Non-RPG General News - Stellaris Reviews
 

The first reviews for the 4x scifi strategy game Stellaris are out:

Destructoid:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

IGN:

PC Invasion:

More information.

The reviews by gamers over at Steam forums, are very positive thus far. I've heard a couple of complaints. There is a bug that causes some stuttering and sounds like the devs are already working on that. Also, people complaining about UI scaling. Apparently, there is none. So play at 1080 or else. Although someone is now saying there is a fix, not a perfect fix, but a fix.

Yeah, I've got the stutter. I read a hotfix is supposed to come tomorrow.

Regarding the UI, yep. It's a Paradox game in the same engine as EU and Crusader Kings. The text is small as hell. I read they have no plans to fix this. I'm waiting for someone to make a mod like the other games have. In the meantime, you can do this. It's a pretty ghetto workaround, as tooltips and other elements of the UI will continue off the screen. But I've found setting the scale at "1.1" is a decent help and you don't lose much off the edges of the screen.

As mentioned in another thread, I was surprised to see the game only has two victory conditions which basically both mean military action. Especially the victory conditions were what made Civ5 interesting in end game. Now if one empire has like a huge empire and the other player is tiny, there probably isn't much fun to play it to the end as there can't be any hidden strategy or something like that. In order to win the small empire would neeed to become huge, pretty much no way around it.

The developers spoke about other victory conditions like a tech victory condition before. But nothing of that seems to be in the game.

Regarding the performance: I am only playing with a tiny galacy at the moment in my testing game but was pleasently suprised. I am using a Phenom 2 X3 and a GTX 260. Meaning that I don't even meet the minimum requirements. After disabling multisampling the game runs perfectly smoth.

You can probably expect at least one new victory condition in DLC #84, hopefully the first one after 83 portraits sold separately.

Looking forward to that portraits!

Just kidding. Though the portraits in the game look great.^^
Let's see what the future brings.

The portraits do look nice. :)

I have to say, I'm really liking the game at the moment. I was up to 5 am last night, catching only 2 hours or so of sleep before having to head to work. :blush:

Still in an early-ish phase at this point, though made contact with a few empires, colonized a few planets. I really loved the very beginning, exploring systems, researching anomalies and having all sorts of events pop up all over the place. Very well done. Right now I am debating going to war with my next door neighbor with whom I have a rivalry going (they look like giant dragon flies, kinda creepy). I'm kind of boxed in at the moment by my neighbors, one of them being a dreadfully intimidating (yet luckily well disposed toward humandkind) Fallen Empire of molluscoids. :sweatdrop:

I'm having a lot of fun with it, which is not to say there's not a few niggles. The whole feels like it could be fleshed out just a little more (diplomacy and trade most notably, IMHO), but I think a few DLC should help a lot there. I would even welcome some more ship models.

Reviews have been mentioning the mid- to late game gets boring and grindy, but I've yet to get there; I've only had 4 hours with the game so far. I'm playing on a huge spiral galaxy so still a lot more to discover hopefully!

Are you sure they did? I don't remember, but then again, I hardly remember what I had for breakfast this morning. :)

Either way, it's not a 4X pur sang, I'd say. It's like a mix of 4X and grand strategy, in the vein of EU and CK that also do not have any victory conditions. You set your own goals, though granted, that's a little harder in a randomly generated sandbox.

Regarding victory conditions:

Source.

While true that Paradox release lots of DLC, much of the new mechanics are often released for free in the patches. I would expect it to work similarly for this game.

Thanks for the update!

The patch isn't officially out yet, but I hear the beta patch is, for those who need it badly. Do the whole right-click thing on Steam.

It's out now 1.0.1

In 4X/Grand Strategy I think Explorminate are an authority. Long review:
https://explorminate.net/2016/05/09/stellaris-review/

Game looks good, but won't get it until the second DLC…

Otherwise this game will cost £500 :

You're smarter than I. I'm such a sucker for a good space game, and I am enjoying this one, even before it's properly rounded out with expansions in true Paradox style.

Maybe, but that's more because I have too many games in my backlog already.

I still have to play through divinity original sin and that bastard apparently takes 100 hours of gameplay.

Taking into account I can play a maximum of two hours a day ( and that's generous ) it would take me a minimum of two months to complete.

Then there's another five or six other games :)

So I'll wait a bit for stellaris :).

Of course the price also matters … I spent way too much on games in the past two years. So I'm trying to cut down a teeny bit. Since paradox like charging full price for their games and then release five expansions, I am sure I can enjoy this game in a year too …

That's a very thorough and comprehensive review, echoing my own sentiments. There's a few things here and there that could be better, and some areas definitely need to be fleshed out a little more (trade/diplomacy most notably), but boy, the potential is definitely there.
It's already highly addictive in it's current iteration. Since Monday, I have barely slept 3 hrs/night.

Couldn't agree more. :)

Our Review :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4HlDuAIEI4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYiOYIOuWhY