Simple design. Great execution. Just don't buy it if you like Space Empires.
This game is very simplistic for a 4X. You don't get a huge amount of information every turn, you get a concise summary of what happened in the previous turn. eg. You built ships here, you were attacked here, you explored this system, you completed this project etc. The resourcing and research system are equally simplistic. You don't mine for resources, your planets produce money based on their population, industrial output and the system's resource value. Research is controlled by a slider, push it to one side all your money goes into savings, push it to the other side and all your money goes into research. The tech tree contains a fair amount of base techs, but lots are random, they might be there in your next game they might not. This stops there being a sort of 'Ultimate ship' or tech path that everyone follows.
Combat has a fairly simplistic interface, your ships can do a few things, Close to Attack, Stand off at maximum range, General (read: do nothing), Break off to the back of the reinforcement line, or run like hell out into space. Combat is mostly handled by the AI, you can tell your ships where to shoot and move, though this doesn't necessarily equate to them doing it, particularly when on Close to Attack orders. Also, there are no health bars, you have to judge the damage by how much weapon scarring and fire there is on your ships. Its like your an actual fleet commander, you don't have a nice little bar telling you how long until your ship explodes. All in all this game is very good, unless you like vast confusing amounts of information. Give it some time and its got a surprising amount of depth.