Just thought I'd raise some awareness for this criminally underrated game. Drox Operative! It's rough around the edges and the graphics definitely do leave a little to be desired but beneath the surface there's an interesting dynamic system going on here that I think some folks might appreciate.

I dislike using comparative terms to describe games but sometimes they just work best, you essentially play a Diablo-esque loot-driven game while a bunch of AI races play out a grand strategy/4x Civ/Master of Orion style game in the background, your ship is persistent but you play through 'sectors' of a determined length and there are a handful Civ-styled victory conditions.

There's a hardcore mode and some other interesting handicaps, the usual action RPG fare, but the interesting twist here being the dynamic AI playing in the background, being a free agent you can manipulate the AI races in certain ways, improving relations to forge alliances in your favour, or starting wars with sabotage/propaganda.. or just totally ignore all the chaos they are getting up to and just shoot stuff, kill bosses and do quests for the nearest person you find etc.

Anyway I won't ramble any longer than I already have about it but definitely worth a look if the derivatives are the kinda things you enjoy, I think there's a demo floating about for it.