Hi, I'm Kingsley and I have been playing the Horizon Beta (in classic mode) since last week.
My first impressions are that I really like the feel of the game and that it is very stable. I also think the cut scenes add atmosphere that some other 4x games fail to create. I was able to pick the game up very quickly without much reference to the manual which is always good -although, over the years, I have played most of the 4x games published.
So, with a few tweaks, I think this game has the potential to be one of the all time greats. I am sure over a period of time most of the balancing issues will be rectified by the developers.
Some of the following observations have already been mentioned in other threads, therefore, apologies if you've heard them before.
1)Money builds up much too quickly, enabling you to not bother with industry and just spend to get what you want in one turn. New and conquered planets quickly start making money with trade and entertainment.
2)Fighters are too powerful. Equipping cruisers and motherships with several fighter squadrons will quickly take out all enemy ships without committing your capital ships.
3)The tactical battle screen is a bit unwieldy. It can take a very long time to reach the enemy without using "auto" and if you do use "auto" the fighters will not launch on their own. When you have a lot of fighter squadrons, there isn't any way to know which ship has them deployed and which has not. Also, it would be good if you could just mouse over a ship and give it orders - say to invade if it was over a planet, rather than having to command it on the galaxy map the previous turn.
4)The top left hand indicator of a simultaneous battle in another sector is a bit poorly done. In "Sword of the Stars" each battle is treated separately which would work better.
5)There doesn't seem to be much difference in how accurate the weapons are over distance. You can have fighters frequently miss from point blank range, but hit from maximum range.
6)A lot of the technologies in each category are of similar value. An example of this would be "organic" engines are very close in specification to "antimatter" engines. However, I quite like the way Research is treated in Horizon - allowing many techs to be upgraded at the same time. Perhaps there should be more than a small incremental upgrade on some though.
7)Research seems a bit random. I didn't get the impression that by concentrating on a technology category you would be likely to spawn a new technique - maybe I am wrong? it seems to me that there is a lot of emphasis on discovering ancient civilizations to get tech breakthroughs.
As it stands, the game is far too easy to win. Usually I would easily lose my first play of any new game until I understood all the elements. However, in my first Horizon game (despite early errors) in 220 turns I have 2.79 trillion credits, over 50 motherships and starbases plus missiles protecting all my planets. Basically, I could build 15 more motherships in one turn if any major threat turned up - which it hasn't so far. Being able to cream the opposition eventually becomes boring.