Stellaris

This game and it's DLC's prove that AI cannot fix a company that's already cutting corners.

I nearly have a grasp of the game now. I understand and finished the Tutorial now too.

I love this game to bits. It's been a consistent game I'd go back to for years now - however with Paradox beginning to introduce genAI into the game (used in both the creation process and the final product updates/DLC's, take Nomads for example), I can no longer in good faith recommend this game, nor support anything from this studio. Shame on you, Paradox. Support human creations and creators. Generative AI slop will never have the soul and creative vision that REAL artists and creatives bring to the table.

I think Stellaris is a good game and logged 561.8 hours according to Steam. But the question is would I recommend the game to a new player and the answer to that is unfortunately no. After not playing for a couple years I decided to redownload the game and discovered that I was missing A$267 of DLC. This is bearing in mind that for several years I bought every DLC on release to support the game, I own 13 paid DLCs and am still A$267 short of the complete experience. Including the DLC that I own comes to a sum of approximately A$530 paid additional content, plus the A$70 for the base game for a grand total of just under A$600. This is enough on its' own for me to not recommend the game but several of these DLC's are widely considered essential and the game is heavily structured and balanced around the assumption that you own them. There is something to be said for multiplayer only requiring the host to own content, meaning a group of friends can "crowd source" the DLC together, but for single players who want to own the whole game they wil be eating that entire cost. Additionally the game has been redesigned with major patches/DLC several times, to the extent that you basically have to relearn the game periodically. This is another factor in the game being not worth the time or money if you aren't committed to playing regularly. And don't get me wrong, when I was playing regularly with a group of friends Stellaris was a fantastic way to hang out while playing a deep, engaging grand strategy game. But once we stopped playing regularly we fell behind several DLC's and game mechanics redesigns and it was no longer worth the effort to get back into it. It was a great time, but sadly I just can't imagine it ever being reasonable for a new player or group of players to pick up Stellaris the way Paradox has chosen to run it.

Amazing game. Unreasonable DLC prices. A subscription is frankly a mockery for a game that is using AI in it.

This game was awesome when Paradox was slightly less evil than it is now. ♥♥♥♥ them replacing real artists and voice actors with AI. I am incredibly dissapointed.

I'm really enjoying this game so far, but I wouldn't be reviewing it yet if Steam didn't ask me to. These 6 hours just flew past me this weekend, I feel like this single session I started will take me weeks to finish. I was told this would be a tough game to get into, but honestly, it's not tough in the sense that it is frustratingly difficult or anything like that. Based on the reviews, I was worried that it would feel like a board game with a ton of hard-to-understand rules that would keep me from making progress, where an AI opponent would beat me down every hour before I learned anything. It is NOT like that! The game doesn't even feel like it's about winning or losing - instead, it's more like a simulation where the fun comes from just pressing a button and seeing what happens. But it's also not an entirely loose sandbox without any sort of goals to guide you - you don't have to [i]make your own fun[/i] if you know what I mean? If it were, I wouldn't enjoy it. Again, 6 hours is nothing, but I am purchasing this game now after the free weekend. Oh, and other reviews mention that the game is only fun with DLC, but I am only playing the base game and don't feel like I am getting an incomplete game or anything. Ignorance is bliss in this case, I suppose!

仕事が忙しくなり、しばらくゲームから離れていた時期があった。 仕事が終われば疲れて寝るだけ。 休日も気付けば終わっている。 何のために働いているんだろうと思うことも増えた。 ようやく仕事が落ち着き、久しぶりにゲームでもやろうと思った。 だが、何を起動しても長続きしない。 FPSも。 RPGも。 積みゲーも。 どれも30分ほどで閉じてしまう。 そんなある日、なんとなくStellarisを起動した。 昔作った帝国の一覧を眺めていると、名前も由来も思い出せない帝国がいくつも並んでいた。 銀河を征服した帝国。 危機に滅ぼされた帝国。 友人と遊んだマルチ用の帝国。 その中に、一つだけ説明文を残していた帝国があった。 そこには、数年前の自分からのメッセージが残っていた。 未来の自分へ。 銀河を征服できなくてもいい。 今日を楽しめていますように。 思わず画面の前で固まった。 新しい帝国を作るたびに設定を考え、 種族の歴史を想像し、 「次はどんな銀河になるだろう」と夜更かししていた日々を思い出した。 忙しくてゲームができないことを理由にしていた。 だが、本当に忘れていたのはゲームではなく、何かを楽しもうとする気持ちだったのかもしれない。 このゲームのおかげで人生が変わった、などと言うつもりはない。 それでも、立ち止まっていた自分が、もう一度前を向くきっかけにはなった。 Stellarisは銀河を征服するゲームだ。 艦隊を作り、 惑星を開発し、 未知の文明と出会い、 危機に立ち向かう。 それだけのゲームだ。 だが、本当の魅力は、 自分だけの文明や歴史を作り、 それらが思い出として残っていくことなのかもしれない。 そして時々、銀河の果てで思いがけないものを見つけることがある。 未知の文明でも、 古代文明の遺産でもない。 昔の自分だった。

Fun science fiction grand strategy with numerous easter eggs and nods to famous science fiction stories. Mildly great roleplaying potential. Why the "do not recommend"? Recently Paradox decided to implement AI generated content into this game. Instead of hiring artists and actors for their art and voicework, they steal the opportunity by having soulless machines do the work for them.

Possibly the steepest learning curve of any game I've ever played, but a must have for any devout sci-fi fan and/or colony management game lover.