An MMORTS beyond any other. Challenging game play mixed with a persistent galaxy makes you really feel like an emperor.
Aside from its progress in beta, the game itself is astounding. It gives every player the ability to customize every weapon, radar, slab of armor, engine, shield and alloy that goes into a unit or facility. This process is actually more like research than any other game I've played, but fun at the same time. When I produce 100 units of a design that I created and those 100 units go and stomp out another player's 100 units (just using an arbitrary 100, that's not a limit or anything) that is a feeling unlike any other MMO I have seen yet.
However, there is much more to the game than design and war. Trade is also huge and involved because every player's designs are unique and information is a commodity. Which brings up the espionage system. I made an agency full of deadly assassins, but stealing cargo, destroying buildings, and interrupting production are possible as well.
Then there's diplomacy. Not only do the settings go from 1 to 255, Blood War to Blood Brother, but guilds are huge and can be customized to fit most any type of hierarchical structure and there's a Galactic Senate that can vote on actual changes to the game! Voting and votes are both parts of the game, so no worries, the newbies won't be messing with complex mechanics...
Lastly, if this all sounds a little much, there's the ability to have several accounts play the same empire through Aliasing. So, one player could build, while another researches, while another fights, while another trades, while another conducts espionage, etc!
The possibilities are intense, and that's why I love this game!