➤ The review of Stellaris: Apocalypse 🎮

Before talking about Apocalypse, a fundamental point must be clarified: the review refers only to the contents of the expansion and not to those of the free 2.0 update. The latter has changed a lot of game systems, some with really excellent results, despite a slowdown in games that several players did not like (however they are fixing with new patches). This is not an unnecessary clarification, because patch and expansion were launched at the same time and confusion is very easy. After all, one of the problems of Apocalypse is precisely the comparison with the 2.0 patch, which is much richer in terms of content and news (it would require a separate article to be illustrated). Of course, it would seem that if the game were not maintained by the sale of expansions and various DLCs, the development of the updates would certainly be stopped, but this does not mean that the comparison is inevitable, especially by those who have been playing it for a very long time. As is inevitable with the previous expansion, Utopia, which is also much richer. In short, as you may have already understood, Apocalypse did not completely convince us. All that remains is to explain to you why.

Cosa introduce Apocalypse?

The major contents introduced by Apocalypse are basically three: the Marauder race, the Titan-class ships and super weapons called Colossus. Let's go in order. The Marauders are a race of space nomads who work as mercenaries. They are found in different systems and, in the face of better organization and greater power, they function much like old and dear space pirates. Basically, factions can hire them to attack other targets, be they enemies, friends or even other Marauder groups. The fundamental difference with the other mercenaries is that about mid-game the Marauders can unify under a leader, called the Great Khan, and begin to expand autonomously as if they were a real civilization. Semi barbarians yes, but also fans of terrestrial history, it seems. Another difference is that they are much more insistent than normal mercenaries and in the long run, if underestimated, they are much more dangerous. In truth, when you understand how they operate, they aren't particularly hard to keep at bay, so they quickly run out of their criminal charms. On balance, they work more like a variant of an existing mechanic than a real new content. They may have some tactical use, but don't expect them to revolutionize your games.

The Titan-class ships, on the other hand, are the most important novelty of Apocalypse, as well as the best made. These are gigantic warships capable of taking down any opponent with a single hit, apart from other ships of the same class. However, their power is not limited only to offensive power, because they also have a support function. In fact, the ships that gravitate in their area of influence get big bonuses or malus, depending on whether they are friendly or enemy. Of course, you can't produce entire fleets, but having one is enough to make a difference in battle. Unfortunately they are not very customizable and, it must be said, they are not even too original, because before Apocalypse there were already mods that did something similar. Probably introducing them, the Paradox developers wanted to institutionalize an idea that gamers liked a lot. In short, they wanted to play it safe.

Finally, there are the four Colossus super weapons, the ones that earned the expansion its high-sounding title. Unlockable with an Ascension perk, they are gigantic and so powerful that they can destroy entire planets, or exclude them from the rest of the universe. Spiritualists can even develop one capable of converting all the inhabitants of a celestial body with one blow. Sure they are spectacular to use, the problem is that after trying all four, they quickly exhaust their usefulness and charm. The reason? Producing them costs a lot, they have stringent requirements and very long usage times. In short, apart from some desperate cases, creating a Colossus weapon means wasting a lot of time on it to obtain benefits that are often not even as useful as they might seem at first glance.

Soft apocalypse

For the rest, unfortunately, Apocalypse introduces very little news. Paradoxically, however, some of the new Civic and Ascension Perks produce more interesting effects on games than the Colossus and Marauder weapons, even if they are standard additions. In conclusion, destroying a planet for the first time is also fun, as well as using Titan ships is definitely something Stellaris fans will enjoy. The fact remains that Apocalypse fails to give that extra something that could have been expected, especially after the excellent Utopia expansion. Even from a technical point of view, there are few innovations. The Titan spaceships are beautiful, as are the Colossus. As mentioned, however, they are not customizable, so they don't have much to offer in terms of variety. What else to say? We hope that the next expansion, which we don't really know if there will be or not, will be more incisive than this one, recommended only for ultra fans.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Intel Core i7-4770 processor
16 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 video card
Windows 10 operating system

Minimum requirements

Windows 7 x86 or newer operating system
Processore AMD Athlon II X4 640 @ 3.0 Ghz / o Intel Core 2 Quad 9400 @ 2.66 Ghz
2 GB of RAM
AMD HD 5770 / or Nvidia GTX 460 video card, with 1024MB VRAM. Latest video drivers installed for both
4 GB of hard disk space
DirectX Version 9.0c

Recommended Requirements

Processore AMD Phenom II X4 850 @ 3.3 Ghz o Intel i3 2100 @ 3.1 Ghz
4 GB of RAM
Scheda video AMD HD 6850 / o Nvidia GTX 560TI, con 1024MB VRAM
4 GB of hard disk space

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

6.0

Readers (3)

8.0

Your vote

Apocalypse is an expansion recommended only for those who live on bread and Stellaris every day. It's not as deep as Utopia and the value for money is definitely worse than other minor DLCs like the Leviathans Story Pack. It's not completely to be scorned, not that, because Titan-class ships are interesting to use and blow up some planets. its perverse charm, but don't expect anything more than a few extra kit mechanics, which moreover the connoisseurs of mods did not feel any need.