The decisions you make carry tremendous weight. Deciding to hire one alien species over another will impact your interactions with future space travelers, since alien crew members give you different options in dealing with threats. You are rewarded appropriately and it’s so gratifying. SECRET ALIEN RACE OMG
Losing people is not fun, but not irrecoverable. How gritty. You can keep fighting the good fight, cause that’s what he/she/it would have wanted.
One complaint:
So you’re exploring the vast universe, diving into hostile territory with unknown dangers. Every new game puts you in different situations. But the final boss is exactly the same everytime, so the last few levels are pretty much prescribed for you :(