FULL TITLE: Stellaris
RELEASED: May 9, 2016
MADE BY: Paradox Development Studios
PUBLISHED BY: Paradox Interactive
VERSION PLAYED: PC
OWN GAME? Yes
BEATEN GAME? Yes (Once)
TIME PLAYED (at time of writing): 206 Hours
MODDABLE? Yes (Steam Workshop integration)
I’m actually gonna start this off with a bit of a confession: This was actually gonna be my first review anyway because I have a shit-ton of screencaps already to rock and roll with because I was planning on making an LP over on SomethingAwful about this game…and then I lost that spark because my pseudo-stage fright kicked in and triggered something akin to Impostor Syndrome. Fun!
Also, this review will contain screenshots of a modded play-through with all the current expansions (at the time of writing) as well as some mid-to-late game gameplay; keep that in mind.
So, where to start? Well, let’s start with the gameplay, shall we?
GAMEPLAY
It’s an interesting cocktail of grand strategy long-term planning coupled with the addictive nature of a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) title like Civilization wrapped in a sci-fi flavored skin. As far as I’m aware, the underlying basic mechanics work and are pretty easy to get a hold of, but to fully get the best experience, a few trips to the Stellaris Wiki (helpfully linked to in the game browser) or a dedicated YouTube channel (such as ASpec) might be required to understand the more obtuse/advanced concepts. While this didn’t quite bother me the first time through, on subsequent sessions I often found myself feeling frustrated at certain things (like citizen or, to use the game’s terminology, “Pop” happiness, faction influence, and excess ship power generation) that I would make it a point to visit the wiki every now and then before, during, or after each play session, perhaps even digest a few videos discussing the topic I was having issues with. A robust, separate tutorial that not only covered the basics but also touched on some of the more advanced subjects would’ve been a good addition; the way the tutorial is actually implemented currently (via pop-ups every now and then by VIR in the form of voiced tips) feels tacked on and doesn’t explain anything in any manner that could be considered easy to understand.
Galaxy Map
The majority of you time will be spent looking at the Galaxy Map (shown above), with some trips to the solar system map you’re interested in seeing. Each system is randomly generated with planets and resources, some in strategic locations while other are in the ass-end of nowhere (with some exceptions, such as an empire that’s based on Earth always finding a habitable planet in Alpha Centauri). Based on your empire’s “preferred” planet type, each planet is given a habitability rating from 15% (“Oh dear god no, we have standards, dammit!”) to 100% (“Yes yes yes yes“); for example, empires with a “desert” preference will be on the hunt for planets similar to that and will not want to colonize arctic worlds.
You mine minerals to build buildings and ships, collect energy to trade with other empires and enact certain policies and hire leaders, gather influence to build starbases so you can expand your turf, get food to grow more Pops, and are just generally building, researching, and/or blasting your way through the galaxy one system at a time. While it may be easy to simply amass resources and hoard everything, your somewhat limited in how many you can use and store at one time by your empire’s production capacity, which can often lead to overly miserly play or insanely restrictive self-budgeting. I fully understand that this feature is in the game for balance’s sake (especially towards multiplayer), I just wish it was executed in a more straightforward fashion or in a less restrictive manner.
Moving your fleets is as easy as clicking on the fleet you want to move and right clicking on any explored system (or clicking “Survey” if you have a Science Vessel selected). This is elegant in its simplicity, though I wish I could more easily tell my fleets to form up at a certain location before jumping in to battle. A formation toggle or some other button would’ve made my life a lot easier.
Empire Select
Empire Customization (shown here: Government and Civic Selection)
You select your empire from either a list of pre-made, ready-to-play civilizations with different playstyles and ethics or you could choose to make your own, customizing it with a variety different options ranging from what your preference for colonizable planets is to what your ships will look like to what the damn things will actually be called once they’re up and about. Some empires will be geared more towards expansion, while others will have research bonuses out the wazoo and others still will have an easier time collecting resources. It all depends on what mood you’re in and what you want your empire to do, though the end goal is the same–control the entire galaxy.
The ethics your empire have selected do carry some roleplaying value if you’re into that sort of thing (for example, Xenophobic empires can purge Pops not of their species and call for genocide against other empires, while Spiritualist empires are able to make the most of psionic technologies and don’t like robots), but can put a damper on things if you don’t know what you’re doing, and the bonuses aren’t exactly clearly explained. In the end, though, the ethics don’t really come up all that often except as modifiers to other empires’ opinions towards you and as flavor for certain event dialogues. I’m honestly glad that they’re there simply because it’s another facet of my empire to tweak, but at times I often forget that I’m supposed to be roleplaying a xenophobic autocracy when I’m trying to build a federation with other aliens.
