Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack
Paradox Interactive
Being a fan of science fiction as well as an author of the genre, Stellaris has been a source of constant joy for me. Not only is this game ripe with a multitude of geeky role-playing opportunities, but it also feeds another addiction that I’ve developed over the course of playing these types of granular titles: The ability to highly customize your chosen species template.
Being able to design your chosen empire and its population has become an unhealthy obsession for me, which I’ve lost countless hours to. Paradox has seen fit to further unload yet another time sink upon me with their latest DLC titled the Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack.
This latest Species Pack introduces a rock-based species not only look extremely different from the existing species, but also come with their own unique set of characteristics and game mechanics. Let’s mine a little deeper into these aspects (I couldn’t resist).
One of the first things that hit me about this Species Pack is how well done the Lithoid species portraits are. Being Paradox, I pretty much expected them to measure up to at least the same high standard of quality that has been already been set, but because these new creatures look so dramatically different (being rock-people), that they really exceeded any preconceptions I might have had.
When you dig a little further under the crust (again I couldn’t help myself), you’ll find some neat little ways that the devs have made the Lithoids very different from the rest of the pack. As you’d probably already assume from a bunch of boulder folks, Lithoids aren’t exactly lining up to munch on meat n’ potatoes.
No, they’re much more likely to be dining on minerals instead of organic foodstuffs. While this frees up your need to balance your organic farm output, you’ll have to double-down on producing minerals or your citizen’s stony stomachs will begin to growl (or maybe rumble?).
Also as you’d imagine, rock-people are pretty damn hardy. That means that Lithoids get a fifty percent bonus to their survivability in the more harsh planetary environments. Unfortunately for them, this bonus is mitigated by the fact that they are slow to procreate and as such, have a population growth penalty of a whopping twenty-five percent.
This negative is partially offset by the Lithoids being very sedentary, in other words, where they set their pebbly toes is where they will sturdily stay, giving them a fifty percent health bonus which is great for defending their home turf. These are some pretty light mechanics as far as DLC go.
You also get some really cool-looking ship designs, a nice voice pack, and the aforementioned nifty Lithoid portraits. The Lithoids Species Pack is much more on the immersion side of things rather than introducing any sort of game-changing elements. I personally enjoy these types of immersive DLC but some other gamers will probably consider this addition unworthy of their money.
In all, Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack is a great DLC that really shakes up Stellaris’ species list. It offers some really swell aesthetic additions in the form of new Lithoid portraits and ship models, a voice pack that is applicable to anyone’s empire, and some interesting gameplay mechanics that offer some interesting options for those who like to role-play and those who like immersion. Highly recommended.
SCORE: 85%
Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack has some pretty nice looking graphics that make its science fiction-based gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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