By Justin Reed
Staff writer
Paradox Interactive’s’ newest grand scale strategy game, “Stellaris”, exceeds all expectations, introducing a brand new universe for users to conquer.
“Stellaris” is an open world strategy game in which the end goal is to gain control of the entire universe by conquering these galaxies. The game features hundreds of alien races to choose from to start your intergalactic empire with each species having their own signature benefits. “Stellaris” lets the player build their empire however they please as they are given choices with every aspect the game.
Paradox Interactive is well known for their other grand strategy games, which were more focused on rebuilding history than creating new empires in Stellaris, and is shown in the Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis series. Almost all of their games focus on extremely in depth strategy and include an extremely steep learning curve in their games.
Paradox’s grand strategy games almost all do not have a specific end and the game will go as long as the player wishes to continue on in that specific world. Paradox Interactive is also very open to letting users modify parts of their games however they please, giving the game an even longer lifespan and replayability.
One reason why Stellaris is an exceptional game is that the game has a huge amount of replayability, as each separate “world” in the game is completely different from the last. This is because in each game the user can start out as a different species such as the Avian species who are bird like in nature with different policies than their more humanoid companions and have diferent ways to reach the end of the game. This, accompanied with how the game’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) reacts to each situation differently leads to an tremendous experience during each successive playthrough.
Another perfect aspect of Stellaris is how the game only gives a very basic tutorial, dropping the player headfirst into the game with little to know instruction. This allows the player to learn on the go and gain full control of their empire from the start. Even though this steep learning curve may be difficult, it is necessary in order to make the user truly feel the experience of controlling an intergalactic empire.
“Stellaris” performs remarkably well and the game is completely absent of any large problems or game breaking bugs. “Stellaris” is also a beautiful game as the game’s graphics bringing the world to life due to stunning visuals of outer space being present throughout the whole game such as gigantic detailed galaxies being presented to the player to conquer.
Overall the game is extremely polished and due to its almost unlimited replayability, the game is certainly worth a purchase even from players who have never played any large scale strategy games before. The game was released May 9th on Windows, OSX, and Linux and can be purchased from either Steam or Paradox Interactive’s website for $39.99.
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