I’ve always found grand-strategy games a troublesome beast to behold and attempt to tame. Given the chance to build a kingdom, I’ll happily do it in my own sandbox with as little offensive actions as possible, up to the point some bigger kid (with a lot of acne according to American cartoons/films) runs over to kick the sand into my face. Yet, I return to it. Partially because it is the only genre I can play at length with a friend who has repetitive-strain injury (but can kick the hell out of me at strategy games, this is important, hold onto this please), and partially to forge a different tale in the loose world the game is set within.
So, let’s breath a sigh of relief: Paradox has ventured into space, wielding unheard of mechanics, and sparked success with something both fresh and familiar.
Stellaris is a grand-strategy title with 4X elements based in space, made by veterans of the grand-strategy genre: Paradox (of Europa, Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron fame). You are a race of your own genetic manipulation who has managed to saved up enough pocket change to give galaxy conquering a punt. Armed with a home-world, one ship of each kind and some additional loose change found when raiding the sofa cushions, you must forge your own path.
Although, as I mentioned, this path you forge starts out in the race selection screen. While you can pick a pre-made race with no mechanical disadvantage, you also don’t lose out if you make your own race for your journey. This not only includes giving your species a name, an ugly mug and various other aesthetic options, but also includes mechanical choices such as species buffs and debuffs and government types depending on ethics. Not only does this add replayability, as there are as many combinations as you can conjure up, but this helps set the scene for the tale you are creating.
Both of these aspects reappear in the form of the technology skill tree. It seems traditional, for good reason mind, for a skill tree to be a static form able to be studied for the most streamlined route to success. In this area, it seems Paradox has seemingly run over the strategy-game rulebook with a lawn-mower. Instead, every time you are prompted to pick a new thing to research, you are given access to three (or more) random technological choices. It is then up to you to decide which one picks your fancy. In addition, rather than researching one thing at a time, technology is split up into physics, society and engineering as to avoid accidentally being too specialized in one pursuit.
Well, I wish I could praise the design ceaselessly for how it does end up adding to the adventure you’re on as well as create more replayability for new technological combinations (especially as some require particular ethical codes, and others are rare). In addition, it is different and fresh which, as someone commonly cooped up in the strategy genre shed for weeks on end, means a lot. Especially as rather than flat unlocking ships with bigger numbers, you unlock technology that can be fitted to ship types, which can be customized heavily (to include particular weapon types strong versus particular shielding) or just updated for the latest technology.
Just, well, there is that niggling sensation crawling in the back of my mind as though a cockroach climbed into my ear canal and is now digging its self around my skull. Since you have a random chance system going on, and there are technological effects that clearly mesh better with different tactics than others, it could lead to players lagging behind others due to this system. That isn’t to say there is a clear imbalance from tech to tech, but bad luck could leave a player slightly lagging behind.
“But what is the game actually like?” you’re likely slamming your fists on the desk demanding. Well, the game is often spent in a very awkward state. You’ll be merrily forging your own planets, setting up mining stations to harvest resources with and maybe even colonizing a couple of planets. In addition, you might be dabbling in surveying systems, trying to find life out there (which you will eventually come across, make alliances and even federations) and investigating whatever strange story the adventure has created for you.
However, unlike Europa IV, because you’ll spend the first few hours of the game alone, you wouldn’t know if you’re forging on ahead with a good tactic until you’re a good deal behind everyone else around you. Besides a rough tutorial (which lead to the only glitch in the game as it wouldn’t register when I had done something), there is no measuring stick of if you have something good going on or something dreadful. Although as a new player who isn’t too good, playing on the medium difficulty, by the time the aliens had crawled out the wood-work it seemed like I was actually doing rather well.
Although, I think grand-strategy games are partially played to create tales. In this area, Stellaris excels. Not only for the reasons talked about above, but with random events that can crop up. One random event involved me trying to work out what to do about people worshipping a plant, another one had me going around the galaxy collecting pets and one time I had to blow up a meteor threatening to crush a planet. All of these weren’t just a single time pop up, but on-going things that had consequences and choices (e.g. I balls-ed up the plant-worshipping cult and that colony got destroyed). On top of this was a thick serving of the general nature of grand-strategy game madness on a huge playing board, as I would gleefully describe silly things involving my group of paladin-esque humans who were deeply spiritual without being fanatically warlike. There is just plenty of material in Stellaris to create stories of silly or wondrous things you’ve witnessed.
While I may have hinted it so far, I may as well bluntly state it: The board which you play upon isn’t static but rather evolves over time, and fortunately for reasons beyond the factions manipulations. You start out as a lonely race researching the borders to find out if there is life out there. Then you are making friends with the one or two people you know. Then you’re forging alliances of five or six versus other groups of aliens, eventually making it into a federation. It then keeps escalating until someone rather daft accidentally wakes up a sleeping doom of some kind (e.g. AI sentience), where everyone then has to desperately band together to fight it off. This naturally always requires new tactics, new ways to approach the board, and allows things to escalate in a way that doesn’t just make the 1000th day look like day 1.
There is just one small problem with Stellaris. With the desire to depict space in solar system groups, it means you either have to contend with a world map that feels imprecise, or the normal “local” map mode that doesn’t show you the big picture. You usually have to flit back and forth, in and out, rather than having access to both with a glance. At best, it comes off as messy and clunky. At worst, it is a thundering cacophony as you accidentally overlook information and get confused with how the local and galactic map relate.
The final score of Stellaris is a 8.5/10. As I was playing it (and really having a blast trying to create a tale with my paladins), a question kept hovering in my mind: What with grand-strategy fans already pre-ordering this (and they totally should), will this bring in a new audience? It is fortunate in the sense that it still allows for players of radically different skill levels to play together without one getting crushed and another getting bored with an easy victory (something very useful for me, since I’m a bit “dimmer” than my strategically-minded friend). It is also easily the most accessible game I’ve seen by Paradox within the genre, by miles. However, would non-grand-strategy fans even want to visit?
I’m still torn on that question. Even going beyond the frustrating map layout, there lies a conundrum of intent. If you are playing it competitively (versus others or AI), there isn’t nearly enough early-game feedback to let you know if you’ve struck upon a good or poor tactic. In addition, there is the randomized technology tree which, though I love it, will scatter long-term tech plans to the winds. If you are playing it to tell a sci-fi story, you still need to climb over that initial difficulty hump to do so, and stay forever vigilant lest your planets get torched by neighboring aliens.
If you are interested in the game’s concept, that you are creating a civilization spanning the stars, then Stellaris is for you. If you enjoy the genre, then you’ve likely pre-ordered it already and you should feel smug you got an excellent game on your hands (that isn’t buggy on day one).
I’d go as far as to say if you even have a passing interest in sci-fi and don’t mind doing some homework working out the (accessible) complex systems afoot, then you’ll get a kick out of this, but then again who likes doing homework? AM I RIGHT?! [Insert passive aggressive “GAMES AREN’T WORK!” comment here, insert canned laughter, insert mile long misery-infused stare as I contemplate the meaningless and hopelessness of games journalism, insert smirk, wink and catchphrase utterance here]
A PC copy of Stellaris was provided by Paradox Interactive for the purpose of this review