I think it’s great fun and would have jumped on it with a 33% discount without hesitation. I jumped in at the 10% EA launch discount and have no regrets. And if you use a 16:10 monitor, they just added support for that ratio yesterday. At first experience, the tactical battles may seem simplistic and without much player involvement, but once you understand what’s happening, you really need to spend your energy wisely.
On the campaign map, you’re the tyrant fighting to dominate the galaxy, but are opposed by the Galactic Senate, which is trying to control the three sectors. If they manage to control any one sector with four ships, you lose. Completing missions in a sector will beat their ships back.
I’m about four missions into my first campaign and have seen a nice variety of cards, planet types, events, and abilities. You, as the tyrant, can equip three pieces of equipment (which are unlocked as rewards for completing a mission) that give you benefits during a mission. Other mission rewards include unlocking more powerful cards for your faction’s deck and Empire rewards (such as more powerful ships). After each successful mission, you choose one of two perks, whose benefits persist throughout the campaign. Each mission is rated between 1-5 stars; the more stars, the more difficult the mission. Each also has 1-2 goals, and some even have quirks, like poorer cities (planets), tech planets with greater tech income, more asteroids, etc.
After choosing your mission and equipping yourself, a sector is generated, populated by random planets and neutral forces. You have to use your fleets to conquer the planets. But the Galactic Senate is also tossing its support to the planets, changing them from neutral (gray) planets to GS (red) planets. Neutral fleets won’t move to other planets to attack your fleets and planets, but GS ones will! You also have to contend with the occasional rebellions.
After you conquer a planet (by reducing its defense to zero via rolling “d6s”), a multiple-choice event may trigger. Some of the choices may be locked; you need a specific unidentified trait to unlock them. These traits are sometimes gained by choices you make during events. So you’ll acquire traits like Hitman, Diplomat, Scientist, etc, each of which has multiple ranks. The outcome of your choice will be positive, negative, or nothing. Also, each planet may or may not have a power, like a cannon that can fire on enemy fleets within range or mercs that will add an additional die to your next invasion roll.
Toss in your hand of cards and a tyranny meter (which powers your Death Ray!), and you have a lot of options available to you. And I haven’t even discussed the tactical battles in detail! I really hope the game takes off, because it really strikes me as a labor of love.