
What's surprising is that it plays surprisingly well on a console with a controller in hand.īefore diving deeper into the actual port and how a strategy game on console can work without making too many sacrifices, let's break down what Stellaris is and how it plays.

Stellaris: Console Edition is a fully featured release, with some exceptions. If you have played Stellaris on the PC, that may not come as a surprise. The game features planet and fleet management, space exploration and combat, full diplomacy systems, and other traits that make every playthrough unique. It belongs to the 4X genre (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) and combines the joys of deeply strategic gameplay systems with science fiction and space exploration.

That alone makes ports of strategy or simulation titles to consoles an almost impossible task that only gets more strenuous as the game's complexity rises. The sometimes convoluted nature of the interfaces and navigation grids often required precise mouse movements and keyboard shortcuts to navigate successfully. For example, simulation and strategy games have never had a firm place on consoles, mostly due to a lack of input options. Some genres and platforms don't mix well.
