Combination game that does most things right.
The real thing that drawed me in to finally get the game though was when I read it described as a combination of Sid Meier's Pirates! and Freelancer. With all the games that I have played it is very tough to come up with a more accurate protrayal.
While the meat of the game lies in space combat there is much roleplaying to be had for those intrested. Instead of being a do-gooder police ranger, be a ruthless backstabbing pirate. Tired of fighting? Become a merchant. It's really up to you.
With 8 races (5 of them playable, and 3 always hostile) and 5 classes for each playable race, your the replay value is very high. Add in the fact that with each new game a new Universe is generated and you should be playing this game for Months if not years to come.
Space Combat is handled on a turn by turn basis but will sometimes go into auto pilot if things are looking good for your ship. If things start looking bad you can end a turn manually and run for repairs or whatever. Its a rather ingenious system that I would like to see implemented in more games.
Land combat is more traditional with you producing robots in real time and generating resources by capturing key positions. Its not what I would call deep and I have not spent much time playing it. It feels somewhat thrown in to say they added it.
Graphics fit in rather well for the type of game it is. My only real complaint is that the game isnt as moddable as I would have expected. Thats not detracting from what IS there though so I didn't penalize it.