It's a decent 4x game. It has some deepness indeed and vast modding capabilities. What I disliked most is the user interface. Just too many unnecessary clicks. Some things regarding your empire could be seen and done easier. The graphics is not the strongest thing in this game, although I understand, that it is not very important thing in games like that.

I wanted to give this game more than a 6, I really did. However, there are a few things that keep me from doing so. Some of the glaring problems the game has: Buggy multiplayer and bugs in general. I spent 6 hours trying to play this with a friend and couldn't get it to work. Believe me when I say we tried everything. Sometimes when you end the turn, the game will crash for no apparent reason. Don't expect any more bug patches coming out either, as this game is nearly hitting the decade old mark as I type this. Terrible AI: I put it on hard with a low bonus (I assume this means the AI cheats) for my first game, and there was absolutely no challenge involved. The AI will accept and send treaties for absolutely no reason. I was getting smashed by one of the AI's in a sector I didn't have a fleet in, and while he rejected my first three peacemaking attempts, he accepted the fourth for seemingly no reason. I hadn't destroyed any of his ships and my fleet was still nowhere near his. Now I would have written this off as him being involved in a war somewhere else on the map, but it consistently happens with ANY computer opponent. That being said, it's still a heavily enjoyable 4x with unique mechanics you wont find in any other game, such as being able to modify the map and cut off entire systems from computer players/your opponents, isolating your systems until someone else manages to go down a very, very research heavy tree in order to reopen warp points. You can even create your own planets! Which is what makes it such a shame that the multiplayer doesn't work.

This game gets an 8 from me out of the sheer ballsyness of scope that it plays at. You go from, "Look we have ion drives!" to, "Hold on a sec, I'ma make that star into a power factory for my civ, Brb." Woah! Mind blown. Warning though, it's complex and very arcane. It's a joy if you absolutely love spending hours working very hard to understand large complicated systems. Not so great if you just want a video game to sit down and blow some steam off with.