Malkari

The Good
Interesting backstory and setting, tons of options, infinitely replayable.

The game had attractive packaging and came with a thick, oldskool-style manual reminiscent of the MicroProse glory days.

The Bad
The interface is extremely clunky, and the user invariably suffers from information overload; there is too much here you have to sort out, and I can't imagine anyone having much fun doing it.

The final product is extremely unpolished. The graphics are shareware quality; Ascendancy looked better five years earlier! The different guilds have zero personality: no portraits, no leaders, etc.

Politics and diplomacy are practically nonexistent in the single player game, and battles are fought without your direct involvement. Economics is all that is left, which means you are essentially stuck with an excessively dry and unprofessional-looking management sim set in outer space.

The Bottom Line
If the "moving asteroids" concept gets you really excited, you may be able to tolerate Malkari's many shortcomings. I predict that even you will return to Master of Orion very quickly.