A surprisingly good, and extremely deep game.
A couple of months later, i was looking for something to do and went back to this demo, and found the depth that this can go into. So i decided to buy it.
Overall, Sword of the Stars has high quality graphics (unique in their own way, not ultra realistic but not bad either), great gameplay and will give you hours upon hours of fun.
If your a fan of turn based strategy, with a RTS element (like Total War, most 4X games) you'll love this game, but if not, you better try out the demo previously.
The AI is quite good. On easy, it is just that - easy. On Medium, it offers up a challenge but can sometimes be too good for you, but most of the time, if you work hard, you can win. And then there's hard. This gives the AI a slight bonus, and you'll have to work very hard to be able to beat this level. The game is great fun in singleplayer, but its multiplayer where it comes out to shine. With up to 8 players per game, with each game involving up to 350 stars in a pttern you see fitting, it can create some great games.
Each race in the game (4 of them, Humans, Tarka, Liir and Hivers) are each very unique. They each have completely different designs for their ships, societies and even each race uses different drives to fly them through the stars. The game is well balanced, but sometimes the Hivers can be slightly overpowered.
The research tree is one of the best parts of the game. It has over 150 components that can allow you to upgrade your ships, planets and everything in between. It also has a random element to it, there is only a chance you will get tech, so every game can play out different, and require a new strategy depending on your technology.
Diplomacy is rather basic, and could be better, but if you really love this game enough to want more, you can always buy the expansion, Born of Blood, which offers a slew of extra features.
As you can see, i could go on about this game for a long time. While it will last for a long time, is great fun and hard work, it can take vast amounts of time to finish a battle (especially large ones) and it does have a slightly steep learning curve.
Overall, I think its a great game, that any strategy gamer should try, and if your not sure, try the demo, but remember, the actual game is so much bigger than the demo.