Recent reviews by DB_Explorer

A solid game, don't expect a full on sim or anything but it's not promising the world either. It somewhat reminds me of World In Conflict mixed with Wargame. There's enough going on (and the AI is smart enough) to provide tactical depth but on the other hand I don't need to remember the armor ratings of 2/3 of the NATO armored force to make sound tactical choices.

Remember though... it is an early access game at the moment. It's remarkably stable. As of writing this I've played almost 24 hours without issues. In fact I only just noticed most of my perks did nothing since they were not implemented yet. It would seem the Decs focused on making a solid stable foundation to work from. And I've not had any issues even in massive 300 vs 300 battles.

Plus you know playing 20+ hours trading and fighting and not noticing perks were not working......

Disclaimer here is that my first paradox game was Stellaris followed by Hearts of Iron 4, then I went and got EUIV. Compared to EUIV (and HoI3) from what I've seen HoI4 is far more acessiable. Some might say thats a bad thing but I think making a game less *needlessly* complex is good. From my point of view of playing the choices I make in the game actually matter some what rather then being some complex fincky system thats hard to understand.

Did they perhaps go too streamlined? Most likely given the updates coming in the next major updates.

But the game itself is fun to play, and the act of managing a country in the middle of a world war in terms or production, allocating troops to fronts and research actually requires some thinking. It's like a rather large puzzle game at that point.

Let us not kid ourselves, Stellaris has issues. It'd middle game can drag on, the AI can be questionable in its descions at times and the war system sometimes makes no sense. On the other hand the visuals are stunning, the abilty to make your own race and its influnce on play makes replaying it an enoyable expereince and lastly and maybe most importantly its a Paradox game.

This is important since you have games that are five years old (EUIV) and still getting udates AND DLC. The most recent major update with 2.0 completely changes how FTL worked as they tried to address issues with the war system and AI. The next update is promising a complete overhaul of the economic system. None of these changes were locked behind DLC either they were free to download with extras like space dragons being DLC you had to pay for (did I mention the game has SPACE DRAGONS? becuase it does)

I found this game after finding a replacement for Sim City 4 after the new Sim City was a disapointment. It more then lives up to the task of being a replacement. Much like sim city 4 the games fun comes from working out how to make a city work was it grows - and your city almostly aways seems to be growing if your doing it right. It's a constant pressure to expand and adapt your services as more and more people tax on it. But sitting back and watching the sun rise over a sprawling city you made down to the interchanges on the highway is a thing to behold.

Even then, with the graphics and assets on hand you can then strive to make your city an site for the eyes as well as your citzens.

.... yeah don't play this game if you need to go to bed at a decent time.

This is a game about well.. conveyor belts and making the tools to make the tools to make the things. At first glance the game seems like something only people interested in something along the lines of the more obsure aspects of a game like EvE online might like.

But really thats not true - the game is really a giant puzzle. You have to figure out not only how to make whart you need from ores, stone and wood - which may be easy - but how to make it efficient, and fast. Perfection is hard to attain and can take up fast tracks of time ensuring your schedule for anything other then working out how to make the trains literally arrive on time (to deliver the ore you need from half away across the map).

Oh yeah.... and aliens will try to kill you.