This game is heavily inspired by classic Master of Orion II, sadly, it does things worse than it - mainly due to cluttered GUI which they just had to copy from MoO2, and lack of instruction where all ideas and terms are explained thoroughly. Example - someone thought that sending a fleet to other system without a number below the icon indicating how many turns the travel will take is a good idea, naay, you must click the fleet and check that in separate window. Other brilliant idea is you don't see mineral richness of a planet till you colonize it; there is something called sector scanning via telescopes and perhaps survey ships, but that wasn't explained in detail in the manual. Ah, and they completely removed food production management. A pity, as the new ideas like cultural improvement, research tree, sector scanning etc. are in very core quite nice - but they are confusing/frustrating due to poor manual. If you want to play a good 4X space game Master of Orion II is still better than this.

You will see many reviews that compare this game to MOO 1 / 2 and with good reason. It really is what I as an original MOO fan wanted in MOO 3. I got this game earlier today, around lunch time and here it is at 2am and I am literally forcing myself to stop playing. This is what MOO was always about and what made it a legendary game, at least to me. The "just one more turn". This game certainly has that going for it and it would seem that sleep is no longer something that I will be doing any time soon. But what about the game itself? It is MOO 2 but better in every way. More random events, diplomacy that is useful. Spying now has more uses. Each race has more diversity, more character. The galaxy feels more dynamic and alive because of the special events and the random events. Is there a downside to the game? Yes, the downside for me is that it did not come out sooner. Perhaps 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago. But I suppose we got there in the end.

This game definitely scratched the itch for some old school four X space strategy. MOO2 is one of my all time favourite games and the developers of this game understand much of what made that game so good. The DLCs for this game are very affordable as well.

Has everything a 4X needs to be compelling.

This game has quickly become one of the favorites in my collection. Its old school enough that it doesn't drive me bonkers with 3d nonsense, and new school enough to have the quality of life improvements you’d expect from a game made in the last decade. As mentioned, the graphics are nothing spectacular, but you understand everything the is happening which is key. The UI is very intuitive and if you’ve played other 4X games, you will find this one rather clean and easy after a short period of time. There is enough new mechanically to make it not just a clone, yet it has the charm of the games of old. I dont write many reviews, but this one inspired me. Its a great 4x and should be more well known. Hours go by and I still want to keep playing. If you like strategy games with just the right amount of micro, good combat, and an engaging game loop, you owe it to yourself to play this game.