This is one of my favorite Space-Sims. I player almost all of them and this one has soul. The cuscenes are way better than those in WingCommander imho (you even get to choose although it does not make much of a difference, it does feel nice). The game mechanics work fine, the uinverse feels "real" and unique. For me this is the best trading-dockfighting version of a Space-Sim (together with X2 which had way better economical details butno real story).
The following is spoiler-free. TL;DR: This is a top-down rpg with a nice style, mostly stupid dialogues, a simplistic plot, boring combat and almost no character development (skillpoint-wise). Context: I preordered this game years ago and I am a fan of the work of the developer. The "handmade" style of the game is quite nice. Nothing fancy but a refreshing change. The dialogues are just plain boring most of the time. There are some funny passages but most of it is pointless or just stupid. Almost all of the characters you encounter are designed to be funny, but they rarely are, which is desastrous for that is all they are meant to be. The plot is extremely simple and most of its coherence is sacrificed for some laughs. While those laughs do work as intended that still leaves you without any meaningfull background to the gameplay. Furthermore the game is very short. I collected almost everything there was to collect and it lasted about 8 hours In combat you choose wich skills are to be used in which order and then you win (most of the times, some "bossfights" require some kiting). This does work as intended but the skill system is very limited. You only have a handfull of active skill, about 4 are usefull at the same character-level, and the handmade animations are very simple (in contrast to the overall graphics). So combat is boring most of the time.
