Stellaris Review

Bird people don’t like me. It’s been around 40 Earth years since my first tender steps were taken into the galaxy and since that time I have discovered one simple salient fact: civilisations of the avian variety despise me. My fledgling galactic republic is surrounded on all sides by three bloated, gargantuan empires run by what amounts to a collection of talking peacocks. All of them are intent on sowing my worlds with their species and collapsing my economy with their cheaper goods and labour. I would try to fight them, but my people are pacifists by nature and so would never tolerate war against a race of aliens that are essentially walking mattress stuffing. So, in the words of Leonard Nimoy, the cosmic ballet goes on.

It’s scenarios like this that you will find yourself in consistently with Paradox Interactive's new grand strategy game, Stellaris. With the experience that comes from creating pinnacles of the genre like Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron, Paradox has reached for the stars by transposing their skills into space. Predictably, much like everything else the studio creates, Stellaris is a triumph.

The game’s concept will be familiar to fans of the 4X genre: explore, expand, exploit, exterminate. You are tasked with taking your space-faring peoples into the stars and walk them from their first baby-steps surveying their home system to galaxy-spanning domination. The term “galaxy-spanning” is certainly an operative one here, as in Stellaris you can play in arenas with up to 1,000 star systems to explore. The game’s default view is one that focuses on single star systems at a time, but with a click of the Galaxy View button you’re zoomed out to view the entire sector from above, enabling far grander tactics to be played out. The Galaxy View also alleviates the need to scroll through endless systems looking for that one errant ship.

I picked the human race as my empire (mainly because I’m the boring kind of person who always goes for the default build in any game) but there is a vast array of civilisation types available to the player right from the off. Species are divided into distinct types - Mammalian, Reptilian, Fungoid, Avian, Anthropoid and Molluscoid - each with a selection of portraits that the player can use as their (initial) leader. These are not the only species in the galaxy, either - you’ll encounter many more weird and wonderful creatures as you expand. Each race has default personality traits, government types and ship designs (which can all be customised if you so desire).

Your initial expansion into the vast unknown is done via the scanning and surveying of star systems by your research ships. These ships will uncover minerals and energy points that can be mined by the building of orbital platforms by your other civilian ship type - the constructor. Planets, gas giants, asteroid fields and stars can all be scanned and tapped for resources, research or hidden anomalies. As your ships reach out into the inky blackness they’ll encounter more habitable planets, low and high forms of alien life and a staggering amount of event chains.

With this exploration comes the need for colonisation. Colonised planets extend your influence into space but must be handled carefully with a governor, edicts and policies and proper terrain management to make sure you get the most out of its resources. Planets can also range in size, as well as biosphere style, the former affecting how many people it can support and the later its habitability (depending on your race’s homeworld - people from an arctic planet won’t like a desert world etc.).

Gone is the familial focus of Crusader Kings that some Paradox players might find familiar. Instead, Stellaris takes on a form more akin to the Hearts of Iron series, wherein you play as an empire of many moving parts. Your civilisation is represented by two types of civilian - Pops and Leaders. Pops are ordinary people and represent outposts, towns and cities on your planet's’ surface tab - where you can sort them onto resource tiles and build facilities around them to increase production. Leaders are your figureheads - they’re scientists, researchers, governors, military leaders and government ministers (depending on your government type). For every science ship you need a Leader and while fleets can survive without an Admiral you’re far better off with one than without. To recruit them you need Influence, the third major resource that is also crucial in diplomatic votes and in the creation of edicts.

Eventually if you explore enough systems, colonise enough planets and plant frontier outposts on enough stars your empire’s tendrils will extend far enough to encounter other space-faring creatures. Stellaris is incredibly cute in the way it dresses up your first encounter - after all, your chosen civilisation had no idea if it was alone in the universe or not up until that point - really helping the immersion as you break new ground. You’re left with a number of choices when faced with other alien empires - war, peace, alliance or ignorant coexistence among them. Your race’s traits (and theirs) will either help or hinder your progress in these regular tête-a-têtes, as a species of xenophobic and ugly moss people might not like your xenophilic, perfection-seeking humanoids.

