Plays great, but a lousy way to restart the series that killed the franchise. Too ambitious without any heart to it.
I just don't think it works. It's a nice try. It's ok on some levels. The other problem is that the genre was definitely falling out of favor at the time. This is really the last of it's kind. I still think Chris Roberts is a genius, even though he attempts things he sucks at (like directing ). A few more games would be necessary to see where things were really going, especially since there is a crappy hanging ending that implies that SOMETHING is going to happen in the next game. Instead, it just sucks. The worst part is, when I played it, I knew this would be the last one, it just wasn't the same anymore. They aren't as appreciated as they used to be.
So, why couldn't THEY see that and wrap things up at the end. Better yet, why wouldn't they wrap it up with the previous game (which was a GREAT way to end the series, I think) and just do a single spin off here.
The game plays and looks great. It was tons of fun. It just didn't have the same like as the other games. I loved the books and such and felt like the Kilrathi were interesting and complex. These new enemies were just lame. Too ambitious without any heart to it.