Stellaris: Console Edition Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 48 Ratings

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  • Summary: Featuring deep strategic gameplay, an enormous selection of alien races and emergent storytelling, Stellaris has a deeply challenging system that rewards interstellar exploration as you traverse, discover, interact and learn more about the multitude of species you will encounter during yourFeaturing deep strategic gameplay, an enormous selection of alien races and emergent storytelling, Stellaris has a deeply challenging system that rewards interstellar exploration as you traverse, discover, interact and learn more about the multitude of species you will encounter during your travels.

    Etch your name across the cosmos by uncovering remote celestial outposts,and entire civilizations. Will you expand through war or walk the path of diplomacy to achieve your goals?
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Stellaris: Console Edition | Expansion Pass Five | Announcement Trailer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. 90
    Stellaris is an aesthetically beautiful and rich in storytelling, and I'm fully enamoured to it. It plays beautifully on console, and it's the kind of game that's impossible to put down once you start playing.
  2. 90
    The only offering of its ilk on PS4, Stellaris: Console Edition squeezes a galaxy of emergent strategy, discovery and story onto Sony's home console with very little compromise. Stellaris is certainly the biggest, if not one of the best pure strategy titles you can get on PS4 right now.
  3. Sep 11, 2019
    85
    Stellaris: Console Edition is a mighty impressive game in and of itself. It also did the impossible: make a fairly complex and grand strategy title enjoyable on a console. That should stand as its own achievement. If you have access to Stellaris on a powerful PC, the console edition isn't for you. Even though it is a great title, the console version still feels somewhat restrained and pared down, but that may change with future updates. Regardless, if you're a fan of the genre and only game on a console at home, this is as close as you can get to a great strategy title running in its full glory on a TV.
  4. Feb 22, 2019
    80
    Stellaris: Console Edition is a good porting of one of the best strategy game from Paradox. Using a game controller to play with it is not like using the mouse and the keyboard, but the game is vast and incredibly deep, immensely detailed and highly enjoyable.
  5. Feb 22, 2019
    80
    A solid port of what is easily Paradox Interactive's most accessible grand strategy game. While Stellaris has evolved and grown over the past three years on PC, the base game is still a good solid grand strategy title with some intriguing ideas for storytelling and managing an endgame, though without some of the depth of their other titles. More importantly, wrapped a controller and TV friendly interface around the game that puts control over even the grandest of empires well within your grasp.
  6. Mar 11, 2019
    75
    If you want to play grand strategy on a console, Stellaris is a deep game you can play over and over again. Be warned though: this amazing game will stalk you with small text and a very slow pace.
  7. 60
    Stellaris is a good 4X strategy game, but its port suffers from the basic differences between console and PC gaming. It would be unfair to blame Tantalus Media, as it’s hard to think how these mechanics could have been improved with the tools at hand. For patient and true lovers of the genre, being able to play Stellaris on their PS4 or Xbox One might be enough to please them, but for newcomers to the franchise or the genre, the clunky and cumbersome controls will prove to be a big turn-off.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 20
  2. Negative: 4 out of 20
  1. Oct 7, 2019
    10
    i love this game but i hope they add more dlc like the pc version cuz i want to do more in this game like destroy a planet i hope they ati love this game but i hope they add more dlc like the pc version cuz i want to do more in this game like destroy a planet i hope they at least add Apocalypse dlc Expand
  2. Feb 10, 2021
    10
    Best space-strategy game on consoles, simple as that. Lots of different ways to play and to specialize your empire.
  3. Feb 28, 2019
    10
    The game takes awhile to build up your fleets and research, but that just means you are getting your money's worth. Graphics are good andThe game takes awhile to build up your fleets and research, but that just means you are getting your money's worth. Graphics are good and controls are easy enough to learn. You have to play Ironman to be able to get trophies so that adds a bit of difficulty to getting 28 trophies to platinum the game. Also enjoy customizing races and then adding them to the game to play against. This game is very addictive and I know it was a great buy. Expand
  4. Mar 2, 2019
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Hi, I have everything in Stellaris except the Megacorp update. It seems the PS4 version is a downgrade from the latest expansions in the game. These pros and cons were written by me for Wccftech in their comments section.

    Pros:
    -You can build your race, complete with its ethics, behavior and likely-hood of declaring war.

    -Gameplay is different for each civilization you choose (or build) so its good replay-ability if you have no problem with building stations all the time. Some races can't have federations, others can't declare war. Others can/cannot enslave populations. Lots of (endless) options in terms of building your government and choosing the ideals of your species.

    -Constant events/space anomalies keep you on your toes.

    -The producers have a good imagination. I like space science and astronomy and they make the anomalies and space events so much more interesting and believable. And without any video of events that is. Their writing is so good.

    -The coolest thing I liked was you could uplift a minor civilization that hasn't mastered space flight yet.

    -Has cheats, for the more casual gamer.

