STELLARIS Review

Channel:

The Cheapness Review

Subscribers:

70

Published on September 21, 2023 3:00:31 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4s-RIQRvKk

Game:

Stellaris (2016)

Category:

Review

Duration: 14:55

78 views

5

Want a grand strategy game in space here you can play as a custom species... even a space platypus? Then check out this Cheapness affordable gaming review of Stellaris [Episode 65]

This grand strategy game was made by Paradox and the review shows how:
-The game has good visuals displaying lovely views of planets, stars, lazer light shows when battles erupt and maybe some weirder astronomical features (even if most of what you'll see is space dust and your coloured in territory)
-The music is pretty good and employs instrumentation and sci-fi noises to create the kind of tracks to emphasize the beauty and awe of the universe (Less sinister and more hopeful in keeping with the exploration and technological discovery)
-The grand strategy gameplay is good but has real time gameplay with a day passing seemingly corresponding to a second in reality, you take over star systems instead of provinces and the galaxy is procedurally generated
-Gameplay breaks up into phases depending on just how much has been claimed by different civilizations, what is left and how much of the galaxy was explored (Explore, expand, starter diplomacy, race to fill in the gaps, alliances and federation formation, maybe even actual war, survive the galactic crisis)
-Seems like it borrows some things from titles (Traditions in civ 5, large out of theatre invading late game force in total war) but the end product is worthwhile: It feels fun to live in peace actually (As long as you've established yourself as a major power before borders meet) just speeding things up as you develop your planets, improve production, happiness, research new ways to improve your empire and control large patches of vacuum with your faction colour and name plastered on it from a zoomed out view
-I'm guessing war is taxing as it takes a while for ships to be built, move across the distances and combat isn't involved - you select the army you produced and right click, you should win if their estimated strength number is higher (I actually never declared war and at best scavenged when others lost their hold on star systems - after 300 years of in-game time)
-Some non-faction enemies and the crisis forced me to fight so at least you can't ignore it completely (And pleasantly fighting the crisis adds to your victory score and it kind of feels like the other civilizations are actually more able and inclined towards helping you in that fight - maybe I'm imagining it but at least I saw others try and attack even though they were from far away. The Chaos hordes in WARHAMMER: Total War seemed to kind of steam roll over everyone else at times)
-Nice to deal in your civilization's politics and ethics: set what you stand for and deal with those who oppose it (Even if that is easy - other civilizations usually won't attack if you project enough force and it wasn't that hard to keep enough of the political parties in my party happy. Perhaps I was fortunate in that civilians didn't want to join the opposition as much for whatever reason)
-You can create your own species with a bunch of hand drawn alien templates, a few ship templates, the ability to fine tune their attributes (Even after you begin through genetic engineering) as well as what type of government you have (Democracy, oligarchy etc.). I ruled a civilization of space platypuses who liked to trade (One of the premade factions)
-You can even customize your ships but the look stays mostly the same and you can just not bother and let the newest tech automatically be applied to the new ships you build (Tech moves fast)
-Perhaps not as replay able as others in the genre as what you conquer is both procedurally generated and mostly represented by a border drawn around vast empty space (Pretty space but still doesn't necessarily stoke your expansionist desires as land with resources and planets from this view don't show cities etc.)

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0:00 Cheapness Intro
0:11 Gag
0:17 Procedurally Generated Galaxies
0:42 Exploring the Galaxy
0:54 Grand Strategy in Space
1:10 Victory Conditions
1:40 Early Days
2:28 AMEOBAS!
2:37 Ship Construction
3:11 Mid Game and Galactic Community
3:52 Galactic Crisis - The End Game
3:59 Comparison to Other Grand Strategy Games
4:46 Establish Yourself Early and Play Peaceful
5:05 Some Story, Mostly Gameplay
5:34 Combat Isn't Involved but is Pretty
5:48 Ethics and Politics
6:46 Species Customization and Genetic Engineering
7:18 Conquest is Slow and Lumbering... I Guess
8:08 Good Visuals... Mostly Space Dust
8:54 Overly Optimistic
9:06 Awe of Space Music
9:45 Length Compared to Others in the Genre
10:22 Good Value for Money
10:31 Annoying Dlc Policy
10:35 Large Download Size
10:41 Not Easy to Run
11:11 I Think it's Kid Friendly
11:26 Pros
13:27 Maybes
14:09 Cons
14:18 Ending Gag
14:42 Cheapness Outro

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