The first words in the introduction part of the manual clearly state that the game "is a spiritual successor to Master of Orion 2" and the developers really did a great job in (at least partly) copying - and also partly improving - the concepts of MOO2 that made it a great game in 1996!

After approximately 10 hours of playing my first game I can definitely recommend this game!

Some PROs:
- the user interface is clean and easy to use after a very short time,
- the research tree offers a lot of diverse and useful technologies (without making the mistake of MOO2 that allowed only some races to research all technologies while others often had to choose between one or another technology - in ISG an elegant solution was found by just making technologies within the same category a little bit more expensive to research if you have already researched one (or more)),
- an adequate ship designer that offers all you need to easily design or upgrade your ships, although it only offers a total number of 12 concurrent designs (but until now I have not needed that many ship designs anyway) and
- logical ship upgrade options (you cannot just upgrade a ship anywhere in space, a grave mistake of e. g. Galactic Civilizations 3 in my opinion, but have to fly to a system with a starbase for upgrades),
- an easy to use turn based combat interface with all the nice options of MOO2 like individual ship movement and weapon use,
- the planet screen has been much expanded compared to the original MOO2 game: you do not just move your colonists between farms, industries and research labs, but have to take care of the population's morale, build infrastructure, production and - as soon as possible - improve the plant's ecology and/or terraform it to your race's ideal climate. In your first game this might look complicated but after a short time everything is clear and easy to handle, although I would recommend to change the production allocation mode from the triangle that is initially displayed to the slider display (you will know what I mean when you see it :-))...
- another PRO for me is that the game is not only drm free but also one of the very few games that do not try to 'phone home' when the game is started! This has nothing to do with game play but I appreciate developers who do not spy on their gamers, thank you!

The exploration part of the game has really changed (compared to MOO2) but that is not a bad thing, just different and I am ok with it!

There's a lot more to see and do, statistic screens, diplomacy, leaders, galactic events - and hard to kill space monsters :-)!

Over all I really enjoyed playing the game so far and can only ask the developer for very few improvements (for which I would even pay if they came in another future DLC):
- how about an option for multiplayer using local LAN oder direct IP Internet connections like the original MOO2? I am sure a lot of players would love that, escpecially if you do not force them to install an unwanted/unnecessary client software for multiplayer games (aka galaxy or steam) but just keep the game really drm free for multiplayer too!
- and I would like to have maps with even larger galaxies than currently offered! How about an insane/immense option with about twice the size of your current largest galaxy?

edit: removed typos

Thanks for taking the time to post all that. Every bit of info helps in deciding to buy a game or not.

The first time I saw that creation screen, MOO2 was the first thought that came to mind before I even read that it was inspired by said game.

I watched a few videos of the game being played on YouTube and it really is a game where you have to think about the choices you make. Those choices can change how your empire developes, the early advantages and disadvantages.

MOO2 will always be one of my favorites, but it was a fairly straight forward game. This game has a lot more nuances. But you are right about the learning curve, the YT videos did make it look complex. Was there a tutorial stage?

This makes for a lot of replay value, since each new map is randomized. No two gameplays will ever be alike, good stuff.

And fixing typos are always appreciated. :)
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Thank you for your kind words and reading my review!

To answer your question: there is no specific tutorial scenario, but there are tutorial messages which pop up whenever you enter a screen (ship building, planet view, statistics, etc.) for the first time. You then have a choice to dismiss the tutorial message just once (and see it again when you open that screen next time) or permanently. You can also choose in the game settings (on the main menu screen before starting a game) if you would like to have tutorial messages or not. In addition to the tutorial messages there is a lot of information available by just moving your mouse around and hovering on almost anything meaningful on the screen (like ships in a fleet - if you hover above one you immediately get a pop up window with all values and statistics of that ship, or information about primary and secondary skills of your leaders - just move your mouse cursor above one skill and you get all the information you need)...

Therefore while the game IS complex on the one hand, it is also very user friendly on the other because all necessary information is always and easily available...

Thanks for the reply.

That's good to know about the tutorial messages as I'm a big fan of detailed information and/or detailed tooltips. Unless the game is specifically meant to be mysterious, I prefer to have the appropriate knowledge to plan out the strategy. :)

On a different note.

