'scool
Despite being a beta version, this game runs very well. I've put about ten hours in, and have yet to experience any bugs or crashes whatsoever. Though I do have a decent computer, this game ran smoothly without any slowdown on maximum graphics at 1080p. Some of the menus are a little clunky, and it does feel a bit like the UI was designed to be ported to console. The basic idea is an FTL-style one-way romp through increasingly difficult areas as you amass equipment along the way. The dogfighting is relatively simplistic. It's your basic freelancer-style mouse movement and aiming game, with primary and secondary weapons. You get a good variety of each, and all the weapons are fairly unique. Missiles are quite good at hitting their targets. Mostly you will fight small fighters and drones, but there are larger ships, including corvettes, frigates, and full on capital ships which you will have to escape. Environmental hazards affect enemies too. It's pretty fun. You start out with a laser blaster, a machine gun, and some missiles, and you can pick up, or eventually craft, all sorts of other weapons. There are equipment slots on the ship too. You start with just your shields, but you can get things like cloaking devices, teleporters, anti-missile devices, and so on. Lastly, you have consumables, like scanner drones, shield boosters, and energy boosters. As you play, you earn money, and find blueprints. Like real life, the goal is to die with as much money as possible. Before you start another run, you have the opportunity to spend the money you amassed on "perks" which is your basic character leveling system. Through this, you can improve pretty much every aspect of your ship, making subsequent runs easier, hopefully allowing you to make it further, and to make more money, and eventually beat the game. The blueprints you find allow you to build the items they describe in-run, using the various crafting materials you can find in the world. They seem to drop randomly.
