From the pen of Paradox Interactive, many cult strategies have come out, differing from each other not only in the historical era involved, but also in the abundance of unique mechanics, interesting features, as well as the simply unimaginable potential to generate absurdly incredible stories. Series such as Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron and Victoria have not only gained popular recognition, but also rallied many diverse communities around them. And not just communities, but extremely solvent communities, whose members are distinguished by their increased willingness to support the development of their favorite projects with hard cash, which Paradox actively uses. This symbiosis allows not only to maintain an incredibly long development cycle for previously released games, but also gives the company scope for experiments, one of which was Stellaris.
Over the four years since its release, Stellaris has undergone many transformations, transformed beyond recognition, and therefore this review may be interesting not only for beginners, but also for those who, for whatever reason, abandoned the game, missing one or more add-ons. Speaking of the add-ons themselves: at the moment their number has reached fifteen titles, of which fourteen are paid. However, by the standards of Paradox, this is still a little, but I mentioned this fact for a reason – the review will consider the game along with all the dlc, because some of them simply cannot be done here, the changes they make to the gameplay are so serious, but first things first.
Role-playing component.
One of the distinctive features of Stellaris is a fairly flexible editor for creating your own interstellar civilization. It is with getting to know him that your game will begin, unless, of course, you prefer to choose one of the pre-created options kindly provided by the developers. Among the key parameters it is worth noting: the appearance and characteristics of the main race; the flag, political system, civic models and principles of your space empire; origin and type of homeworld; as well as the appearance of cities and ships. Believe me, there is plenty to roam around here.
Communist butterflies that survived a nuclear war? Glory to Arstotzka!
Perhaps we should start with race. If the words about customizing your appearance brought to mind the image of the creature creation editor from Spore or something like that, then I hasten to disappoint you (or make you happy) – you won’t be able to sculpt a creepy monster here, because you will have to choose from pre-prepared portraits. However, taking into account all the dlc of these same portraits, there will be more than 150 pieces, which, you see, is not a little. It is also worth noting mods that further expand this list and allow you to play even as races from other settings, including Mass Effect and Warhammer 40,000. Regarding dlc that influence the choice of race – there are six in total, but it’s not so simple. The Anniversary Portraits add-on is distributed free of charge and offers very good and, most importantly, quite diverse looks for your potential charges, and therefore it does not raise any special questions. Unlike the Galaxy Edition Upgrade Pack, which only offers one exclusive™ portrait. The purchase of this add-on is highly optional, and should only be regarded as a way to financially support the developers. Optional add-ons also include the Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Pack, offering the opportunity to play as Space Elves and Radishes, respectively. Such a disappointing verdict is due to the fact that no special game mechanics were introduced for these races, which reduces their significance to a purely aesthetic one.
Just imagine the diplomatic embarrassment that must occur when vegetarian elves meet a talking head of cabbage.
Things are much better with the Lithoids Species Pack and Synthetic Dawn Story Pack, which add silicon life forms to the game. The first addition is designed to answer the eternal question that has tormented humanity throughout its history – can stones pay taxes?? Yes, it turns out they can. Among the features of lithoids, it is worth noting extremely rich portraits and a unique feature, thanks to which this type of creature can settle on almost any planet suitable for life, which allows for a more active expansionist policy. Unfortunately, the price for such versatility is extremely low population growth and increased dependence on minerals, which are consumed by lithoids instead of food. This won’t be to everyone’s taste. The second addition allows you to start conquering the galaxy with robots. What can I say – an absolute imbecile, against the background of which poor lithoids and organics seem nothing more than a pathetic mistake of nature. While the game became more complex, complex and intricate, acquiring additional mechanics, Dawn of the Synthetics remained on the periphery, deprived of the attention of developers. As a result, playing as a machine mind is extremely easy, and therefore I advise you to start your acquaintance with Stellaris with it. Among the strengths of synthetics, it is worth highlighting the ability to calmly settle even where there is barely a glimmer of life (it’s strange, of course, that they cannot populate lifeless worlds, but let’s justify this with a very ironic word – balance), truncated production chains (out of the five main resources, robots need only three), as well as the banal simplicity of managing an empire. Their disadvantages include rather unpleasant diplomatic restrictions, the impossibility of elevation (more on this later), as well as the inability to achieve maximum efficiency in any one area, because their destiny is to be strong average peasants. In other words, Synthetic Dawn Story Pack becomes the first paid Dlc in this review, which is recommended for purchase – without it it will be much more difficult to start.
Mind Stones vs Metal Demigods.
