from all races, and some influence power play among races. With no galactic policies system or some sanctions and forced missions from most influential council members, there isn’t much to do. As well nothing that would drive you to conquer.

    It needs spy agents to steal tech and sabotage, merchants to improve earnings trade resource outside official channels, ambassadors to improve relations organise coups and takeovers, missionaries (to spread your culture ideology, make ideology like religion).

    Survey missions feel repeatable after one playtrough and they disappear in later game, after trading starcharts. Research ships become useless, other than survey the crap left after space battle that speeds up your research projects.

    Game gets really boring real quick, as there isn't much to do in the end game, other than paint map. So it is nothing more but a graphic makeover of EU with little bit of CK in space, and it doesn’t work well. EU was boring real quick, as it was a simple map painter and CK was fun for the power play but, same as EU it lacked in tactics department.

    For now, I can say for sure that it’s an unfinished (lack of content), not entirely polished (bugs), otherwise a cool game. Yet another clone of same mechanics, so gets old real quick. I think it was well intended by Paradox DLC MILKINGCO    … Expand
  18. akako
    May 20, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. WORST AI and battle. insufficient stories and events.

    it is not finished product, i played PAID BETA.

    Is this really $40 over?

    Paradox the thief    … Expand
  19. BlakeArius
    May 13, 2016
    6
    I really wanted to like this game. The elements are there, just some bad design choices. Early game is great, missions are fun, well written and interesting, exploring is fun and exciting. Then the mid game - a constant "Now what" in terms of lack of things to do, not even the info pop ups to read, AI does nothing unless they have the ability to steamroll you and you seriously piss themI really wanted to like this game. The elements are there, just some bad design choices. Early game is great, missions are fun, well written and interesting, exploring is fun and exciting. Then the mid game - a constant "Now what" in terms of lack of things to do, not even the info pop ups to read, AI does nothing unless they have the ability to steamroll you and you seriously piss them off. The politics are as simple as a total war game despite seeming complex. Creating sectors take what little there is to do out of the game. The universe should get more interesting at this point, it does in civilization.. but instead its just lonely guessing until you get random bad events in the end game to make things harder.
    Battles are crap, the ship designer is pointless, I think a simple update to the ai would fix alot of the mid game issues but right now... eh its too boring.    … Expand
  20. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    7
    The concept is great, but it needed a lot of paches, and the ai is still dumb, some concept are too simplistic also. Moreover, the end game gets tedious and boring because there is too much micromanagement and you are just grinding to a victory that you know is coming if you had some wins in the mid game.
  21. LordZ_
    May 13, 2016
    7
    PAX MPERIA (1997 THQ ) = Stellaris (2016 PARADOX) can't be a 10
    Nothing very new in this 4x galactic but a very addictive game ( you will lost few night sleep )
    I don't like that you don't manage your fleet in battle and graphic are very basic.
  22. CrimsonMarshall
    May 19, 2017
    5
    PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS.

    Initially dazzling but gets old really fast when you realize how front-heavy the depth of this game is. Civilization creation and customization is rich and enjoyable but once you've determined your values, strengths, and politics, you will soon find yourself in an indefinite rinse and repeat cycle of monotonous expansion. Unfortunately there is not much to    PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS.

    Initially dazzling but gets old really fast when you realize how front-heavy the depth of this game is. Civilization creation and customization is rich and enjoyable but once you've determined your values, strengths, and politics, you will soon find yourself in an indefinite rinse and repeat cycle of monotonous expansion.

    Unfortunately there is not much to discover, and alien factions will cease to surprise or interest you quite soon. Also, weak and almost entirely passive AI (after many tens of hours, none of my allies or enemies invaded anyone my empire or anyone else's) make this apparently complex game disappointingly facile to the point of boring.

    I can just about guarantee a very engaging first 10-15 hours but campaigns take WAY longer than that and the dev's just haven't filled them out; if you crave any kind of challenge or novelty, you'll quit every game you start long before whatever it's conclusion is. I actually don't know how these games are supposed to end - I couldn't bring myself to sleepwalk through any more of this game after about 40 hours. Played it at launch though. If they released any more story content or elements of dynamism to progression, they got my money first.    … Expand
  23. 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
  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. haiontop
    May 15, 2016
    8
    This is 4x, explore, expand, exploit, exterminate. Why would anyone disagree on that just because there are also events? You can turned off event popup if you feel there is no real impact, like I do.
    Innovative features are:
    1. Sector management: so you don't need to micro every planet at the cost of at least 25% energy&mineral surplus in that sector. You get all the research generated.    This is 4x, explore, expand, exploit, exterminate. Why would anyone disagree on that just because there are also events? You can turned off event popup if you feel there is no real impact, like I do.
    Innovative features are:
    1. Sector management: so you don't need to micro every planet at the cost of at least 25% energy&mineral surplus in that sector. You get all the research generated. Sector don't build/manage ship (constructor), so you need to order construction of stations yourself.
    2. Card based research: You have min 3 choices in 3 area of research.

