I absolutely love strategy and 4x games. Before playing Stellaris, I was most familiar with games like Civ, Age of Empires, and the Total War series. As far as 4x, I played both StarDrive I and II and a few older ones, like Sword of the Stars.

Stellaris brings in a happy medium between these two worlds as it's not exactly a turn-based game - but you get to control the speed at which the game moves on the fly! Great for whatever mood you're in or if you like varying how long it takes to complete tasks.

Stellaris is BY FAR my FAVORITE game of all time! There is so much methodically planning that I put into every action, every move. If a certain task is not carried out as logically as possible, it might come back to bite you later on whether that be an anomaly or politics. The gameplay itself can be complex or daunting for a beginner (it has one of the steepest learning curves of games I have played) but it can also be the most rewarding. Do not let the complexity scare you away!

That being said, I would recommend this game 100% of the time to almost anyone who asks - unless your game of choice is always going to be an FPS... don't choose this.