‘Stellaris Nexus’ is the Video Game For People With Day Jobs — Early Access Releases Today
Stellaris Nexus, the allegedly “hour-long” condensed version of Stellaris that you can actually play with your friends, launched today!
Things are looking up for people with day jobs, children, family obligations, or recreational pickleball leagues, who are also massive 4X nerds. Because Stellaris Nexus, the streamlined, condensed version of the expansive Twilight Imperium-inspired 4X Stellaris, which supposedly takes “about 1 hour” to play has launched at last.
Into Early Access that is. That’s right. The game is so streamlined it’s not even fully done yet. Though, when was the last time a game was released and was just ready to go without giving everyone six months to three years to play before it “officially launched” in the finalized version?
Sure, you might be paying to Beta Test a game, but most people who do so seem happy to do so. We’re legally not allowed to judge (some nonsense about passing the bar exam), but we can tell you that the game is here, and it does look like it plays pretty quickly.
Stellaris Nexus Launches, Now You Can Play Stellaris While You Play Stellaris
Gather your friends and see who will emerge victorious as the Emperor of the Galaxy in a unique, fast-paced strategy game where you commit backstabbery to gain that ultimate prize.
Stellaris Nexus is a social strategy game offering all the depth of a full spectrum 4X experience played start to finish in about 1 hour. Choose a unique faction and leader and challenge up to 7 other players, plotting, battling and backstabbing your way to galactic dominance.
With a planned Early Access period of about six months, the team behind Stellaris Nexus has unleashed the game with a fairly cooked core game. There are currently four different modes of play. A single-player “Story Mode” that sounds like it’s a tutorial with a narrative behind it. There are four missions in the game right now that promise to teach you the playstyles for the different factions in the game.
But that all paves the way for the core of the game, Succession Mode. This is the Stellaris you know and love, sort of. You can play either single-player, or against a variety of AI opponents to vie for control of the galaxy. Get a set number of succession points (60, 100, 150) and you win. But the real meat is in Multiplayer, which comes in two modes: Custom and Matchmaking. In Custom Mode you set all the dials, and play with your friends. Matchmaking gives you less control but pits you against randos.
Eventually, there will be ranked mode for all you sweaty tryhards out there.
Each game purports to give the full spectrum 4X experience in “about an hour” from start to finish. How do they accomplish this? Well to start with, the developers emphasize “social strategy.” All turns resolved at the same time. The map is smaller, the gameplay streamlined, but all the bells and whistles seem to still be there.
Check out Stellaris Nexus on Steam
Time to start working on your Brian Cox impersonations.
