Stellaris

And it is also a strange genre, on closer inspection: chock full of small products, some even tiny indies, often packed more with good will than expertise. There are so many that it is really difficult to keep track of them, even for a fan. And, perhaps, it is not even worth it, because the truly remarkable ones can be counted on the fingers of one hand (alien, with a dozen prehensile appendages): the saga of Galactic Civilizations, Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, Distant Worlds , to want to be generous Stardrive 2 and Sword of the Stars ... and then there are the great classics released in the archaeological era, such as Master of Orion 2 and Space Empires 4.

In short, after a valid, but not extraordinary, Galactic Civilizations 3, I must admit that I have lost some faith in the genre. Not so much in its foundations of gameplay, which I always find fun, but in the ability of the developers to offer something really new. Here, I said to myself, it would take a courageous software house, with a lot of ideas and the technical means to carry them out ... it would take Paradox. Apparently, in the cold lands of Sweden there is a Santa Claus who rewards good players, and here I find myself in the hands of a spatial strategy that is ambitious to say the least.

Stellaris ... believe me, it is not easy to tell you about it, because it is one of the biggest games I have ever tried. As big as Warhammer's space ships: systems, subsystems, weapons to the teeth, all wrapped in glorious baroque hull. I've played Stellaris for fifty hours, and I think I've seen a maximum of two thirds of what the game has to offer. So in short, it would take a book.

Let's start from the basics, meanwhile. Stellaris is a real time strategy with active break, just like Europa Universalis or Distant Worlds. A widely tested formula, which works, but which, in my opinion, will always remain shorter.

Either way, you start with a planet, and go around exploring the galaxy. When suitable planets are found, they colonize, when you meet alien races you fight or join forces, you collect resources, you search for technologies. And so far, all already seen. The devil, however, is in the details and Stellaris is a game made up of millions of details.

The choice of empire to play with, for example. Well, you say, there will be the race of scientists, that of warriors, the usual race ... but no. There are six types, from mammals to fungoids, each with a bunch of different species. However, initially they are only aesthetic wraps: they must be personalized, choosing a series of genetic traits.

Do we want aliens who live hundreds of years? The ultra-intelligent ones? Those who adapt to the most impervious planets? It can be done. But genetics are not enough to define a breed. There is also society: and, in fact, after packaging our insectoids, we must choose some ethical guidelines. Spiritual or materialistic? Militarists? Maybe better fanatic militarists, because the galaxy is a dangerous place.

Space has been fascinating for a long time. Bookstores are full of science fiction, and Hollywood regularly releases adaptations of the genre's classics. Who knows, maybe thanks to the genius Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, tourist space travel will soon become a reality? For now, we are left with dreams, books ... and games.

Stellaris is the latest creation from Paradox. The Swedes, known for their extensive strategic productions, ventured out into unknown waters for the first time in a long time. As a result, based on their previous experience and successful solutions, they created a great 4X space strategy. The game is a bit lacking in the ideal, but knowing the habits of the studio and the ingenuity of the creators of fan modifications, its weaknesses will soon be eliminated. And then ... tune in for a nightcap, because now Stellaris is a time eater!

Children of the cosmos

The fun in Stellaris begins with the creation of the race. The choice of various types of features of our species, ethics or political system is very important, because it strongly influences the further game. For example, if we bet on spiritual xenophiles, we will not be able to use slave labor. The way they travel through the galaxy is also an important differentiating factor between races: there are three different methods available, each with their own pros, cons and peculiarities. The fact that we create the race ourselves works well with the actual gameplay, which is randomly generated. When designing the game, the Swedes did not have their hands tied to historical realities, so each time we get different maps, competition or neighbors. Even scientific discoveries are random to some extent, there is never certainty in which direction we are going and where we will end up with our civilization. It is this element of unpredictability characteristic of Paradox games, which - although it has been minimized - has not completely disappeared. And good.

I love the early part of each game about Stellaris . We start on our home planet, but quite quickly we start exploring and then colonizing the nearest celestial bodies - at first only those that have a climate suitable for our subjects, but with time scientific discoveries allow us to settle and terraform previously unfriendly places. Until now, in Paradox games, the exploration aspect was not particularly extensive (e.g. in Universalis Europe it was to some extent colonizing the New World). In Stellaris , especially in the beginning, it plays a big role and is a lot of fun. Thanks to this, we not only get to know the closest planetary systems, which allows us to extract their raw materials. By the way, we also discover various anomalies, which are a kind of micro-history, and sometimes even the equivalent of RPG tasks, when we have to choose one of several options, and their consequences can be significant . In this way, we learn about the galaxy's past, quite remarkable and kept in the atmosphere of hard science fiction, which shows that, giving up a realistic historical background, Paradox did not cut itself off from the scientific approach to the subject of its games.

The final frontier

At some point, our empire cannot develop freely anymore - civilizations of rival races appear beyond its borders. Then the game goes to the middle phase. From now on, diplomacy plays a greater role, initially not very important. We also stop managing our planets ourselves - like Crusader Kings from the capital, we can only administer a few globes and when we exceed this limit, we are severely punished. The solution is to create sectors that can aggregate many celestial bodies and are guided automatically. Our role is then limited to appointing the administrator and the overall direction of development (e.g. research or crystal mining). In this way, the tedious micromanagement of individual planets has been minimized - and we have dozens of those on a large map at some point.

Moving slowly to the final stage of the game, we clash with other civilizations (or create federations), colonize other planets and face various crises. The latter include, for example, an artificial intelligence rebellion (with an obvious and not the first reference to the Battlestar Galactica series ) or struggles with factions that are emerging in our empire. They mainly include conquered races, but also separatists from one of the planets far from the center. This problem can be solved as I did in my aggressive empire - I have made all new inhabitants slaves. Unfortunately, such a decision had some consequences - shackles are not conducive to intellectual work, so at some point my fungoid prisoner overseers began to lag behind the level of scientific development from other civilizations ... challenges.

Inefficient galactic bureaucracy

Ironically, the biggest problem I have with Stellaris is that in a game where AI can rebel against its creators, the enemy's AI turns out to be quite passive . In the few dozen hours I have spent with the game, only once has my rivals declared war on me. Such passivity has its advantages (undisturbed expansion in the early stage of the game is undeniable), but if you count on this injustice, which is a feature of other works of the Paradox (e.g. vassal rebellion, alliance reversal or sudden loss of hard-earned stability), then start immediately at higher difficulty levels. Add to that the fact that sometimes it's hard to make a pact, and you get fewer and fewer anomalies and the resulting events in the mid-game, meaning periods where there is simply little going on. Sectors manage themselves, peaceful civilizations do not want to enter into alliances against our enemies, and all the interesting events of the early game have already taken place. Then the aforementioned crises make the difference - but I believe that there are too few of them in the current version. I would like to point out that this problem is more bothersome on larger maps - I did not feel it so much on smaller ones.

Strategy with a capital S.

I must confess - I was not sure for a long time what rating to give Stellaris . On the one hand, it is a 4X space strategy as addictive as a black hole and as innovative as Elon Musk's visions. I had a great time with it and I know that I will come back to it many times. In addition, this production can boast of atmospheric music like that of Interstellar (cosmic electro, which is perfect for reading SF literature - I tested it!) And colorful graphics, with a lot of details visible in the close-ups. Stellaris also proves that the Swedish company is effectively moving towards simplifying the operation of its big strategy games , which is a good sign in the context of the upcoming Hearts of Iron IV . An example would be the spacecraft design system - we can develop them ourselves or rely on automatic solutions that do quite well.