    Can be improved by implementing:
    1. Auto explore like other space games.
    2. Disable popup of contact event (as there is no choice to be made).
    3. Add major event that cripple whole empire/area.

    Overall good initial release, hopefully dlc will make thing more interesting. Distant Worlds Universe is still the best ...    … Expand
  26. Chrischrill
    May 11, 2016
    8
    Stellaris is your typical grand strategy game from Paradox, except for the setting. With space, Paradox conquers the final frontier? Or do they?

    The game is off to a great start, the early-game is fantastic and it gives me great pleasure to explore the universe and its anomalies. Once I reach mid-game, the game grinds to a painful halt. Many of the features and functions of this game    Stellaris is your typical grand strategy game from Paradox, except for the setting. With space, Paradox conquers the final frontier? Or do they?

    The game is off to a great start, the early-game is fantastic and it gives me great pleasure to explore the universe and its anomalies. Once I reach mid-game, the game grinds to a painful halt. Many of the features and functions of this game are undeveloped and sometimes not very well thought through. Depending on your mode of FTL transport, you may be fighting an enemy you cannot reach even though they can reach you. It's hard to win such a war, isn't it?

    Stellaris is lacking in areas such as trade and economy. Knowing Paradox, this is something they will work with in a future DLC. All in all, this is a good game with greater potential waiting to be unlocked.    … Expand
  27. Leuko
    May 15, 2016
    8
    I like this game so far. It is well delivered 4X strategy without messy micro management. Unfortunately warfare in Stellaris is really boring what I fear will impact this game's replayability.

    Logistics is appalling. Ships do not need supply, so war can be waged in any part of map with same efficiency. Additionally there is no combat penalty for huge fleets so final effect is creation    I like this game so far. It is well delivered 4X strategy without messy micro management. Unfortunately warfare in Stellaris is really boring what I fear will impact this game's replayability.

    Logistics is appalling. Ships do not need supply, so war can be waged in any part of map with same efficiency. Additionally there is no combat penalty for huge fleets so final effect is creation doom stacks that can strike anywhere without restriction.

    Only limiting factor is Naval Capacity and it does not affect the way wars are conducted.

    In its current state combat is worse than in Civ4. I guess i will revert to EU4 once novelty wears off.    … Expand
  28. Violett
    Nov 27, 2019
    0
    I rarely disagree with the opinion of majority on Metacritic, but here it goes. This game is awful, I cannot even name it "a game". There is no tutorial besides pick ship A and send to point B - congratulations you won! Very "deep" strategy indeed. A lot of non-understandable options, races, talents - whats all this about? Oxygen Not Included was difficult at first too, but reallyI rarely disagree with the opinion of majority on Metacritic, but here it goes. This game is awful, I cannot even name it "a game". There is no tutorial besides pick ship A and send to point B - congratulations you won! Very "deep" strategy indeed. A lot of non-understandable options, races, talents - whats all this about? Oxygen Not Included was difficult at first too, but really attractive - spent 400 hours there. Here played this "game" for an hour and it was the same dull environment - worse than EA Android games.… Expand
  29. DemKin
    May 17, 2016
    9
    This game seems to have woken up some kind of urge for 4x games for me...
    Not gonna get into details as I don't know enough about this kind of games, I'll just say that, being a generally space-enthusiastic guy and a liker of games, I'm thoroughly enjoying this game so far ( ~25hrs in as I write this ) and excited to see what they come up with in the future expansions.
    Stellaris is fun,    This game seems to have woken up some kind of urge for 4x games for me...
    Not gonna get into details as I don't know enough about this kind of games, I'll just say that, being a generally space-enthusiastic guy and a liker of games, I'm thoroughly enjoying this game so far ( ~25hrs in as I write this ) and excited to see what they come up with in the future expansions.
    Stellaris is fun, well-thought out, and I can recommend it.    … Expand
  30. Robinjhoe
    Jul 14, 2016
    7
    I didnt expect muc of the Game, because it was a "Hell why not" buy. But i kind of was surprised by it.
    First off, it is pretty basic. But it has its own strenghts and weaknesses:
    Positive: + Amazing soundtracks (especially faster than light (instrumental) + Interesting way of exploration + Easy to understand + A species creator + Day One Mod Support Negative: - Some starting    I didnt expect muc of the Game, because it was a "Hell why not" buy. But i kind of was surprised by it.
    First off, it is pretty basic. But it has its own strenghts and weaknesses:

    Positive:
    + Amazing soundtracks (especially faster than light (instrumental)
    + Interesting way of exploration
    + Easy to understand
    + A species creator
    + Day One Mod Support

    Negative:
    - Some starting problems
    - Combat is really dumbed down
    - Managment is very basic
    - Exploration gets really annoying the bigger the universe you are in is
    - Politics are very often one-sided
    - It gets very crowded at times
    - Research is more or less random (you get 3 to 4 choices what you can research next, but it is not an open research tree)

    All in all it is fun. But it does not really anything complete new. It is fun for people liking these type of games but nothing for hardcore 4X lovers, even if this is not really 4X.    … 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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