Should You Buy Stellaris Nemesis (Review)

[Music] the use of star killing weapons has wiped out trillions of lives with new emergency powers the custodians have rallied remaining forces now is the time we strike back at the heart of darkness and avenge the fallen nearly half the galaxy has been destroyed our spies report that the cathorians have breached the void between our plane and the next the engine is nearly complete with it the entire galaxy will be destroyed nemesis a major expansion for the already sprawling stellaris has just landed it adds additional mechanics events a ship set as well as a bunch of music become the crisis the galactic emperor and stretch your espionage spy mastership with little birds that feed you information and then use said info to lead clandenstein operations in enemy empires so the real question is is this worth your time the main issue with expansions for any pds game is that we cannot look at them in a vacuum there are other major expansions that have come before utopia apocalypse megacorp federations and these will be the ones we'll be benching this against now there's also the issue of the patch which by itself is amazing there's tons of quality of life features vastly improved performance and updated economy as well as a pop system as well as a whole bunch of basic operations that are part of the main espionage system that comes with nemesis overall the patch is it's it's wonderful it's beautiful then we kind of get to the expansion itself though when it comes to the core gameplay content the expanded espionage mechanics that come with nemesis are the only thing here that you will have a use for in every single playthrough whilst the system in the base game is is completely serviceable the expanded features that come with nemesis adds ton of new flavor to any empire that you play you will end up with genuine spy games infiltration to other empires undermining their alliances steel technology blackmail for favors that can be spent in the galactic community and it's all there and it's wonderful i do love this spy system and that that should not be a feat that should be underestimated creating a spy system that has both impact yet is fun to be on the receiving end of is a challenge to design for instance no one likes to have their stuff destroyed through subterfuge instead some of your things can be temporarily disabled which in the grand scheme of things won't really hurt or annoy you i do wish there would be more events to the system as it does seem a little bit lacking at this time but overall it is competent and it's well put together it's rock solid and a great way to use your envoys on of which you now get two at the start of the game rather than just the one but that's patch talk so let's keep on target sadly uh the leaders the invoice they have not received any overhaul they're still quote unquote mini leaders and even though they are arguably the most utilized characters in the game they still haven't received any traits which i personally feels undermines their ability to role play or at least a potential love it's not the end of the world of course but it would have made sense to fit within to the system having a envoy start off as a spymaster and then roll them into the diplomatic system later on learning on the way it would have been fun but sadly it is not here on the other side of the spectrum though is the is the yin yang relationship of the crisis and the custodian the enemy versus the good guys or are they the good guys well that is the real question you go you i gotta ask yourself solaris always had a serious issue in the late game when it came to fun engaging content sure you could fly to fallen empire you get into a war of heaven fight a galactic crisis and that was pretty much it it was all very combat orientated with these new additions however they they try to offset that relative emptiness by adding an end game of hard versus soft power the crisis is a good example of this and this is exactly what you'd expect it to be you become the galaxy's ultimate bad guy and start destroying stars to fuel your aerophasic engine the doomsday machine and before you get there you need to indulge into your inner villain and commit heinous crimes to boost your menace which is a new resource that is tied to this particular route which is a ascension perk uh you'll slowly level up said manus unlock new perks until you've generated enough power to fire your engine of destruction and destroy the galaxy like some sort of bomb villain it's all very interesting and it's it's really a power fantasy the real question however is replayability as soon as you go down the menace route you are locked in you will you will destroy the galaxy or you will die it is one or the other there is no middle route here there is no other outcome having a more dynamic path would have been fun plus the pacing of building your doomsday device feels slightly on the slow side which is a little bit unfortunate you do get a whole bunch of new spiffy spaceships though the star eaters that do exactly as advertised uh it's fun uh but i'm worried about replayability here which is an argument one could make it's unfortunate for the amount of time effort and clear love that the dev team have put into this system because somewhere somehow one developer was absolutely mad and came out with this sprawling system that is fun to play but i'm worried about replayability on this one on the other hand though there's the custodian now the custodian is far more flexible when it comes to its ability for replayability in in classic roman republic style the the galactic community if when at risk has the ability to appoint a what effectively could be called a dictator it's it's a custodian but it is effectively a dictator with all the power that comes with that and you can add your prequel memes here it gives the galactic community its own fleet or at least you can vote for that and it's basically what federations already have it adds a slew of new galactic abilities such as adding new policing powers improving already existing mechanics etc and you can basically do whatever you want at that stage now you can push through all of these for the betterment of your peers and at the end you could make the choice of relinquishing your powers or go full caesar and declare yourself emperor of the galaxy with everybody becoming your subjects now there's a whole gameplay mechanic involving rebellions against the empire and it's something that any any solid space opera would be proud of because there are so many moments to be had here and it's so good the galactic domination path feels far more fun and dynamic than the menace sure you have that power fantasy of the menace but the political scheming and maneuvering that you need to do in order to become the galactic emperor is is is wonderful it really goes into the i am the senate scenario and it really takes it up to the next level and it has endless replay potential which i think is a wonderful in the end though is the advertised price of admission which is 20 euros and or a local equivalent worth the amount of content that you get i do get the feeling that paradox wasn't quite sure of this themselves it is a major expansion and they do have to set a certain standard and they've added the imperial ship set to offset these three major features and this is something that historically was relegated to the species pack sure we've had some mega structures and stuff like that that looked absolutely beautiful but never have we had a ship set being added to a major expansion which is it feels kind of weird in addition to that there's also finally after so much time new music being added which is something that i personally sorely missed music in stellars has always been wonderful and the synth angle the dark angle that is here is just great it really channels that channels that inner van jealous feel that the that the mu soundtrack has it's it's beautiful vangelis is probably one of my favorite artists from the 80s early 90s overall though the expansion to me is on par with say apocalypse or federations it's a solid addition for players who simply want more stellaris and that's what it boils down to is it a must-have like say utopia or distant stars no no it is not but it does add great moments in the end but i don't feel this is a cornerstone example of an expansion for solaris it is great overall but it's not right up there it would need a little bit more in order to make it so and that's sadly uh it sadly has mostly to do with the patch because the patch is beyond great i i cannot stress this enough how good the patch is still though patches they come with expansions and i feel that paradox kind of has us in a bind here because well if no new expansions come no new patches will come so in order to get more patches we'll need to continue buying those expansions in the end though it's your decision if you feel that the content that i've laid out in this particular video or if you feel my opinion is valid about this feel free to go and pick it up i'm sure there is more than enough places out there that will cater to your needs in order to get this expansion if you however feel uh feel the need to support the channel there is a link down in the description below that takes me takes you to the nexus gg store my nexus gg store you can pick up the expansion there if you would like it does support the channel directly we're gonna go and wrap up this review of stellaris nemesis here overall it's good but it's not up there with the best a lot of love has been put in it and it shows sadly it could have used a little bit more additional content i want to thank you all for watching this video and of course my patrons for making this video possible i wish you all a wonderful time with nemesis if you have decided to pick it up and in the meantime we're going to go and wrap it up here thank you so much for watching and until next time take good care of yourselves and as always each other

Channel: ASpec

Views: 178,375

Keywords: ASpec, A_Spec, Stellaris, Nemesis, Stellaris Nemesis, Review, Features, Espionage, Menace, Star Eater, Star Eaters, Custodian, Emperor, Galactic Empire, Prequel Memes, Paradox Development Studio, Overview, Should You Buy, Should You Buy Stellaris Nemesis

Id: wRnxkqHY6p4

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021