One thing that troubles me the most is the synergy factor (if any) that some games do not explain too well or leave out altogether. Hopefully if there are such mechanics in this game, they are also included in these tutorial messages.
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I don't see spying in the screenshots. They removed it?
I liked doing war through sabotage.

I'll be a bit more specific on this, espionage is not only present, but it's realistic versus abstract.

In MoO2, you dropped a bunch of spies in a box and generated a random outcome, nice but you were at the mercy of chance. In ISG many of the leaders also have specific spy skills, they can blow things up (sabotage), corrupt enemy leaders, steal techs, frame other empires, etc.
In essence, you will be sending a unique and specific individual to conduct a precisely defined mission. The only other game I played that was similar in this approach to espionage was Star Wars Rebellion. It's a very nice system when you're doing the spying.

Regarding synergies: there are a lot of ways to create synergies in the game, some for a specific system and it's planets, others with empirewide effects. For example research can come from a planet's population, buildings on the planet, leaders attached to systems or ships and also from outposts built on specific resources.

At least in my opinion everything is explained very well and in great detail: if you hover with your mouse over a planet's income you will get a pop up window with all data about how the income is created and also how the money is spend (including even reductions in spending, i. e. if you have to pay maintenance for buildings on a planet but have built a local perk via the infrastructure options there may be a reduction in the maintenance fees: the game will show you both the amounts for maintenance and reductions as sub amounts of your spendings) - all these little details are listed just under income and the same applies to nearly every info window. I have attached a little jpg to show you the income for one of my planets. Yes - as already answered by Adam Solo and chriskonstantine there are spying options but I have not used them very often so far because they have to be done by your leaders and for me the advantage of having a leader stationed in a system or on a ship in a fleet so far very much outweighed the outcome of spying missions (because if you send a leader on a mission he/she will not be available during these often rather long mission times).

Maybe later in the game, if you have enough income to afford hiring leaders specifically just for spying this may become more useful...

BTW the spying missions done by other empires can sometimes be very annoying especially if one empires e. g. steals a technology from another and at the same time successfully blames you for it...

Thank you for answering here! As you are the developer of the game would you like to say something to these 2 points/questions from my initial post?

- how about an option for multiplayer using local LAN oder direct IP Internet connections like the original MOO2?

- I would like to have maps with even larger galaxies than currently offered! How about an insane/immense option with about twice the size of your current largest galaxy?

Thank you!

OK, thank you for your fast reply and clarifying your future goals for the game! I already like it very much as it is now but of course some future improvements or add-ons are always welcome :-)!

OK, so if I like MOO2, I'll like this one.

But how does it compare to Stellaris?

Stellaris has more stuff going on, which may be a good or a bad thing depending on your mood. In this aspect, this game ends up being more relaxing with less stuff to be worried about. It has a somewhat slower pace and it doesn't pretend to be that grandiose.

This game has definitely more of a Master of Orion vibe.

I would also add two huge differences.
First, you are not restricted by star-lanes in travel, keep it in mind as it has huge strategic (and operational) implications, especially in time of conflict.

Second. You can go to war normally in ISG. You will not lay waste to an opponent, bomb his homeworld, and only come out of it with a border world as a prize.

If Stellaris had these two things, I think I would spend a lot more time playing it.

As already answered in the two posts before it is probably very hard - and given the number of developers and companies behind both games maybe somewhat unfair - to compare ISG to Stellaris. I like both games for their own characteristics. While - compared to the original MOO2 - ISG has been expanded with a number of features and somewhat increased complexity, compared to Stellaris it is still a 'simple', easy going game and very much depends on your expectations and the mood you are in before starting a game.

I like Stellaris when I want to play a very complex game for a long time with a huge galaxy and tons of possible micro management options, e. g. the possibility to slow down technology development and many other options. ISG gives you the option to play a turn based 4x game in a modernized setting (compared to MOO2) and is somewhat easier accessible. It also features turn based combat (and not even GalCiv3 offers that although it is another turn based 4x space game which probably should be mentioned in this comparison) which is fun because you can see how your ship creations can hold themselves against enemy fleets or monsters, the diplomacy options are well done, and ending wars (and the conquering of a few systems) is probably really better handled than in Stellaris.