Endless Space has the basics down, but more depth is needed...
The game overall is fun and a decent purchase for $30, but it seems lacking in some elements. The planet management, battle system, and diplomatic relations part of the game all seem to be missing the same kind of depth that Civ has.
Planet management is pretty interesting in this game because you don't manage every single planet in every single star system, but instead you manage the entire star system. If you build an improvement, the entire system gets the bonus effect, while building a ship takes the effort of the entire system. While this does make the game feel less tedious at times, it makes it much simpler. The management gets boring after a while and I end up making most of my planets convert work into gold or science.
While the card rock, paper, scissors combat system the game has is a "fresh" new take on combat, it all boils down to luck. From my experience, the cards don't really turn the tide of battle, because whoever has the higher strength usually wins, making the cards seem useless.
I might be spoiled by the depth of other 4x games, like Civilization, but it just feels like Endless Space could be something more, something better, and something much more fleshed out than what it already is. Overall though, the game was pretty enjoyable.