Is anyone playing this?
'cause I'm interested, but not sold on it yet and the pictures and blurb don't explain what the game play is like at all.

In the release thread here https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_into_the_stars_cd3de some people have likened it to FTL Faster Than Light or a poor man's No Man's Sky.

After playing for a few minutes I would agree that the overall aim is like FTL. You are trying to get from A to B without dying while evading or fighting the enemy. Unlike FTL though it is realtime but with a pause function. You actually fly the ship to the next encounter. I would rather have a pilot do that for me. You have resources to manage and 10000 people to look after. Before launch you can pick your crew and customise your ship. I haven't done that yet but it reminds me of the old Outpost game with less detail.

If you haven't noticed them already, please look at the system requirements before buying.

I've watched several reviews on youtube will pass on this one at over $5. This one hits the nail on the head for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raW-jgaUw3Q

To be fair I'd get it for $10 more than $5. Keep in mind all the effort involved and the time you get replaying to encounter differing factors each playthrough if you like repeated challenge. I just finished the normal difficulty in around 2 hours after high-tailing it back on course to Terra Nova... but it crashed.

Even so, when it gets the crashes fixed, I think $10 is a fair price. People rent movies for similar dollar value and length of enjoyment.

Gameplay is predominantly as others have said, a mix of FTL and WASD ship flight with permanently bound controls. It is enjoyable overall, but the crashing and lack of difficulty make it akin to playing chess with your dog. In space.

Yeay, second thought $10 is about right.

I've played it for a few hours now, meh. The game freezes when I reach my destination and is loading. I have an ultra wide screen which is 2560X1080 there isn't a resolution to match it so I have to play it in 1920X1080. I'd wait for some patches to come out.