TL;DR version:
If you're wanting Stellaris but with a campaign and story mode, then I do not recommend this game for you at all.
If you're wanting a Virtual Novel with light 4x elements as gameplay between segments of the story then this isn't that bad!



I approached this game knowing full well that it wasn't going to be heavy on the 4x elements as some other games. From watching gameplay and seeing cutscenes and moments with your war-council and other species, how the conversations were carried and emotion conveyed by sprites propped up in a scene, who just change the emotions on their face. The dialogue options being the typical "Ask about details." "Accept Side Quest or refuse Side Quest" etcetera screams that the elements are more geared for what feels like a Virtual Novel. It unfortunately tries to advertise it is more geared as a grand strategy and 4X type game. And to be fair it does have those elements, it is just lighter in this game than others of it's type.

Gameplay:
Gameplay consists mostly of fleet combat between hostile factions as you scramble to secure valuable worlds for your operation. The game features colony management but that too is lighter as colonies are broken up into three tiers such as
-Outpost
-Settlement
-Colony

The last one being rare and a main objective to get and the others spread out through the game. You don't really get into the meat of the management aspect until you get a Settlement and eventually a Colony. Outposts are basically pre-set blueprints you slap down on a world that you can build it on. Extract the resources. And go. Due to the worlds themselves limiting if you can upgrade an Outpost to a Settlement or higher, most of the time you're just slapping a mine down and forgetting about it. Even on Settlements and Colonies, which unlock 'higher tier' of buildings. Such as going from a basic Tier-1 ship yard an outpost can have to a Tier-2 Orbital Dockyard that can build Tier-2 units. And Tier-3 ultimately in Colonies. You have a set limit of structures on a world you can make for the higher tiers so it both forces you to find more worlds. And to specialize the ones you get.

Fleet Management and Combat part of the gameplay is rather straightforward and can be very grindy. In the early game you start out small, trying to gain a foothold. You need to minimize the damage you take in fights. Since fully repairing a fleet takes two turns and a lot happens in just a single turn. You need those fleets mobile. Fleets get comprised of a Flagship and number of other specialty types. Another example of how it includes some 4x or Grand Strategy elements is that you can build specific Chassis of ships. A fleet with a lot of Carriers for example. As the game has four types from 'Frigates, Cruisers, Carrier, Artillery' with the last one being good at firing at far away hostiles.

But it's a moot point really. What really determines a battle is how damaged you are and how damaged the enemies are. Eventually you unlock higher tiers of ships as mentioned and you can upgrade your Fleets if you build the facilities for it. At that point the fights become just steamrolling through the enemies as two groups of Three Fleets at Tier-2 just roll over any opposition. The biggest damage they can expect is when you fly through a "Hazard" system that halves your ships health.

Combat it self is simple but effective. Give your ships buffs for resources, debuffs as the cheap option, and finally decide if you want to Nuke the bad guys or look good to the Aliens and minimize casualties. Then you just drag a slider that represents where your ships are coming from and let the AI do it's thing. It's simple, and more often than not it's better to just mindlessly plot the course of the fleet than to let Auto-Resolve handle an encounter as they might decide to enter from the far-side of the Enemy Fleet and get shelled by long-range weapons while they take their sweet time realizing they just invaded an empty planet and maybe they should advance to the people firing at them.

There's also science, and resource management. Both of which start out slow in the early game as you get outposts but eventually you can ramp it up to the point you put King Midas to shame with your wealth. The Research Tree in the game is layered like it's indepth but in actuality it's actually simple. Pursue either ship upgrades, either hulls or equipment. Researching the tech to settle on worlds too hazardous at game start (Though it is again just mostly outposts-sized worlds and they'll just be drop of water in your ocean of resources later)

You can pursue bioweapons though for the aliens. Which is nice. No Geneva Convention in the Perseus Galaxy after all.

All in all, the Early Gameplay is a slightly tense slog which then shifts you to steam rolling the enemies in the late game. It feels like it's filler to pad out the moments between interaction of NPCs but it's not necessarily BAD filler.


