Let me just start out by saying that Paradox REALLY needs to stop releasing DLC along with a significant game update that has nothing to do with the DLC, many of the reviews(like with Nemesis) are specifically complaining about the awful update and not the content provided with this DLC. This combined with the fact that the dlc was 100% broken on release and actively bugged out the core game if you didn't even own the dlc lowered the review percentage massively. Even with all of that in its favor this DLC, in my opinion, is really mediocre. [People who recommend this DLC scroll to the bottom for TLDR*]

---The new vassalization is what I was drawn to the most, I bought this day 1 because I use vassals in any non-extermination play through, hell even the crisis perk allows for vassals and I go full into it. My main play style is to ride out the early game for economy and tech to come in mid game and sweep up half the nations into being vassals through several vassalization wars, but this dlc doesn't really facilitate that. Unless the target is in a federation/are a vassal themselves there is absolutely zero insentive to declare wars of vassalization, doing it peacefully is faster and cheaper plus doesn't end with your vassal hating your guts. This turns most of my favorite mid-late game play style into just signing treaties because doing it through war is objectively worse in the end (plus it is disgustingly easy to propose vassalization if you are stronger than them or offer pay them). The customization options itself are alright, but there isn't really much to say besides that. Sure you can get them to pay you in addition to their normal vassalization or specialize them for your purposes, but even on Grand Admiral difficulty the AI are still worse than a player in almost every aspect which makes it less appealing. On top of that there are many options that no sane person would choose that just seem there to pad out the menu (who in their right mind would offer to join a vassal in an aggressive war?) The vassal aspect of this DLC is alright but nothing more than a rework that adds little to what vassals already did or could be done with trade agreements.

---The origins have never been a real selling point for me but I consistently finding myself using the subterranean origin because it gives me neat bonuses and no max mining districts for any playstyle, making sure I always have enough minerals no matter how crap my starting planets are. Imperial Fiefdom? A bad gimmick, it seems like it was meant to capitalize on the vassal update but the massive drain to your economy/tech early-mid game means that you really cripple yourself by playing it(plus you can start 1 tile away from the xenophobic fallen empire, meaning permanent wars). Teachers of the Shroud? Not much special, but a selling point since you automatically start out as psionic without having to spend an ascension point. Slingshot to the Stars? Another gimmick origin to show off their new megastructure, that is it, nothing else. Progenitor Hive I was kind of excited for this since hive minds kinda suck after a couple years of soft nerfs, but the downsides massively outweigh the gains. If you happen to lose your progenitor ship in a fight you are screwed, tried once and never found a reason to replay em.

---All the megastructures are fairly mediocre to me, barely worth their cost in game let alone real life cash. The orbital rings are a joke, it feels like they are trying to take inspiration from what New Ships and Classes [NCS, the most popular Stellaris mod] did to star-bases without blatantly ripping them off. The rings are barely worth the upgrade costs and do very little for the planet as a whole, playing with NCS myself I rarely even build rings. The Quantum Catapult is neat, but that is where my liking for it ends. You plan an inaccurate one way trip that would only take a few jump drive jumps to get to. Sure it is neat to leap deep into enemy territory, but almost all wars involve slowly taking over systems in a spread so as not to have to backtrack and retake stuff you missed the first time around. The Hyper Relays is what I see most reviewers gush about but I barely see the appeal, they are worse/early game gateways. It also makes wars annoying as your enemy can jump between their systems just fine to run away but you have to slowly take em the hard way, meaning it is a lot easier for the AI to get around you while you try to take over their territory.

As someone who has played Stellaris 2.6k hours the main thing I desire from DLC at this point is any type of replayability, this dlc adds basically no replayability at all. This $20 DLC feels like a $5 DLC or FREE update to the game, with the main draw being the vassalization overhaul with the other content just slapped on to excuse the price tag. Nemesis and Overlords does basically nothing for me because once you play through a full game once or twice with them there is nothing special that surprises you or nothing new to discover. Synthetic Dawn/Ancient Relics were half the price of this dlc and add far more replayability and gameplay variety than this DLC while being only half the price. This isn't worth the money and where I was excited about Stellaris DLC in the past I am slowly becoming jaded with all the recent DLCs just being reworks of mechanics or species packs instead of adding fun and new ways to enjoy the base game.

The other problem with these last few expansions is that they are just overhauls of certain aspects of the game that are locked behind a paywall. Federations/Nemesis/Overlord are literally just an excuse to paywall Federations/Intel/Vassals. I have several friends who I want to get back into Stellaris after a 2 year break, but explaining that a lot of the changes to gameplay are locked behind $40 worth of DLC is an instant mood killer [if they want to play when I am not online].


If the vassalization rework was an update for $5 I'd recommend it, nothing else in this DLC is even a selling point.
*For people who recommend buying this full price Paradox is coming out with new content just for you. It is a make-up kit, rubber nose and wig sold separately, since you clowns will buy anything so long as it adds something.

Edit: Since making this review I have booted up Stellaris once. Stellaris was probably my favorite strategy game, with over 2.6k hours it is easy to see that, but this dlc has sapped all my enjoyment from the game. It isn't even the DLC itself, but the way they shoehorned vassalization into being the primary aspect of the game, even federations after the federation dlc wasn't this bad. Every enemy has a minimum of 3 other civilizations tacked on to them via being a vassal/overlord, by midgame there is no one left who is even a single empire, which makes diplomacy practically useless outside of the overlord. This use to be an incredibly dynamic and interesting strategy game that I greatly enjoyed that has now devolved into an absolute mess that crams as many differing civilizations together as possible.

