I have played this game pretty much since the day it came out, and it is one of my all-time favourites. In my opinion, what sets Distant Worlds apart from other games in the genre is how alive the universe feels. Your empire (and AI empires as well) have both a state sector that is directly controlled by you, and a private sector which is not. The result is that the game is full of civilian ships going about their business transporting stuff and mining asteroids and such. Unlike in many other games, resources aren't simply abstracted into a big resource pool. A resource can only be used if it is present at the location it is needed, which means that will often need to be transported between planets or stations (the private sector takes care of transporting stuff, so don't worry about the micromanagement). This creates actual trading routes and supply lines that can then be raided in times of war. It opens up a whole lot of possibilities, and the most important result is a galaxy full of activity, whereas in many other games the only ships in the galaxy are the warships or exploration ships of the players. Besides that, Distant Worlds offers everything that you would expect from a 4x game. Diplomacy, technology trees, ship design etc. The game is fairly complex, but this can be alleviated by the automation mechanic. You can set toggle every task in your empire between AI and manual control. This means you can set the AI to run everything you don't want to do, while focusing on the tasks you do want to do. If you want to, you could even set the AI to run your entire empire while you just take control of a single ship or fleet, and roleplay as a ship captain or fleet admiral. It can be a lot of fun.
