I will cut to the chase: What's really awesome about Sword of the Stars is the battle screen. Try to run it on a huge monitor or through a projector if you have the chance - the wow-factor is considerable. You're inside a sci-fi movie. Ships show progressive damage, and it is immensely satisfying to see your smoldering dreadnought surviving the last seconds of an attritional battle, when you had expected nothing but to see it go down in flames. The game's main weaknesses, in my opinion, are the various races, which are unimaginative, derivative of known fauna and standard sci-fi tropes, and the story, which never feels necessary. Not that it matters: No other PC game has made me come back for more the way this one has
