The introduction to Imperium Chronicles is simple and straightforward, but sets up the game perfectly:

"WHAT IS THE IMPERIUM?

The Imperium is an interstellar empire founded by five powerful families of royal blood. For 700 years the empire has flourished, even in the face of outside foes and rebellions from within. As a player, you take on the role of a character in this sci-fi universe as you search for adventures of your own."

Using his own universe which he has written fiction for, Mitchell's Imperium has a fairly detailed history that is outlined in this book. You get just enough material for the GM to work with without turning the game into a huge minutiae-fest (although I'm sure there's potential for dozens of expansion and fluff books with this game). I'd say the overall flavor of Imperium Chronicles seems to rest somewhere between Star Wars and Traveller (which I've still never gotten to actually play), with maybe just a hint of the original Battlestar Gallactica thrown in for good measure. This doesn't mean the game is a complete rip-off of anything in particular, but it does borrow some of the key elements from the space opera genre. If there's a complaint to be found here, it's that the setting is ever so slightly vanilla. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose the author is still developing his world and giving it a sense of identity, but I couldn't help but feel that certain elements were just a tad generic.

There are seven major races to play as: the ever-present Humans, reptilian Draconians, the slender and erudite Dahl, the canine-like Vogar, the warlike Magna (who look like big, green demons), feline Akiak, and the stocky, ugly Gordians, who fulfill a role similar to Orks in many other role-playing games. Interestingly, there is no class system in this game. A player simply selects the race they wish to play and is assigned a default set of ability scores (here we have Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Intelligence, Charisma, and Psionics). I'm personally of two minds about this. I don't mind about having a classless system, but I'm not all that keen on default stats for each race, as this can limit the 'uniqueness' of characters (you get a small pool of points to raise whichever stats you wish as you're creating the character, but I feel like the author should have just inserted a complete point-buy system into the game instead).

That said, there is a very detailed skills and abilities section which indeed allows you to tailor your character as you see fit. You can easily groom your character to be a crafty merchant, a slick diplomat, a cunning rogue, a savvy tech-expert, a calm under pressure starship pilot, a jack-of-all-trades, or just a good old fashioned ass kicking mercenary. Again, I'm personally not the biggest fan of skills and abilities systems, but my grumpy, old-school personal preferences aside, Imperium Chronicles has a nice selection of skills to choose from without going completely overboard with an overwhelming or unnecessary number of choices.

I believe this game could attract some combat-junkies towards it, as the section on weapons and armor is quite intensive, and the actual combat chapter itself is long and involved. First of all, weapon selection is very good, you've got weapons that seem like anachronisms in a futuristic sci-fi world, like battle-axes and daggers (even the 9mm pistol seems ancient in this setting), mixed in with the blaster rifles and disruptor pistols one would expect of a high-tech galaxy (The coolest weapon in the game? The chainsword -- it's a sword, but it's a chainsaw too... br00tal.). Also included here are a number of vehicles, gadgets, nano upgrades, and gasp drugs for your characters to exploit in order to leave their enemies lying in a heap.

I don't envy anyone trying to mastermind a combat system in a sci-fi RPG. You've got so many different scenarios to think about: melee, gun fights, ship-to-ship combat, underwater battles, tanks blasting the hell out of one another... However, while the combat system has quite a lot to digest, it still appears to be efficient enough to hopefully finish a battle in a respectable amount of time (I say hopefully because I've not play-tested this game at all, this is merely a guess). Then again, Imperium Chronicles also seems well-suited to some long, epic fights. Judging by the first two add-ons released for this game, a set of cardboard miniatures and a set of paper walls and floors, the game definitely has a bent towards those who like to play with minis and stage huge combat sequences.

There is a bestiary in the rule book, which surprised me a little. I apparently forgot that other games besides D&D actually put their monsters in the main rule book instead of a separate, wallet-draining book. There's some sweet beasties and robot type creatures to battle, but the finest specimen is the Tubby Wubbie, a moment of golden comedy that comes out of left-field in this mostly serious rule book. The author explains it best...

"Tubby Wubbies are the result of toy marketing and biogenetics gone horribly wrong. In an effort to create the perfect holiday gift, a toy company turned to genetic engineering to build a living, breathing teddy bear. Due to corporate shortsightedness and a desire to save money, the company used a subcontractor to design the brain for the Tubby Wubbies. The end result was a cute and lovable toy that began exhibiting psychopathic tendancies shortly after going to market."

Included with the entry is a picture of a cutesy panda and grizzly bear, which reminds me of Kuma and Panda from the Tekken series of fighting games. Very funny. Perhaps the Tubby Wubbies could become to Imperium Chronicles what the spidergoat has become to Mutant Future, a silly yet iconic monster representing the game.

Speaking of pictures, and aesthetics in general, the Imperium Chronicles rule book is laid out in a very neat, easy-to-read manner. Any charts or tables are colored and easy on the eye, and the cartography towards the later half of the book is excellent. However, the art is all computer-generated, and while it indeed looks proficient for CG pieces, some hand drawn illustrations would really help this game come to life. As it stands, the CG art looks very... well, artificial. Of course, this game seems like it was for the most part a one man operation, so I can understand if the art wasn't one of the top concerns. Still, something to think about for any future editions of the book (Might I suggest ATOM for the job?). There were a few spelling and grammatical errors that slipped through ("Climbing a shear wall", etc), but overall the editor seems to have gotten everything in order.

Honestly, if I played this game, I wouldn't know where to start, as the scope is quite enormous. There is a section towards the end of the book that gives GMs a few adventure ideas and hooks to focus on, which seems an inspired decision given the vast sandbox galaxy you've got to work with here. I particularly like the plot that asks players to locate an aging, bloated rock star who's gone on the run within 48 hours. For some reason, I'm imagining Disaster Area's Hotblack Desiato from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in this scenario.

So, maybe it's not exactly my cup of coffee, but I think some of the hardcore sci-fi geeks looking for a new fix will get on board with this game, in addition to those who simply like to show support for independent RPGs.