Stars: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I've spent a lot of time in the game, and I occasionally play without DLCs to see what I'm missing if I don't pay for them.

I can't lie, Stellaris is missing a basic mechanism that made the game fun; it's simply a glorified map painting simulation. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to see a galaxy transform from little more than a spot into a galaxy-wide colour. Even if you're paying full price for the game, those DLCs will cost you money, even if they're on sale. These are often fixable with mods, but you're still missing out on essential features, especially when it comes to AI.

However, I am divided because I want to tell you that having mods does make the game experience so much better, that the quality of life, the actual experience does rise with the amount of money you will be spending. Still, I believe it is dependant on each individual's perception. If you are willing to invest money on the game, go for it because it improves the game's vibe and adds elements that make it fun and humorous.


Remember how I stated before that the AI will be lacking in features? That's only partly true, let me explain.

For whatever reason, if you don't have DLCs like Utopia or Imperial. The AI does not work with such missing DLCs, however if your missing Federation, for whatever reason, the AI will be able to fully utilise the Spy system and destabilise your Empire without being able to retaliate because guess what, you can't develop your own spices.

For DLCs like Megacorp, which is a stand-alone DLC this basically implies that if you don't have it, and you won't be fighting Megacorps.

The instability difficulties are exacerbated by poor diplomatic AI (If you set AI aggression to low or neutral) in which the majority of the map quickly becomes federated or vassalized to a handful of powers, or your allies drive you into offensive battles that they have no realistic chance of winning. Winning is determined on war score and war exaustion, as in all paradox games since Europe Universalis. All of this will cause Lag the lag isn’t due to having too many visuals, but because it is poorly optimised and makes inefficient use of your CPU systems. Let’s say there is galaxy's population around 7,500 pops with differing jobs and differing boons and bonus that will just burn your CPU and GPU.

Honestly, the game is great but has lots of issue which is integrated with how the game work, so I just hope that you the reader is able to me against the bad and find the gem hidden in the rough.