Stellaris

Super replayable game with tons of different valid playstyles and roleplaying opportunities.

There are two types of games I'm a sucker for: Open-world RPGs set in space, and civilisation games set in space. I may like other type of games, but I can only love these two. Is Stellaris a good civilisation game set in space? Does it fulfill that empty part of my being? Yes it does. It's a masterpiece, albeit a flawed one. The Pros: - Plenty of room for RP. You can customize an empire in plenty of ways and the same for the galaxy. - Great Story. The events in this game provide ways to generate a very fun and thrilling story each time you play. - Beautiful graphics. - Modding. Stellaris is one of the few games where you are able to mod pretty much everything. There are certain hardcoded parts, like with every other moddable game, but most of the things you want to mod are things permitted by the developers. - Constant support from the developers. For 8 years this game has received constant improvements and additions from the developers. This has been possible due to a substantial number of DLCs. People may call this move from Paradox too greedy, but it's what funds the work on this game. After all, with each release of a DLC, not only additional mechanics are added via the DLC, but a huge free update that adds, changes and fixes many things is also released alongside. The Cons: - Incosistencies in the ethics system or the factions system and other parts of the game where it's clear that the developpers tried to include as many things as possible while trying to keep things simple. This results in unrealistic consequences. - Lack of certain QOL features that should have been included in the game since its release, yet still aren't found (like the ability to change hotkey binding, rearranging certain parts of the UI, etc.) - Late-game lag. Once the amount of pops (population) becomes quite enormous and empires become more developed with a bigger army, the game starts to lag and it can become unbearable. - Some few bugs. - You'll become addicted to it.

5+ stars for the game itself. 3-4 stars for GOG implementation. Installing mods is a currently a huge pain. I did not mind the DRM.

The game at first glance is a galactic map screen, a bunch of star system screens, and many data screens. There is no manual or involved tutorial like Europa IV to figure this stuff out. The game so far(some hours in) is building science vessels; setting them to automate exploration; building construction vessels; setting them to automate building and transferring them between systems when they stop doing anything; building colony ships and having them colonize colonizable worlds, and maybe building some warships. The fog of war on stuff like currencies and how they are related, buildings and how they are related, upkeep and how it relates to buildings and currencies, policies and how it relates: the fog of war is deep. There is no simple to complex transition. In Europa IV there was a starting point: the tutorial + the importance of trade. From there other concepts integrate into gameplay as one explores different game functions. With Stellaris it is a morass of stuff. There is a wiki but it essentially tells you 'how to play the game' rather than 'how the game is played.' If the game had a mid-level zoom function i.e. one where both the galaxy and systems can be viewed at the same time; and if the game had lists beside systems of inactive construction ships and other critical information it might feel more involved like the Europa IV map. Going between galaxy and system to do stuff is tedium.

Tonnes of things to configure but all superficial / skin deep. Nothing really happens. Great music.