I've created a couple races thus far, just to wrap my head around the player creation tools. My first stab was the Mammalian Cat race, 'cause you know...cats. Made 'em all uppity and self-important just like real life! Then I took a stab at Earth Humans. It's nice that they have a preset Sol system with correctly named/sized planets, etc. Though I did forget to check and see if Pluto made the cut. Oddly, I found it a bit more difficult to develop their character traits, as I reflected on our global nature and came up with a variety of conflicting philosophies, religions & government styles. Still, it was nice to have an identifiable touchstone to tool around with. Double-cool that you can save the created character template for quick, Main Menu access anytime.
So all and all I really didn't get much done in the couple/few hours I played last night. Mostly just futzing around with the UI, Character Creator, early Tutorials and such. I'm REALLY digging what I'm seeing so far. Game runs like butter, looks pretty fantastic close up (those Reptilian-modeled [I think?] ship designs look straight out of John Berkley paintings and/or Homeworld). Menus seem smart so far, but I've still got a bit of acclimating to go, though coming off of CKII & EUIV, they're naturally intuitive. And the music. Good-gravy the music. I couldn't drop the Nova Ed. soundtrack on my iPhone fast enough (Track 17 is the game Launcher track that everyone is going gaga over, btw). I've only seen a few random flavor-text events pop up thus far, but the writing seems quality at this point.
Really pleased with the finished product at this point. Looks like a great platform for Paradox to launch from as new systems are integrated down the road. Everyone seems to be clamoring for Trade & Espionage DLC. Along with that, I can see room for further refinement, such as a variety of galaxy-level map modes and such. But for starters, this thing is just ace. Polished, intuitive, and fresh. Hope it sees the success necessary for long-term balancing and original content support.