Another Adventure into Space
Two expansions and two added races later we pretty much still wind up with the original game that was addictive in every sense of the word.
But Alas it falls short of providing many features that were lacking in the original game.
For me the graphics and game play have improved very little. But the game still plays pretty well on low end systems even when the scale of the game is pretty large. The AI however in many ways fails to provide a challenge that is worthy of this game. For example even with the hardest settings many AI factions will still attack you with hundreds of Destroyers (the smallest ships) even if you have the tech to build up Dreadnoughts (the biggest). This often leads to pointless battles where the enemy gets slaughtered by me.
The game has a unique tech tree that is different each time you play it. Providing you with a difference and asking you to change you strategy for each game. However the tech tree is such that you will likely get lost trying to find a tech that you are targeting. For me this was a headache since i had to research several techs till finally the path to building Dreadnoughts were revealed.
The difference between this and the original is the introduction of the new factions and some new types of technologies that will allow you create new custom ships.
Overall the game still is a fascinating one that will urge you to play it for endless hours at a time.
http://gamezopinion.blogspot.com/2009/06/sword-of-stars-murder-of-crows.html