The bone-dry sci-fi of Stellaris, a game that doesn't even work

IGN was first to be a critic and they got slammed in the forums by Paradox fans. And yet this forum is nothing but people agreeing with an even more critical review. I can only suspect players have actually put some hours into the game.

I fully agreed with the IGN review, but this review is a bit much for me. I don't think the game is that bad. I personally find a lot of the games highlights will come from the modding community. I've even made some myself. Tried of being stuck in a corner? There's a mod for that. Think there should be more scripted events? There's a mod for that. Want more choices in empire traits? There's a mod for that. What empires with specific traits like in MoO? There's a mod for that. Want your sector AI to build ships? There's a mod for that.

I think this review is good constructive feedback, and I hope Paradox reads it while they make their patches over the next two months. They've already talked about touching up a lot of things already mentioned here and in the IGN review. And I think it would have been nice if this review would have at least mentioned some of that instead of being entirely negative.

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I never saw the use of a minimap in 4x and GSGs to begin with. They make sense in fast RTS's like StarCraft, but in TBS and Real Time with Pause the screen estate can be used better.

That was my hunch, but I can't be entirely sure.

Well not yet anyway. I would point you towards http://www.ultimaratioregum.co... for an example of a game that's attempting something more ambitious in the procedural worldbuilding space.

It starts with C and ends with orvettes

Yea I heard massing them is super strong right now. I'm sure it will be patched shortly.

Move to strike as non-responsive.

I was not a fan of the Joe Pesci weasel as a character and the platforming/driving stuff never did much for me. I felt it was ultimately upstaged by Insomniac's games. Were you a fan of the Jax games? What made them work for you?

Paradox has refused to work with me after my review of Crusader Kings 2, a game I actually liked. So unfortunately, I won't have the same access to Hearts of Iron 4 that other reviewers get before the release. And given that I feel their games take a lot of time to wrap your head around, I can't imagine I'll post a review anytime around the actual release date. But, yes, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what they do with Hearts of Iron IV and I fully intend to play it and write about it!

You might want to try Paradox's other games. :)

Hey Tom, did Stardock pay you to work on the latest Gal Civ title too or are you just slamming the competition as a favor to Brad Wardell this time?

http://archive.is/Jk2nq

This review has made it effectively clear that you and I don't value the same things in a game and I will therefore remove you from bookmarks.

This review is, frankly, absurd.

The single worst review I've read in some time. Do you even enjoy strategy games any more, Tom?

I have 1600 hours in EU4 and over 500 in Victoria 2 ... maybe I should ;)

I apologize if I violated the site rules (I mean that sincerely). Is there a list of rules somewhere I can read? I also linked you to Reddit, and I won't do that in future if you have an issue in that, let me know. (I can see why you might be wary of an influx of possibly negative traffic).

UI issues apart, compared to what games of its genre do you find Stellaris dry? What 4x space game hasn't been a spreadsheet in disguise? I mean, that must have been the most idiotic thing I've read in a strategy game review.

Yeah I don't know how the reviewer can be critical of the rest of the game but give the combat a pass, let alone say "fantastic".

Even if the corvettes (and other things) weren't OP, the combat system boils down to blobs fighting blobs, with no interaction from the player besides letting you choose whether to withdraw and praying your ships don't take too long to get within engagement range. You can't make your long range fleet attempt to keep away from their short range fleet, you can't order your ships to focus fire on that battleship with a debuff aura, you can't even edit formations to allow battleships with close range weapons to be placed in front while corvettes with long range weapons stay in the back. And have fun making any attempt to counter the enemy compositions with no spying.

>conveniently forgetting to mention Sengoku and March of the Eagles

The difference between Sengoku/MotE and Stellaris is that Stelalris is sititng at #5 Steam Topsellers directly behind the big titles. Sengoku and MotE didn't sell many units.

This is the first game in awhile where I feels buyers remorse... mainly because I have a TON of other decent 4x space games. Oh well, Paradox will maybe dlc this game to be good in about a year.

BTW I'd recommend StarDrive 1 and 2 as alternates. As well as the already classic Distant Worlds. I just wish Distant Worlds would go sequel and get a better engine.