Explore the galaxy, blow up alien planets and steal alient technology.

In the game, your planet is being attacked by an unknown enemy.  Instead of bringing a battle ship to fight, they arrive with a whole planet armed for war.  Far across the galaxy is the source of all the alien attacks.  Your objective is to explore the space between your homeworld and the alien point of origin.  Along the way, you are frequently instructed to explore a regeion of space for scientific research and for the military.  The science branch seeks alien artifacts and planet exploration, while the military' thinks there are aliens behind every asteroid.  If you abide by their requests, if all goes well, you will be rewarded.  However, if you ignore their requests they become disappointed and I expect, are less inclined to offer rewards.

Your scientists are always trying to research new technologies.  However instead of searching alien databases for miracle medical cures, then seem only interested in new weapons.  So each time you encounter an enemy world with a weapon that your scientists don't yet understand, if you win the battle your scientists will learn a bit about the weapon.  However, your scientists cannot be bothered to learn about a new weapon if they are already researching an weapon, so it doesn't pay to explore in a straight line to the alien source.  Take your time and explore as much space as possible.

Finding alien atrifacts and exploring friendly planets will often yield money, health increases, weapon modifications and defense research. All of these things help your planet become stronger.  If you wish to play without hacking, you will need to explore every bit of space before fighting the final battle. 

Although  the game is repetitious and the call to battle noise gets really annoying fast, I still found myself spending an hour playing it.  Most of that time was spent trying to research all the weapons. If you took enough time to read this entire review, you probably have enough patience to play through the game.  Good luck!