Recent reviews by Average.Computation

I begrudgingly have to not recommend nemesis because of its bad execution of a great idea.

That and the espionage system is still terrible four years after this update

Overlord is actually a fine addition, Vassals are actually a very good mechanic to leverage with this installed, especially if you like the whole mid-late game political focus which you can take.

Buy it on sale.

Not worth the price for how little it does. Shame due to how cool the concept was but BOY was the execution on this just horrible

Paragons is alright, its hard not to recommend because of how strong having it makes leaders, but, the expansion itself doesn't do much of impact beyond that.

Buy on sale.

While not as good as machine age, the Bio ascension path was absolutely horrible beforehand, so its nice to not have to machines if you want your economy not to suck ass mid game.

As for other additions, this one does enough to justify its role as a full expansion, tons of new traits, bio ships, and a new defense focused megastructure to top things off.

I Like it.

P.S. I prefer the 4.0 Economy structure, especially without trade desyncs every 5 picoseconds like 3.x had.

I got this with the season pass, i would not pay $15 (america dollar) for this.

it does SOME nice stuff, but not enough to warrant not waiting for a sale tbh

This one goes to show that sometimes paradox does remember to make a Good expansion once in a while, saying that both price and content wise.

Machine age adds so much to the core experience of the game that its quite difficult to recommend not buying it, from origins, to cosmetics, to early game megastructures, the list goes on.

Actually a good investment.

I tend to recommend apocalypse because it allows you to blow up laggy planets.

Titans are good as well. Definitely buy it on sale.

It unlocks machine empires and advisor voice selection, and a few other things on top of that.

Buy it on sale

Utopia is strictly mandatory in my opinion, playing without it is technically possible, but I do not recommend it.

If not only because Ascension Perks are locked behind it. That, and megastructures.