Back after some time of abstinence regarding actually playing games and not only write about or study them, I finally tackled the daunting heavyweight here, called “Stellaris”. Sci-Fic-Empire 4X was always one of my favourites, especially when I remember hour-long playsessions at the living room table with Twighlight Empire and the like. So, without friends and competitors in flesh and blood this time, “Stellaris shall be my entry in this weekend’s comparison of 3 genre-hard-hitters; Galactic Empires 3 and Endless Space will follow, each given an amount of approximately 10 hours, to check which one’s my favourite flavour.

First Impression:
Ok, first, the tutorial isn’t REALLY one, I’d say – there’s so much to do and try, which the game also LET me try, so… I got carried away. “Sorry, what’s my situationlog again? Nevermind, I’ll be here exploring, friendly robo-AI-helper… Shortly after, I guess that’s me paying the bill there: I got lost somehow. There’re so many tables, menus, mechanics… which, in the end, are only values, digits I’m shifting juggling around here. It’s too obvious too soon. And, well graphics… they’re fine, so that I can run the game besides my work in windowed mode, cheers to that. But why in hell can’t I zoom through, from galaxy- to system-screen?! Then, there’s the rpg-story-snippits, but… “Sir, we found this, done that – what you want us to do?” – “Interesting.” (the literal answer, the only one, I can click). So, little bit underwhelming on the part. Expanding gets very demanding and overcrowed (sorts of…?) soon, guess, I shouldn’t build up EVERY star system…? Again – the tutorial manages not to manage. I guess, in a second+ playthrough and for pros, this must be heaven (besides that I’ve read, there are fewer options for the whole session to set, in comparison to GEIII for example?). For me it’s more like, going all the way diplomatic, don’t make anyone angry, explore, research, and observe some of those Conan-like stone age-planets. Got in two fights so far – one of them an asteroid (he started it!).

My relationship with Stellaris is thoroughly love/hate. I think Stellaris crushes the 4x space genre better than competitors like GalCiv and Solar Sins. But Stellaris has lots of quirks and hiccups that make the game arduous. By far the best part of Stellaris is the opening hundred years or so. I find myself regularly restarting to enjoy the early game because the mid game and any late game pre crisis is rather droll. Creating a species and discovering artifacts and colonizing new planets early on is great.

But late game micromanagement of fifty planets or so is just an awful experience. And the AI can't handle the planet management at all without crippling itself. Add in the fact I can't control my own sector assignments and the planet micromanagement can go fuck itself

Every once in a while I like to try a game I don't think I'll be into just for fun. Micromanagey space civ initially sounds like it'll have too many mechanics and things to keep track of to really be enjoyable for me. And that is absolutely true, but I still dropped a clean 20 hours in 2 days, if that says anything.

Stellaris is really fun but I don't understand about 40% of how things actually work, and I am not good at it. Also, I'm really stupid. I really really enjoyed the early game of space exploration, investigating anomalies, first contact, colony building, etc. Once the map filled up and the game turned to colony micromanagement and diplomacy (I'm never militant in these things) the game got to be a bit of a slog.

I finished my first game (got mollywopped by a big AI uprising within the last 20 years) and I have no desire to keep playing. I played a bunch of authoritarian science turtles called the Galaxy Brain Turtle Authority. My star systems were all named after sausages from around the world.

its a space 4X game
eXplore
eXploit
eXpand
and eXterminator all other lifeforms