Stelaris is fun. I was observing a Stone Age civilization and one of my scientists disappeared. A few years later suddenly they’re in the industrial age and worshiping a strange new god. Probably some connection there.
And now there’s class warfare across the planet.
So in a few decades this planet went from hunter gatherers to a planet wide communist revolution.
Sci-Fi Video Games: What You Thought They Were Going to Be vs. What They Actually Were
Halo:Â
What You Thought it Would Be- Shoot some aliens. That’s pretty much it.
What it Actually Was- Holy shit this is probably the best game I have ever played. Â
Halo 2:
What You Thought it Would Be- Halo but better.
What it Actually Was- Halo but better. Â
Halo 3:Â
What You Thought it Would Be- Halo 2 but better.
What it Actually Was- Halo 2 but better. Possibly the best video game of all time. Â
Halo 4:
What You Thought it Would Be-Â Halo 3 but better.
What it Actually Was- Wait, what? This...is not how it should be. And it is certainly not as good as the others. Â
Halo 5:
What You Thought it Would Be- At this point we’re just hoping for the best. Â
What it Actually Was- No. None of this is cannon! I refuse to believe it. Â
Titanfall:
What You Thought it Would Be- Kind of a b-list shooter game. Something to pass the time. Â
What it Actually Was- This is great and I absolutely adore this game and its movement system. Â
Titanfall 2:
What You Thought it Would Be- Titanfall but better.
What it Actually Was- The most underrated video game of all time. Period. Â
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare:
What You Thought it Would Be- Call of Duty but newer and better and with all sorts of cool and interesting things!
What it Actually Was- Call of Duty: Now Everyone Has a Jetpack
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare:
What You Thought it Would Be- Call of Duty in space. Â
What it Actually Was- Actually a new, interesting and exiting game with pretty good characters. But the COD fans hated it because it wasn’t like Modern Warfare.
Mass Effect:
What You Thought it Would Be- Like Star Trek but a new universe and with more shooting. Â
What it Actually Was- Hey, this is pretty interesting. A solid all around game in a new fictional universe with more shooting and less diplomacy? Let’s see where this goes. Â
Mass Effect 2:
What You Thought it Would Be- Mass Effect but better. Â
What it Actually Was- This is great and these are possibly the best video game characters of all time. Â
Mass Effect 3:
What You Thought it Would Be- The wonderful and triumphal end to the Mass Effect Saga. Â
What it Actually Was- Everything is great and all the fans love it but what is with the endings?!
Star Wars Battlefront (2004):
What You Thought it Would Be- Hey, a Star Wars game! Never seen one of those before. Â
What it Actually Was- This is only the beginning...
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2006):
What You Thought it Would Be- Star Wars Battlefront but better.
What it Actually Was- If you played this game when it came out, you know. The memes, the fun...nothing can surpass it in its own way. Â
Star Wars Battlefront (2015):
What You Thought it Would Be- Star Wars Battlefront remastered. Â
What it Actually Was- If you can get past the classic EA ‘this shouldn’t cost anything but it does’ -ness, then it is a new and pretty decent take on a Star Wars video game.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017):
What You Thought it Would Be- Either 1. A Star Wars fps game that has both multiplayer and a campaign or 2. EA will ruin this. Â
What it Actually Was- Originally started out as a classic ‘EA ruined this’, but became pretty good because, oddly enough, they moved past that stage and now everything is free.
No Man’s Sky:
What You Thought it Would Be- Explore the galaxy in its majesty and see all there is to see!
What it Actually Was- Originally really bad, so everyone moved on, but the developers kept with it and now its pretty good. Â
Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Eternal Throne:
What You Thought it Would Be- Star Wars, but set before the movies in a time where the Sith were numerous and had their own empire. Â
What it Actually Was- The Old Republic lore is better than most of the stuff out there, including a solid half of the movies. And you think Rey is a strong Jedi or any of the movie Sith Lords are really powerful? Well, you have yet to meet Vitiate, Revan, Marr, Satele Shan, or any of the other Masters or Dark Lords of this age...
Stelaris:
What You Thought it Would Be- Control your own interstellar empire in a massive strategy game!
What it Actually Was- Virtual mass genocide has never been this fun.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 and 2:
What You Thought it Would Be- A Warhammer 40k game set in space.
What it Was- Have you ever blown up your opponents from inside a 20 km-long floating cathedral of death? No? Would you like to? Â
Apex Legends:
What You Thought it Would Be- Oh dear god no not another battle royale game. Â
What it Actually Was- A good somewhat sci-fi game with none of the cringe commonly associate to the battle royale genre. Â
Note from the Author: Feel free to add to this list if you have any ideas. Â
Playing Stelaris with a Broken Shackles start, which means my home planet starts out with a bunch of former slave pops from around the galaxy, and we found the home world of one of my pops (rak rak) and it turns out their galactic civ are slaving despots, but my rak rak pops wanted to return, so they did. A couple of centuries later the rak rak galactic civ is in a civil war between fanatical egalitarians and the slavers. Naturally I help the egalitarians. Good job Rak rak.
