Recent reviews by swiftdraw

I really want to like the game, and I actually do for the first century of play or so, but after the mid game (mid to late 2300's) the game is unplayable. But here are my other gripes with it.
First; the game speed slows to a crawl even at max speed, freezing every month for several seconds on all but the smallest games.
Second; usually by the late 2300's there is incredibly little to do outside of just getting into a few piddly wars to clean up your borders while waiting for the final crisis.
Third; I really miss the tile and simpler resource system. The newer district system just adds to the micro-management as you have to worry about jobs, housing, amenties and so forth and the AI some how get this more wrong that the old planetary tiles. The extra strategic resources are just more crap to keep track of and can potentially gimp your fleet (or force you to corvette spam) as all but the most basic techs require them.
Fourth: every expansion seems to be broken or break the game itself for a couple of weeks to a few months. The Megacorp DLC and the patch that came with it introducing the new planetary changes was by far the worse and I'm hoping the upcoming Federation DLC isn't as bad as that train wreck.

Even with all that, I still play it as 2200 to 2300's its really an interesting game and I have fun with it, but I honestly can't recommend it to others.

Review in a sentence:
A solid turn based tactics game with an interesting stealth mechanic.

The Good:
Realtime travel across stages. Turns only occur in combat
Stealth/combat avoidance mechanic. Easier to get by or setup around enemies, but harder to find items when on.
The stages can be rather pretty
A good bit of environmental story telling

The Decent:
The story. Gave itself away about halfway through and not terribly deep.
Voice acting. Has its highs and lows, but overall not bad. Farrow can get annoying though...
The combat. Similar to XCOM, but the hit probabilities are simpler. Late game enemies and stealth kills can be tedious.

The Bad:
Holding Q and moving the mouse to adjust camera.
The small flying robots in particular in city settings occasionally get stuck in inaccessible areas trapping you in combat.
Farrow taking her sweet time delivering lines before shooting.
Campaign is rather short (10hrs) and ends on something of a hook for a sequel. The bit might get resolved in the DLC(?)

Things that annoyed me but didn't detract from the game:
The chronology seems to be all over the place. The way folks talked and environmental cues seem to place the fall from a few decades ago to centuries ago.
Some of the writing. "Why would the ancients stack logs on their sides?" he said while standing on a wooden dock.
Farrow's combat lines. Slightly offset by the fact she is super useful in a couple of sections at the end, but only slightly.

Remember NFL Blitz? Like that but more violent. The announcers get repetitive after a few games and the AI can get suckered by a few same plays, but otherwise this has been the best non-motorsports game I've played in years. Sure as heck beats Madden at this point.

The ship set is cool, but the leader portaraits don't offer any variaty other than the base models. In other words, you can't change their hair or facial features at all. Rather disappointing.

TL;DR Kind of tricky to recommend. Overall it'd be worth it, in my not-so-objective opinion, for maybe $20 or so.

What the game does well: A basic, but highly mobile, fighting system that is fairly fluid once you get into the rhythm of things, though there is a few issues with some aspects. The platforming portions are also well done and only twice in my time thus far has the camera been a hinderance. The game's ledge grabbing detection is also very forgiving, which is nice most of the time. Many of the level designs are also very well done and look good, if dated. The added single levels, Versus and arena mode, and the previous game definitly are a good content addition to the game.

What isn't so good: The graphics, as I mentioned, are dated. This game has been in developemnt of just over 9 years and it definitly shows here. Most noticable in the rather muddy and bland world textures. The story is basic and the levels are individual set peices. Character development and interaction is minimal and restricted to pre and post level in game cut scenes.

What is really annoying/bad: There are some intresting physics interactions in combat. Where this rears its head the most is with the jump kick manuever. If you have a lot of momentum going and you land a solid hit, you're going to going flying a kilometer in some direct. If its straight up, you're pretty much guaranteed to die on impact. The dual use of some keys will lead to frustation in some areas. Trying to pick up or throw something is bound to 'Q' and there will be times when you try to pick up a second weapon in combat and end up throwing your first. Also the tendency for your character to auto-grab ledges can be fatal in combat when you're jumping around a lot.

Not good, Not bad: WIth about 2hrs in I'm having fun, but reaching the point I'm thinking "now what?" I think the long term viability of the game is going to rest with the dev and community adding levels and content. I'm finding the game itself is rather basic, but is a good parkour type with a melee fighting system. Good level designs being added are whats going to keep this game going.

Overall: A solid combat platformer game, but one that feels a bit dated and with a few flaws. Enjoyment of this game past a few hours is probably going to rest with what is added post release.