Stellaris 2016

Is it still worth playing?

You design an empire first: a species with traits, ethics on four axes, a government and an origin. On 1 January 2200 it discovers the hyperlanes. This 2016 strategy game from Paradox takes the studio's grand strategy into space, on the PC and on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from 2019. The galaxy, generated afresh each game, is yours to explore, colonize and manage over three hundred years in three phases. You build mining stations, research anomalies and meet other species, not all friendly. It runs in real time with the option to pause, slow or fast forward. Crises arrive late, built to answer the old 4X problem of one empire's win becoming inevitable with a century still to play. More than thirty expansions followed. A crisis that comes just when you thought you had won is still the point today.