Let me just start out by saying that Paradox [i]REALLY[/i] needs to stop releasing DLC along with a significant game update that has nothing to do with the DLC, many of the reviews(like with Nemesis) are specifically complaining about the awful update and not the content provided with this DLC. This combined with the fact that the dlc was 100% broken on release and actively bugged out the core game if you didn't even own the dlc lowered the review percentage massively. Even with all of that in its favor this DLC, in my opinion, is really mediocre. [People who recommend this DLC scroll to the bottom for TLDR*] ---The new vassalization is what I was drawn to the most, I bought this day 1 because I use vassals in any non-extermination play through, hell even the crisis perk allows for vassals and I go full into it. My main play style is to ride out the early game for economy and tech to come in mid game and sweep up half the nations into being vassals through several vassalization wars, but this dlc doesn't really facilitate that. Unless the target is in a federation/are a vassal themselves there is absolutely zero insentive to declare wars of vassalization, doing it peacefully is faster and cheaper plus doesn't end with your vassal hating your guts. This turns most of my favorite mid-late game play style into just signing treaties because doing it through war is objectively worse in the end (plus it is disgustingly easy to propose vassalization if you are stronger than them or offer pay them). The customization options itself are alright, but there isn't really much to say besides that. Sure you can get them to pay you in addition to their normal vassalization or specialize them for your purposes, but even on Grand Admiral difficulty the AI are still worse than a player in almost every aspect which makes it less appealing. On top of that there are many options that no sane person would choose that just seem there to pad out the menu (who in their right mind would offer to join a vassal in an aggressive war?) The vassal aspect of this DLC is alright but nothing more than a rework that adds little to what vassals already did or could be done with trade agreements. ---The origins have never been a real selling point for me but I consistently finding myself using the subterranean origin because it gives me neat bonuses and no max mining districts for any playstyle, making sure I always have enough minerals no matter how crap my starting planets are. [b]Imperial Fiefdom[/b]? A bad gimmick, it seems like it was meant to capitalize on the vassal update but the massive drain to your economy/tech early-mid game means that you really cripple yourself by playing it(plus you can start 1 tile away from the xenophobic fallen empire, meaning permanent wars). [b]Teachers of the Shroud?[/b] Not much special, but a selling point since you automatically start out as psionic without having to spend an ascension point. [b]Slingshot to the Stars?[/b] Another gimmick origin to show off their new megastructure, that is it, nothing else. [b]Progenitor Hive[/b] I was kind of excited for this since hive minds kinda suck after a couple years of soft nerfs, but the downsides massively outweigh the gains. If you happen to lose your progenitor ship in a fight you are [i]screwed[/i], tried once and never found a reason to replay em. ---All the megastructures are fairly mediocre to me, barely worth their cost in game let alone real life cash. The orbital rings are a joke, it feels like they are trying to take inspiration from what New Ships and Classes [NCS, the most popular Stellaris mod] did to star-bases without blatantly ripping them off. The rings are barely worth the upgrade costs and do very little for the planet as a whole, playing with NCS myself I rarely even build rings. The Quantum Catapult is neat, but that is where my liking for it ends. You plan an [i]inaccurate[/i] one way trip that would only take a few jump drive jumps to get to. Sure it is neat to leap deep into enemy territory, but almost all wars involve slowly taking over systems in a spread so as not to have to backtrack and retake stuff you missed the first time around. The Hyper Relays is what I see most reviewers gush about but I barely see the appeal, they are worse/early game gateways. It also makes wars annoying as your enemy can jump between their systems just fine to run away but you have to slowly take em the hard way, meaning it is a lot easier for the AI to get around you while you try to take over their territory. As someone who has played Stellaris 2.6k hours the main thing I desire from DLC at this point is any type of replayability, this dlc adds basically no replayability at all. This $20 DLC feels like a $5 DLC or FREE update to the game, with the main draw being the vassalization overhaul with the other content just slapped on to excuse the price tag. Nemesis and Overlords does basically nothing for me because once you play through a full game once or twice with them there is nothing special that surprises you or nothing new to discover. Synthetic Dawn/Ancient Relics were half the price of this dlc and add far more replayability and gameplay variety than this DLC while being only half the price. This isn't worth the money and where I was excited about Stellaris DLC in the past I am slowly becoming jaded with all the recent DLCs just being reworks of mechanics or species packs instead of adding fun and new ways to enjoy the base game. The other problem with these last few expansions is that they are just overhauls of certain aspects of the game that are locked behind a paywall. Federations/Nemesis/Overlord are literally just an excuse to paywall Federations/Intel/Vassals. I have several friends who I want to get back into Stellaris after a 2 year break, but explaining that a lot of the changes to gameplay are locked behind $40 worth of DLC is an instant mood killer [if they want to play when I am not online]. [h1]TLDR;[/h1] If the vassalization rework was an update for $5 I'd recommend it, nothing else in this DLC is even a selling point. *For people who recommend buying this full price Paradox is coming out with new content just for you. It is a make-up kit, rubber nose and wig sold separately, since you clowns will buy anything so long as it adds something. Edit: Since making this review I have booted up Stellaris once. Stellaris was probably my favorite strategy game, with over 2.6k hours it is easy to see that, but this dlc has sapped all my enjoyment from the game. It isn't even the DLC itself, but the way they shoehorned vassalization into being the primary aspect of the game, even federations after the federation dlc wasn't this bad. Every enemy has a minimum of 3 other civilizations tacked on to them via being a vassal/overlord, by midgame there is no one left who is even a single empire, which makes diplomacy practically useless outside of the overlord. This use to be an incredibly dynamic and interesting strategy game that I greatly enjoyed that has now devolved into an absolute mess that crams as many differing civilizations together as possible.