One of the greatest war games ever made, if you have any interest in the historical period covered, this is a must buy. Comes with the expansion which was a bit of a pain to obtain.
I was salivating when this game was announced. Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. The game has one huge flaw. It essentially has no AI in the map portion of the game. Unlike a traditional 4X game where the AI will build forces and attack your planets, this game's AI just sits there. I once experimented with this and left the campaign running (it is in real time) while I was at work for 8 hours. I came back and it had not even attacked me. This means the only fun to be had is basically scripted. There is no replay value. Sadly this was not fixed in the expansion.
The Hugo games, while not the most sophisticated adventures- even at the time-are worth playing for their nostalgia value. I remember finding the first one in one of those racks of disks that game stores used to have. I then hunted down all the sequels with a scarily obsessive determination. Anyone that likes typing in old school adventures will get a kick out of them.
