itt i copy my steam review of stellaris

[Resident Fascist]

Going into Stellaris, I really wanted to enjoy this game. I really did. As a huge fan of other 4X games like Civilization, Galactic Civilization, Sins of a Solar Empire and Hearts of Iron, I thought this game would be a unique 4X experience. What I got feels like a bad GalCiv and Sins clone with awful broken game mechanics and barely even feels finished. Which is a shame for normally impeccable studio Paradox. The problems with Stellaris are numerous, glaring and will become apparent in your first few hours of play.

 

 Let's begin with the fact that there simply isn't much to do in Stellaris. The fact the mid and late game content begins to massively peter out is one thing, but the fact that the majority of the game is just waiting around for research, science scans, projects or similar. There are problems even with these mechanics. For instance, what you can research is pseudo random, you get 3 options to pick from in each catagory. This is the biggest thing that angered me about Stellaris. Why can I not pick what to research in a simple tech tree like in other 4X games? This element of pure random chance makes the fact the game can already screw you over with an awful start next to an "Advanced AI Start" empire even more apparent. Being obliterated with no way to defend yourself is not entertaining. 

 

 In fact, this happened in my first game of Stellaris. I had been playing the game for 3 hours at this point, slowly expanding, but I had not met anyone else except several neutral factions. I had a few colonies set up, and was doing what I felt was well in economy. My first encounter with another empire was with an advanced start fallen empire, who proceeded to obliterate my colonies and quickly "won" a war against me, vassalizing my empire and taking me out of the game. I wasn't sure what I'd done wrong. Maybe I spread my resources too thin, I said. So in my next game, I focused on 2 planets, with a large amount of defensive structures lining my space. In my mind, I was to fall behind on economy, but I'd at least get to see more of what the game had to offer. My first meeting with an empire, a group of xenophobic fanatic spiritualist aliens, right on my doorstep. Well, they're going to declare war on me, I said. So, I fortified even more, building myself into an essential pillow fort. I filled my planets with defensive armies, prepared for the coming conflict.

 

 And the same happened. Not only can the majority of ships in this game outrange defensive stations with certain weapons, the war mechanics in Stellaris are absolutely hideous. In other 4X games, a player hasn't lost a war until they either decide to come to the negotiating table, or they are completely and utterly destroyed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Stellaris. See, during each war, there's a "warscore" system. If you get enough warscore, the opponent is forced to surrender. Not only does this take the control of war completely out of the player's hands, the fact I can be forced to surrender with 12 planetary armies still on my surface, bunkers lining my planetary surface, and my governmental system weakened, but still intact is ridiculous. Then you realise what loses warscore. Losing space battles loses war score, for instance. 3 random snub corvettes get caught out of position and die? While this wouldn't really affect your ability to wage war in a different 4X game, in Stellaris, that's a loss.

 

 The fact I cannot choose to fight to the bitter end, bushido style, or die trying in Stellaris is outright embarassing. Speaking of the terrible war system, you will be at war a lot. Why? Because there's no other way to win. No, I'm not talking about war being the optimal way to win, I'm literally saying there's two victory conditions. Control 40% of all planets, or crush everyone else. Both of these will involve going to war with other empires. And what of the diplomatic mechanics? The Federations? Well, a Federation can't win. Only one member of the Federation can. What this means is you have to eventually go to war with your former allies just to win the game. We can't win as a union, there can only be one. In fact, Stellaris's diplomacy is just as bad as it's war mechanics. Having to declare war on allies to just go into their territory to get into enemy territory is absolutely shameful. 

 

 And with all this talk of Space Battles, how good are the Space Battles? Surely there must be something good about Stellaris! Oh, you must be new here. The Space Battles in Stellaris are, for want of a word that would fit within the Terms of Service, like stepping on a lego while simultaneously being kicked by someone in an iron boot laced with tasers. How Space Battles work in Stellaris is you have fleets. Your fleet clicks on the enemy fleet, and then the two fleets go into battle. While there is limited AI control, fights are mostly point and click, unlike a game like Sins of a Solar Empire where a player has control of the fleet down to the unit. If I want my frigates to move up and support the battleships in Sins, while having the Carriers turn away while launching their spacecraft, I can do so. In Stellaris, I simply get a "combat effectiveness" number and click and wait as my fleet of ineptitude morons shoot blindly into the abyss. With how many of the fleet upgrades focusing on fleet movement, there sure isn't many options.

 

 There is a ship customization system very similar but worse than Galactic Civilization's, simply because Galactic Civ has a better combat system. It's not so much the customization that's the problem. In fact, this was one of the few aspects of Stellaris I actually enjoyed, customizing my ships. Building Flak Frigates, Torpedo Frigates, Escort Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, etc. But then I quickly and unfortunately realised there's very little strategy involved. Space Battles come down to has more dakka. Nothing more. Nothing less. There is no way to focus fire a target, so your Battleships will be firing their large high caliber naval rifles onto corvettes when they could be hitting more important targets.  can't even move my fleet during combat, Stellaris's combat system is so ungodly awful that it defies logic.

 

 With badly balanced AI, a poor combat system, a distinct lack of content, is there anything else to talk about in Stellaris? Oh right, the little things that don't warrant their own section but are annoying enough to be mentioned. Neutral fleets. These are fine. What is not fine is hearing "HOSTILE FLEET ENGAGED EVADING HOSTILE FLEET" every 5 seconds, and having a pop up that completely interuppts my gameplay to tell me that we've discovered a new alien species. It's very jarring, especially when playing on fast or fastest, something I tend to do in 4X games because that's how I've always been comfortable, only slowing the game down for periods where decisions are paramount. 

 

 Stellaris's speed is slow. Far too slow on standard speed. One in game day roughly takes 3 or 4 seconds to pass. You recieve income every month. Research can take upwards of 30 to 50 months. Yeah. If you don't play on fast or fastest, expect an hour between research pops. Additionally, your scientists, admirals, generals etc can die. While combat units dying is a nice mechanic and makes me actually care about the lives of my generals and admirals, my scientists deciding to pop their cloggs and forcing me to replace them with a worse scientist making research take even longer is an issue that just exmplifies Stellaris's flaws. 

 

 Small things:

 No options to color ships.

 No white color for flags.

 No option for science ships to auto survey surrounding systems to automate process if you don't feel like clicking all the time.

 Racial traits that don't enhance war making are useless.

 Anomalies are a stupid annoying mechanic.

 

 

Stellaris is the worst 4X I've played.

Which is sad, because Pardox usually put out quality. For shame, Paradox. For shame.