Now it’s time to talk about customizing the empire itself. There are a total of seven forms of government in the game. Basic regimes are democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship and imperialism. To be honest, there is not much difference between them, because in the game itself the system of political leadership is implemented at a rather primitive level, however, each political system is closely connected with certain civic models, which still gives the selection process some kind of meaningfulness. The MegaCorp add-on also introduced the opportunity to play as corporations, but the gameplay for them is not much different from the standard one. Their only unique feature is the ability to create branches on foreign worlds belonging to empires of the standard type, but it can reveal itself fully only when choosing certain civilian models. Ironically, much greater diversity is demonstrated by those communities that were united by one, common consciousness. I already spoke about machine intelligence earlier, so let’s dwell in more detail on the collective intelligence, without which you are unlikely to be able to follow in the footsteps of the Tyranids. Let me immediately point out that the opportunity to play as the hive mind was added in the Utopia add-on, which is not only recommended for purchase – you must have it if you hope to get at least a tenth of what it can offer you from the game. Alas, no matter how good this addition is, the collective mind as a form of government is inferior to both machine intelligence and standard organic empires, competing on equal terms only with the unfortunate lithoids. Among the strengths, it is worth noting a very good rate of population growth and lower fines when compared with the collective intelligence of machines, as well as the absence of the need for one of the basic resources. I would call the weak point that the collective mind has no other strong points. Playing for synthetics will be easier, and playing for organics will be more effective.
Running a space empire is https://nitrobettingcasino.co.uk/ rarely compatible with morals and ethics.
With principles everything is a little more interesting. Each principle reflects the ideological views of your empire’s government and conflicts with the opposing principle. There are eight of them in total, if you do not take into account the Gestalt consciousness inherent in all collective and machine minds: authoritarianism and egalitarianism, militarism and pacifism, xenophilia and xenophobia, as well as spiritualism and materialism. I won’t torment you with numbers and other modifiers, because every major patch strives to overhaul this system (once upon a time, instead of authoritarianism and egalitarianism there was collectivism and individualism, let alone more minor changes). Rather, it’s worth talking about compliance with a certain playing style. Pacifism and xenophobia promote isolationism and development within one’s own borders; militarism is a mandatory choice for anyone who expects to get their way by force; spiritualism increases the increase of unity; materialism makes it possible to reduce the cost of operating robots and also contributes to scientific progress; authoritarianism expands the possibilities for managing one’s empire; xenophilia actively promotes diplomacy and trade; and egalitarianism… well, now it’s the choice of a masochist. Why? It’s all about political factions that also profess certain principles. The problem is that egalitarians will not tolerate any policies that infringe on the rights of citizens, even if they are vital to the state. If you want their support, forget about regulating the number, and about relocation, and about improving the characteristics of the leaders of the empire. In addition, each principle has two versions – normal and fanatical. Acquiring the latter requires twice as many principles points (2 out of 3 available). In other words, your empire can have either one fanatical and one regular principle, or three regular principles at the same time.
Unfortunately, accepting Gestalt consciousness requires three points of principles at once, so you can’t get away with it.
And now we get to the meat of it – civilian models. They are the ones who bring the greatest variety to the gameplay, but there are quite a lot of them, and therefore only the most interesting ones will be mentioned. Purity Champions, Devouring Swarm and Unyielding Exterminator will turn your empire into a threat on a galactic scale, because their ultimate dream is to remain the sole masters of the galaxy. With Manic Assimilator, your machine mind can turn organics into cyborgs…whether they want it or not. "Rebel Servant" will allow your machine empire to build reserves for organic races, which synthetics affectionately nicknamed "biotrophies". “Criminal Legacy” gives your corporation the opportunity to build its branches on alien planets, regardless of the opinions of their owners, simultaneously increasing the crime rate (the bearings from “Space Rangers” immediately come to mind). "Good News for the Masses" will turn your corporation into a megachurch where even faith has a price. “Barbarian Plunderers” is an opportunity to turn your space empire into a huge gang of raiders, raiding the worlds of your neighbors and driving their population into slavery. “Internal improvement” will allow your empire to completely close itself off from the outside world, isolating itself from the harmful influence of outsiders. And that’s not all.
Feudal lords conquering space? Business as usual!
In the recent update, origins were also added, which determine under what conditions your empire arose. Did your civilization develop in a paradise created especially for it by some mysterious benefactor?? Or she experienced baptism by atomic flame and is now trying with all her might to prevent such a terrible mistake from happening again in the future? Perhaps your civilization has already conquered space in the past, but after a series of humiliating defeats it was thrown back to its cradle? Or maybe your civilization is a harmonious union of two races at once? And who said that everything should be fine? Perhaps your home world is on the verge of destruction? Again, this is not the entire range. Such a wide choice makes Stellaris a full-fledged role-playing strategy, in which you play not a specific character, but an entire civilization. What it is and what it will become depends not only on you, but also on the world around you, as well as the challenges that your wards will have to face in it. And when you manage to feel this, Stellaris begins to give a truly unique and unrepeatable experience.
