You're no hotshot fighter pilot in this game. Instead, you command larger ships, from gunships all the way up to battleships. But the combat just doesn't work for me. Enemy ships move nimbly like they're dogfighting in Freelancer, but yours only slide around like reluctant elephants in water. Let the computer fire at will for you because aiming is too awkward when your ship can't turn fast enough to see enemies, even in turret view which theoretically should be the ideal view for a battleship-style game. You get missiles, but I didn't find them effective. And then, fights the game says are easy are often punishing, while fights it rates as over your level might be laughably easy. It's a crapshoot, and the aiming problems make it feel like you have little control over the outcome. One thing about combat I did like is that you can capture enemy ships to sell or keep for later. That's neat. As for other game features, it's a mix. The best feature is probably the ship customization. You can name every ship you get and see that name on the ship's side while you fly. You can put a logo on it, and choose from a generous color gradient the colors of your logo, name, and the ship's primary and secondary colors. While the poor combat is what sunk the game for me, the shallow (and weakly voice-acted) story didn't help; but I grant I didn't get far into it, so maybe it improves. The open world is pretty and ok, but lacks personality. You don't actually see your ship dock with anything. Instead, your ship freezes in space a hundred meters or so from the place, and then the window comes up with buttons for trading, repairs, etc. So every place feels identical. I bought SG2 because reviews here at GOG said it was a worthy successor to Freelancer. But after 7 hours of play (spread out over several months, as the game was never fun enough for me to be excited about returning to it), I've finally given up and uninstalled. The Crossfire mod for Freelancer beckons to me...
