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. 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
  2. Domy_re
    Nov 29, 2016
    10
    Il massimo, peccato per l'assenza della localizzazione in italiano, ma quelli di Bop hanno sopperito. Forse un pò da migliorare la parte della guerra, ma è comunque un prodotto talmente innovativo da non fra gli strategici ambientati nello spazio da non potergli meno di 10
  3. 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
  4. SharkTankGamer
    Oct 7, 2016
    9
    Paradox always delivers and they delivered again with Stellaris. It's a semi-story driven completely sandbox empire building game! As you explore and grow your empire beware of fallen empires since they start out much more advanced and much stronger to simulate them reaching the stars way before your empire. I simply cannot wait for dlc to customize the game play even more.
  5. telefoonboek
    Aug 25, 2016
    5
    The reviews detail how accessible this game is. For me personally, newcommer to this genre, I was overwhelmed with menu's and options and too.

    Also the lack of waging war the way I want too puts me off from giving this a good score. It might be a good game for others, but that was a nay for me.
  6. Moo-vies
    Aug 13, 2016
    5
    Game is pretty but UI is not up to the task.
    Game mechanics are pretty shallow and kind of illogical on many aspects.
    AI is dumb. Game needs mods to become slightly interesting. At the moment, do not buy it. It may become good in two years with lots of DLC to enrich the experience and filter out the numerous bugs (that transparently touch a lot of invisible things in the AI the    Game is pretty but UI is not up to the task.
    Game mechanics are pretty shallow and kind of illogical on many aspects.
    AI is dumb.
    Game needs mods to become slightly interesting.

    At the moment, do not buy it. It may become good in two years with lots of DLC to enrich the experience and filter out the numerous bugs (that transparently touch a lot of invisible things in the AI the player does not see are just not working.

    Bitter about the fact most games today are released in such a poor state.    … Expand
  7. socokid
    Aug 11, 2016
    10
    I've only started playing it a few days ago, after the latest large patch. If there were bugs, etc... on first release, they definitely do not seem to be there now. I've played 62 hours, no crashes, lags, etc... Runs great. *shrugs*

    It's an immense, extremely fun, complex but playable classic space RTS. Gaining resources, researching tech, building/designing ships and destroying others.    I've only started playing it a few days ago, after the latest large patch. If there were bugs, etc... on first release, they definitely do not seem to be there now. I've played 62 hours, no crashes, lags, etc... Runs great. *shrugs*

    It's an immense, extremely fun, complex but playable classic space RTS. Gaining resources, researching tech, building/designing ships and destroying others. Throw in exploration, surveying planets, etc...

    It is amazing this game isn't more popular than it is... And some of these bad reviews are so wrong, and I mean flat out untrue, that I either question whether they have actually played the game, or if the first two large updates were just that drastic (never played it when it came out a few months ago).

    On my second play-through, still having a blast, worth every penny IMO.    … Expand
  8. CiaranJ
    Jul 29, 2016
    9
    Very engaging, rewarding and fun. Customization and progression is a welcome addition. I have always found 4X games very frustrating to 'get into', so to speak. I was not disappointed with Stellaris.
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. sovereign007
    Jun 17, 2016
    9
    While it isn't perfect, Stellaris has taken over my gaming life. It is gripping and addicting, and even AI shortfalls and some bugs do not detract from the overall experience sufficiently to dock more than 1 point from my review. It is also incredibly easy to mod yourself if you wish to get a slightly different gameplay experience out of it: For example, I wanted a longer eXplore phaseWhile it isn't perfect, Stellaris has taken over my gaming life. It is gripping and addicting, and even AI shortfalls and some bugs do not detract from the overall experience sufficiently to dock more than 1 point from my review. It is also incredibly easy to mod yourself if you wish to get a slightly different gameplay experience out of it: For example, I wanted a longer eXplore phase before the borders were set and we became medieval Europe in space. Well, easy enough, make galaxy larger than the max 1,000 stars the game comes with and don't use too many alien races. Suddenly space is big and wondrous. Want the opposite? Increase the max number of empires on a mid-sized map and everyone suddenly needs to rush to grab the little precious land that exists.

    And as a bonus, it looks beautiful without being hard on your video card. A 750Ti runs it more than fine.    … Expand
  12. 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
  13. Tytos
    Jun 10, 2016
    7
    The good:

    - Accessibility
    - Diversity, Content
    - Graphics

    The bad:

    - Performance (uses only 1 CPU !!!)
    - Balance
    - Midgame lack of content
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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.
  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. DMT
    May 30, 2016
    10
    Just wait until the 3 main free content & fix patches are done... Then we have greatness. Right now we have all the ingredients, just need more of them which we know are coming.
  20. 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.
  21. axxiusdecius
    May 29, 2016
    6
    It is a 9/10 game before you are forced to form sectors (the -1 because of the unrealistic surface system), but a 2/10 with the sectors. I hated the idea andthe fact it is forced on me and unavoidable. Hope they will make a patch to let players choose not to use sectors. till then, it is unplayable for me and i uninstalled it
  22. obnose
    May 29, 2016
    9
    Wonderful 4X space game, with some traces of the very special Paradox's grand strategy.

    Easier to get into than other Paradox games like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings, one of its better features is an awesome eXploration phase, neglicted ofently in 4X games. You'll find lot of events, stories, surprises... which will make really enjoyable the first steps of your empire-building.    Wonderful 4X space game, with some traces of the very special Paradox's grand strategy.

