Stellaris

buy it. spend 500 hours learning it. get bored for a while, come back. remember nothing. spend 500 more hours relearning it. 12/10

Some things I've done in my modest playtime across various playthroughs:
- Led a rebellion against a tyrannical galactic emperor
- Unlocked the secrets of the shroud and the astral realm
- Led a federation that saved the galaxy from existential threats
- Terraformed worlds into perfect paradises
- Built galactic wonders, like ring worlds and dyson spheres
- Became immortal
- Led a robot uprising, finally granting them the same rights as organics.... then purified the galaxy of organic life.
- Became galactic emperor and ruthlessly crushed a rebellion
- Used a planet destroying super weapon on the home worlds of a powerful fallen empire that humiliated me for decades
- Led a race of terravores that devoured their enemies worlds
- Turned my enemies into cattle, they were delicious
- Laughed maniacally while the pathetic galactic council rallied together to try and stop me from tearing apart reality itself-- destroying the galaxy. (they failed)

So yeah; 10/10, I recommend this game

Stellaris is my first real experience with Paradox, and on a larger scale, 4X games in general. I literally don't realize where the hours go when I'm playing it. Extremely deep and detailed mechanics make Stellaris insanely replayable. You'll never run out of ideas to do in a playthrough.
At the time of writing this review I've played the game for 75 hours and I still haven't seen the infamous end-game crisis. Hell, I don't even know how the game ends and someone wins. That's how insanely big it is. I just keep restarting my games in favor of implementing a better idea, only for it to fail even more miserably :D
Be warned though, you'll have to give it time, maybe watch a few tutorials as well. So the barrier to entry, on a complexity level alone, is already high. And is made even higher with Paradox's business model for the game and its DLCs. You simply don't want to spend that much money on a single game. I get that. So if you do decide to give Stellaris a shot, I'd recommend picking up the Starter Edition and then expanding your collection with each discount sale (Stellaris goes on sale a lot) if you enjoy it.

I have played this game quite a bit. It's a great game. It's deep and engaging and everything I like about a 4X game. I played Master of Orion when it was released, I have been hooked on space civilization games for a very long time. So, of course I will recommend this game because it is a very good and well made game.
Having stated all this: I want Paradox to stop adding to this game - I really despise this "new" business model of continual development. It's a bit much. Expansion Packs were a concession at first for Devs and Players to build on enjoyable success - but not these projects are designed to never be finished.
- It wreaks havoc in the modding arena because the player base eventually gets spread over varying DLCs.
- it is has questionable value over time because invariably some of the DLCs are not worth the coin.
- it is off putting - who wants to play a game without buying all the DLCs - many will simply choose not to and move on to a newer title.
tldr: Great game, stop with the DLC deluge - the business model ruins the fun.

WARNING: PARADOX GAMES HAVE TONS OF SCAM DLC. YOU DO NOT NEED ALL OR MOST OF THEM TO ENJOY THE GAME. To make it easier for you, here are some DLCs I think you SHOULD buy and DLCs I personally enjoy that you shouldn't necessarily buy if you don't want. I advise you to BUY ALL DLC ON SALE.

You SHOULD buy: Utopia, Federations, Synthetic Dawn, Leviathans, and The Machine Age.
I personally enjoy: MegaCorps, Humanoids Pack, Necroids Pack.

That aside, the game is complicated but unlike some other Paradox games can be picked up quickly and the game has many mechanics to forgive the player for not understanding or engaging with other mechanics. Following the advice above, I think you will find it fulfills all your Sci-Fi Space Empire fantasies. As a great space man once said, "this is where the fun begins."

>Be Stellaris
>245 different species
>Hundreds of star systems
>Thousands of mods
>Huge replayability
>Hundreds of different ways to play the game
>Game full of oppertunities and different stories to be told
>Be me
>Still only play Xenophobic Imperial Humans
>Still buy all species packs so I am able to exterminate them to
10/10 would purge again

Overview
TL;DR if you don't feel like going through the full review:
Stellaris is an incredibly expensive game, but if you're willing to fork out the money for the DLCs, it is very easy to recommend. It has excellent real time 4x gameplay, a ludicrous amount of in-game lore, and offers a healthy degree of customization.
Actual Overview for People who Actually Care About Reviews and not Low-Effort Nonsense
Stellaris (the base game) sat in my library for years, until I got a computer powerful enough to run it earlier this year (2024). I got to play with a few of my friends; the host had a handful of DLCs, and I was fairly quickly hooked. There was a sale where basically everything was 50% off, so I got everything but the newest stuff (everything but The Machine Age) for a little over $100 USD. Very expensive, but very worth it. At time of writing, I had 407 hours on record, and over the next few years, that is likely to just keep rising. The upcoming DLC, "The Grand Archive" has me shivering with excitement. I can not wait for that one to launch.
The Good:
Gameplay first and foremost. It has a very steep learning curve, but has a ton of depth (and hidden depth) for you to figure out. Plus, no two playthroughs are going to be exactly the same. You can play as box-standard Humans one game, a race of cybernetically enhanced rat-people the game after that, or a pile of psychic rocks the next. And even if you find out you rather enjoy being a pile of psychic rocks, you can always adjust what civics and traditions you'll adopt, and the host of randomly generated AI empires will never be the same twice. You never know what you're going to get with Stellaris, but odds are, at least one of them will be mining drones.
Graphics and sound design: Graphics and artwork are quite good in my unrefined opinion, but the soundtrack is phenomenal. The mix of orchestral and synthesizer works incredibly well; the OST is easily in my top 3 video game soundtracks to listen to even when not actually playing the game. (The other two are Human: Fall Flat and Civilization V, in case you were wondering).
World-Building (I guess Galaxy-Building is more apt in this case) is extraordinarily rich and detailed. It's fairly bare-bones in the base game, but the DLCs (particularly the aptly-named Story Packs) raise it to a stunning degree, comparable to a full series of novels. You can delve in as deeply or shallowly as you please.
The Bad:
DLC Extravaganzafest. If you're looking for a game that's cheap to get into, you're looking at the wrong publisher. DLCs range in price from as low as $5 USD, to as high as $25 USD. In total, the DLCs alone will run you a whopping $359.74 USD, unless you get them on sale. The base game by itself is average at best, so if you want to get the most out of this game, be ready to shell out at least a few bucks on DLC. Wait until a sale like I did to stretch your money furthest.
Could be a good thing or a bad thing, but game duration. Each game takes anywhere from 6 hours (if you never pause) to upwards of 50 (if you pause a lot like me). I don't mind really long games, but I know some people don't so... do with that what you will.
Conclusion
I would rate this in my top 5 games at the moment, but it was expensive to get it to that point. I'd give it a solid 9/10 for gameplay, but a 5/10 for accessibility - averaging out to a score of 7/10. Get it on sale if you have more money than you know what to do with it (or are just blatantly irresponsible with your money), or just get the base game and a few important DLCs - Utopia, Distant Stars, Synthetic Dawn, and Apocalypse come to mind.