8/10 - This game is quite undervalued. It seemed rather simplistic when I first started playing, like a typical ipad-game, and I didn't like it. However, it turned out to be rather deep once I got under its skin and it's got some entirely unique qualities that make this an excellent 4x.

Unique 1: Your viewpoint is from that of a military umbrella-government that rule 3 human empires under martial law. This because you're fleeing home due an alien invasion. The challenge in this game then comes as much from internal strife between the 3 empires under your control and their wish to end your martial rule sooner than later, or even dominate all humans in your sector, as from deadly xenos. If you don't succeed in keeping the power of the 3 in balance you'll see a slew of detrimental effects on the planets affected by their politics, which in turn can cripple your ability to fight off external enemies. Very appealing game mechanics.

Unique 2: You're calling the rest of the exodus fleet, letting them know you've settled. Your population growth doesen't come from new births but from immigration. As a result population growth is out of your control as long as you have a place to settle the newcomers. This result in a very different early game from other 4x games, where there is no value in expanding to new uninhabited worlds just to have more places to grow population. You total population growth is the same with one world per faction as with 10 worlds, as long as there is room to settle the newcomers. This make the early gameplay and expansion in general far more interesting than in other 4x.

Another interesting facet of this game stem from the abilities the 3 factions afford your united realm. You get a choise of different factions to pick your 3, and they can have abilities like skilled pilots from superior millitary traditions. But if you choose to base all your united millitary from out of that faction during the game (to get the strongest millitary possible) that would lead to the millitary faction declearing war on the other defenceless ones. This means you cannot simplify your choise of factions into "roles" based on their specialty, but must maintain a more complex view of the composition.

There are other less appealing game-mechanics that prevent this game from truly shining. There are some rather easy-to-find strategies that the AI simply can't handle. Some of the graphics is unappealing, not just low quality (I don't like the ship models). The fuel and logistic mechanics could be more inspired. But despite all this, Star Traders 4x remain a solid 8/10.

Pros:
-Solid and rewarding tech web that let's you focus on when you want to improve planets or ships (Mostly) which makes chosing research both a more tactical and focused process at times.
-Excellent combat mechanics generated by the variation and range of ship technologies. (Hint: A POWERSHIP doesn't win wars; Armadas win wars. ;) )
-Interesting mechanic with guiding 3 individual factions makes diplomacy less of a way to 'game the system' and more of a 'system of the game'
- Developers have an exemplary record of listening to their players, updating their games, and making good on any and all short-comings of the game when it's first release. If there's an aspect of the game that 'breaks' it for you, tell them, and there's a good chance they'll find a way to make it work as soon as humanly possilbe for a (mostly) 2 man dev team. ^_^

Cons:
- Needs some better explanations/tutorials. This is probably not a good 'first 4x' game at present.
- Some pacing issues should be addressed, but it's not really anything that I as a 4x fan havn't dealt with in any other 4x game, up until the 'final' version. So it's a con that's only a con because the game is still evolving, in my judgement.
- Full screen is only enabled if you launch from the steam browser. Needs to be an in-game option.
- Steep learning curve: I ended up restarting my first few games several times when I realized how drastic the early game mistakes I made were effecting my effectivity. But figuring things out was also rewarding. I can see how some would not appreciate this (but this is a function of needing more tutorial/explanation of systems)

Pretty good lightweight 4x game. First off, yes, it is a mobile port, so it does have some of the trappings of that (lack of tooltips, overly "clicky" interface, etc). There is mousewheel support, which is nice, and they have promised to add tooltips, which would make things a lot easier to navigate.

On the plus side, the game has a nice big tech tree, which feeds into a large number of ship and colony upgrades. The diplomacy is kind of unique in that you are managing relationships between factions within your empire, rather than other factions. As far as I can tell, this is the only space based turn-based 4x game that has on map tactical combat, which is good or bad depending on whether you like that (personally I prefer this). The ship designer is pretty fun to use, although it could have been consolidated into fewer screens. I didn't really have any trouble picking up the game, although some things could have been explained better. Even though some things could have been better, overall, I enjoyed this game a lot.

Are you thinking, Just give me the facts and I’ll make up my own mind? Hopefully I can answer this question.

A blend of complex strategic development of technology, star system colonization, war and politics. The remnants of the human race must survive and hopefully flourish in the face of enemies within your society and aliens bent on total final destruction. This is not a casual game. Where Masters of Orion and Civilization cross paths you will find Star Traders 4X Empires.

To get a small demonstration of real time game play take a look at these two YouTube videos the Developers have published.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjjENqwt1E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Uxg1iZXRY

Pros
1. Documentation Score 5 out of 5.
All the rules are contained inside the game by clicking on the Advisor Library. I wish more games would do this! During this Steam holiday sale I’ve picked up inexpensive games then thrown in the deep end, especially the “oldies but goodies”. In addition you can find the ST 4X rule book online at https://www.tresebrothers.com/star-traders-4x-empires/game-manual
The in-game rules get updated as new content is added

2. Technology Tree 5 out of 5.
Close to 100 separate categories each one providing multiple benefits. One box might give you access to 4 different weapons and a new ship class. Another might give you a Spice den to increase morale while unlocking a big money making trade option.

