TL;DR: Get the game. You wouldn't even be here reading reviews if you don't like space 4x games, and this is a great 4x game

First of all you start in a galaxy of a maximum of 1000 stars(there are mods to play even more stars). planets/asteroids,etc are in orbit around stars, which adds a nice immersion, Factions are randomly generated every game, instead of the same old prebuilt factions that you have in other 4x games, although you can build your own factions to spawn in the galaxy if you wish do to so. and there's lots and lots of different variable options so that you basically will never meet the same faction twice, huge number of government types, ideas, culture, races, ship types, FTL types, etc. Faction customization is great, It's like every possible faction personality is available to create. you can even customize the random names the factions give to their people, ships, fleets, armies, planets, stars, etc.

Tons of events are happening in the galaxy as well, giving it more personality and flavor, sometimes the game gives you quest-like missions where you have to study this wreckage, then it will lead to another points of interests, leading to new techs, bonuses, etc.

Empire management is awesome, you can actually select your type of government(and change it in-game) resulting in different types of bonuses and government systems. You can have a democracy where there's an election every 5 years, 50 years, or a dictatorship, empire, religion-based faction, science-lead faction, etc, etc. Each elected leader has different personalities as well, with different aims, platforms, etc. Some ruler will want to bring back slavery to your empire when elected for example. Rulers are picked from a pool of leaders, basically your admirals, generals, researchers, and governors in your empire, and they have different agendas if they get elected as leader, Support the one you like the most. Factions can also form up inside your empire if your population's culture and beliefs become more and more varied. Some people may like the current government, some people may want changes or reforms.

The population system is also well-made. You can actually play as a non-genocidal xenophilic type, where every race(or certain races only, it's up to you) is welcome to your empire. again, unlike other 4x games where it's you or them. You can have an empire composing of many different races, a pan-species empire. and they can have different privileges, like giving them rights to vote, to move freely, etc. You can be as racist as you like or as welcoming as you like. or both! welcome them, and then exterminate them! Your choice. You can even genetically manipulate your own species, or other races, or create robots, androids, or genetically enhanced soldiers, some races might be better soldiers than others, use them as such.

Some would say the diplomacy is lacking compared to other games, but I beg to differ. There's lots of things to do in the diplomacy side. First of all, FEDERATIONS, you can actually form federations with different factions, not just alliances, but federations, you elect a federation president every few years and rotate around the different members, the federation also has their own shared federation fleet, comprising of technology taken from all the members. It's similar to GalCiv's United Planets but you aren't forced to join and it's not automatically created for everyone, even enemy factions. Lots of different treaties like star chart sharing, non-aggression treaties, embassies, research ventures, and good ol' resource trading. There's no traditional 'trade lines' trading like in galciv though. You can make a faction your vassal, and there are multiple types, you can even play as vassal to another empire and eventually liberate yourself from it if you want to. you can also integrate them into your empire.

One more awesome thing is you can actually see primitive civilizations in game!, and they all vary and you can see them in different states, whether they are in the early space age, bronze age, industrial, etc. or you might even see a dead world where a past civilization blew themselves up due to nuclear war. If you are playing as non-humans, you might even see our own Solar System!, maybe we blew ourselves up? maybe you just arrived in time before we do? or you arrived during our cavemen days and chose to observe us instead? You can observe them, advance their technology, abduct them for experiments or even uplift them, or invade and exterminate them.

Resources system is well made, you mine minerals from planets, asteroids, either from orbit, or if you have the planet colonized, on the ground. You need minerals basically for everything that you construct. You can construct power plants, in lots of different ways in order to get Energy Credits, which is the main currency of the game. You also have three research resources: Society, Engineering and Physics, and different celestial bodies give bonuses to them when an orbital station or facility is constructed. You also gain influence points to use on diplomacy or actions related to your empire/faction/government.

You also can have three researches going on in parallel, which is Society, Engineering and Physics, which is much more immersive as well. no more having to decide whether to research for your colony infrastructure first or for your military strength, etc. Technology is smartly randomized every time you finish a research, meaning, there is no fixed research tree, you get the immersion of really researching stuff, as you won't know what technology lies far ahead.

Space Warfare is similar to your usual Space RTS games, with the good addition of Turn Based like status reports, where you can see statistics of the battle while it is going on, there is also land warfare in which you can create and recruit armies and invade planets to finally colonize them, you can also get air support from your ships in orbit and bombard the planet however way you want.

Great game, huge great potential to become one of the best space 4x games ever made after more content is made(DLCs, expansions) I'm not saying it's lacking content though, it's got more than enough to keep you playing. My expectations on this game was not that high considering all other recent 4X games have been 'meh' for me, and I haven't really played any Paradox Interactive games that much. It's already better than most if not all other 4x games out there, and it's only going to get better with time.

Score: 9.7/10

As of writing this, it's 94% positive right now on steam reviews. worth the price.

