When I first heard of this game through GOG I was excited, as I've tried many MOO-type games recently but none have left me satisfied. I was also dismayed by some of the reviews. But my curiousity got the better of me so I gave it a shot... ... and I'm glad I did! Pros: - Immaculate presentation, from voice acting to sound to music to graphics to UI - Easy to learn and pick up (but still offers a decent amount of depth, enough to be fun but not tedious, AI can assist in micromanagement both strategically and tactically) - Real time tactical combat with ships (some may see this as a minus but I see it as a HUGE plus, especially comparing with other recent titles in its genre) - AI races have personalities - Civ5 style (which makes diplomacy very fun). - Very stable as of this date, haven't encountered any technical issues. Cons: - Ground combat is auto-resolved and a simple numbers calculation (To be fair, no one else in the genre is doing proper ground combat either, which is a shame) - Ship design is limited compared to some of its competitors - Factions semi-identical in terms of gameplay, either than a few stat bonuses (To be fair, it's a common, unfortunate trend nowadays with many 4x games) - Diplomacy - although fun - also lacks the depth found in other games like Civilisation or Alpha Centauri) All in all, this is a good game and I highly recommend trying it out. For me personally it's my current favorite out of all the recent space 4x games. It's not perfect, but I rate it 5 stars in terms of how much fun I'm getting out of it. I bought the standard edition, but now own the collector's edition, so that's saying something too =)