3. No IAP 5 out of 5
The Elite version contains all 8 of the factions and syndicates, and you don’t ever pay for new releases as the game expands.

4. Ships 5 out of 5
You can design your own ships, name them and train captains as specialists in planetary invasion, gunnery, or repair to name a few. The tactical battles involve whole fleets where every ship is controlled individually. Being turn based you get a chance to really think about what will happen on the next move.

5. Hot Keys 4 out of 5
Having them and the mouse wheel zoom functions really speeds up game play, touch screens always seem to slow me down. More keys need to be added so that’s why I gave it a 4.

6. Artwork and Atmosphere 5 out of 5
It is important to compare this with games of similar type not Skyrim! The ships are very detailed when you zoom in. The sound effects are great. There is an Ethereal soundtrack that currently has a bug but will be fixed soon.

7. Game design and play 5 out of 5
You cannot play as a Tyrant warlord. Refugees are landing all the time. The morale and political development tree are just as important as designing and launching warships. If you can’t manage the human side the economy will crash, people will riot, syndicate rivalries can result in war, and your research will stagnate making you easy pickings for the enemy.

Cons
1. Difficulty 4 out of 5
There are multiple difficulty levels. All Trese Brothers games set on Normal are meant to be challenging. The game does not cheat it just opens a can of whoop-ass on me every time I play. I’m not the most skilled player in the world so it will take several months to get the hang of it. You aren’t going to see comments like “I beat it in 4 hours at Impossible level”. If you are looking for a solid challenge you just found it.

Comments
The Trese Brothers have looked forward to building this game for years and the dedication shows. After purchasing if you don’t like it come back and play 30 to 60 days later new releases are coming out like clockwork and you may find your opinion obsolete. I participated in the Alpha, this game just keeps getting better all the time. The $9.99 is a small price to pay for so many weeks of play and I would buy it again.

This game plays like many of the older TBS games, like Alpha Centauri, and its ilk. It has a vast tree of technology that progresses pretty intuitively, but the controls and gameplay itself is rather hard to master.

Once you figure out the basics and get an understanding of how the game progresses and works, It becomes easier to work through the game.

It essentially centers around colonizing planets that then become their own centers of production. Each planet has a "quality rating" that determines its potential for use. Lower quality planets will end up being burdens on your empire, while high quality planets will be the center for constructing your fleets and providing income.

Planets have a "resource" called population that is not so much usable, but must be managed to keep the empire from falling apart. Higher populations require more management to keep happy, but come in handy to protect planets from capture.

One you figure out that you can research higher levels of buildings for your colonies, the game becomes significantly easier to manage the lower quality planets, and to capitalize off of the higher quality planets.

The game generally culminates in a match to invade and bombard each others planets, with the option to completely destroy the planet (by reducing it's Quality rating), or by reducing the planet's population to zero. You have three invasion options: Bombard (which has a high chance of lowering quality), Invade {which has a low chance of lowering quality), and Scout {Which may not always lower population, but never reduces quality!). Systems recover 1 population per turn, so to actually capture a system, you have to really have a big fleet.

The game is clever and addictive, and overall I suggest it to any fans of the old Sid Meyer's stuff.

UPDATE 2017: tooltips on tech tree now. Didn't check anything else.

UPDATE 20 JULY 2015: Another game update. Still no tooltips on tech tree, no mouse on screen edge scrolling. I don't think they care about making the interface more PC-like at all. Either that or they are using some crossplatform framework which doesn't allow PC features so they -can't- make it palatable to pc users.


UPDATE 19 JUNE 2015: I checked the game again to update my review. Nothing has changed except there is now a full screen option.

There may be a good game inside here somewhere but I'm having trouble persevering with it due to the atrocious interface, which is exactly the same as the mobile one and makes no effort to take advantage of the PC.

The game runs in a window at a set size and you can't change it. (update there is now a fullscreen option) There are no tooltips, so you have to press buttons to find out what they do then click back. This is especially annoying in the technology tree where you have to click on everything one by one to find out what it is. It's seriously tedious. There is no mouse on edge of screen scrolling. No use is made of right click.

Just like a mobile game it has a "please review the game" button and another button to "more games".

There's quite a long time between turns after you press next turn. Some kind of progress indicator would be reassuring.

I mentioned when the game first came to PC in early/mid September 2014 that they needed as a matter of urgency to move away from the mobile interface and make a new interface for PC and I seem to remember a dev saying they would be doing just that.

It's been nearly 6 months. It's clear they aren't going to do anything. The game has been written to make money on mobile and then as an afterthought they have dumped it on the pc to make some more money, but they aren't willing to actually put any work in beyond making it actually run on the pc.

