Stellaris is undoubtedly one of the most iconic strategy games around. The intergalactic experience combines its diverse alien settings with gameplay familiar to us management and 4X fans. It’s especially exciting to be a Stellaris stan right now, as Paradox just revealed Astral Planes, a new expansion that promises mind-boggling features like rifts that lead to “completely different realms of existence, where fundamentals that were certain at home may not always be true.”
It has been years since Paradox released Stellaris into the beautifully chaotic strategy game genre. The developer crafted a long-lasting sci-fi experience though, as the interstellar game still sits in the list of the top 100 played games on Steam’s charts. With a solid 9/10 rating and regular new expansion releases, Stellaris seems as though it’s eternal, even tagged on Valve’s platform as having “replay value.”
Astral Planes, a new Stellaris expansion, is now preparing for take-off. It promises us strategy fans a “narrative-focused” experience thanks to the support of “new reality-breaking technologies and systems.” While it doesn’t yet have a specific price or release date on Steam, the dev plans for Astral Planes to launch sometime this year “alongside the Stellaris 3.10 ‘Pyxis’ update.” The 3.9 patch did drop quite recently, after all.
Paradox states that for the first time, Stellaris will have us “navigate in widely branching narratives through a dedicated interface” that is “designed to maximize the effects of player choice. ” The dev describes the introduction of more difficult player choices and how “making the right decision for your empire” will “chart a course that fits your play style.”
The Stellaris team isn’t the only one working on Astral Planes. Paradox says that the devs have joined forces with Abrakam Entertainment, a studio known for its work on card-related strategy games like Faeria and Roguebook. I’m excited to see how two development teams behind vastly different kinds of well-received strategy games come together for any upcoming available actions, phenomena, relics, and technologies.
If you’re looking to spice up your base game right now for free, be sure to browse through our rundown of the greatest Stellaris mods floating out and about the vast space that is the world wide web. Alternatively, look around our in-depth list of other monumental grand strategy games to keep those brain cells in tip-top decision-making shape.