So I started playing after the 2.0 update. I found the game to be a lot of fun. It has a learning curve where when you first begin it's about colonizing, exploring, conquering, and learning. As you slowly delve more into the game you begin to learn about the complexities. You can customize different ships to have different weapons, shields, armor and more. There are also factions in your empire that can change how the population feels about you and your decisions. When playing one will encounter different anomalies and events which can provide great resources or bounties.

AI in this game isn't the greatest thing ever, but it fits the game and works well. When playing with people one must be prepared for a whole new set of circumstances, especially when it comes to warfare.

I bought this game on sale for 20$ and it was totally worth it. Stellaris is a game that you can play whenever and will never get old and boring. This does not mean that you shouldn't consider the DLCs. They can add an interesting twist or a brand new way to play. I would reccomend getting the DLCs on sale because sales are fairly common and some of the DLCs aren't worth the full price.

Edit: Some people are complaining about how much micromanagement is now in the game and I will agree that it does require a bit more attention to more menial things; however, this can easily be countered with some of the technology that you get throughout the game and orders you can give your ships.
If you want a ship to do one thing, complete its mission and then do another you can do left click (on the first thing you want done) and then shift left click (for its next order) and continue to shift left click until you have told it exactly what you want it to do. This way you do not have to keep coming back to the ship.

So I started playing after the 2.0 update. I found the game to be a lot of fun. It has a learning curve where when you first begin it's about colonizing, exploring, conquering, and learning. As you slowly delve more into the game you begin to learn about the complexities. You can customize different ships to have different weapons, shields, armor and more. There are also factions in your empire that can change how the population feels about you and your decisions. When playing one will encounter different anomalies and events which can provide great resources or bounties. AI in this game isn't the greatest thing ever, but it fits the game and works well. When playing with people one must be prepared for a whole new set of circumstances, especially when it comes to warfare. I bought this game on sale for 20$ and it was totally worth it. Stellaris is a game that you can play whenever and will never get old and boring. This does not mean that you shouldn't consider the DLCs. They can add an interesting twist or a brand new way to play. I would reccomend getting the DLCs on sale because sales are fairly common and some of the DLCs aren't worth the full price. Edit: Some people are complaining about how much micromanagement is now in the game and I will agree that it does require a bit more attention to more menial things; however, this can easily be countered with some of the technology that you get throughout the game and orders you can give your ships. If you want a ship to do one thing, complete its mission and then do another you can do left click (on the first thing you want done) and then shift left click (for its next order) and continue to shift left click until you have told it exactly what you want it to do. This way you do not have to keep coming back to the ship.