Stellaris: Federations (PC) Review

Stellaris has undergone some extreme changes over the last couple of years. Paradox Interactive is very good about throwing new content at their products, and players can always count on something coming out eventually. One of the largest changes was the way planets were managed, additional resources added, and various limits to empire expansions. Federations is an expansion to this vastly different game, with a heavy focus on diplomacy.

A Federation is a type of alliance empires can enter into. As the game goes on, these Federations will slowly level up, giving more and more bonuses. Players have to use a new resource of 'Envoys' to further increase their standing. Within these federations are a slew of different options someone can pick to require from its members.

They are organized in various different 'types' of resolutions. Humanitarian types are ones requiring members to have higher standards of living for their population. A trade federation will focus more on economy. Other types include military ones that force the members to have large standing fleets.

A few other features include a massive ship called the Juggernaut which can repair other ships in the fleet. There is also a megastructure called 'Mega shipyard,' which can build 30 ships at a time. One of the more interesting additions is the 'Origins' which shape the story of your species. This could be something about them living in space stations, surviving the apocalypse, or living with a tree of life.

Purely as DLC, the federations are a cool addition. However, the general direction the game is going with these new updates is alarming. The pace of it all is slowing ever-more to a glacial crawl. The updates to the city structure, addition of more resources, the slow pace of planetary bombardments, how long it takes to kill enemies, and so on, all serve to add what only feels like tedium. There is a very strong bifurcation this is taking, leaving the typical 4x gameplay, and heading towards a long type of role-play with multiple people. Perhaps this writing has been on the wall for a while, but for typical 4x players this is moving away from what they would likely enjoy.