Like many others here, this game frustrated the CRAP out of me and I came close to rage quitting. I'm glad I didn't. This is not a casual, "fly around and look at stuff and blow up bad guys" game. It is not a Freelancer / Wing Commander: Privateer game where you upgrade your ship and get better ships and collect stuff freely with tons of enemies killed and only the occasional boss ship. This is a fighter sim where you will learn to be afraid and live that way. There is no casual play here. From the second you warp in to a sector you are 1 minute away from dying. You need to get used to that to enjoy the game. The dogfights are intense and require you to up your game. You will bob, weave, hide and run. You will learn how to change weapons on the fly and how to use them. You will use missiles tactically. And when you hear the Oskarr are coming you will stop what you are doing and run... When you get into a sector you will look around and do a tactical assessment. Take out some enemies soon if you need to, run to safety if you can't. Check out your ship and see what upgrades you need and what you can get in that sector. Move quick, time isn't your friend. The fun is in the dogfights and the discovery of hidden caches and new equipment. The computer banter is fun too. It is also fun to get better and better at the fighting and [very slowly!] upgrade your ship from run to run. Don't count on this part getting you a better ship anytime soon, but it will happen. I would have hated this game 10 years ago because I had all kinds of time to waste in long drawn out adventures. Now I don't. I jump in, blow stuff up, learn a little more, then I die. Each time I get slowly better. When the odds get stacked against me and I get stuck, I say "Ok, you want to play? Let's play". Then I see how many bad guys I can take out, before they kill me, upgrade for the next run and go back to my life until I have another 15 minutes to play. A perfect game for me.