    -Yes the soundtracks aregood and you can choose from various tracks. But the best soundtracks in my opinion are from Total War and Crusader kings (being a rock lover)
    -Good customization options-you can choose your galaxy and how many species there will be in it.

    Cons:

    -Its a little repetitive. I mean you are endlessly building outposts, research stations and mining stations. Its the backbone of the game and gets boring after a while. This is why after I won in 2 play-thoughs I gave up while playing on the third.

    -The thing is all strategy games, from shooters like Mass Effect (Andromeda is the name of the galaxy closest to our Milky Way), to similar 4X titles like Endless Space 2 and Galactic Civilizations III give you a single galaxy. Most players may not see this as a problem but I am tired of it. They all feel the same.

    In my view Stellaris isn't always fun but usually is though the least fun part is when you have blanketed the galaxy with your outposts and can't declare war on anyone (Perhaps because of your ethics, so choose the right faction for the play-style that interests you.

    There's a steep learning curve and gameplay differs slightly for each of the civilizations you choose (or make) because they play differently. Whats common to all of them are the buildings though. All of them build mining stations, research stations and outposts in space and all of them have hydroponic farms etc on their planets. It would have been interesting for some variety here. Its still not a completely boring title like Galactic Civilzations 3. With so many different civilizations with different governing/rulership styles and more you can design personally there's a lot to do.

    Ata Alavi,
    Game Writer.
    Expand
  5. Jul 19, 2022
    5
    Stellaris was already a problematic game on PC? And the PS4 version makes those problems worse. The user interface is obtuse, bloated, andStellaris was already a problematic game on PC? And the PS4 version makes those problems worse. The user interface is obtuse, bloated, and impenetrable for new users. If you played this on PC, you probably saw all of the quality of life mods. Paradox could have implemented some of those ideas for PS4. Instead they created a frustrating interface for controllers. Best I can say is that this game fills a niche that others do not and it played well on PS5.

    The biggest barrier to enjoying Stellaris PS4 are the many, many menus that clutter the screen. More is not always better and Stellaris proves this. Finding relevant info feels like a hidden object game. If I was in charge of fixing this game, I would start by taking away factions, edicts, most of the +5% techs, blockers on planets, much of the diplomacy screen, a few redundant buildings, the ship designer, and about 1/2 of fleet management. Then I would give players the option automate many of the tasks in this game like surveying systems, building housing, and responding to pirates. A lot of players would change a lot about Stellaris, especially on PS4. The DLC adds a lot to the game, but like I said, more is not always better.

    Another longstanding issue in the game is the waiting. This is love real time equivalent of spamming “next turn” in Civilization 6. You cannot just walk away and read your e-max You need to keep watching the game, hoping that something happens so you can click something and at least pretend you are playing a game. I would prefer a turn based Stellaris. I have to keep pausing the game to make decisions anyway.

    Finally, Stellaris has major limitations for strategy and tactics. Long term strategy depends on random opportunities to research new techs and find habitable planets. (If you get lucky and can research terraforming soon enough, you can make every planet habitable.) Tactics are almost non existent. The battles are decided by numbers, and the bigger number wins. The best you do on defense is bait the ent into attacking a system with a space station that can hurt the enemy’s shield and slow them down. There are no hit and run tactics. There are no fighter versus carrier battles. There are no stealth ships with first strike advantages. As a long time fan of games like Dune II and Civilization, the battles are disappointing.

    Almost every game of Stellaris has the same beginning, middle, and end. There is little freedom to go off script. Population growth, a.i. bonuses, and technology research times are all tuned to keep the player from doing anything too interesting. Grow slow, build a a giant fleet, and fight the end game crisis, That’s every game. There is no ideological victory, no super science victory, and no diplomatic victory. The most you can do is decide to micromanage your empire more or less.

    Full disclosure: I downloaded this from my PS+ Essential collection. I also played the PC version with more of the DLC. (My son bought it and I paid him half after I played it.)
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  6. Jan 28, 2020
    5
    While the game itself may have good depth and strategy, it is sorely lacking in-game instruction and information. You will probably need toWhile the game itself may have good depth and strategy, it is sorely lacking in-game instruction and information. You will probably need to spend many hours on Google, YouTube, Reddit, etc before fully grasping this game. In doing so, you will possibly be rewarded with a robust experience seldom found on console. If this sounds like too much of a time and energy investment though, you might want to pass on this title altogether. Expand
  7. Jun 20, 2020
    0
    I want to love this game, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to play it. Downloaded it onto my PS4 on 6/13/2020 and after being tooI want to love this game, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to play it. Downloaded it onto my PS4 on 6/13/2020 and after being too dumb to understand the tutorial and watching 5+ hours of various YouTube tutorial videos, the game is still unplayable. According some fans on Reddit, they regularly make significant changes, so much so that I literally could not find a video that had the same version of the game that I downloaded. Any tutorial video I was following would inevitably get to a point where they were playing a different game than I was. I tried for *days* to figure this game out. At this point I don’t think the designers are interested in engaging with new players. Do not recommend. Expand

See all 20 User Reviews