Imagination is an add-on you don’t have to pay for.
Xenos and their habitats.
Now that you have a young but very ambitious space empire at your disposal, it’s time to talk about the galaxy itself and its inhabitants. A significant portion of neighboring empires will be randomly generated using the previously mentioned editor. Moreover, in the game you can meet with your own created empires, but Stellaris is not limited only to what is available to the player. First of all, it is worth mentioning the fallen empires. These colossi experienced the end of the previous cycle… which traumatized them to some extent, leading to stagnation in all areas of life. Fallen empires are forced to fanatically follow the same principle until younger empires deal a crushing blow to them. Unless, of course, you have the Leviathans Story Pack dlc! Yes, and there was some DLC here too. This expansion adds an event to the game called "War in Heaven", which requires at least two fallen empires ready to blow the dust off their blasters. The clash of these giants is a mid-game crisis that can radically change the political situation in the galaxy.
Fallen empires don’t hate, they despise.
In the same addition, enclaves were added to the game – small space stations where scientists, artists or merchants live. Alas, it’s quite difficult to say anything good about them, because almost all of their functionality is limited to providing certain bonuses in exchange for energy credits. Perhaps only the curators are of any interest, because they can tell you about some of the secrets of the galaxy, including the backstory of the leviathans you met – huge monsters capable of single-handedly taking down entire fleets. The leviathans themselves were also added in this dlc, but interaction with them is usually limited only by whether you have time to kill them before your neighbors do. The MegaCorp expansion also added caravaners to the game, who will periodically visit your star systems and offer deals of varying degrees of absurdity, but often these meetings are of little use. What’s much funnier is that on their basis you can play in a casino created on the principle of loot boxes… But let’s not talk about sad things, because in the Apocalypse dlc those enclaves were finally introduced into the game that can have a significant impact on the gameplay! We are talking about marauding empires – space pirates living off robberies and endless battles. The most interesting thing is that you can set them against your rivals, but keep in mind that they can answer you in the same coin. Thus, a third-party factor is added to the armed conflicts at the beginning of the game, which can confuse the cards for all participants in the intergalactic struggle for power and influence. But that’s not all, because among the marauders a Great Khan may appear, capable of uniting his people and launching a campaign of conquest, as a result of which the political map of the galaxy may significantly transform.
Sometimes there is a real queue of people who want to annoy their neighbor with the looters.
Those empires that survive to the end-game crisis will face a truly terrifying threat – the Praetorian Swarm, which is the local equivalent of the Tyranids; A contingent that is a local analogue of the reapers from Mass Effect; or Uninvited Guests, whose otherworldly nature tells them to cleanse the entire galaxy of any possible manifestations of life. When it comes to confronting them, the fate of the entire galaxy is at stake. Also worth mentioning are the factions that appear during the mid-game crises, which include rebel robots and crazy nanite clouds. It is surrounded by all these cute creatures that you will develop your empire. In Stellaris there is a place for a cunning strategy, and for pathos of overcoming, and even for a tragic ending.
There will always be people in the galaxy who want to trample all your endeavors into the dirt.
However, there is room for friendship here too! Who is best to be friends with in such conditions?? That’s right, with those who have not yet imbued with all the hardships of survival in the middle of indifferent space! You have a choice of primitive civilizations, such as yours most recently, as well as pre-intelligent creatures who are just preparing to embark on the path of pain and progress. When interacting with the former, you can become the local equivalent of “flying saucers”, kidnapping local residents and brainwashing them, or even start a local war of the worlds. With the pre-intelligent, everything is simpler – if you have certain technology, you can turn these cute creatures into your own kind, simultaneously acting as mentors for the young race. If we talk about relationships with equals, then you can unite with them into a federation, so all fans of diplomacy can calmly exhale – Stellaris is not limited to an all-out war of all against all.
In Stellaris, the balance of power is one of the main indicators in relationships with others and determining your place in the political arena of the galaxy.
Gameplay Basics.
