Stellaris

The price policy is incredibly wrong. Buying the game on GOG was a mistake. Steam release is also DRM free and offers better support (mod, etc.). And it's easier to get cheaper prices on steam version.

I own this on Steam and now I own it here too. This is by far one of my favorite games of all time. It is a real time 4X strategy game. You create an empire from a list of races. You specify their various traits and government types, which adds various bonuses. You select what their ships look like, the types of weapons and propulsion, and select their planet type. From then its on expanding, exploring,exterminating, and the fourth X that Im forgetting. You develop your planet, placing various food production, science labs, and resources. Build a space station and also customize it and customize the vrious classes of ships. You go about exploring star systems and planets, developing your culture and technology through research, explore anomolies, conduct science and engineering projects, and interacting with friendly and hostile species through diplomacy or war. It is a complicated game, but it is not difficult to learn and get in to. Its a 4X game that anyone can get in to. The graphics are amazing and make you feel like youre actually exploring a galaxy. From the details of black holes, to planets, right down to little asteroids. It is a very beautiful 3D game and you can zoom right in to see every detail. The sound is equally amazing ad immersive. On top of all of that, there are a bunch of great mods available. I cant recommend this game enough!

As a veteran player of Crusader Kings II (among other Paradox games), Stellaris felt quite familiar. The classic grand-strategy elements are there, yet the game is also a partial 4x, with all the natural fun and sense of exploring the unknown it brings. Unlike even CK2 itself, I found Stellaris ran quite well on my potato laptop, and the game's massive free patches (far larger than any other PDX game) made me enjoy new, fun content without ever having to pay a dime in DLC. Overall a worthy addition to the Paradox pantheon.

You roleplay, you don't just play. While comfortably tucked in the 4x genre, this game is very different. Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate is a play-style rather then the general theme. You can also Explore, Unite, Ascend. You could simply Exist, Survive, Perish. The possibilities are varied, because the game's forté is the roleplaying aspect. On the minus side, there are almost no tactics, just strategy - where you put your fleets and why matters a lot, but the battles amount to who has the bigger, better and more guns wins. You've heard the rest all before, so just go for it.

Never played the francise, but after a first game on "very easy" (100yrs in) with full tutorial enabled, I must say, cannot recommend for francise newbies. - Tutorial is more of an extended tooltip function. No guidance. - I still have not found a research tree, in three areas I constantly get presented with three choices without knowing what makes sense at any given point in time. - cumbersome interface requireing a lot of micromanagement. * Why cant I give a construction ship the order to construct everything in a star system? * Why cant explorer ships not just auto-survey everything? - very unclear, how planets should be developed. * What area makes sense? * Comprehensivve overview which resources are produced and needed by what is missing afaik. Long story short, I wont return it, but wouldnt buy again.