It has all the right ingredients for a fantastic game. I really liked the writing and the lore of this world and it hooked me from beginning to end. The combat is also super fun and thrilling, with tons of tension. Unfortunately there are some things that bring down this game a bit for me. I would say the main one is that there are not enough opportunities to level up some skills, making it really hard to progress. You have to plan it perfectly, otherwise, it's going to be frustrating, and you're stuck with finishing quests in a way that is not fulfilling. For instance, if you play a more diplomatic role, it's not worth doing any fights, because you would be missing important Persuasion skill gains and the combat skills from the fight are not nearly enough to help with some hard combats down the line. So you pretty much have to commit to a path from the jump, with very few opportunities to deviate from it. In my first playthrough I played a Charismatic character, but didn't pay much attention to the other skills. In a determined point, a whole area of the game was locked out for me, because the only way to pass it using my Charisma skills would be to pass another skill check that I didn't level up enough and there was nowhere else in the game I could go at that point, so I had to try the combat route, which obviously did not worked out for me because my character was a wimp. In the end it was very frustrating because there was no way to level up that other skill and the game didn't offer any other possible solution. It is very limited like that. But it's still worth playing it, just mind that you probably need a couple of playthroughs to be able to do it all.

Competent and pretty solid CRPG experience. Graphics look decent, combat is simple but serviceable and the writing is pretty good. The game has tons of variables through choices and ramifications that invites the player to replay it multiple times.

The reason I gave it 3 stars is because some solutions for important quests felt too simplistic, almost amateurish. Some quest givers (including faction leader NPCs) a lot of times just accept your choices without refuting you even if they go against their personal values. It felt a bit underdeveloped, almost as if the game focused too much on the branching story line (which is great) but ended up making sacrifices in the small details.

Note that this review was written after completing one playthrough. Colony Ship, much like Age of Decadence (made by the same developers) are made to be experienced multiple times. They are shorter CRPGs that expand laterally (more choices, more ramifications) instead of vertically (linear, longer play time).