Throughout this review, I have repeatedly mentioned certain dlcs, but this time it’s time to talk about Paradox’s policies in general and the course they have taken for the development of Stellaris in particular. In my opinion, the developers do not have a long-term strategy for the development of the project. Each addition seems like a desperate attempt to fix some specific part of the game, but due to the lack of a comprehensive, systematic approach, they create many more problems than they solve. The simplest example is that during the release of the dlc Apocalypse, the planetary construction system was radically redesigned. How did the developers determine these changes?? The fact that some players did not like the previous system due to the fact that it required them to engage in rather tedious micromanagement. And what did the developers do instead?? A confusing, cumbersome and complicated system that requires even more micromanagement, because the AI couldn’t even handle the old one properly—what’s the use of the new one?. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, because at the same time productivity was completely killed. Your poor processor will be forced to constantly recalculate all modifiers and coefficients of each settlement in all worlds of the galaxy. The maximum population of the largest worlds in the old version fluctuated around 25 settlements, but in the new one you can generate more than 200 settlements. The performance problems that arose because of this have not been resolved to this day – it was only with the release of the recent Federations add-on that the developers finally acknowledged the seriousness of the problem.
Previously, I could easily play in a medium-sized galaxy, but now, in order to improve performance, I have to accept certain restrictions.
The same can be said about the economy. With one hand the developers complicate production chains, and with the other they add a galactic market that allows you to get almost anything you want without unnecessary difficulties. And at the same time, they don’t even try to fully integrate the Gestalt consciousnesses from the dlc into the changed economic system. But the strangest thing is the trading volume system. It’s so broken that your clerks are capable of producing more energy than reactors. In addition, they can produce consumer goods, as well as unity! In other words, the volume of trade can create resources literally out of thin air – it does not need such little things as well-established production or banal logic!
For the sake of experiment, I created an empire where not a single reactor was built. I haven’t had such an increase in energy loans for a long time.
There were also a lot of questions about the mechanics added in the recent Federations dlc. Firstly, why did the developers make ambassadors leaders?? This question, of course, will seem quite strange to those who have not yet tried the add-on, but this claim has the right to life, because the only function of the leadership system that they use is reporting the death of an ambassador from old age. You can’t hire them, they don’t have any differences, they don’t affect anything. The developers themselves admitted this in their diaries! The only reasonable explanation that comes to my mind is a reserve for the future… which is now just an annoying crutch. Secondly, the galactic community works rather strangely. It would seem that this tool should have given weak civilizations a chance to oppose the strong, but with the current system of diplomatic weight, this is nothing more than a way for the strong to assert their dominance on yet another platform!
I am your senate!
It’s somehow awkward to talk about military operations. Since the release of the game, there has been a shift towards the most advanced types of ships. Of the entire line of ships, only cruisers, battleships and titans will not let you down at the decisive moment. Corvettes and destroyers remain garbage that should be disposed of at the first opportunity. I still remember with warmth how I compared the effectiveness of flotillas consisting of only battleships and corvettes. Where the battleships won, the corvette flotilla fell, depriving the enemy of only a third of its strength. However, this is not the biggest problem. You will win wars not so much through strategy as through economics. If your fleet is twice as large as your enemy’s, only a miracle can save him. It’s completely ridiculous to talk about the tactical genius of AI – you will often come across the idea that your digital enemy is somehow not very interested in protecting its borders. Fortunately, the situation is saved by crises, during which you will still be able to face worthy opponents.
By building space bases, you can reliably close your borders from enemy fleets, which should appeal to fans of compact empires.
We can talk about the problems of the game for a very long time, but I talked about them for a reason. You see, despite all the mistakes of the developers, Stellaris is still the best role-playing strategy about space exploration, because it simply has no serious competitors. Someone may remember Endless Space 2 or another worthy project, but no one has yet come close to the level of diversity and variability that Stellaris can boast of. Because of this, you have to put up with all the problems, as well as the fact that you literally have to buy the game in parts. We can only hope that over time the creators of Stellaris will bring the project to fruition or, at a minimum, reconsider their attitude towards its development. Finally, I would like to tell everyone who is interested which DLC it makes sense to purchase, and which ones you can safely refuse. Of the highly recommended ones, it is worth highlighting Utopia, which can rightfully be considered the best dlc for the game (ironically, it was the very first). For an easier start, the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack may be suitable, because playing for a machine mind will be the simplest and most understandable for beginners for a long time. If you really like the game, you can supplement it with the following list of expansions: Apocalypse, Federations, Leviathans Story Pack, as well as MegaCorp, but you can easily do without them. The Ancient Relics Story Pack and Distant Stars Story Pack add-ons will enrich the process of exploring the galaxy with new events, but this is again extremely optional. The rest of the add-ons can be completely ignored, except for the free Anniversary Portraits, because the freebies beckon, and the space peacocks came out extremely well. I hope this review was useful and helped you become familiar with one of the most outstanding strategies of our time. And for that, thank you for your attention!