For starters, I would like to just say that this game is fun. And I mean a lot of fun. It is what Starship Troopers: Extermination should have been. It is fast paced action with barely a moment to breathe, coupled with a bit of strategy and tactical decision making. And while on some occasions (like planetary defense, or the recently completed Terminid Control System operations) the game can be repetitive, there is usually enough chaos to keep you engaged anyway. And with a plethora of in mission call-ins (called stratagems) like airstrikes, orbitals, and various equipment, you have plenty of ways to change up the experience and try new tactics.

Now that being said, there are certainly a number of things that have, for the time being, turned me away from this game. First is just a bit of an irritation in how the Game Master makes changes to the playable planets. You will fight hard to clear a sector of space, see the 'Liberation' progress meter approaching that 100% mark, only to log in the next day and see that sector and it's progress reduced to zero. Now, I understand that we can't just push the enemy to the border and be done with it. The idea that it is a constant struggle against the enemies of Managed Democracy is fine. But it would be nice to see it as that, a struggle where not enough attention on one planet or sector could very easily start to swing things back in the favor of the enemy. Instead we have the shifts of power being controlled by the whims of deity who see's fit to repopulate a sector whenever it strikes his fancy. I am not familiar with any changes to this portion. But I'm willing to say for now that this doesn't appear to be a problem anymore.

Now for the big one. Until patch 102 this was not really a problem for me, but I have been plagued by disconnects when I play anything above the Challenging difficulty. It is especially egregious when I attempt to play Suicide Mission difficulty. I have yet to complete a single mission at this level as every time I get about 10 to 15 minutes in to the mission, I get disconnected. I get to keep none of the resources I collect, and I am at a point where unlocking any of the ship upgrades require samples only available on Suicide Mission or greater. Now I understand that this game has had many a connection issue in the past, and that the developers have certainly put in the time to correct these issues, but I can't recommend this game until these issues are addressed. There was a recent patch that fixed some of the most irritating bugs (like enemies spawning on top of you), but it doesn't really matter if I can't play a mission to completion on the harder difficulties.

I can now recommend this game as it is playable again. I'm glad to see that the devs seem to be listening to their fans.

TLDR; The game is super fun. Many issues have been fixed, and I can play the harder difficulties again.

At first glance this game looks very promising. The graphical fidelity is pretty good considering the lone developer, and the 'tutorial' area showcases the potential beauty of this game... That's where it ends, however.
Before you begin the game, you receive a warning about how the game is very linear considering the scope of the game. (A journey through time), but linear would be putting it mildly. This game less holds your hand, and instead makes you a slave to a checklist. The inventory screen offers a tab called the "Tech Tree", which isn't really a tech tree at all, but is actually just a task list. In fact the collection of 'materials' is literally just a fill in for checking off that section of the list. It is rare that anything you gather earlier will be used again, or as even a bridge between the so called 'eras'. In fact the first era (Dinosaur Era) has you 'tame' a Utah Raptor so that you can ride it to a cave to move on to the next 'era'. And while there is a segment that has you come back to Dinosaur Era, it's literally just a quick stop to pick up some 'materials' to check off the next assignment on the list. When you get to the 'Ancient War Era' you spawn into the new time, get a task telling you to go back to the previous era (which I will get into later), where you build some work benches for the sole purpose of building a battering ram and a... ...uhh catapult ballista thing. The sole purpose of the battering ram is to open the first gate, and the sole purpose of the catapult is to open the second gate, all this so you can get some baking powder from the baking powder crystals specifically put inside the castle walls so you can harvest them, take them back to the previous era and make dynamite for the sole purpose of opening up the third gate.
Now as far as gameplay goes... there really isn't any. Aside from the aforementioned list checking, the exploration is boring and the combat is downright atrocious. In most cases you can't tell when you are going to be hit, and your 'defense' is to dash away to avoid being hit. Which you will be hit because you need to suffer the attack in order to land a strike yourself. The boss battles are literally just a guy running toward you and when he get's in range, applies damage to you. And yes, I mean APPLIES the damage to you. The animations are some sort of cheesy sword spin move, but it doesn't really matter, because the sword will still be in the 'back-swing', or he won't even be looking at you, and you will take damage. You get a slight reprieve when you get the bow and can just kite the enemy around until you can finally take his enormous HP pool down to 0. Which is in and of itself ridiculous, because you just keep dashing away and firing an arrow, of which you have an infinite supply. And for those archery marksman out there, don't bother, the bow does 4 damage... always. In some areas, you will very quickly be overwhelmed by the number of enemies present, and they can all just attack you from whatever position they are in as long as they are 'in range'.
Okay, so I mentioned that there was an era prior to the Ancient War Era that I was going to talk about and that is the Colony Era. Basically this is where you setup a small village and start to collect NPC's to do some tasks on various equipment necessary to move the... ahem... story along. In this era, their really should be some complex organization and building chains for the colonists. But there really isn't. Aside from it being necessary for you to still go out and gather basic resources (wood, stone, ore, etc.) The products created by the colonists essentially just serve the purpose of being used for some recipe to get you to the next checklist item. Not to say there isn't any crossover from one resource to another (such as building a 'coal mine' so you can have the coal for steel) it's just very minimal. The other irritating feature of this era is that you can only build prefab houses that are an absolute pain to place at best, and that you can only have 2 colonist beds per house. No you will need a good number of colonists to keep some of the flow going so you will quickly build a large amount of houses to accomplish this. (You can re-task the colonists as well, but considering the time to produce the materials and the volume of material necessary, it would be a massive waste of time) There is some definite need for improvement here. My suggestion would be some elements similar to RTS's (for resource gathering) and city builders (for colony management). Really anything to gamify this era in anyway. The other real sticking point is the water wheel powered furnaces. Each furnace only does one ore smelting, and each one requires a water wheel that simply has to be in water to work. And you will build three of them. It can be a pain to place these as they are massive, and the edge of the 'pond' you are near falls off quite dramatically making finding a spot for them extremely tedious.
All in all I feel alot of what is in this game is born out of laziness. From the AI generated cover art, to the lack of complex intermingled systems, to the most ridiculous combat mechanics, to the extreme hand-holding gameplay. Really, if I were to venture a guess, I would say this is likely an asset flip. The generated art suggests a lack of artistic prowess, which in itself is fine, but the 3-D models are at least halfway decent looking, even if some are a little jarring when compared to others, which simply says the models were purchased. Again, that is normally fine, but there needs to be substance behind it. There are many games out there that are comprised of mostly store bought assets, but the gameplay is entertaining, and the narratives enjoyable. This is none of those things. It's a list checking simulator disguised as a game. Another big tell here is the shoddiness of the maps. The use of environmental assets in a visually compelling way is non-existent. It's literally just some randomly placed resources, with some being area dependent. And this is really a shame because the introduction area is really quite well done, but it's just a deception to trick you into playing the game longer than 2 hours so you can't refund it.
Anyway, unless some major reworking is done here, I cannot recommend this game. I know it has a lot of positive reviews, but please do not be fooled, this game is no where near ready, and definitely not worth the $20.00 price tag.

