I have such mixed feelings regarding
Stellaris. My personal opinion is that the game started off as something special, something genuinely great, but that Paradox then proceeded to slowly turn it into something more conventional, thus stripping it of what made it enjoyable.
I didn't play the game much when it first came out, but then started diving in around the time the Utopia expansion came out. I steadily became hooked after that, and even more so when I picked up the
Leviathans and
Synthetic Dawn DLC's. (I grabbed the Humanoids & Plantoids species packs as well when they were on sale, as I found they added a nice bit of flavor.) By the end of 2018, I'd poured hundreds hundreds of hours into Stellaris, and could easily say it was my favorite space 4x/grand-strategy game of all time -- no small feat, given it's my favorite genre.
However, I was deeply & bitterly disappointed by the changes made in the 2.0 update (released simultaneously with the
Apocalypse DLC) at the beginning of 2018. I ended up sticking with the changes so that I could play the game with the subsequent
Distant Stars DLC, but it's never been quite the same experience it once was. For me, version 1.9 will always be "peak" Stellaris.
The 2nd major rework at the end of 2018 (the infamous 2.2 update coinciding with the release of MegaCorp) ended any interest I had in the game's future development, as I couldn't stand how the devs had butchered their once-great masterpiece...again. The addition of districts & jobs added complexity without adding depth, failed to reduce micromanagement to any significant degree, and just overall made the game less fun. I do not understand why/how other people seem to find it enjoyable, unless those who profess to do so are mostly the fanboys slobbering over Paradox's erect member.
The subsequent DLC's -- Ancient Relics, Lithoids, and now Federations -- all sound like a blast, and I wish I could partake. That won't be possible, however, since it would require dealing with the shitty economic & planetary management systems introduced in 2.2 -- something that alternatively spurs either migraines or boredom. (If I'd wanted to play Victoria 2, then I would've fucking *bought* Victoria 2, thank you very much.)
So I'm now condemned to forever play Stellaris with the 2.13 version, or occasionally 1.9 when I feel the urge. And try not to thing about what could have been...
I'm glad to see Stellaris still going strong. At one point the community was pretty evenly divided as to the merits of Stellaris vs Polaris Sector, but PS seems to be abandonware at this point. Seems like lost potential there.
As good as Polaris Sector is, it was never gong to be able to compete with Stellaris. While it has a number of things going for it, including an excellent battle system (the best I've seen in any space 4x title I've played), it's focused on the 4th "X" (extermination), and therein lies its biggest weakness.
While most 4x gamers do enjoy wars and battles to some extent, they enjoy exploration, empire-building, and diplomacy as much or more. Stellaris has all this in spades, plus an amazing ability to generate stories with all the event-chains, Fallen Empires, and interesting end-game crises. There's simply no way PS can match that, let alone top it.
Topic: Stellaris (Read 4095 times)