TL;DR: Get the game. You wouldn't even be here reading reviews if you don't like space 4x games, and this is a great 4x game [h1]Galaxy and Factions[/h1] First of all you start in a galaxy of a maximum of 1000 stars(there are mods to play even more stars). planets/asteroids,etc are in orbit around stars, which adds a nice immersion, Factions are randomly generated every game, instead of the same old prebuilt factions that you have in other 4x games, although you can build your own factions to spawn in the galaxy if you wish do to so. and there's lots and lots of different variable options so that you basically will never meet the same faction twice, huge number of government types, ideas, culture, races, ship types, FTL types, etc. Faction customization is great, It's like every possible faction personality is available to create. you can even customize the random names the factions give to their people, ships, fleets, armies, planets, stars, etc. Tons of events are happening in the galaxy as well, giving it more personality and flavor, sometimes the game gives you quest-like missions where you have to study this wreckage, then it will lead to another points of interests, leading to new techs, bonuses, etc. [h1]Empire/Government[/h1] Empire management is awesome, you can actually select your type of government(and change it in-game) resulting in different types of bonuses and government systems. You can have a democracy where there's an election every 5 years, 50 years, or a dictatorship, empire, religion-based faction, science-lead faction, etc, etc. Each elected leader has different personalities as well, with different aims, platforms, etc. Some ruler will want to bring back slavery to your empire when elected for example. Rulers are picked from a pool of leaders, basically your admirals, generals, researchers, and governors in your empire, and they have different agendas if they get elected as leader, Support the one you like the most. Factions can also form up inside your empire if your population's culture and beliefs become more and more varied. Some people may like the current government, some people may want changes or reforms. The population system is also well-made. You can actually play as a non-genocidal xenophilic type, where every race(or certain races only, it's up to you) is welcome to your empire. again, unlike other 4x games where it's you or them. You can have an empire composing of many different races, a pan-species empire. and they can have different privileges, like giving them rights to vote, to move freely, etc. You can be as racist as you like or as welcoming as you like. or both! welcome them, and then exterminate them! Your choice. You can even genetically manipulate your own species, or other races, or create robots, androids, or genetically enhanced soldiers, some races might be better soldiers than others, use them as such. [h1]Diplomacy[/h1] Some would say the diplomacy is lacking compared to other games, but I beg to differ. There's lots of things to do in the diplomacy side. First of all, FEDERATIONS, you can actually form federations with different factions, not just alliances, but federations, you elect a federation president every few years and rotate around the different members, the federation also has their own shared federation fleet, comprising of technology taken from all the members. It's similar to GalCiv's United Planets but you aren't forced to join and it's not automatically created for everyone, even enemy factions. Lots of different treaties like star chart sharing, non-aggression treaties, embassies, research ventures, and good ol' resource trading. There's no traditional 'trade lines' trading like in galciv though. You can make a faction your vassal, and there are multiple types, you can even play as vassal to another empire and eventually liberate yourself from it if you want to. you can also integrate them into your empire. One more awesome thing is you can actually see primitive civilizations in game!, and they all vary and you can see them in different states, whether they are in the early space age, bronze age, industrial, etc. or you might even see a dead world where a past civilization blew themselves up due to nuclear war. If you are playing as non-humans, you might even see our own Solar System!, maybe we blew ourselves up? maybe you just arrived in time before we do? or you arrived during our cavemen days and chose to observe us instead? You can observe them, advance their technology, abduct them for experiments or even uplift them, or invade and exterminate them. [h1]Resources[/h1] Resources system is well made, you mine minerals from planets, asteroids, either from orbit, or if you have the planet colonized, on the ground. You need minerals basically for everything that you construct. You can construct power plants, in lots of different ways in order to get Energy Credits, which is the main currency of the game. You also have three research resources: Society, Engineering and Physics, and different celestial bodies give bonuses to them when an orbital station or facility is constructed. You also gain influence points to use on diplomacy or actions related to your empire/faction/government. [h1]Research and Technology[/h1] You also can have three researches going on in parallel, which is Society, Engineering and Physics, which is much more immersive as well. no more having to decide whether to research for your colony infrastructure first or for your military strength, etc. Technology is smartly randomized every time you finish a research, meaning, there is no fixed research tree, you get the immersion of really researching stuff, as you won't know what technology lies far ahead. [h1]Warfare[/h1] Space Warfare is similar to your usual Space RTS games, with the good addition of Turn Based like status reports, where you can see statistics of the battle while it is going on, there is also land warfare in which you can create and recruit armies and invade planets to finally colonize them, you can also get air support from your ships in orbit and bombard the planet however way you want. [h1]Thoughts about the game[/h1] Great game, huge great potential to become one of the best space 4x games ever made after more content is made(DLCs, expansions) I'm not saying it's lacking content though, it's got more than enough to keep you playing. My expectations on this game was not that high considering all other recent 4X games have been 'meh' for me, and I haven't really played any Paradox Interactive games that much. It's already better than most if not all other 4x games out there, and it's only going to get better with time. Score: 9.7/10 As of writing this, it's 94% positive right now on steam reviews. worth the price.