Unique factions and quests do not make up for the rotten quality of mechanics introduced with DLC. For instance, when the espionage-focused faction has spies ("sanctuary") on your planets, the game advises you "invade or hack the [solar] system". Anyone who plays the game knows you can't invade your own planets or hack yourself, yet the devs feed you false information, and you have to turn to google for facts.

Since ES2 is turn-based you spent each turn clicking through 20 obnoxious pop-ups, but they can luckily be turned off for some of them. If you're chasing an opponent, you will not see where they go at the beginning of the turn, as your view is blocked by unavoidable pop-up messages that cover the entire screen.

Unique factions and quests do not make up for the rotten quality of mechanics introduced with DLC. For instance, when the espionage-focused faction has spies ("sanctuary") on your planets, the game advises you "invade or hack the [solar] system". Anyone who plays the game knows you can't invade your own planets or hack yourself, yet the devs feed you false information, and you have to turn to google for facts. Since ES2 is turn-based you spent each turn clicking through 20 obnoxious pop-ups, but they can luckily be turned off for some of them. If you're chasing an opponent, you will not see where they go at the beginning of the turn, as your view is blocked by unavoidable pop-up messages that cover the entire screen.