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.
