Just watched a Let's Play episode on YouTube and I think the game looks to be quite good. I'm curious though as to why after 14 votes on GOG the game's rating is less than 3.5. I wonder if these are genuine ratings from those who have played the game or just people bitching that it is a pixelated game and therefore one to hate....

It has a little of a lot of things. You'll be spending time clearing rooms in this ancient artifact/space station you call him, sending fleets of 1-3 ships around to fight bandits and aliens or collect resources, engaging in battles both in space and on the ground.

Battles are done in the same kind of individual turn based system you'll see in games like Final Fantasy X. Thus far combat isn't all that varied, I've spent a lot of time having my tactical ship inflicting 'engine down' enemies so my engineering ship can exploit that with a flak barrage... things like that. Hopefully it will get more interesting as I unlock better than tier one ships.

Storyline is delivered primarily by talking head communications, but the heads are at least more animated than a moving mouth. Your main problem is a race of strange things referred to as the Chruul; they'll be creating rifts in space to send raiding parties from. If you can keep them from destroying facilities around the map then you can collect resources, fuel and so forth from them. You'll also have to deal with local bandits who think that the sudden war with the Chruul is the perfect opportunity to take your station by force. I haven't gotten far enough to say how any of this is resolved, but probably that'd be a spoiler anyway.

Is it just me or does this game's look/feel seem very similar to FTL?

Some of the ships look like they were taken directly from FTL. At least I think they do.

Bought it and installing now. I have a good feeling about it, lets hope it's accurate.

If games like these don't sell GOG will probably stop selling them, if they do sell - why stop selling them? If every game some people don't like should not be sold there will not be many games left ;)

Well, nice pixel art is both easier to do and prettier (at least for me) than cheap 3D high-res art. So for an indie dev with limited ressources, it makes sense to use it rather than blowing all their budgect on a crappy modern look.
That, and it gives the game a personality that some nostalgic old geezers (like me) find attractive

So they can concentrate a little more on other stuff, like the gameplay. Which, after my 2 hours on the game today, I would rate as "rather cool". For now, it has a nice "Babylon 5/Deep Space 9 - the game" mood. :)

Is there a random element to this game, or is the map the same every time? What is the replay value?

Nope. You just happen not to like the artstyle. Big difference.
My map looks exactly like the one on the screnshot, so I dont think it's random.
But there are apparently decision points and quests have optional path (right now, I have to choose between helping one of enemy factions, or killing them all. Don't know if it will have far reaching consequences or if it is just alternate ways to complete the mission), so that might add to the replay value? Not sure, though. 2 hours in, it feels more like a "one successful run (and probably quite a lot of failures)" game for me.

Guess time will tell :)

So it is not actually out for Linux yet? I guess then no one can tell me whether it require pulse audio (same as wasteland 2) or work with alsa as well?

I noticed that the developers only have a large Steam button on their website, no GOG button.

As for the game itself:
1) it looks quite enjoyable
2) the interface could be improved in a number of places
3) the replay value seems limited as only some parts of the game are randomly generated

If it works on Linux, I will definitely buy it, but only after it got a fair bit cheaper (~10 €).

Care to tell why, if it's not just a basic pixel allergy? 'cause I've been playing it for 2 hours, and the game is quite fun for now. So I guess it's a case of "one man's garbage is another man's treasure"

so it is not garbage, then, just too pricey....

LOL

I'm an old geezer too and grew up with this . . . which is why I don't understand why anyone would want to go back to that.

I tried to play Star Control some months back, and just couldn't make out what the graphics were trying to represent . . . some old games are just too old for these old eyes anymore.