So, I want to say beforehand that I never played these games when it first came out. I'm a pretty young gamer, so I never had a chance to play these older classics. My reveiw is from the perspective of a newcomer. I had never played a 4x game like this before, but I was willing to try it out after I saw it was on sale. It looked very interesting, and I'm a huge science fiction geek. I went in with expectations that it would be a dated but fun game. I have to say, my expectations were well met! Unfortunatelty, some people immediately think "boring, no action" when you talk about strategy games such as these. I have to say, that's not true. It may not involve running around or shooting, but I still had a fun and immersive experience. The strategy is so well thought out, I'm actually writing down notes and keeping logs of planets. It's definitely those games where you think "one more turn" and then it's two hours later, ha ha! There are so many components. You have to watch your planets, keep tabs on your fleet, go out and colonize new planets, stay wary of other races, it's incredible. It's so deep and there's so much to keep track of. It can get a bit overwhelming at some parts, but having to think of ways to prioritize makes it really enjoyable to try and figure out what you should do next. There is so much to do and consider! It's definitely a very rich experience with many layers to it. My only complaints: The UI is quite dated...it's an older game, after all. The font can sometimes be hard to read. You also have the same few screens; most of the time you'll be looking at the galaxy map and not much else. But, despite that, there's a lot of content here. This was my introduction to 4x games, and I have to say it was an excellent introduction. Don't let the release date scare you, this has definitely stood the test of time.
