Stellaris: Astral Planes Review Summary
Last updated: 2026-06-15
- Astral Rifts offer fun rewards
- Stories and lore are engaging
- Scientists gain mid-late game tasks
- Exploration is interactive and innovative
- Overpriced for content amount
- Buggy and unstable launch
Emotions
Archetypes
- Sample precision
- Helpful reviews
- 89%
- Unhelpful reviews
- 10%
- Protest reviews
- 1%
- 32%Helpful reviews with positive sentiment
- 68%Helpful reviews with negative sentiment
- Positive points
- 168
- Negative points
- 328
- Gameplay points
- 167
- Perf. points
- 7
- Rec. points
- 117
- Misc points
- 0
| Point | Description | Importance |
|---|---|---|
Astral Rifts offer fun rewards
| Astral Rifts offer fun exploration with branching stories and powerful rewards, including relics, bonuses, and unique perks like activating a second relic before cooldown. These rewards scale into the endgame, providing significant boosts to science, technician output, and more. | 51% |
Stories and lore are engaging
| The stories and lore in the DLC are well-written, interesting, and immersive, adding depth to the game. They provide strong narrative and role-playing potential, with deeper narratives than other sites and alternate timelines of precursors. | 47% |
Scientists gain mid-late game tasks
| The DLC provides engaging activities for scientists during the mid to late game, addressing a common complaint about idle scientists. This adds variety and flavor to the mid-game, making it more fun and less stale. | 40% |
Exploration is interactive and innovative
| The exploration mechanics are interactive and less linear than archaeology sites, with branching decisions and impactful rewards. This innovation on existing systems makes exploration more enjoyable and adds different dimensions to the experience. | 35% |
New mechanics and civics are fun
| New mechanics, origins, and civics are powerful and fun, adding much-needed role-playing mechanics for Psionic species and normal bio empires. Unique civics like Sovereign Guardianship and Dimension Worship are interesting additions. | 31% |
Choices impact story outcomes
| The DLC features multiple choice events with various outcomes, making each playthrough unique. Choices in stories have impact, adding replayability and importance to player decisions. | 25% |
DLC is high quality and worthwhile
| The DLC is considered high quality and worth acquiring, especially when on sale. It enhances the already great base game of Stellaris, with many reviewers finding it a valuable addition. | 24% |
Adds replayability for long games
| The DLC is essential for long games and adds significant replayability, with enough content to bring players back for multiple playthroughs. It offers more content than expected, enhancing the overall experience. | 20% |
Better than Ancient Relics
| Astral Rifts are seen as a better version of Ancient Relics, offering interactive exploration instead of linear archaeology. This innovation is appreciated by players who enjoy more dynamic content. | 18% |
New relics and archive items
| The DLC introduces a separate panel for rewards, new relics, and archive items. These relics are cool and strong, adding to the collection and gameplay depth. | 13% |
Potential for modding and future content
| The DLC is seen as an ambitious attempt with good potential, providing groundwork for modders to improve. This opens up possibilities for future workshop content and community enhancements. | 12% |
Music tracks are excellent
| The new music tracks, especially 'Into the Astral Rift', are highly praised and add to the atmosphere. The music is considered great and enhances the overall experience. | 11% |
Crisis content is rewarding
| The DLC includes a midgame crisis and endgame mini-crisis that are worth experiencing. These crises and the associated relics are redeemable, adding challenge and rewards. | 11% |
Balance and AI improvements
| The new powers are generally well-balanced, and the game balance changes are welcome. The AI and balance improvements in the base game are also noted as positive side effects. | 11% |
Epic battles and precursor lore
| Players enjoy epic battles with ancient civilizations and precursor interactions, including finding precursors in alternate dimensions. This adds a sense of discovery and scale to the game. | 11% |
Promising for future narrative DLCs
| The DLC includes over 30 new event chains and shows effort to listen to feedback, particularly with leader and habitat system changes. This gives hope for future narrative DLCs and continued improvement. | 10% |
Rifts spawn continuously
| Astral Rifts keep spawning throughout the game, and the AI also uses them, adding dynamic content. This ensures that exploration opportunities persist and the AI engages with the new mechanics. | 8% |