The Hungarian 4X That Surpassed Stellaris 25 Years Ago

In the original disc version, you can extract game files, specifically message text(uzenetek), and inside there are Hungarian comments that reveal more about the story than what is present in the messages!

I'm just gonna say it. Full-fledged RTS planetary invasions single-handedly would make Stellaris like 50% better.

My first space 4x was Galactic Civilizations 2, and nearly 20 years later I find myself going back to it every now and then.

Nexus: the Jupiter Incident being a result of a salvaged game does explain the incredibly detailed campaign map (the star system menu). This menu never serves any other purpose than to look pretty.

I started with stellaris. Just kinda dealt with it. Had a ton of online school during the pandemic to learn how it worked.

My fist 4x was Master of Orion, on a 1.44 floppy, running on a 486.

When I was younger, I really loved playing a 4X RTS game called Haegemonia: Legions of Iron. I later learned that Digital Reality had also developed IG2. The military bases look quite similar.

Very few people can imagine the level of satisfaction, when for the first time ever my (Solarian - humans) line on the fleetpower graph met the Kra'hen line and then surpassed it. If you know, you know. ;)

The late 90's/early 2000's were the best time in gaming. Vision/talent/graphics tech all combined in wonderful new ways. Today, games require so many resources to be a hit that few risks are taken.

I'll be honest, to me, non other games ever captured the feeling of this old space strategy games.

1996 to 2000 was a golden age for cutscenes in strategy games. Civ II, Alpha Centauri, Starcraft, Red Alert 1&2, and Call To Power 1&2 all did really cool things with them. I don't get why the concept was dropped, it had a huge impact on immersion.

As a hungarian myself I played every race at every difficulty at least twice

How could you not mention Sword of the Stars? Released by Kerberos (acquired by paradox) in 2006 it had 6 playable races, each with unique ships and FTL travel methods. You also have research, ship designs and colony management. I spent countless hours playing that game.

Unsure what the difference between "strategy" and "RTS" games are, but my experience with both/either genre was basically playing the main campaign of Age of Mythology when I was 14, and then getting Stellaris when I was 20 because it was recommended by an Extra Credits "games you might not have tried" video. I don't think I have ever finished a game of Stellaris, I don't know how to make a good fleet, I just add ships until my numbers are big enough that my neighbors don't causus belli me cause what I really like is exploring, researching tech, thinking up a story for why my empire has the ethics/government it does, and all the little mini story encounters you can find across your galaxy.

My first 4X game was Space Empires III (1997), which had an almost complete shareware version (as was the fashion of the day). It featured many of the complexities of the Stellaris base game -- colonization, worm holes between systems, economy based on specific planetary buildings, research tracks, detailed ship design, basic diplomacy. As a youth i only grasped it gradually over several games; but as a result, i much later picked up Stellaris relatively quickly. I'm convinced the creators of Stellaris played the hell out of this one. I would recommend SE3 to anyone with a retro PC (as the interface is pure Windows) or to those who don't need strong visuals. It's on Steam for peanuts and still plays well! (though with almost no story or stimulation [except for the tactical battles, which are charmingly retro but direct]) I appreciate your ode to IG2; it seems like a remarkable experience to start off with. It's a delight to see true labors of love! And man those cutscenes look awesome.

As a Stellaris player since day one who only had Anno as "strategy game" experience under my belt going into it, watching the dev streams back in 2016 helped a whole lot with the onboarding. And speaking of Anno, the decline of RTS elements in 4X and related genres you mentioned is very noticable in that franchise as well.

I played Imperium Galactica 1, which had Red Alert-style cutscenes with actors playing various characters. The campaign was more linear but focused more on personal progression: you started out as a fleet captain with a few ships, and by the end you commanded the whole human armada against alien threats to rebuild the old galactic empire.

Stellaris was indeed my first real 4x game

Anyone remember “Stars!”? It is one of the original 4x game that outdoes Stellaris in space colonization.

Sword of the Stars represent