What is it they say about the best games - easy to play but hard to master? Well I guess this game (being 4x) falls into the 'hard' category at all stages. When you start you have no indication of how to play or what strategy to use, no cyclopaedia of what everything means (just odd tooltips), and no real idea of what you are doing. I spent a long time on YouTube just to understand how to play but I still have a long way to go before I can master it!

Pros: Nice graphics, very deep and complex management system but it does have a fairly intuitive feel, very much a 'I'll just have one more go' game.

Cons: Main galaxy screen quickly becomes too complex, the necessary planet grab at the beginning is too much too soon (good games start slow and build up, here you have to be on the ball at the start), control over space battles is limited to complex pre-fight preparation.

Maybe once I've play this a while (if I do) I'll say more positive things, and maybe if I had played Civ Gal II I'd be more complimentary, but right now it's all a bit of a very steep learning curve.