Recent reviews by The Senate

This game defies normal genres- To summarise, it is a combination of traditional 'Death by a Wall of Solid Text' 4X gameplay (with some unconventional and brilliant omnipresent politicking) and a top-down bullet-hell shooter. With turn based gameplay, no less!

To clarify, the ship to ship combat is turn-based, while the strategic map can pause to show the state of the entire galaxy in one fraction of a second, or can skip many months in a minute, dependant upon the players wishes.

The main basis of the gameplay is that you play an unaligned mercenary piloting a stolen ship, aiming to herd 8 warring intergalactic factions into a galactic Federation (one of whom is somewhat perturbed, as you nick your ship off them in the first place). The races seem perfectly content to squabble among themselves for all eternity, and take a very apparent glee in making your job all the more difficult.

In terms of accessibility to levels of player dedication (and patience), it is varied in difficulty. The easiest difficulty still provides just enough challenge that your tactics will adapt beyond your comfort zone, allowing new 4X empire builders a campaign-length sandbox to test their strategies in, whilst the toughest difficulty is, I would presume, challenging enough for even a master of turn-based space combat.

I would not be able to say too much more about Hardest difficulty, as I can barely get past the tutorial level on it.

In conclusion, if you like the idea of a text-heavy 4X political strategy game with a refreshing turn-based top-down spacecraft shooter with dakka levels set to optimum, then look no further than this game.

If, however, you are attached to your retinas, then better luck elsewhere (those myriad bullets, shells and lasers dotting the screen can give some wicked migraines if you look too closely to the screen).

A schadenfreude-inducing game, this is actually a lot of fun. There are certainly issues, for example the absolute importance of your spawning area on a planet (believe me, you'll be seeing it a lot), villages of people who don't mind random adventurers nicking everything that isn't nailed down but will swiftly execute you for carrying a weapon, and the almost minecraft-esque savagery to be inflicted on any poor sod attempting to build a house out of inferior materials.

All in all, a very good game (given that it is in beta).