Published by Stardock Games in the ever-more-popular simultaneous online download and boxed version, this game is a weird mish-mash of Real Time Strategy and 4X empire building. Taking it's cue from other 4X games, there is no single player campaign consisting of a sequence of maps tied together with a storyline. Instead, single player consists of one-off randomly generated galaxies that can take 2-10+ hours to play depending on size. This is not as detrimental as you would think, because single player is simply the wading pool. Multiplayer is where this game really shines.
This game has 3 different races, all with different ships, tech trees, and command ships. Command ships are the flagships of your fleet; they are incredibly similar to Warcraft 3 heroes in terms of relative strength, leveling time, and they even have level 6 'ultimates'. In fact, the entire system was cribbed directly from Warcraft 3 -- you even 'creep' by going to nearby star systems and killing neutral ships to gain experience. Like WC3 heroes, they start out weak - a bit stronger than a single unit - and later they become unstoppable juggernauts (if you take the combat ones) or unbelievable fleet support (if you take the more supportive ones). There are 5 options for each race, with a maximum of 10 command ships on each side (properly researched, of course.)
Conquerable space consists of gravity wells linked together by 'phase jump' lines that you can travel between. All combat happens within this gravity well. At the center, you have (usually) colonizable planets, orbiting mineable minerals and any structures (defensive, economic, military) that you have built. Build options are limited, as this isn't a real 4x game -- you can enhance your colony's infrastructure (larger colony on the planet = more income), build extractors for the orbiting minerals (two kinds -- metal and crystal), build economic structures (military or civilian research labs), or military buildings (defensive structures, ship factories).
Actual tactical combat pretty much involves throwing your one fleet at another, focus firing, and knowing when to run. There is no real micromanagement, as ships cannot back up (!!) and must turn around in wide arcs. Like Total Annihilation, ships fire at anything within range and they also use any abilities researched automatically. Combat is technically in 3d (there is an option to turn on the Z-axis) but frankly it doesn't matter. Ships move slowly and maneuver like pregnant yaks. The skill of this game comes not in tactics but in strategy -- leading enemy fleets away from their planets, pincering, strafing, predicting enemy fleet movement, and defending your flanks. Because there is no real way to prevent an enemy from arcing around and just leaving your gravity well until late game, skirmishes and hit-and-run combat is very common. To actually destroy an enemy colony, you must bring in slow moving tissue-paper armored ships to bombard the planet. In the latest patch, they have become weaker, slower, and less effective. This is due to people building 10 or 15 of them and suiciding them into an enemy planet, wiping it out before the defenders could neutralize them.
After going through a brief and unsatisfying tutorial, to prepare for the high seas of multiplayer combat, it's wise to run a few games against the computer to get your sea legs. You'll quickly learn a few things:
1. The pirates - mercenaries for hire that can attack players every 13 minutes - are annoying bastards that show up in huge fleets at the worst times. Blessing and curse, they let you level your command ship while at the same time distracting you and slowing down your expansion.
2. Research is very slow so it's important to plan your route to ascendancy knowing there is no way to research everything in all trees - specialization is key.
3. Massive fleet sizes (blobbing) is more important than a carefully crafted 30-20-50 mix of units, so churning out fodder for the front line and having your fleet in the right place at the right time is vastly more effective.
4. Games will take a LONG time. Unless you have a tiny map, expect to spend multiple hours and possibly fight over the course of several days. The robust multiplayer system makes people dropping annoying but not a game-ender. You can even e-mail saves to people and have them pick up right after they dropped.
The demo is scheduled to be created after the next patch, so it will likely be available within a month or two. According to Amazon, however, this game is doing quite well without it. This is not wholly unexpected as it's priced to sell at $40-$45 which is $20 less than most games out there.
I hate this game. It's slow, annoying, frustrating, extremely shallow once you get the hang of combat and colonizing, some of the later techs are unbalanced, and I really, really hate the pirates. At the same time, I've dumped probably 30 hours into the damned thing and keep coming back for more. Misery loves company, so don't wait for the demo:
Buy It Now.