TLDR; The game is boring and may just be an asset flip. Highly NOT recommended.

Quick edit here: So I was looking at some of the other titles by this developer, and people are saying pretty much the same thing across the board. This looks to be a money grab and the developer is scummy. Won't surprise me if he ends up on Sid Alpha's Dirty Devs Hall of Fame.

As it stands right now... This game is not ready. The 3 'Acts' are incredibly short and the 'puzzles' are simple at best. The real challenge is not getting frustrated at the wonky physics and the oh so slippery wheels. One of the major physics issues is that your vehicle is made of scrap metal and is extremely light and the anvil (which has weight) isn't unlocked until near the end and costs so much iron ingot (one of a handful of 'resources' needed for building) that it severely limits, if not absolutely cripples, your build potential.
The cameras are extremely limiting, and there are levels where it would be very helpful to maintain your cameras rotation or even lock the camera to another device.
The building can be daunting as well. There is no easy way to select multiple parts without selecting all that are connected, and it is impossible to mirror anything, so if you have symmetrical complex structures, you will likely be building them twice. You can copy individual parts or complete structures which is nice.
The ability to create complex mechanical structures is a good feature, but there are severe restrictions on placement of engines, and there is no way to set rotors to be incremental. And further about engines... if you want more than one wheel to be powered, you essentially need an engine for each wheel. While it is possible to run a single shaft between multiple wheels, most of the levels are designed in a way that prevents you from doing so (as in stuff in the road the shaft will get caught on).
I see a lot of potential in this game... but where it is now I do not recommend. (Even at the $10 sale price). I will come back to this game after some updates to check it's progress. If it improves, I will certainly consider changing my recommendation.

This minimalist game is absolutely fun. The core mechanic's are minimalist and quick to learn, but definitely a challenge to master. The controls are minimalist, allowing you to focus on developing your strategies. The art style is minimalist, but doesn't come off as 'retro'. The soundtrack is minimalist but extremely catchy.
Alright, alright... I don't think I can keep this shtick up any longer. All in all, do not let the minimalist style of this game fool you, even with only 4 levels, the perk combos and mutators force you to rethink your strategies even on already played levels and offer you the ability to scale the difficulty on your own terms. With the developers promising more to come, I can't wait to see where this goes.