The meat of the game, building, researching, exploring, is an enjoyable and compelling experience. I particularly like the 'remote exploring' system, which allows you to find hidden systems and resources quite deep into the game. Where the game falls short is with its combat. I don't know if it's based on Master of Orion (never played it), but the space battle system is incredibly clunky and ultimately unsatisfying in the early game, fiddling with rotation actions and weapon arcs and the seemingly non-existant AI. In the late game, battles simply come down to turn order, since there is no individual ship initiative. Whoever goes first can simply move up with every ship and decimate the opposition fleet, using engine or weapon overloading. Additionally, the combat 'Auto-resolve' feature is a joke, where a massively one-sided engagement can still result in ship losses (why is there no 'overrun' feature, like in Imperium Galactica 2?). If you care about inexplicable ship losses, you'll need to fight every battle yourself, which is a chore. Finally, ground combat is nothing but a percentage bar that begins based on relative attack strength, moves a couple of times, then reveals 'You won!' or 'You lost!'. I recommend closing your eyes to avoid the frustration of watching your 91% crumble to a crushing defeat... Oh and I would much rather autosaves be created at the *end* of a turn, rather than the start. And, although the developer has talked about introducing it for years, I'd be shocked to ever see modding support. So all in all, a very enjoyable game, but don't expect much enjoyment from the combat department. For comparison, it's a massive downgrade from Imperium Galactica 2 and I even find the simple combat system in Space Empires V more satisfying.
...woman's descent into madness. As I played, the more outlandish the narrative and characters became, the less engaged I felt. At least until the final episode, when I realised that the ever more exaggerated and disturbed characters and situations were a reflection of Max's deteriorating mental state. It made sense to me that her mind would piece together such an elaborate delusion by using references and storylines from pop culture. The fantasy she constructed included end-of-the-world premonitions and extreme traumatic events. She oscillated between feelings of omnipotence and impotence and came to see herself as the instrument of destiny. Max was tumbling down the rabbit-hole and, until I realised what was happening, I was tumbling with her... In the end, my Max had fallen too far - she chose fantasy over reality. (1 star off because the gameplay is often tedious and the facial animation seems sub-par for a character-driven piece)
