So, this review is based on about 20+ hours of single-player experience. I will present this in the same order as in the "How To Provide Feedback" post by Stardock for clearer view.

First a little about balance:

- (against NPC only) The 2 Starbases research on Loyalist side - As I'm sure it was intended The Loyalists come off as a 100% defensive side and so the defense of their own territory would be their main focus, however having 2 starbases deployed in a single gravity well (fully upgraded and with support defense structures deployed) makes it unconquerable by any NPC (numbers or difficulty have minor effect - tested on four 3rd level Agressor - Rebel NPCs - simultaneous attack - no Titans however). In my opinion the Starbases shouldn't be changed in any way, however there should be viable countermeasure against a starbase. And this is where my second balance issue comes in.

- The Titans - I have nothing against the firepower here . The main issue is the survivability. In fact it doesn't take that much to destroy one. A starbase will barely lose most of it's shields before blowing one up (in a 1 on 1 fight). Generally ships in the game are too fragile. I'd love to see a new class. Somewhere between a Titan and a Capital Ship. Or buff up the Capitals (also make them bigger), and add a sort of Support/Command class ships (almost no weaponry, but very durable and with many fleet support oriented abilities. There is also the issue of speed. I take it the Capital Ships had to be made faster so that they wouldn't match the Titans speed, however I'd suggest modifying the "Ship Speed" factor at the start of a game to incorporate the Titans and allow a setting that would match the ship speeds from Trinity.

Now the performance:

- One "performance" issue I see is with the fleet command. Even when formed into a fleet ships usually travel in a disarray. What should be done is make all the ships (or at least make that option available in fleet tab) stick to formation (whether it slows them down or not).

- The bigger problem I've been experiencing here is that NPCs just give up without a reason - They just stop... They won't attack even when given a command, they won't defend their own planets, build ships, respond to treaty offers; And their ships will just jump back and forth between 2 planets. This is a major bug that has to be fixed.

- Now the victory conditions are also bugged. Although I can only refer to those I've tested... First one is a pure bug - an NPC is NOT defeated when losing a Flagship - it actually doesn't affect it at all. And the other one is the Military Victory - NPCs give up waaay too early -> Match: 1 player + 1 NPC against 3 NPCs (Allied Victory, Flagship, Capital Victory) - Enemy gives up [MILITARY VICTORY] while still having their Capitals intact, combined fleet to launch a major offensive, production capability to double their fleet size before I can do anything about it, and the best one yet: they still control over A THIRD OF THE GALAXY. What's the fun in that? I barely got to research the true capability of my race/allegiance. Sure, there is the option to Keep Playing, however the NPCs will not play along - they won't even put up a fight beyond whatever forces they have present in the gravity well.

The Graphical Issues:

- Honestly I haven't experienced any. But I'll submit my rig specs anyway - even if it just offers people a way of knowing which hardware runs good with the game. So, I'm running 1920x1080 with the graphics all maxed out on:

Windows 7 64-bit; Intel Core i7-960; ASUS Rampage III Extreme with 3x 4GB Corsair 1600 MHz RAM; Dual nVidia GAINWARD  GTX 560 Ti "Golden Sample" in SLI. --- I also tested the game on my other rig with all the same hardware except for the graphics - GAINWARD GTX 580 - also maxed out and also no issues.

Crashes:

- Not a single one so far.

Multiplayer:

- As I've said earlier I have not played the game online yet.

For any additional feedback regarding the beta, or to clarify any of my problems or ideas please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail. I hope this proves useful to somebody