Paradox Interactive has announced the next Stellaris expansion, titled Astral Planes. The new narrative-focused expansion will allow players to wield reality-breaking technologies to explore alternate dimensions. In these parallel universes, players will encounter new creatures and phenomena as they journey into the true unknown. There was no specific release date given for Astral Planes, but the release does say it is coming to PC later this year.
The story-centric expansion will feature branching narratives, a first for Stellaris. Players can navigate a branching narrative built specifically to make choices matter. According to Paradox, Astral Planes will be full of surprises and hard choices. Decisions will not only affect the narrative but also shape the player’s empire to fit their playstyle.
In terms of gameplay features, Astral Planes will feature new Technologies, Actions, and Relics, which is pretty par for the course for this type of expansion. It also appears there is a new Origin called Riftworld.
Stellaris is my favorite Grand Strategy game, so any new content looks good to me. But depending on how the Astral Planes actually works, this could set the 4X title up for even more content avenues in the future.
Stellaris: Astral Planes will be released on PC later this year.
