My final assessment of this game is that a difficult-to-use interface does not a compelling gaming challenge make. Especially on a map with more than two factions, aiming your weapons is confounded by the need to zoom out and pan the map at quite extreme angles, just to be able to move your mouse in such a way that your weapon's trajectory line curves towards a distant target. At times, the very act of aiming was a frustrating challenge, let alone trying to compensate for the game's misleading shot previews.
I did enjoy playing multiplayer, though whether that's because the game feels more fair when you're on an even playing field or simply because I like hanging out with my friend, it's impossible to say. As far as the single-player is concerned, it was too much shooting and not enough tedious trade negotiations. Yes, I realize that I'm going against the very premise of the game, but what can I say, I like what I like.
Setting aside my increasingly jaded attitude towards war games, I liked setting up my planet's infrastructure, and I liked aiming my weapons on those occasions when the preview line wasn't complete bullshit. And the opportunity cost between attacking and building made for an interesting strategic consideration. Every turn felt important and I was constantly making life-and-death decisions. So I guess, as war games go, it was pretty successful. I had to strategize to win, and I'm pretty sure that's what the creators were going for.
I'll probably play this game again in multiplayer mode, because it's reasonably balanced while being moderately complex and matches only take a couple of hours, but I think I've gotten all that I'm going to get out of the game's single player. There's only so much simulated genocide I can take before I start to grow tired of it.
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