Recent reviews by Death of Rats

THAT WHICH IS BAD ABOUT MULTIPLAYER
Auto-generated maps with 4-6 players are too small. More control over map sizes seems pretty basic and necessary. In fact more map options all round seems pretty warranted.

Auto-generated default maps can't account for more than 2 teams without ruining the placements.

Unit selection limit is another annoying quality of life improvement they didn't make.

THAT WHICH IS BAD ABOUT EDITORS
There is no Steam Workshop support; the scenario editor is virtually worthless as there is no way to share files through game lobby and even sharing scenarios manually does not allow co-operative play because the game doesn't recognise that both players have the file.

You can't create a scenario where players have access to their own multiplayer decks yet if you try to use the deck customisation feature within the scenario, you'll find an empty stable with literally no cards available to be added.

VERDICT
This is a Definitive Edition. Needs more work.

Fantastic Strategy with depth and great mechanics able simulate a long, shifting time period with great fidelity.

Tried all sorts of compatibility settings and still can't get it working. No excuse adding a game to steam and not updating it to work properly on modern systems.

This is a massive improvement - more of a reimagining, really - of the base game and the best Star Drive experience to date.

It is hex-based, which is a departure, but that is only the territoria mechanic and terrain grid. It doesn't effect fleet/ship movement mechanic which means, unlike some 4X games, this doesn't boil down to complicated space chess. This is still Star Drive. Which is not to say that terrain doesn't influence gameplay. It does.

There are three types of nebula, all of which limit fleet speeds. A red nebula impinges on laser ranges in battle. The lightning-wreathed nebula deals damage to unshielded craft and the final type shorts out shields. Ships will tend to route (impefectly) around nebula unless ordered in or lured in, but this is not always the case. I have seen event-based fleets blow themselves up in lightning nebula. There are asteriod fields and also black holes which throttle fleet speeds even further. Both of these, and other special terrain, offer boons to the nearest colony if garrisoned with space station (sometimes upgrades are required).

There are many upgrades too. The cantina (automatically applied once researched) essentially cancels out maintaince cost within 1 hex of a colony, and provides approval. Additional upgrades to a station don't seem to impact maintaince costs, so this is a hidden gem if you have a lot of deep space adjacent to your colonies; but the passive tech to slash station maintaince might be more viable if your stations are farflung.

The listening post extends sensor reach. The subspace projector can be researched down several different paths to provide either a fleet speed bonus which spills into surronding hexes or else slow enemy fleet speeds. The station itself can be turned into a battlestation, which is great, but don't expect it to be taking on invasion fleets unsupported.

Finally, the enlarged map sizes are fantastic - especially for Clusters. There is really no reason to play Star Drive 2 without Sector Zero. It is a big improvement.

StarDrive 2 has the same vices as StarDrive, though to a lesser extent. There are peripheral areas of the game which feel rushed or unpolished, not for lack of effort as I understand it, but lack of manpower. Unlike SD, the mechanics and overall gameplay is SOLID. I liked SD but there are segements of that game which were flawed.

Diplomacy is much more responsive and worthwhile in SD 2. The different factions in StarDrive have a lot of character and its something you actually want to engage in.

Not feeling the need to slow down time to a crawl in order to micromanage every detail of a star-spanning empire, is great. While I miss combat actually happening on the stategy map, turn-based allowed the rather spartan and unwieldy management aspects of the game to flower.

It can almost go without saying that StarDrive's defining aspect; ship design and combat have been developed, honed and polished to outshine any other 4X. It moved ahead in leaps and bounds, and it is fun, fun, fun. The are more options and everything is really slick. On top of that, there are special technologies and components you acquire outside of the actual scientific tree through various means. Some are stellar, others feel gimicky - which isn't a bad thing. The only addition I don't like is the proto-molecule device which is underwhelming - not because it underperforms, but because it is pretty superflous and there is a sizable build-up to actually getting it. Also because the mechanics which underpin it are perhaps the one weak point in SD2's fleet combat

It highlights the one real complaint I have with shipboard weaponry in the game. Ships can carry massive Subspace Artillery and Mass Drivers which by any yardstick should be able to get the job of bombarding a planet done. Instead ships have to carry a seperate arsenal of otherwise useless weapons, which take up precious space, in order pummel planets into submission. It is extremely arbitrary, especially one one considers that tactical and strategic nukes are available form the very start of the game - long before any sort of ground-based counter is available. A doom fleet in orbit, armed to the teeth with kinetic weaponry and only able to 'blockade' is a sorry spectacle. Maintaining planetary defenses on more than a few planets seems prohibitively expensive, even of it wasn't useless because most of the AI strategy is based around landing troops anyway.

At times playing on defensive boils down to playing wack-a-mole with invasions fleets amongst your holdings. That will probably be alleviated somewhat by wormhole junction forts and other defensive options in the 'Sector Zero' DLC.

Planetery invasions were unwieldly (in capital letters) in SD1, and while massive focus has obviously been put into tactical ground combat in StarDrive 2, it feels tacted on and doesn't really add much to the experience at this point in time.

Overall though, the game is fun which is to say that what it does well, it does really well. The feature set it touts is there and it is solid. It is the little things where this game looses ground. I dwell on the little things a lot, but that is nitpicking. This game deserves a much better rating then it has.