Space is quiet, for a little while. Unlike Paradox's other grand strategy games, Stellaris doesn't tell you everything from the start. You're not ready for that yet. If you're a bit of a space romantic, you might look out at the great expanse and get a sense that something's happening out there in the darkness. It has to be, surely? But right now, your concerns are much smaller than that. Before you can think about colonising distant worlds or subjugating alien races, you first need to understand your own solar system. This takes time, as you send a scientist, aboard their own ship, to scan each of the planets and determine whether there's anything useful to research, or mine. Whilst you're doing that, you might want to think about improving the infrastructure on your home planet, or spending some influence to increase the amount of food being produced. This is how the very early game plays out. You're not a galactic powerhouse, not for the time being. You're a single planet that's just getting to grips with spaceflight.
And yet, each time you unpause the game and watch your tiny civilisation slowly reaching outwards, it's humbling to think about the other empires - big and small - that are doing just the same. You won't know where they are, what they look like, or what they believe in, but they exist and eventually you're going to meet them. I love the sense of inevitability. This added emphasis on exploration also does a couple of really useful things for Stellaris, compared to other games from this studio. Starting small gives it a chance to drip feed information to the player as they go, avoiding that overwhelming moment that comes with starting a game of Crusader Kings 2, or Europa Universalis 4. You don't need to spend 30 minutes assessing the military strength of your neighbours, because you haven't even met them yet. That makes for a much, much easier introduction.
This idea of venturing into the unknown also ensures that first contact feels incredibly important. And shouldn't it?! In Stellaris, that single moment changes everything. Up until this point you'll have been blundering between a handful of solar systems, researching tech that sounds flashy and maybe expanding your military a bit, because that feels like the right thing to do. Now, finally, you have someone to compare yourself to. This is huge! How have they already colonised three planets, you might ask. Should you have been doing that? Are you already behind the galactic curve? The rest of your game will involve comparing yourself, sometimes enviously, to other empires. Your brief window of naivety is over.
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