    Easier to get into than other Paradox games like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings, one of its better features is an awesome eXploration phase, neglicted ofently in 4X games. You'll find lot of events, stories, surprises... which will make really enjoyable the first steps of your empire-building. Technology and research (the genetics developments are very welcome), politics (not just elections but managing a diverse and potencially conflicted empire because of divisive issues according to the different ethics of your population), diplomacy (including federations à la Star Trek)... and war, with several options for both your fleet and land forces.

    Best thing in Stellaris is that is a very powerful frame to keep building the game the way their developers have done (and are doing several years after their release) with Europa Universalis 4 or Crusader Kings 2. Stellaris is a must for all space games lovers.    … Expand
  23. VitaminK
    May 28, 2016
    8
    Great at first, but you soon realize how shallow the game is. I love the devs and I hope they continue to add to the game and I can come back in a year and give it an 8 or 9, but where it sits at release is just not good enough.
  24. dragon0085
    May 28, 2016
    5
    I oringinally gave this a 9 when I wrote it for a professional review. Initially, this game is awesome, the exploration is cool etc, let me get into the problems:
    The scope is so huge, and you are forced into 'diplomatically' killing people instead of blowing away planets. Let me explain, in EVERY other game, you can bomb a planet dead, or invade and take over - not here. You invade,    I oringinally gave this a 9 when I wrote it for a professional review. Initially, this game is awesome, the exploration is cool etc, let me get into the problems:
    The scope is so huge, and you are forced into 'diplomatically' killing people instead of blowing away planets. Let me explain, in EVERY other game, you can bomb a planet dead, or invade and take over - not here. You invade, and 'hold' the planet, and if you go enough of these, you reach a diplomatic goal and they give you a planet. The universe is so big, and so slow to fight, that you will almost never finish a game. Its disappointing, and I've played nearly all 4X games out there.    … Expand
  25. Filaton
    May 28, 2016
    7
    A fun 4x game which biggest problem right now seems to be lack of content. The early game event chains do not link very well into the almost stagnant mid-game. UI is also, despite PDX's claims, quite unintuitive.

    My thought on buying this game: don't buy it until you get it on sale along with a few DLCs.
  26. 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
  27. cast87
    May 24, 2016
    8
    Good game to my preference. And it have easy interface compared with other paradox games, So i don't have barrier of entry. Likewise, there's no need to long tutorials. But I need DLC !!!
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. DiogenesLaertys
    May 23, 2016
    5
    I have to admit, I'm really pissed at all the Paradox fanboys that make this game to be something more than it is. The most important thing you should know about this game is that it is incomplete. There are huge gaps in gameplay. In it's current state, the game deserves around a 5 or 6.

    Let's start with the pros: - Decent UI. In the early game, it's easy to respond to in-game    I have to admit, I'm really pissed at all the Paradox fanboys that make this game to be something more than it is. The most important thing you should know about this game is that it is incomplete. There are huge gaps in gameplay. In it's current state, the game deserves around a 5 or 6.

    Let's start with the pros:

    - Decent UI. In the early game, it's easy to respond to in-game events and inactive units by clicking the icons that pop up.

    - Good enough game skeleton that maybe with a year of dlc it will become an 8.

    - Big multiplayer games are something new and fun for the genre.

    Negatives -

    - Exploration/research quests are too powerful relative to how you manage your empire. Makes the game more of an RPG than a 4x game.

    - Expansion is boring. You have to build frontier outposts rather than colonies because of the resourcing early game only you can't tell what territory the outpost will cover so you end up getting like 2 systems covered by your outpost when you thought you would get 4.. When you finally colonize a planet, you don't have a lot of meaningful strategic options: it's just more power plants or mineral plants. You need enough food too but its not hard to get the minimum amount. Other strategic resources are hidden until you research the relative tech so you can't plan and make meaningful strategic choices.

    - Research is too RNG. You have 3 types of techs and 3 options for each tech that change every game. This is to stop min-maxers according to the designers, but why stop min maxing? That's part of the reason play the game. Just adds more RNG to the game and makes your decisions less meaningful. In other 4x games, it's fun to pile all the research into attack or into more research or into industry and make your empire specialized.

    - Combat is on-rails. You just build enough ships so that your number is bigger than theirs. There is some technological rock, paper, scissors but it's not that well-fleshed out. Feels like abuse when you do it to the AI since they don't adapt well.

    - Leaders is another RNG element. Your leaders die and get replaced. So instead of working towards leaders that lend themselves to your strategy, they level up with random traits and then die. Not a fun mechanic at all. I don't want realism in a 4x game, I want fun and for my decisions to be more meaningful.

    - Influence is an irritating and stupid mechanic. Your empire generates only low single digits of influence and it is used to recruit leaders and build critical infrastructure like outposts. It is also used for edicts which give small planet-wide or empire-wide bonuses. Because generation is so low, it is basically a way to make all empires limited in their ability to grow early leaving a feeling of sameness between all empires.

    - AI is bad. All 4x games do have bad AI but Stellaris doubles down on it because you HAVE to use sector governors (basically friendly AI) when you have more than 5 planets. This will never be a feature to me. I want to control my planets and eke out what small edges I can. Hopefully they improve AI especially sector AI. There are many bugs atm. This may be a forever negative to the game. I despise the AI in every 4x game I play. They do too many stupid things.

    TLDR version: There's a lot of layers to the game but many aspects aren't quite fleshed out yet. Also the overall design of the game makes it feel like your decisions really don't matter which is damning for a 4x game. RNG is too prevalent for my liking. It can be a good game eventually with some tweaks, but it's not a good game right now and doesn't deserve the high scores it's been getting.    … 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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