This game brings back such memories to me. I am very thankful to GOG that they have so many of these titles that we played as kids.
It's great. Actually great. The HD mod makes some nice changes to keep it up to date. This is the pinnacle of 2d art, something that tons of 3d still hasn't managed to replicate in decades since.
This game has a lot of great ideas that are still above what a lot of current 4x games lack. Simplicity in system management, clean UI. There are some things that don't age well - whether intentioned or not, combat can often be one technologically superior ship can destroy infinite other ships, probably sensible but not fun gameplay, or 5 fights a turn where the enemy shows up and retreats immediately. The diplomacy is capricious at best. But this game is still excellent, still satisfying, and is the one to compare all space 4x's to.
The game in principle is decent. Level skills, travel around, complete quests, some decisions will impact later events. But I honestly just cannot get past the characters. They are insufferably whiny, the plot is completely silly. The dialogue feels like it was written in middle school. It seems to be going for some kind of over the top ha ha parody of corporatism - but it falls so completely flat. Parody without wit is just, well, annoying. It comes off as very predictable and clumsy. It's just not funny.
