The game is superb for multi player 1 v 1 and especially team games.
Somewhat unique to this game (it has only been done before by the Spring rts project as far as I'm aware, so this is a first for a commercial game) is 'shared' army mode. This essentially allows multiple players to control 1 army between them- which is fantastic in a game that features multiple discreet battlefields like this. The balance of the game as of release is good for the most part, Sea is a bit weaker than it should be and the orbital play is lacking however the game is primarily focussed on the surface anyway. Air is potent in skilled hands but fragile, and commanders are sturdy and can repel quite a large attack, but vulnerable enough that you need to be careful with them. It results in some great back and fourth battles.
Another area the game deserves praise (despite what some reviewers have stated) is the UI: The UI system has a number of very nice, powerful tools to help reduce the workload on the player. The most important of these is 'Area Commands' that allow complex orders to be given to multiple units at once with a simple 'click + drag' operation. This functionality works for attack, patrol (dragging a circle off the visible horizon of a planet results in it being issues planet wide) as well as for certain buildings (e.g. to populate a field of metal points with extractors). Other noteworthy features are the Picture In Picture system (this gives you a second mini window which you can use to issue orders and what not with a different view to the main), and 'Chrono Cam' which lets you rewind a live game- useful if you missed something on a different front than the one you were working on or for reviewing information gathered whilst scouting.
The visuals are also very nice, with explosions and units visible on other planets when they come into view and superb realistic lighting and shadows that change with planet rotation. The style of the units themselves has been kept simple due to the large numbers of them in game. I personally like the art style although this is obviously subjective.
The main issues with the game pertain to the single player mode: The 'Galactic War' campaign is rather shallow and lacking any real depth. This is procedurally generated and there is no scripted story line in this game. The AI Skirmish mode is somewhat better (although arguably the AI could use an 'easy' mode for beginners as even on 'normal' it is pretty efficient at conquering a whole planet and rolling over the player who doesn't expand or attack it sufficiently). The other thing that could use improvement is the height variation in the terrain, currently you can get 'rolling hills' or a flat type map with small features dotted around to create obstacles, however things like cliffs and ramps aren't really possible with the current tools.
Overall I would sum up:
Good Points:
- Great core game if you like RTS titles such as TA or SupCom
- Excellent multi player, especially the shared army team mode
- Nice visuals, that really give a feeling of being 'in a solar system' rather than on an arbitrary 'map' like in earlier games.
- Excellent UI tools to make managing large armies on multiple planets easier*.
Neutral:
- Maps are varied thanks to multiple planets, however there is only limited control or variation of the planets themselves. Hopefully future updates may expand on the current capabilities.
The bad:
-The single player 'Galactic War' mode isn't great.
- *No in game tutorial which has resulted in many missing some of the great UI capabilities
- Single player mode currently still requires an internet connection, offline mode is still planned and is due in a future update (I will update this if / when this changes).