Yes, Endless space is awesome. Normal = Hard pretty much. Its turned base, large game takes 6+ hours to play. There are 4 tech trees and you can go up one or all 4 but like you would think, if you go up one you will only be good at one thing. You can completely customize your ships of all types, and as you unlock techs you get different guns, ship sizes, speeds, etc depending on what you have researched. You also no only have to worry about enemy militaries but your own people. You have to keep them happy, taxes, and they even get upset if you expand the empire too quickly, but there are way saround it. Dont get discouraged in the first game. Give it a few, totally worth $30 though