My friends all think that this game looks horrible, and I'll admit some of the artwork is pretty terrible...

I don't care - there is nothing quite like this game. From having a robust random planet generator that will impact how you play each game in immense ways to building a regime to managing your cities private and public sectors it is a very in-depth game that to me sparks my imagination each game in how I am building up my regime.

Oh, and by the way all of the above is (arguably) not even the primary focus of this game which is in fact combat. This has a very in depth combat system and a logistics system that will punish you if you don't respect its impact on your troops and reward you when you do respect its impact on enemy troops.

Full disclosure I spent a LONG time reading the manual and to this day play with it up on my second screen, but one of the strokes of genius with this game is that you CAN play it (on a lower difficulty) without fully understanding everything. Yes, the game strongly rewards a deep understanding of its mechanics but for the most part you can just do what makes sense and fight your way to victory.

10/10 game and one I would take with me to a deserted island.

It's hard to overstate how good this game is. I'm a hardened grognard and have played hex & counter wargames for many years. This is the best hardpan computer strategy game available, especially in the hex & counter subgenre. It's really not even close to much else. Game Design Workshop perhaps? And compared to other types of strategy games, if you want to be completely engaged with a complex interwoven system, you can scratch that itch here. Hard to beat Paradox for that kind of stuff, but this one is at least part of the discussion.

I guess it's fine. Apparently almost 800 hours of fine. I think I'll start a new game. I haven't tried an Autocracy, Commerce, Heart run before. We'll see how that goes!