CK2 is just inferior when it comes to modeling the opinions that characters hold of one another. It's relatively simplistic here and feels game-y. Another game-y thing is how your commanders can teleport around the map in medieval times ... So quite some immersion breaking and hence frustrating things in this strategy RPG. Star Dynasties is better in these regards.
Personally enjoying this more than Crusader Kings. Character opinions of one another are very well modeled. Balanced, not too easy and demanding thoughtful decisions. The inclusion of a tool for modding is great. Definitely do get the Bloodlines DLC as well! What I said goes for the game with that.
Gameplay is a straightforward affair. There are about two modes (disregarding Sandbox): Tournament where you can pit creations (ships or fleets of ships) against each other in a tournament, they will get controlled by the computer. & the main singleplayer all-out war for territorial control of the galaxy (which is tedious to achieve but you can hop to another galaxy with more difficult enemies in it at any time at Wormholes). Apart from making progress regarding territorial control (driving off and killing any opposition) the only other progress is unlocking other factions (which is done by killing ships of those of a certain power-level, which is a point pool for the bricks they consist of) which is quickly done and in each game to gather credits (you can turn resource points into credits) to unlock the more powerful building bricks for your faction and increasing the potential power-level of your own ship. This also will is more on the tedious side. The game would still have something to like if it were not for a serious flaw in the ship building system: There is a super cumbersome way to stack building blocks denser (more closely together) than the editor was initially intended to allow for that players found out and, because it never got fixed and gives tremendous advantages to ships utilizing this, has gotten abused the hell out of. Since this is a SP game this would not need to be bad however it ruins one aspect that otherwise would have benefited the game. The wormholes also act as potential upload points for your fleet (designs you saved in that run basically) and any such uploaded fleet has the potential to show up in other players' games as so called "agent" fleets. If you play with these on you will have to deal with ships that are at an utterly huge advantage because they have been built with that dumb stacking bug in the editor. Otherwise this would have been quite cool. Sadly, nothing has been done about that stupid bug. game here gets neglected
If you do not mind having to die lots of deathes some of which pretty unfair if you are missing knowledge that you can only gain by getting yourself disadvantaged and often leading to one of said deathes then, then this game can be for you. On the other hand I am quite sure you should not look into spoilers beforehand, because I bet there are some which could equally skew the balance towards making it too easy for you. So people comparing this to Nethack are quite on the right track here. An integrated feature to let you keep some of the last frames in memory and create a gif out of those, might at least give you some comfort sharing your YASD with your friends or fellow sufferers. However if you are not the kind to attempt min-maxing everything even with looming danger then you might not find this all that difficult. Because it teaches you not to be too greedy and risk too much. Health is pretty much the hunger-clock here, at least in the beginning. It has a good modding capability apparently as there are lots of interesting mods as well, should you ever get bored with what the game has to offer as shipped (which will take you looong).
Objects in Space disclaimer: I was sold on this when the first announcement blurbs came out listening to each new podcast from the dev team and cursing when the closed beta was Steam-only. The soundtrack alone may justify the current price tag but you get a fine game with a very charming feel and retro atmosphere to go with it anyway. :-) Things others have mentioned which have been dealt with: * Tutorial & introductory NPCs - can be skipped / disabled * Tutorial being basics only - in-game infopedia / mail has the rest covered quite well * Parts being non-descriptive / hard to judge or compare - this got an overhaul and is rather clear now * Module repairing being a little cumbersome due to UI - drag and drop with replacement rectifies this * No manual docking - got added and autopilot usually works anyway * slow travelling - 4x speed-up makes any hop bearable * grinding start - you are not limited to the starting system, there is a (limited) jumpgate network Still holding true: * still a bit crashy, but auto-saves at last docked place make it bearable * Lists (little) / text (mostly ignoreable if so desired) scrolling being tedious due to UI
I regret getting this one instead of something else. NPCs even humans are simple cannon (or here crowbar, makeshift-spear etc.) fodder. The communication options are a joke and prompt 'em at most to maybe retreat. That and too little story CYOA style events make this a simplistic repetitive affair. Let us not even begin to talk about that cheap wraith enemy.
