Stellaris Game Review
Stellaris, released 9/5/2016 is a space civilization strategy game where the objective is to create your civilization, research and colonize to grow your empire and eventually conquer the galaxy in your own way.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/281990/Stellaris/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/281990/Stellaris/
Story:
While Stellaris doesn't have a singular story, the game has a few mechanics that allow a story to form over the course of a game, such as the various random events you can encounter which can have a major effect on how your empire is shaped throughout the game.
Exploring worlds allows you to discover many interesting things. Sometimes you discover something that can make a world a more desirable location for a colony, such as an ancient planetary shield from an empire that disappeared, sometimes you can discover a dig site, where you can gain a few interesting perks, and sometimes you discover a research project that can lead to a chain of events that can have lasting consequences, good or bad, for your empire. In one game I encountered such an event.
While researching what seemed like one of the many basic anomalies your science units can encounter, I got a message saying that a black hole was emitting a signal, and that signal contained coordinates. After sending my scientist to the location, they disappeared, but not before I got a message stating that they encountered another signal which gave me a large boost to my research. The message also said that my scientist's final words were "The Worm!", but I didn't think too much about it. I was slightly upset at losing one of my better scientists, but the research boost greatly sped up the projects I was currently working on, so I soon forgot about this.
Later, I got another message saying that the black hole was again emitting a signal, but this time the signal was a voice, which the game informed me sounded like that of the missing scientist, and he was saying "What was shall be" and "What shall be, was". The game informed me that the signal was again pointing to the same location as the last, and at the end of the message the voice from the signal mentioned another of my scientists by name. Now I was intrigued.
I won't go into too much detail about this quest line, but I will mention that at the conclusion I was given a pretty big choice to make that would greatly affect my empire, and could give me an edge over the other factions.
Again, I won't spoil the choice I was given, or what I decided, but I can safely say I was hooked on this quest's storyline.
This is just one example of the interesting story events Stellaris throws your way. There are many more, some are wacky, some are scary, but they're all fascinating.
Exploring worlds allows you to discover many interesting things. Sometimes you discover something that can make a world a more desirable location for a colony, such as an ancient planetary shield from an empire that disappeared, sometimes you can discover a dig site, where you can gain a few interesting perks, and sometimes you discover a research project that can lead to a chain of events that can have lasting consequences, good or bad, for your empire. In one game I encountered such an event.
While researching what seemed like one of the many basic anomalies your science units can encounter, I got a message saying that a black hole was emitting a signal, and that signal contained coordinates. After sending my scientist to the location, they disappeared, but not before I got a message stating that they encountered another signal which gave me a large boost to my research. The message also said that my scientist's final words were "The Worm!", but I didn't think too much about it. I was slightly upset at losing one of my better scientists, but the research boost greatly sped up the projects I was currently working on, so I soon forgot about this.
Later, I got another message saying that the black hole was again emitting a signal, but this time the signal was a voice, which the game informed me sounded like that of the missing scientist, and he was saying "What was shall be" and "What shall be, was". The game informed me that the signal was again pointing to the same location as the last, and at the end of the message the voice from the signal mentioned another of my scientists by name. Now I was intrigued.
I won't go into too much detail about this quest line, but I will mention that at the conclusion I was given a pretty big choice to make that would greatly affect my empire, and could give me an edge over the other factions.
Again, I won't spoil the choice I was given, or what I decided, but I can safely say I was hooked on this quest's storyline.
This is just one example of the interesting story events Stellaris throws your way. There are many more, some are wacky, some are scary, but they're all fascinating.
Gameplay:
Stellaris' gameplay is fairly typical for a game of it's genre, with the objective being to build your empire and eventually conquer the other factions, through war or diplomacy.
Similarly to games like the Civilization series, you create cities (Colonies), manage them, obtain resources, negotiate with other empires or conquer them.
You can also research technology, to upgrade your empire in a few ways, such as better ships, upgrades for buildings or space stations, bonuses to certain stats, the ability to build new items, etc.
Where it stands out from others is when you are researching planets, as I mentioned in the previous section. In order to colonize or build in a star system, you must survey it with a science ship first. When you send a ship to survey a star system, it will go from planet to planet, scanning them.
This often reveals resources, or research projects, which can have a number of effects, such as unlocking story focused quest lines with interesting rewards or revealing assets a planet may have that will make it a more tempting target for a colony. This makes exploring in Stellaris fun which, as a sci fi empire sim, it should be. While other games reward the player for exploring by simply revealing more of the fog-covered map with the occasional resource laying about, Stellaris rewards players who make sure to visit every nook and cranny of the galaxy by placing interesting research opportunities in said nooks and crannys.
Similarly to games like the Civilization series, you create cities (Colonies), manage them, obtain resources, negotiate with other empires or conquer them.
You can also research technology, to upgrade your empire in a few ways, such as better ships, upgrades for buildings or space stations, bonuses to certain stats, the ability to build new items, etc.
Where it stands out from others is when you are researching planets, as I mentioned in the previous section. In order to colonize or build in a star system, you must survey it with a science ship first. When you send a ship to survey a star system, it will go from planet to planet, scanning them.
This often reveals resources, or research projects, which can have a number of effects, such as unlocking story focused quest lines with interesting rewards or revealing assets a planet may have that will make it a more tempting target for a colony. This makes exploring in Stellaris fun which, as a sci fi empire sim, it should be. While other games reward the player for exploring by simply revealing more of the fog-covered map with the occasional resource laying about, Stellaris rewards players who make sure to visit every nook and cranny of the galaxy by placing interesting research opportunities in said nooks and crannys.
Audio:
While playing Stellaris I often found myself looking for the songs I heard on Spotify later.
Stellaris has a great soundtrack, mainly consisting of synthy, spacey themed music, and it complements the game well.
In terms of sound effects, there isn't anything special. You've got explosions, laser noises, various sci-fi technicaly sound effects for interacting with things. Occasionally you hear something that sounds nice, like some of the space ambiance, but there isn't much going on there.
The voice acting in Stellaris mainly consists of the A.I Advisors. When creating your empire, you get to choose your adviser out of a list. Each of these advisers have a distinct personality, and are designed to compliment certain playstyles. If you want to focus on meeting and befriending alien races, you can choose the Xenophile adviser, who has a chipper personality and is always excited when meeting new civilizations. Conversely, there is the Xenophope adviser, who hates aliens, and speaks often about conquering the 'filthy Xenos'. These advisers are very diverse, and help define the personality you have in mind for your empire.
Stellaris has a great soundtrack, mainly consisting of synthy, spacey themed music, and it complements the game well.
In terms of sound effects, there isn't anything special. You've got explosions, laser noises, various sci-fi technicaly sound effects for interacting with things. Occasionally you hear something that sounds nice, like some of the space ambiance, but there isn't much going on there.
The voice acting in Stellaris mainly consists of the A.I Advisors. When creating your empire, you get to choose your adviser out of a list. Each of these advisers have a distinct personality, and are designed to compliment certain playstyles. If you want to focus on meeting and befriending alien races, you can choose the Xenophile adviser, who has a chipper personality and is always excited when meeting new civilizations. Conversely, there is the Xenophope adviser, who hates aliens, and speaks often about conquering the 'filthy Xenos'. These advisers are very diverse, and help define the personality you have in mind for your empire.
Conclusion:
Stellaris is a great game for passing time, and it would greatly appeal to any hardcore sci-fi or strategy game fans.
Overall I would give Stellaris an 8/10
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