Stellaris

1. Installed using galaxy and clicked 'play'. But this just runs another .msi installer called Paradox Launcher Installer to install more files. After uninstalling in galaxy, this launcher is still installed. 2. Too much stuff is DLC and its always up-selling. Tried picking new races or and other various options and frequently told which DLC I need to buy to get that thing. 3. Most likely you will need to create a Paradox Interactive account. I skipped the account creation a number of times, but finally caved when I wanted to download a mod. 4. Accidently canceled my construction in progress. I just clicked on it to see what it was, but clicking is what canceled it. Autosave was a while back, I got frustrated and basically rage quit. Overall, the game was ok for the first 3 hours I played, but I didn't feel fun factor I was hoping for. After considering all the hassles this game gives me, its not worth it.

When I purchased Stellaris a year or 2 ago, I gave it 5 stars. One update penalised large empires by making research (and some other things) more expensive. I could work around that. The lastest update has killed the game for me. The developers clearly haven't spoken with those who play the game, or play the game themselves. I have a huge empire covering 1/2 to 2/3 of the 1,000 system galaxy, over 473 populated planets in 43 sectors, 40 military fleets, 5 armies and 10 science vessels. With a leader for each of these, I have 94 leaders. The game starts with a leader cap of 6. My current limit is 8. This leader cap makes the game unplayable. Consequently, I have stopped playing Stellaris and won't be spending any more money or time on it until the leader cap is removed.

I can't recommend this game presently as the developer only supplies broken builds to us customers here as of milestone 3.1, Lem. I had asked GOG if there is any hope of a working build forthcoming but they have been ignoring my email for weeks now.

I am a big fan of Crusaders Kings or Europa Universalis series but this one was boring for me. Old games like Master of Orion or Galactic Civilizations are much more fun for me.

I really don't like the idea of paying 15 or 20 $ for a 6 meg "expansion" pack.. not much of an expansion at that point, the game is horrendously overpriced BUT it IS a fun game. There are tons of mechanics to learn about and it is very detailed. I wanted to see this as a spiritual successor too MOO2 but it just can't compare as the dev team behind MOO2 wasn't trying to break us financially. For the Entire game (all DLC included i paid probably 130$.. that is just not realistic IMO. Great game, marred by greed. I looked at it for over a year before buying, wish I kept looking, BUT.. I DO enjoy the game.