The game: is addictive, long, funny & looks great. HOWEVER, it is tedious.
The game requires that you work up skills, cultivate relationships and manage resources which are all good, but like a large Civilization game you spend the last third of the game just trying to get to the end turn button as only 1 or 2 actions actually matter during the turn. And just like Civilization, you will be up and hour later than you want with the "one more turn" attitude.
In addition the game has several bugs. You can on occasion open too many window in which you can't click an OK button because it is covered by another window & you can't close the window because the game is focused only on the OK button. Any time you have to crash the game to move on ward is a tragic sin.
Other more common bugs:
Status bars which show a high % when your actual # is low.
Stats taking a huge dive for no apparent reason.
On game loading your stats will be all over the place. It takes a turn to reorder.
Bad game design elements:
Away missions, they only take your health stat into consideration when determining success. You have 2 dozen other skills and none of them matter.
Skills in general, in the end it only 5 of the skills matter and even fewer if you just romance your way up the ladder.
Space Book annoyances, the longer you play the more annoying it gets. People send you messages, if you don't respond they get mad and it hurts your reputation with them (which is fair). But sometimes it also damages your happiness with no rhyme or reason to be understood. It doesn't matter if you end your friendship with them, they will hurt you again, and again with the same message. It needs to be refined.
I'm a good strategist, but i was able to beat the game on the first try with more than 50 turns left.
THE MOST DAMMING EVIDENCE of this games flaws, it has been over a year and no one has bothered to make a wiki or walk through for the game. No one cares enough.
