Got this yesterday...
Holy fuck, amazing. Like, you start playing at 7, and then before you realize it it is 4 AM.
It is basically a mix between Sins of a Solar Empire and Europa Universalis. It is made by Paradox and uses the Clauswitz Engine.
If you love Galactic Civ and space 4x games in general, you'll love this. I got the Nova pack, but you don't really need it. You can create any race you want.
Fun thing I did, I created the "Roman Empire" in space... I came across our dear solar system... Earth was at about where we are right now, even had the ISS floating around.... So I built an orbital observation post. Now, when you have an observation post around a primitive planet, you have 4 options. You can passively observe- You do nothing, aggressively observe- You abduct shit a bunch, Technology share- you basically advance them and make them your protectorate, and Infiltrate- you send down agents disguised as them to infiltrate ever faucet of their leadership.
I went with Infiltrate. I nearly got caught towards the end, and since no one knew aliens existed yet they blamed another nation, and a nuclear war almost happened, but I was able to use my other agents to prevent it... Over the course of 40 years, I had infiltrated ever position of power in ever major government on Earth. When the time came, I revealed my empire to them and their world leaders (My disguised agents) immediately voted to join my intergalactic Empire.
Oh, you can also just land an army on their planets and wipe them the fuck out or enslave them.
Another thing that is cool as fuck, if you find a presentient species, you can screw with their genetics to give them whatever traits you want... You can turn them into a race of loyal, super strong slave soldiers if you so desire.