Game has about 4 different gameplay types. First type is a 3rd person shooter when you are invading (or rarely, defending) a planetary colony. You have 20 guys with you at the beginning, which makes the battles look pretty biggish and exciting, but you can't really change them or the number of them at any point. You can however upgrade your own equipment, as well as learn skills, and also gain “runes” later which work as powers. The equipment for all the games four different races differs too and, at least in this section, they play very differently. There's no cover system (game is too fast paced for that anyway) but you do need to dodge behind obstacles and maneuver with a bit of intelligence later on when the colony tech starts upgrading and you have to deal with mechs, turrets, bombers, and such.
The next part is the space part. Races here are all pretty much play the same unfortunately but you can upgrade your ship like your soldier gear, and balancing between the two becomes a considerable part of the mid game. You either attack enemy space stations and have to get through their fighters, or occasionally a battleship as well, or defend your own. If you dock at a station and it comes under attack then you get called out to help defend it. Space fighting isn't all that deep, but it is pretty fun and you also have 20 guys with you like on the ground missions, so it's not like most of these space games where it's you against a dozen or more guys by yourself. Very arcadey but it works alright. You can also take on bounty missions to get extra money, but I didn't really find them worth the time as you don't make too much after fixing your ship (no allied help with the bounties).
Next is the exploration stuff. You get called out to investigate “unstable wormholes”. This is where the game's story advances too. It's pretty typical SciFi stuff but for a clicky action game it has a surprising amount of back history (if you care for that sort of thing). Anyway, you first have to find and then hyperjump to them. Later you get called back. When you jump normally or go through a wormhole there are two different minigames as well, the former has lightning bolts you have to dodge or take damage and the latter you have to stay inside the wormhole tube or take damage. Once you've gone through the wormhole you can search for unknown planets. You then have to land on it and plant some beacons to look for anomalies. After you fight through some local alien wildlife to get to any anomaly you have to do some kind of puzzle (different each time so far) and you get a rune with a special power to use in ground fights.
Finally, after you go up to the highest rank (doing missions earns you rank points, and each rank unlocks something new, like experimental tech or receiving enemy intel) you command your faction. These means you get to pick where to build new stations and colonies, what to build on them, and what missions you want to assign. Hardly a 4x here, or even an RTS really, but it makes the endgame more interesting. There's no diplomacy or trading or stuff like that though. You're perpetually at war with all the other 3 factions. [edit: actually, there's some very limited diplomacy that allows you to sue for peace eventually, hadn't gotten that far yet] Like most of the other gameplay elements it can seem a tad shallow (compared to a full tps shooter, space fighter, rts, etc.) but it's not flawed or frustrating either. Pretty much everything works like it's supposed to, is intuitive, and is something you learn over time as the game does a pretty decent job of introducing new elements.
You also have some freedom, you can say no to missions before you get to be commander but it's a good idea to do most really. Others have said it can get repetitive, but I still find it much less grindy than most action games or most space sims for my part. If anything, I think it's a bit short to play through with just one race but they are just barely different enough to make replaying worth it. You have your standard generic, jack of all trades humans, the psi-powered space lesbian/elf mystical salvation types who are fast but frail, the boy-fantasy hulking robot drones who are slow but tough, and some kind of “quirky” androids whose strategy seems to revolve around high-risk/blowing shit up tactics (haven't played those guys yet). Graphics are kind of okay. Space looks sort of nice as do the planets but the space stations are all interchangeable, even between races and the character models for the races are basically the same, except some slight facial differences with humans.
Still, for a twenty dollar indie game done by one guy I've had a much better time playing this than some AAA shit I ended up not removing from inventory because the Codex's endless wanking about it compelled me to try it. (I not removed this first, there is no DRM on it at all, but ended up throwing money at the dev afterwards; and if you don't want to not remove it first to try there is a demo). I don't think it will blow anyone's mind but it's pretty ambitious for a lone developer with some hired-out artists. Anyway I wrote this while completely stoned btw so apologies if I am repetitive or rambly and shit.
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