The worst effect from the mobile interface is the tech tree, which I mentioned earlier. There are a ton of technologies on the screen and you have to click each one to find out what it is, (like Warp Drive 1 or Spanner Throwing 3 or whatever). There's no way to know just from the icon what the tech is and clicking it takes you to a whole new screen which pretty much just says the name of the tech, then you need to click back to go back.

It would be so, so easy for them to add tooltips to the tech tree and it would be remove a massive frustration from the game. They've had 6 months to do it and they haven't done it.

I have no respect for the devs at all.

I seriously suggest not buying this game.

Quite enjoyable lightweight 4X game that has it's roots in mobile games - Roots it is rapidly patching away in patches that arrive very often to make changes to gameplay and UI.

Yes thats right, the dev is active with this game unlike certain others in the Lite-4X niche.

So try to look past the small play window and simplified UI and you got a pretty good game in front of you. Perhaps even the best in the Light 4X niche.

This is a game that combines very clever complexity and balance, within seemingly straightforward strategy of colony survival. Unlike most 4X type games, you aren't controlling a single empire, but rather three disparate factions. They each bring strengths to the table to help you succeed, but they often don't see the big picture, and bicker like children, hindering your chances.

I like the turn-based approach, allowing you to really think out your strategy, and the fact that the research paths are so diverse. There isn't a "one path to success" approach in this game - trying different things nets different results, with some being equally as successful as others.

I would recommend this game to those who enjoy turnbased 4X games, and who love to challenge themselves with a brilliantly thoughtout game design. It's hard to believe it's made by really only two brothers, who also develop multiple other games of equal quality.

If you do try the game and find some aspect not to your liking, good news, the developers actually listen, and work tirelessly to improve the games they develop. The community forum that they run is also fantastic because no question bad or trivial. Learn from other players and get advice directly from the developers!

A rather deep 4X game based in the 'Star Traders' universe created by the Trese Brothers.

Unlike other 4X games I've played, this one has 3 races of peoples trying to colonize planets deep in space, and they HATE each other. Your role is the leader or overseer of them, and politics play a huge role in this game. In addition to trying to build the colonies, research a huge tech tree for economic and weapons tech, build up a defense system and fleets of different ships, you have to worry about the different races spying, going to war, barring trade with each other. All have negative effects on the overall economy.

There are several difficulty levels, tons of maps, and 9 different races to choose from. Really good value and replayability from this alone.

Ship customizing is quite detailed, allowing you to build about 10 different ship types, and customize engines, shields, crew training and more (once you have researched the tech).

Ok, now add to this the ability to add one or more alien races to the game, all with different personalities and tendencies (more aggressive, etc...), and they are trying to kill off all of your planets. Late in the game, you are tinkering with the economy, politics, research, building, moving ships, attacking the enemy, invading their planets, repairing your vessels, and more on EACH TURN. Quite complex and fulfilling. Fortunately, there are several Let's Play vids now available on youtube, and the Trese Brothers forum is active and full of helpful players to learn strategies, ship build designs, etc...

While the graphics are 2D and a bit on the simple side, I can whole-heartedly recommend this game. Frequent updates are the norm with Trese Brothers, so UI improvements, new tech tree options, features, balancing, etc... happen on a regular basis.

There's so much to comment on that I don't even know where to start. Let's see...

• The Game was clearly designed for tablets, with PCs only an afterthought. Changing the window size or attempting to run in fullscreen mode requires a restart of the entire program, and tooltips are missing from most screens.
  
• No option for anti-aliasing. This makes the graphics look very choppy on all but the most zoomed in screens.
  
• The tutorial gives very little help in understanding how the game is actually played. Combat is not explained at all, and no victory condition is given.
  
• The tech tree has remarkably unimaginative names (Planetary Construction 1, 2, 3, etc., Starship Consruction 1, 2, 3, etc) and no explanation what benefit any given advance will give. (benefits such as "Reactor 1, Reactor 2, etc do technically exist, but similarly lack any significant indication of their role, and no further menu delving is possible to find out)
  
• The "seige" mechanics are excruciatingly drawn out. It's impossible to even attempt to take an enemy's base until you have the appropriate tech (a feat in itself due to the obtuse tech tree issues listed above), and then requires specialized units incapable of performing any other tasks or combat maneuvers. And even once you do get the Invasion ships onto the field and attacking enemy bases, they actually regrow faster than you can cause damage, even with multiple ships at once.
  
• Base growth is randomized, making any attempt at strategy in them useless.
  
• All claims in the game synopsis about "politics," "espionage," or "trade" are simply false. There is a very bare-bones menu which seems to try to address this, but it takes dozens of turns to even reach a coin flip decision on whether a "trade agreement" will even be made, and there is no way to know what they even do.
  
• Hidden game launch icon location. It may sound silly, but after relocating my Steam install folder, I was unable to reassign an icon to this game, (or the other two RPG games from Trese Brothers for that matter) leaving blank eyesore shortcuts on my desktop. No ther game in my Steam library had this issue.