I'm an hour in, and first impressions are: The graphics are good enough - the textures are nice, the frames/models are a little 1-D - flat ground is level, hills are at 45 degrees. It can feel a little lilke a 90's game, but then you see some really nice textures. There are also sudden appearing textures of trees and grass. The gameplay: The running and gunning is pretty good, sometimes frustratingly enemies can clip through terrain, but the OTS and FPV modes are reasonably well polished the 3x guns I have acquired have very clear niches and roles. The Flying: It's wonderful. I think a few extra keys for navigating would be useful, but the interface is smooth and pretty intuitive. The fights are so far pretty simple, but I've seen larger capital ships, and engaged a heavy fighter that was thrilling - I loved the sense of scale, it reminded me a little of Freespace2. The menu's are a little confusing and overwhelming. The empire building - it looks fantastic - I've not yet delved into this feature. I'll update the review once I have. Overall, it's in early-development/pre-release, and it's good - fun, occasionally buggy, but it's the space sim we've all been waiting for. Just need to make it cross-platform Co-Op and I might never leave!
