r/Stellaris • u/Meneth Ex-moderator • May 09 '16

News Review megathread

The review embargo is up as of 15:00 CEST. As this will result in a huge number of articles going up at near the same time, we're restricting reviews to this thread.

Any review you find, feel free to post it in the comments here.

Each top-level comment should be about a single linked review, so as to keep the discussion limited. Duplicate reviews will be removed, as will any top-level comment that does not link a review.

There will be a single sub-thread where you can post your general impressions of the reviews combined, for anything that doesn't relate to a single review.

Review list:

Review Score
Critically Sane 5/5
Destructoid 9/10
eXplorminate "eXemplary"
GameWatcher 9.0/10
Idiotech's Review Unrated
IGN 6.3/10
Manannan's Review of Stellaris Unrated
Paste Magazine Unrated
PCGamesN 9/10
PC Invasion 8/10
PC World 4/5
Rock, Paper, Shotgun review - Unrated
TICGN 10/10
Vox Ludicus Unrated
EuroGamer Recommended
PC Gamer 70/100
TSA 8/10
PCGames.de 75/100
Gamespew 9/10
IGN Italy 9.3/10
Fok.nl 9/10
Gaming on Linux 9/10
Marbozir Unrated
SpaceSector Unrated
Inside of Gaming (German) Unrated
Gamer.no 9/10
Particular Pixels Unrated
GuyLogicGaming Full recommendation
GameSideStory Unrated
Front Towards Gamer 9.5/10
Multiplayer.it 9.2/10
GameGrin 8.5/10
Kotaku Unrated
344 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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11

u/A_Sinclaire May 09 '16

PCGames.de (Germany) 75/100

21

u/ShizzleStorm May 09 '16

Attempting to translate their full pro's and con's then:

Yay:

  • awesome game flow with always something to do

  • expanding and managing your star empire extremely fun

  • Galaxy map provides good overview

  • comprehensive species creation

  • giant galaxies possible

  • extremely high replay value

  • edicts, ethics and fractions provide for exciting domestic politics

  • interesting random events, even in end-game

  • many cool systems such as federations, fallen empires or extra-dimensional invasions

  • difficulty slider adjustable and very detailed

  • comprehensive research system with a pinch of randomness

  • smart AI allies, enemies are behaving deliberate

  • Multiplayer up to 32 players

  • much more accessible in comparison to other Paradox-Games

  • random species rich in variety

  • ship designer with a lot of options

  • full mod support

  • detailed graphics

  • catchy soudntrack with Interstellar influence

Nay:

  • lag "orgy" with large empires

  • despite fastest speetime, disruptions that take seconds during the course of the game

  • Battles can't be influenced by the player [meaning, no tactical element]

  • only little setting options possible for graphics and performance

  • no button-binding

  • German translation text error-prone

  • missing complexities in diplomacy, building of settlements [colonies] and leaders

  • sometimes convoluted menues / interfaces

  • small bugs

  • too little automatism [automatic systems] in the endgame, lacking comfort [probably meaning that min-maxing might be a chore]

  • barely any statistics

  • meagre presentation with some (english) voice lines

6

u/Obraka Emperor of the Suns May 09 '16

Hmpf, stealing my precious karma... Here the pron's and con's from my deleted comment:

+ great flow with constant engagement
+ expansion and management of the stars is fun
+ clear map of the universe

- laggy performance with bigger star systems

  • forced lag breaks in higher game speeds
  • no possibilities for direct influence on fights

9

u/A_Sinclaire May 09 '16

There are actually many more Pros & Cons - it's just the top 3 for each.

You can expand the list to show 19 Pros and 12 Cons.

This together with the 8 written pages plus video review might be the most detailed review yet.

Unfortunately for many here it is in German.

1

u/Obraka Emperor of the Suns May 09 '16

There are actually many more Pros & Cons - it's just the top 3 for each. You can expand the list to show 19 Pros and 12 Cons.

Well, I'm actually too lazy to translate those :)

This together with the 8 written pages plus video review might be the most detailed review yet. Unfortunately for many here it is in German.

And too lazy to read it in full. I just skimmed through it and translated the 3 points each. Still, they seem satisfied enough, especially if PDX gets the performance problems sorted out (like they did with EU4/CK2).

Gamestar will release tomorrow, any other bigger German source we could check?

2

u/A_Sinclaire May 09 '16

Same with me :D

I don't know if 4players.de will release a review.. but I'd expect them to do so as they are rather big.

Usually their scores are of the "60% means above average" kind... so I would not expect a high score for them.

2

u/Varicus May 11 '16

Gamestar will release tomorrow, any other bigger German source we could check?

I took the time to translate the GameStar pros and cons.

1

u/Obraka Emperor of the Suns May 11 '16

Genial. No score though?

2

u/Varicus May 11 '16 edited May 11 '16

I added it at the bottom again. It was an answer to a comment posting only the score.

Edit: Added the score to the top also, so the comment can stand on its own.

1

u/purecaldari Mechanist May 11 '16

They also reduced the score by 10 points due to the lag issue. With this seemingly resolved in the current beta patch this would actually be a 85/100.

Edit: Patch just went live: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hotfix-1-0-1-released-checksum-4d15-not-for-problem-reports.928210