Plays like a turned base game like total war, which ends up being a mindless mix of build, research and destroy.
Basically the game gets you hooked into, as during the 2-4 hour long game, you would always have something to do, build units, research, tend to your army, make trading decisions. These simple tasks keeps you occupied, but are you really enjoying it?
A good RTS game should be a fun, well balanced game with good action, strategic foundations. SoaSE however, is not quite up to standard. The main strategy of this game is mainly to build lots of units, or tech all the way up.
The game does not give you much options to choose from. You can only attack from one direction, one world to another, it does not give you the freedom of moving your units in space, or you can say it does not give you any advantage. Why call it a SPACE RTS if you moving your units about in space does not help you one bit. It does not have any battle strategy element tied to the game. For example, they have fighters and normal ships. Fighters are really small and fast ships that either come with a capital ship or a ships that commands them, like a carrier. They and have two variants, one for killing other fighters and one for normal ships. Since fighters can only come from normal ships, you could just build the normal ships which are good VS normal ships and wipe everything out. You wouldn't need to bother with fighters. With a limited RTS combat system, it might as well be a Total War series with the only difference is that it is in space.
And the way the units battle in space... That really killed the action and excitement for me. The units will just stand there and shoot each other. Isn't space battles supposed to be filled with flying things trying to shoot each other down? The battles feels more like a "One down for you, one down for me, lets see how it plays out"
Another great flaw is that you can fly right through the enemy lines. Units don't die quickly. So if you fly your whole army right though the enemies blockade, you might just lose a few units and you are on you way to the enemies capital planet. Spam the planets destroyers and you can readily defeat your enemy in moments.
For those looking for a Homeworld game-alike, do not waste your time here. Homeword is still the best Space RTS there is out there for people who are looking for some real, fast paced action.