With my "executive reviews" I try to distil the essence of a game in a brief summary, adapted to time-challenged gamers (like myself).

Introduction
On an unnamed planet, in a distant future, some huge corporations have sent private armies to get the precious rubium, digging rubium mines and, if necessary, eliminating the armies of the competitors: actually, their immediate attention seems geared more toward killing enemies than working the mines...

Theme
Very strong: the game has some "euro" elements (the victory points), but has clearly been designed starting with a theme and putting a mechanic onto it, not the other way round. (Edit: it turns out that I was very wrong here: see http://iguk.co.uk/blog/2005/09/charlie-catino-interview-aval...)

Components
The plastic translucent figures (representing the various creatures that constitute the armies put together by the players) are the most striking components of the game, and they are very nice, IMO. The cards are OK, while the tiles used to compose the board are probably the least convincing element of the game, since they are made of thin, cheap-looking cardboard.

Mechanic
The game does not have a fixed board, and the map of the planet is created randomly using a series of hex tiles. The final dimension of the playing filed created is a function of the numbers of players: the more the players, the bigger the planet. On every hex is placed face down a square "resource" tile, which will be discovered by the first player entering the hex: the resource could be a rubium mine, which produces rubium on every turn if some adequate units are kept on it, or one of the bizarre creatures living on the planet, which is immediately recruited in the player's army. The rubium collected can then be used to enlist other soldiers for the army.
The interesting part of the game is that victory is not achieved simply destroying the other armies, but collecting points, which are a reward for completing special secret "missions" indicated on cards that every player receives during the game. To win, an aggressive attitude is generally advised, since defence and consolidation do not bring VPs: a mission requires typically to destroy certain enemy units, or to conquer certain specific hexes.
The combats are resolved quite classically, with dice.

Complexity
The game is relatively easy to learn and to explain. It's a wargame, but definitely not a classic hex and counter one.

Length
A Nexus Ops game is quite short: if the players know the rules, an hour is generally enough. In any case, to lengthen or shorten a game it's always possible to modify the amount of VPs required to win.

Replayability
Good, though probably not exceptional. The randomly changing board is in fact always more or less the same (there are not so many hexes), but the mission cards are quite a lot, which allows for a good number of different games.

Number of players/Solo playability
The game cannot be played solo. It's for 2-4 players. I have tried it only with 2 players and it works fine, but even with 3 or 4 it should be perfectly OK.

Final take
The game is fun, not complex like a hex and counter wargame but, at the same time, more interesting that a classic Risk. The secret missions system is clever, and makes the game less predictable.
A good, light family wargame, worth 8/10.