Paradox Interactive has shown off a second story trailer for the next expansion to Stellaris, Nemesis. Watching it, you can’t help but imagine that someone behind the scenes is planning to end the Stellaris universe. The tale that looks like it’s about to be told is one of sorrow and destruction. This is the Infinity War of the Marvel universe, the part of the story that ends with the good guys losing. Here though, I think the bad guys want to end all life in existence, not just half of all life in the universe. Check out the trailer below and see what you think.
From the trailer, I think we can assume a couple of things. First, at some point during a game of Stellaris, one race or another is going to come across a colossal threat. The threat is that purple cube that looks like it could easily destroy the armada that’s about to take it on. Once that thing has been discovered, I reckon that the game will completely change.
With the discovery of a potential threat to all life as we know it, the races in Stellaris will need to band together and form an armada strong enough to kill it. This will see the core focus of every race shift from self-interest to self-preservation. There will suddenly be a requirement to build as many ships as possible to help the armada kill this thing, but players will also want to hold something back for protection. After the threat is dead, any leftover warships would also be great for claiming new territory.
This expansion is going to dramatically change the way the game is played. From here on, players need to consider that at some point a threat is going to be found, and they need to be prepared to kill it. Diplomacy might go out of the window, but it also might see the biggest alliance in any game ever come together. I can’t wait to try this expansion out when it launches on April 15, I’ll report back with what the world-ending threat feels like when I’ve had time to recover from facing it.