I've played Stellaris enough that it surely deserves a review. This game has undergone frequent and radical evolution since I first got it in 2016, and has finally reached a point where I can recommend it to anyone and it's approaching masterpiece / classic status due to the serious efforts that have been put in to perfecting this game. There's a huge amount of DLC and because I've always bought the DLC, I can only recommend the game with all the DLC (though I'm sure not every one is absolutely required, I'd miss any of them if I were to turn them off).

What makes Stellaris special and better than any other 4x game on the market is the fact that it is real time, while having all of the mechanics of turn based 4x games (and more than most!). You can of course pause the game at any time, and it would be unplayable without the ability to pause and think carefully to learn the game, although when you're experienced it becomes no longer necessary. I'm a bit surprised, to be honest, that there aren't more strategy games on the market designed like this.

One of the weaknesses of the game is that certain mechanics are underpowered or unpolished and certain ways of playing are weaker than others. There's a large degree to which this is by design and stated by the developers, and doesn't actually take away from the game, but there's a lot of things I wish would be buffed / retouched still. Another weakness is that there is a lot of work still to do on making the game more convenient to play. It's possible to automate some tedious tasks, but this is suboptimal, so there should be some effort put in to allowing queueing up of actions so that players can achieve higher APM in order to play the game optimally without pausing; it can get tedious later on to manage all your planets and especially, your fleets. The multiplayer of this game is an excellent experience with friends, but I can't really recommend the game as a competitive game or to play with strangers due to the inherent imbalance between builds and how long it takes to play.

I really would describe this as a beautiful game, that's as rewarding as it is well designed and presented. Like many games out there, I can only recommend it if you're going to invest a lot of time in to it, and buy most of the DLC and eventually all of them. It's great that only the host has to own said DLCs to activate them for other players in a multiplayer game.

If you like 4x games or enjoy games with complex economy management, Stellaris is a must-play in my opinion.

I've played Stellaris enough that it surely deserves a review. This game has undergone frequent and radical evolution since I first got it in 2016, and has finally reached a point where I can recommend it to anyone and it's approaching masterpiece / classic status due to the serious efforts that have been put in to perfecting this game. There's a huge amount of DLC and because I've always bought the DLC, I can only recommend the game with all the DLC (though I'm sure not every one is absolutely required, I'd miss any of them if I were to turn them off). What makes Stellaris special and better than any other 4x game on the market is the fact that it is real time, while having all of the mechanics of turn based 4x games (and more than most!). You can of course pause the game at any time, and it would be unplayable without the ability to pause and think carefully to learn the game, although when you're experienced it becomes no longer necessary. I'm a bit surprised, to be honest, that there aren't more strategy games on the market designed like this. One of the weaknesses of the game is that certain mechanics are underpowered or unpolished and certain ways of playing are weaker than others. There's a large degree to which this is by design and stated by the developers, and doesn't actually take away from the game, but there's a lot of things I wish would be buffed / retouched still. Another weakness is that there is a lot of work still to do on making the game more convenient to play. It's possible to automate some tedious tasks, but this is suboptimal, so there should be some effort put in to allowing queueing up of actions so that players can achieve higher APM in order to play the game optimally without pausing; it can get tedious later on to manage all your planets and especially, your fleets. The multiplayer of this game is an excellent experience with friends, but I can't really recommend the game as a competitive game or to play with strangers due to the inherent imbalance between builds and how long it takes to play. I really would describe this as a beautiful game, that's as rewarding as it is well designed and presented. Like many games out there, I can only recommend it if you're going to invest a lot of time in to it, and buy most of the DLC and eventually all of them. It's great that only the host has to own said DLCs to activate them for other players in a multiplayer game. If you like 4x games or enjoy games with complex economy management, Stellaris is a must-play in my opinion.