The Story:

The story, to not go into much, is simple and sweet with characters conveying the weight of what happens and occasionally a proper narrated cutscene to support the moment. The Plot for the EU campaign is that you're there in the galaxy to support the war effort of Earth as they fight a losing battle against a race of aliens known as "The Colossals" which are not described completely other than tidbits of characters describing an occasional aspect of them.

As the game progresses and you set up in the galaxy. You deal with more factions and political unrest that your sudden near-invasion of the galaxy has brought to get allies and to get what you need for your mission. My own personal complaint is that there's not much meaningful interaction with a number of the Aliens save the Mechanical-organics you will encounter. If you choose to encounter them that is. Comically enough, and I like that the option is there, each time the aliens attempt to talk or broach you with a side-quest. You are given a "No I do not want to do this." button that just burns that bridge.

The only real issue I have with it is that the pacing of the story can be confusing. The game stresses that you have a timelimit and some chapters start after a set amount of turns I feel. With one main objective, to build Six buildings spread out through Six Colonies, actually waiting for you to do said objective than just pushing you forward as it did with me on prior Main Story Quests. And at the same time you can end up going too fast for the game's liking or pacing. In one moment I had three quests trying to hit me with plot progressing cutscenes at the same time, it's when the Derelicts enter your system, and that just rolled me into the next chapter.

The side quests do stand to send you across the galaxy so if you pursue them then be warned that you'll have to leave your corner of the galaxy. It came as a surprise to me when I was given a quest to the other half of the galaxy that I didn't bother visiting yet. And half of the galaxy was still hidden by the Fog Of War/Undiscovered.


All the ups and downs taken into account. It's not BAD. If you come in thinking you're about to get a really well written Stellaris game then you will be disappointed. But if you approach it as a Virtual Novel which is what it seems more designed towards, both plot wise and with the minor gameplay, it's a good game to pass the hours on if you have time to kill.

