The most fun 4X game I've played. Shame that is completely ruined by save files corrupting before you can actually finish a game.

I spend a lot of time with this game to say it's now my favorite one from 4X genre.

1. Gameplay - quite solid. Impressive. Very nice. May be a bit challenging at start or for beginners in this genre, but when you comfortable with mechanics and know what you doing you'll find yourself at 4AM saying "one more turn..."
2. Story - story and quests are implemented into casual runs. Events in the game organized in way that you can read those quest and go deeper into the lore or just select wished outcome or actions to spare some time. I find this game writing in range between mediocre and great. Some stories are interesting to follow and dive in, some are just there.
Lore is quite interesting, hope they will develop it further in ES3.
3. Multiplayer - horrible. After turn 30 problems unavoidable. Played with friend i5-12th gen and CPU i7-13th gen with stable network - desync. More turns, more troubles. And there is no hotseat for few players at one computer. If you want to play with friends, god bless you as devs don't care about multiplayer.
4. Style & Music - brilliant. Game looks and sounds fantastic. SFX sounds, factions ost, images and cutscenes it's top level. It's like you seen animations of desert landing doznes of times but you want see it once again. It is THAT good.
5. Factions - there are bunch of them. Each faction provides unique playstyle, looks, ship designes and tempo. For example: there are Hisho and Cravers which are two militaristic faction, but they very different in mid game. Cravers needs to expand and fast for all game and race traits encourage you to do so, while Hisho can concentrate on tech or economics and play diplomatic games. Hisho has tight limit for new colonies but great advances and benefits for local motherships.
Though you have faction traits, you still need to adapt to situations...some times even Cravers can cry and ask for social security and love.

10/10 Hoping for Endless Space 3 and Ukrainian localization

This has quickly become my go to game for 'just one more turn' gaming. A fair few numbers and a few things to get your head around to start with but stick with it. Start with the Empire, Vaulters or a similar easy to learn race and feel your way into the game on the easiest level.

It feels like Star Trek: Birth of the Federation and Master of Orion 2 which is pretty much the highest recommendation I can give. If you like space themed 4x games, you'll enjoy this one.