"You are outgunned. You are massively outnumbered. You must win." These are your orders. AI War is a one-of-a-kind strategy game that plays like an RTS but feels like a 4X. With tower defense and grand strategy bits, too. You'll be wanting the demo to really know what we mean, there's nothing else on the market remotely like this (as many reviewers have glowingly pointed out).
This is an excellent strategy game that manages to steer clear of many of the pitfalls that bug many real-time strategy games (excessive micromanagement and a race to grab resources at the start of the game). The AI's (there are two) are very intelligent and seem to develop personalities of their own as the game progresses (they're smart enough that I'm still not sure what's down to pre-programmed intelligence or if I'm imagining things).
Expansion is vital to unlock technology and build your fleets, but each new planet captured brings increased retribution from the enemy, so you have to plan your attack carefully and work out a path to victory that minimises the number of planets you seize, or you'll be utterly annihilated by literally thousands of incoming ships.
The game is constantly being developed by Arcen games, with new releases and beta updates produced weekly (or better). The game is developed with frequent input from the active forum, which greatly adds to the interest and community spirit. Updates are free and Arcen is working on its third add-on, which (based on previous releases) will be extremely cheap.
If you like spending time on a decent, in-depth strategy game, AI War will swallow hours of your time. You'll need to invest some time in playing the tutorial (which you can play free, before committing yourself) but once you're hooked, this game is awesome!