If it comes down to war then Stellaris takes on a more hands-on role than other Paradox games. Whereas in Crusader Kings you watched two oversized avatars hammer away at each other as some numbers counted down, in Stellaris you can actively see your ships engage with the enemy. Fleet construction is highly customisable: as you research new technology you can use a handy ship designer to create varying classes of vessel depending on your combat needs. Constructor and research ships can also be tailored in the same way. Battle still comes down to who has the most numbers in many cases, unless your opponent is toting a few battleships compared to your fleet of waspish corvettes. Your fleets can also engage in planetary bombardments to wipe enemy colonies from the stars (though your citizens might not like these species-wide holocausts back home).

Paradox has obviously strived to create a living, breathing universe and it shows. In your travels you’ll encounters peaceful aliens that float among the stars feeding on gas giants like giant whales, crystalline creatures that amplify scanning technology and robotic servitors deactivated millennia ago. Your scientists can stumble upon the remnants of long-dead empires, beautifully revealed through engaging quest chains. In one memorable encounter I discovered a society of aliens on a planet that had not yet mastered space travel but were on the verge of wiping themselves out via thermonuclear war (in a masterful display of the Fermi Paradox). I was given the choice of saving these aliens and revealing my existence or merely observing them from afar. Should your empire be militaristic and xenophobic you can even invade and enslave the poor beings, putting them to work on your planets.

All of this plays out in a game that has its art direction firmly set. Nothing looks out of place and, from the galaxy-wide views of multiple coloured civilisations to the minutiae of spaceborn bacteria, Stellaris screams gorgeous sci-fi. I found myself enraptured by something as simple as the design of the planets in each system - I watched burning Mercury sizzle and crack in its heat next to the Sun and the gas clouds of Venus swirl around its equator. Stellaris manages to capture the majesty of space without going over the top. This is all accompanied by a sweeping orchestral score that you wouldn't be surprised to hear in The Martian or Interstellar at its highest moments.

The game is not faultless, however. Being a Paradox game the learning curve can be quite steep, despite the developers giving the player an on-the-fly tutorial from a helpful robotic advisor. I had to restart a few times before I really knew what I was doing in terms of builds, ship types and balancing the food, energy and cultural needs of my populace. In some ways the sheer scale of the game can be a small downfall - often you’ll arrive at mid-game, see the vast expanse of space still left to explore and feel daunted. The mid and late game can turn into a waiting game as research is developed and fleets constructed, which, to be honest, is part and parcel of the 4X experience.

Diplomacy, too, can be slightly hit and miss - it’s often hard to figure out what AI empires actually want out of you and most of the time they’ll flat out ignore your trades. None of these drawbacks ever stopped me from wanting to jump straight back into the game as soon as I could, however. With a literal galaxy of moving parts, it's understandable that certain areas of Stellaris may need some rework in the future, and Paradox has a reputation of going over its releases with a fine-toothed comb, so hopefully any issues will be addressed in time.

Stellaris is in its heart and soul a single player game, though the possibility is there for multiplayer networked games, for those willing to sink half their lives into conquering the galaxy with a group. From the little I have seen of it first-hand, Stellaris is perhaps a better prospect for those wanting to play a few hours here and there, compared with other Paradox titles like Crusader Kings that require a lot of stop-start pausing and reconfiguring.

There is almost too much in Stellaris for me to adequately cover in just one review. It’s a truly colossal game with huge potential, especially with Paradox’s support of the modding community. Who knows what creations fans might make? A blisteringly fun early game can be dampened somewhat by the bloated middle and late stages, but Stellaris is another example of Paradox Interactive showcasing that they are the kings of grand strategy, and is a game that every fan of the genre should have in their collection.