I have debated and debated writing a review for this game; what to say, what to include and mention. But recently many players who have put well over 100 hours have been bashing the game recently do to recent updates and other reasons I believe to be untrue or misguided.

I am here writing this review to say that I have had well over 1,000 hours of excitment, fun and overall an amazing time. I currently own literaly all the DLC and bonus content (Portrait Packs or whatever they are called.) I have also been with the Stellaris community for well over a year and I am active on the forums. I have even recommended and bought this game for many friends all who have had positive experiances as well. Now why have I expended over $120 and put hundreds of hours of my life into this game and the community?

Because Stellaris is probably my favourite game of all time and is just an amazing experiance that differs every time you play.

[Pros]
-Decent Graphics, they suit the game and genre.

-Replayability, this game has hundreds of hours of replayability. Every time you replay the game you get a completly different fun and incredible experiance.

-Customizability, there is so much content that changes and is customized by you: From your empires morals, ethics, beliefs to changes the various systems of your space craft. You can even modify your or other speciies traits through genetic modification allowing for specific speieces to be miners or scientists. You can do so much in this game allowing for nearly unlimited customizability.

These are just some of the things that make Stellaris so amazing. You can do so much to change and create new experiances for yourself, want to Conquer the Galaxy and rid of all other life besides your own? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ do it! Want to be peaceful and standup for Xeno rights? Stop the slave trade and become a refuge for all life? You can do it! Want to just be a pacifist and slowly develop and build your empire untill your vastly ahead scientifically? Do it! Want to be a turtle people? Go ahead! Use your imgination to create an empire based of your desire and watch it flourish or fall. And then try again.

[Cons]
Even the best of games have flaws, and this ones major flaw is optimization and the dev teams weird direction/choices.

-Optimization, this game I believe (I am no expert.) uses and ancient engine to run, and thus can only utilize so much of your computers ram and processer to run itself, therefore Late game the game will start to slowly slow down and your framerate will suffer as the game hits your computers limits since the game limits it. Or somthing like that I am no tech expert, google it for more info. Either way I have a very high end PC and get around 30fps late game. Still playable but painful, hoping for a fix.

-Dev Team Direction, the game at one point while flawed lived up to what the game is supposed to be, little constraints on systems and choices but the dev team decided to add new systems that limit player interaction and while understandable and bearable I still loved many of Old Stellaris systems. The dev team also refusing to fix bugs and issues for free, as many gameplay fixes are released through paid DLC.

Either way, I love Stellaris old and new. If you are experianced and complaining about the 2.0 and further update use steam to reset it back to the old versions, don't complain and deter people from an amazing experiance.

9.5/10

UPDATE:
[The 'Le Guin" Update 2.2]

Love it, I believe it is an excellent rework of the planet tile system, if makes the game feel more economic which for me was a huge PLUS. Also got the Megacorp DLC which I again, love! I honestly believe this game is still moving forward in an excellent direction will continue to support it!

UPDATE: [2.2.Something] - IMPORTANT UPDATE

While this game has given me hundreds of hours worth of fun and entertainment, there is no way in hell I can recommend the game in it's current state. It is broken and lags/stutters badly after around 150 years in game. The end-game crisis's no longer function with #TODO in the code to fix it.

When patches and fixes are released I will change my review back.

UPDATE: [2.2.Something] - First Patch

They are still many issues but the recent patch fixed well over 50 bugs and issues. I can say that the fixes have definitly made the game better. Room for improvement? Absolutely but playable now.

UPDATE: [No Idea it's 2.Something] - Many Patches Later

Game is much better, it's optimized and clean of most bugs. Have done an 70 hour playthrough without encountering any issues; I am very pleased in how 2.2 Turned out.

UPDATE: [2.3 Wolffe?] - Ancient Relics DLC Release

I enjoyed the changes in this patch very much, mainly the ability to change the focus for planets instead of it being automatically assigned to you horribly, they also worked on sectors making them much better. This would only recommend using the game with Glavious AI Mod.

UPDATE: [Version 2.5.1] - Still Love The Game - Late Game LAG Is The Biggest Issue

Game is great, still has consistent updates and content releases (Paid). But LAG is still a big issue which is currently being worked on. Buyer beware - but still worth it.