Ship Design
You can also build and design your ships to your heart’s content based on your empire’s current tech level. While the ship models don’t exactly “pop out” and catch your eye in the bigger battles, each style of ship is easy enough to identify and associate with each empire’s phenotype (their species style), though an option for custom livery would’ve been nice so I could tell my fleets apart or give a certain class of ship that extra spark of pizzazz.
Each component of your ship (except armor and other certain items) takes up power (for example, shields and weapons), and the more power you have to spare the more stuff you can cram on and the better your ship is (though it’s a relatively minuscule bonus). Weapons are classed based on whether they’re kinetic (good against shields), energy (good against armor), or explosive (better damage potential but can be shot down by point defense) and do damage appropriately. I won’t go into the gorier details (the wiki does that for me), but these damage types play off one another and the balance between them is actually decent.
Ship to ship combat is more game of percentages and optimization, and less brute force, which leads to min-maxing every iota of your designs to the point where you’re not focusing on what the ship’s role is supposed to be and how well it fits in your fleet, but on how well the numbers look and what its performance is projected to be. Fleet experience is a factor, but it’s a minor one and won’t really play any sort of crucial role during combat; at times my more experienced fleets of aging designs got dunked on by greener enemies running newer types of ships.
Each playthrough also has different events that fire at different points during your game, making each session seem fresh and interesting even on the same save, though the variety and frequency could use a bit of tweaking. There’s only so many times I can have the same subterranean civilization pop up before I start getting bored helping them. The bonuses or maluses each event gives you is also dependent primarily on what you choose and what playstyle you’re going for, though each option doesn’t give you the full context of what said modifiers will do. All in all, they add more flavor to otherwise somewhat boring play sessions but are kinda forgettable in the longer run.
GRAPHICS
As you can probably tell through some of the screenshots, this game is goddamn gorgeous to gawk at. I have my issues with the ship models, true, but the particle effects look damn good and the lighting is pretty cool. Every shot from your ships’ weapons and every impulse of their engines is lovingly crafted and excels at conveying what’s going on. The frame-rate does dip every now and again (especially when there’s a large fight going on), but more modern systems should be able to handle this with minimal difficulty (for context, I consider my PC to be mid-range in terms of specs).
There’s also space monsters, too, and they look damn cool. Showcased here is a late-game encounter with an Ether Drake, though it’s hard to make out with the camera angle, which does sorta put a damper on getting beauty shots.
The textures and weapon effects all look and feel pretty good to my eyes. Sometimes I found myself turning off the UI, setting the game-speed to half speed, and just sitting there taking in the sights of my fleets duking it out with the AI before finally shaking myself out of my stupor to focus on something else.
SOUND DESIGN/MUSIC
This is one of my bigger gripes, mostly because of the way the soundtrack is set up and how the sound design feels.
At times I found myself relaxing during play due to how the soundtrack really makes you want to explore more often than exterminate, but during tense battles I often wanted the soundtrack to reflect the tension more than was being given to me via that same soundtrack and thus led me to downloading several mods that included higher energy music for those tense battles. The soundtrack isn’t bad; it’s just out-of-place at points. Some throatier brass or more high octane percussion would’ve really made the epic battles I’ve had playing feel even more epic.
The sound design is also a bit of a whiff as well. Lasers and gauss cannons are cool and all, but if they sound dinky or their impacts aren’t meaty enough, I’m left wondering why I’m even fighting at all. Missiles and torpedoes whistle when they should be snarling, mass drivers cough when they should be roaring, and disruptor bolts plink away as they hum when they should be slamming into enemy ships with a thunderous crackle. I really wish the sound team was given more time to either fine tune or otherwise boost the sound effects and really convey the carnage that was happening on screen. This is especially prevalent in the late game with the more advanced weaponry; the arc lances sound like simple static shocks and the larger artillery pieces like an anemic puff of air.
It’s not bad, it just feel like it’s been tacked on or forced out the door. Perhaps in the next update after 2.2 Le Guin (which is scheduled to release some time after the posting of this article) we’ll get better sounds for the weapons in particular.
FINAL VERDICT AND THOUGHTS
Stellaris is a good looking game and the core concepts are executed pretty well, but players may find themselves lost and having to check the wiki to understand the more arcane design choices at certain points. This isn’t in and of itself bad; it’s just how the developers implemented those advanced mechanics and how they’re explained in game that has me reluctant to make it Certified Awesome.
This does not mean you shouldn’t take a look for yourself, however. Maybe grab it and its expansions when they go on sale and give it a try with some friends and give it a go. If you decide that you’re into it, great! If not, that’s ok.
/m/ Vidya Reviews 