So you are going to manage the colony on this planet (and, later, on other planets and their moons), do research, do limited forms of diplomacy with aliens, but, for the most part, fight with them because most of them are dicks (minor spoilers for those who want a bit of help in this meat grinder of a game: a) Jaanosians are total bros and you can trust them, despite them being LGMs in appearance; b) also after a certain mutually beneficial deal with them keep 15 grands in cash at all times as they'll offer a thing to sell you).

Oh, almost forgot: you're going to manually transfer mined resources from other colonies and mining outposts. A lot. Like 50% of the time if you want to prevent some bugs from happening although you'll eventually forget about it anyway.

Research is everything as the Universe hates you with a passion. But you can't make new shiny toys without money and mined resources. And money can only be generated by taxes, so you have to manage as much colonies as you can. Which is a royal pain because you aren't warned in advance when, for example, there is too little living space - you are only notified after population takes a hit and tax morale gets lower.

There are numerous other issues with the game which I'll let aspiring masochists to discover on their own.

The best thing about the game is atmosphere/setting and, to a bit lesser extent, the story. The art is great too, in my opinion. But all of that might be boring to someone who read a lot of sci-fi during his formative years and get so fed up he can't stomach it any more.