The only good thing about Stellaris is that it conforms to the leftist worldview (ironically, porky Collectivism equals Authoritarianism versus Individualism equals Freedom equals Entrepreneurship was overtime changed to Freedom equals Egalitarianism and Communism, Private business equals oligarchy)
The game, however, was broken by later patches. It's overcomplicated and requires tedious routine, but also doesn't have any variance at all. It's perfectly balanced, but due to being overcomplicated and drawnout doesn't work out for multiplayer. Like every other 4x strategy game, it seems to think that throwing a billion different menus and mechanics at players is an acceptable substitute for actual fun. Even if I don't mind it breaking the KISS principle, the issue is it doesn't get anything from it. The reason for their design is to try and make it a "real sim of a sci-fi galaxy". It awfully bungles it, as none of the systems are actually in any way deep. Its just a bunch of puddles that haphazardly get dug with each DLC.
For instance:
It would be cool to have each empire be ideologically or culturally different…
But in practice this is done by barely noticable gameplay wise (unless they are op) traits that have no effect on the procedural "story".
It would be cool to have politics of your empire…
But in practice its just a tab that you farm influance from that has no narative response to your actions.
It would be cool to have space trade…
But its just a simple pact with a flat income boost and a non-specific value resource that maybe atracts pirates if you are stupid and can't play the game right.
It would be cool to have your empire evolve over time…
But all the outcomes in the civics are predecided, you just choose when to unlock them.
It would be cool to explore the Galaxy…
But there is zero randomly generated expedition sites, so you will see the same shit each game.
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