Played it yesterday with three new friends and while we did not finish we all thought it was fun and had lots of potential. There appears to be many layers of strategy and tactics. Of course since it was our first game we spent a lot of times going back and forth reading the rules so I am sure we did some things wrong. By the way I did not own the game so I was just enjoying the company and the game.
I would say that the Empire has the easier time of it at least starting out and that the Rebel players have to be more clever and subtle. I was playing on the Empire side and between our mission cards and the characters we were able to acquire we were rapidly crushing the rebellion. Heck we managed to capture Princess Leia and turn her to the Dark Side.
The Rebels have to win by gaining reputation which means winning not only battles but gaining new allied and being able to liberate systems controlled by the Empire. The Empire just has to prevent all the above and find the hidden rebel base. If the Empire wins if it finds the Rebel base and destroys it. By the way the Rebels can get a card that allows them to flee and relocate the Rebel base. In fact the game is full of all the tropes from the first three movies (i.e., New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) plus clearly some of the characters available come from the novels set in that time period of the story.
Overall I liked the game. It is something you will need to be able to set up and have a day to play or at least be able to leave set up. There is something there for everyone as you have resource management, diplomacy, strategic and tactical decisions to make in regards naval (space) combat and ground combat (planetary) options, which character you send on what mission is critical to success, and of course what systems you will attempt to control matters to your long term goals.
Oh and as a final note the miniatures are wonderful and beg to be painted.