The graphics should be better, but the gameplay makes this game addicting and enjoyable for hours on end.
The game is played in turns. You give instructions to your fleets and planets, and then generate the next turn, which basically means all the computer players take a turn. And then you continue.
As in all games, you have to collect resources to build your fleets. While in some games you spend altogether too much time collecting resources, the resource supply is plentiful enough in Stars! to keep you from running out too quickly, yet scarce enough that you'll be searching for more resources.
The AI is excellent. Setting it to the highest difficulty is not recommended unless you're really, really good. You'll find yourself watching them and adopting some of their strategies over the course of the game, and watching in wonder as they expand faster than you thought possible.
Battles are displayed in a turn by turn fashion, with ship sprites moving along a grid, firing lasers and torpedoes when appropriate. You can't control each ship separately, but you can give them strategies to follow, such as inflicting max damage, max damage ratio, fleeing the battle, and so on.
Researching and ship building is addictive and enjoyable. You can research a wide variety of weapons, shielding, scanners, engines, and more. You can build a number of hulls, and design each hull however you like it. For example, on a fighter you could put an array of lasers, or torpedoes. Or you could give it a powerful scanner and fuel tanks and use it as a long-range scout. Most hulls can be manipulated to do whatever you want with them.
You could easily spend hours upon hours playing this game once you get into it. Really, I regret they didn't make a sequel, or perhaps upgrade it, if nothing else. Stars is an excellent game, but is somewhat lacking when it comes to graphics.
It would also be nice if it worked on a 64 bit system.