izigame.me

This game is a labor of love, in two ways. The devs putting the heart into this game, and the player having to fight the game to enjoy some Star Trek. A very soft "not recommended" from me. Though I don't feel it was a waste of money as Paradox games usually age like wine, I do feel too frustrated to play again in the near future after just 11 hours and 1.5 games.
Pros:
Where No Man Has Gone Before: The artwork, setting, and attention to detail here are amazing. It's clear the devs have a love for Star Trek that shines through every aspect of this game.
Tomorrow is Yesterday: It's Stellaris lite. I've got a ton of time in Stellaris and I've been playing since release, but sometimes the game gets a bit bogged down. It's nice to jump into a game here and not have to deal with a lot of the bloat of starting a game in Stellaris.
Lower Decks: Much of the Stellaris engine fits very well in the Star Trek universe and about 80% of the game just feels great. My first five hours felt like a breath of fresh air and just felt Star Trek.
Neutral:
Deja Q: It's a Stellaris reskin. I don't think that's a bad thing, but you should absolutely be aware of that going in.
Hollow Pursuits: The focus trees are a fun addition to the game but are not super fleshed out. Basically a button click for things you were already gonna do. Looking forward to expansions on the concept like in other Paradox titles. A couple times events and focus tree items got jammed up and impossible to continue. If you don't keep on them then key leaders will die from old age before you can complete the line and this will hard stop those events and focus tree items. Unsure if this is working as intended or not.
Cons:
The Menagerie: Deeply frustrating events. The events in war are exactly the same in all four empires (I assume, they were identical between UFP and RE). And boy are they awful. One of them is that one of your fleets just straight up disappears. This only triggers during a war. It absolutely lost me a couple wars early game when one third of my military just vanishes. Then there are a number of events that occur over the course of the war that are seemingly intended to tell you how the war is going, but trigger randomly. Star Fleet troops are in the middle of invading Cardassia, their fleets burning in space, Bajor liberated, and I get an event pop up titled "We are losing this war." There are at least three others like that that seem to be an attempt to give some flavor to war but are not tied to reality and seem to pop up at random.
I, Borg: Unfinished events like the *spoiler* that seem to hint towards bigger events that never trigger. I played a full game as the Federation and it was so boring after the first half. Once you eclipse the other powers they essentially stop participating in the game. The Federation (correctly) can't claim systems and generally can't be aggressive. This is good from a lore perspective but essentially means the last 200 years of gameplay is Microsoft Excel simulator. Also there was a bug that made it impossible to assimilate minor powers into the federation.
Schisms: Diplomacy sucks. This was always a complaint of Stellaris but is unfortunately severely highlighted in this game, especially if you're playing Romulus or UFP. The UFP is relegated to a purely reactionary force on the galactic stage since you can't do anything. Spying also sucks which means playing the Romulans is like playing the Klingons or Cardassians but painted green.
Face of the Enemy: Enemy fleets are really jump happy. The enemy will have a half dozen military fleets jumping around your systems like a squirrel on crack. They don't do anything but sit on the edge of the system not engaging with your starbase (even when they could easily defeat it) and jump away as soon as you enter the system. Makes war a very frustrating endeavor.
Turnabout Intruder: The pirates make me want to put a phaser in my mouth. They will randomly jump into your systems and early game you cannot repel them. They destroy your starbase meaning you have to reclaim the system and also takes 1,000 each of the basic resources away from you. This is devastating early game and there doesn't seem to be a way to do anything about it until late game when you can repel the fleets or find the pirate system and ask them pretty please to stop. This is what finally broke me into using the console to just delete the fleets as soon as I see them. They're infinite though so it's a temporary measure at best.
Balance of Terror: I have literally never seen the AI employ a cloaking device despite the fact I know it's in the game.
Shades of Grey: All the factions are boring are seems to be kneecapped by being crammed into the Stellaris engine. I've already elaborated on the UFP. Romulus has an event pretty early game where the sun explodes. It's fun from a lore and universe perspective but even metagaming and preparing for it it still absolutely wrecks your economy. I haven't played the Cardassians or Klingons yet. I think both probably lend themselves better to the engine as they are more conquest focused empires but I'm not very optimistic after the UFP and Romulans.
The Trouble with Tribbles: It's pretty buggy. I know that's par for the course these days but still.