Heard of it, never played it (I think...)
If you get it, you should get the definitely get the expansions, they really make the game better.
It's pretty standard fare for how a 4x works, nothing too innovative, but there's quite a few options to customize your world and starting setup, there' some nice automation, and the ability to take control then automate again, etc. And ship designing is pretty badass. Your ships are made of modular pieces which have stats, the base one which is Size. Ship size is the limiting factor on what you can build, and the cost of building is based on the price of the required materials to build the modules that the ship is made of. That lets you build ships to suit how you want to play... Slow and tough, or able to outmaneuver your opponent and hit from a distance, etc.