[b]TL;DR version:[/b] If you're wanting Stellaris but with a campaign and story mode, then I do not recommend this game for you at all. If you're wanting a Virtual Novel with light 4x elements as gameplay between segments of the story then this isn't that bad! I approached this game knowing full well that it wasn't going to be heavy on the 4x elements as some other games. From watching gameplay and seeing cutscenes and moments with your war-council and other species, how the conversations were carried and emotion conveyed by sprites propped up in a scene, who just change the emotions on their face. The dialogue options being the typical "Ask about details." "Accept Side Quest or refuse Side Quest" etcetera screams that the elements are more geared for what feels like a Virtual Novel. It unfortunately tries to advertise it is more geared as a grand strategy and 4X type game. And to be fair it does have those elements, it is just lighter in this game than others of it's type. [b]Gameplay:[/b] Gameplay consists mostly of fleet combat between hostile factions as you scramble to secure valuable worlds for your operation. The game features colony management but that too is lighter as colonies are broken up into three tiers such as -Outpost -Settlement -Colony The last one being rare and a main objective to get and the others spread out through the game. You don't really get into the meat of the management aspect until you get a Settlement and eventually a Colony. Outposts are basically pre-set blueprints you slap down on a world that you can build it on. Extract the resources. And go. Due to the worlds themselves limiting if you can upgrade an Outpost to a Settlement or higher, most of the time you're just slapping a mine down and forgetting about it. Even on Settlements and Colonies, which unlock 'higher tier' of buildings. Such as going from a basic Tier-1 ship yard an outpost can have to a Tier-2 Orbital Dockyard that can build Tier-2 units. And Tier-3 ultimately in Colonies. You have a set limit of structures on a world you can make for the higher tiers so it both forces you to find more worlds. And to specialize the ones you get. Fleet Management and Combat part of the gameplay is rather straightforward and can be very grindy. In the early game you start out small, trying to gain a foothold. You need to minimize the damage you take in fights. Since fully repairing a fleet takes two turns and a lot happens in just a single turn. You need those fleets mobile. Fleets get comprised of a Flagship and number of other specialty types. Another example of how it includes some 4x or Grand Strategy elements is that you can build specific Chassis of ships. A fleet with a lot of Carriers for example. As the game has four types from 'Frigates, Cruisers, Carrier, Artillery' with the last one being good at firing at far away hostiles. But it's a moot point really. What really determines a battle is how damaged you are and how damaged the enemies are. Eventually you unlock higher tiers of ships as mentioned and you can upgrade your Fleets if you build the facilities for it. At that point the fights become just steamrolling through the enemies as two groups of Three Fleets at Tier-2 just roll over any opposition. The biggest damage they can expect is when you fly through a "Hazard" system that halves your ships health. Combat it self is simple but effective. Give your ships buffs for resources, debuffs as the cheap option, and finally decide if you want to Nuke the bad guys or look good to the Aliens and minimize casualties. Then you just drag a slider that represents where your ships are coming from and let the AI do it's thing. It's simple, and more often than not it's better to just mindlessly plot the course of the fleet than to let Auto-Resolve handle an encounter as they might decide to enter from the far-side of the Enemy Fleet and get shelled by long-range weapons while they take their sweet time realizing they just invaded an empty planet and maybe they should advance to the people firing at them. There's also science, and resource management. Both of which start out slow in the early game as you get outposts but eventually you can ramp it up to the point you put King Midas to shame with your wealth. The Research Tree in the game is layered like it's indepth but in actuality it's actually simple. Pursue either ship upgrades, either hulls or equipment. Researching the tech to settle on worlds too hazardous at game start (Though it is again just mostly outposts-sized worlds and they'll just be drop of water in your ocean of resources later) You can pursue bioweapons though for the aliens. Which is nice. No Geneva Convention in the Perseus Galaxy after all. All in all, the Early Gameplay is a slightly tense slog which then shifts you to steam rolling the enemies in the late game. It feels like it's filler to pad out the moments between interaction of NPCs but it's not necessarily BAD filler. The Story: The story, to not go into much, is simple and sweet with characters conveying the weight of what happens and occasionally a proper narrated cutscene to support the moment. The Plot for the EU campaign is that you're there in the galaxy to support the war effort of Earth as they fight a losing battle against a race of aliens known as "The Colossals" which are not described completely other than tidbits of characters describing an occasional aspect of them. As the game progresses and you set up in the galaxy. You deal with more factions and political unrest that your sudden near-invasion of the galaxy has brought to get allies and to get what you need for your mission. My own personal complaint is that there's not much meaningful interaction with a number of the Aliens save the Mechanical-organics you will encounter. If you choose to encounter them that is. Comically enough, and I like that the option is there, each time the aliens attempt to talk or broach you with a side-quest. You are given a "No I do not want to do this." button that just burns that bridge. The only real issue I have with it is that the pacing of the story can be confusing. The game stresses that you have a timelimit and some chapters start after a set amount of turns I feel. With one main objective, to build Six buildings spread out through Six Colonies, actually waiting for you to do said objective than just pushing you forward as it did with me on prior Main Story Quests. And at the same time you can end up going too fast for the game's liking or pacing. In one moment I had three quests trying to hit me with plot progressing cutscenes at the same time, it's when the Derelicts enter your system, and that just rolled me into the next chapter. The side quests do stand to send you across the galaxy so if you pursue them then be warned that you'll have to leave your corner of the galaxy. It came as a surprise to me when I was given a quest to the other half of the galaxy that I didn't bother visiting yet. And half of the galaxy was still hidden by the Fog Of War/Undiscovered. All the ups and downs taken into account. It's not BAD. If you come in thinking you're about to get a really well written Stellaris game then you will be disappointed. But if you approach it as a Virtual Novel which is what it seems more designed towards, both plot wise and with the minor gameplay, it's a good game to pass the hours on if you have time to kill.