I've been playing space games forever. I'm sorry but the way you control your ship is horrible. I know that because of integrating RTS with taking control of a ship, it's hard to have mouse moving and awsd controls, but this is massively immersion breaking. I'm fumbling around trying to orient the ship, it's just not fun.

Unless you can find a way to make steering the ship with the mouse, and being able to strafe, go up, go down, pretty much the standard in ALL space games, you're going to have a problem getting new players to invest.

Sadly, I am going to have to refund this. I wanted to love it, and there is so much that is amazing about this game, but you shat the bed with the fundamentals. So sad!

To the Devs: You should be proud of what you've released, and what you've accomplished so far. I am writing this from the perspective of a consumer who bought this game on release day, because I had it wishlisted for so long and was looking forward to it.

For context, I'm a space game nerd through and through. I still replay Freelancer, the first Colony Wars, X4, Freespace, The Homeworld trilogy, and many others from time to time because I love the genre. I'm THE guy to sell these types of games to, so I say what I say from a place of love for the genre, and respect for those that grow it.

At the time of writing I have nearly 30 hours in the game. I really wish I can recommend it with a perfect 10/10 score. Sadly, I can't. This game is a 5.5/10 Maybe a 6. Hopefully new updates and content releases in the future will raise the score.

Mechanically speaking, you have dogfighting in fighters, where you also have cockpit view. You can command larger ships in 3rd person, and you also have a 3D map system just like Homeworld to allow you to command your fleet in space. The ships handle well enough, and the controls are easy to grasp within minutes. There's even a tutorial section, and it's actually useful.

The ship selection is pretty decent, and the same goes for weapons. Could use more variety, but it is good as is. This is as far as the pros go.

To sum up the pros:
Decent ship and weapon selection.
Good handling.
Can jump between fighters and capitals.
3D map and commands.
Decent tutorial.

I'll also add that the restriction of Deployment points, and ship count is a positive as it encourages creative fleet building.

Here's where the cons start:
No story, which on its own would be very forgivable. However, it combines with the next points to create something unfun.

No factions, no dynamics, no mechanics outside the instanced systems you spawn in.

You only have 6 mission types: Station Defense. Attack Outpost. Defend Freighter. Cargo Escort. Search and Destroy, and Fleet Interception.

There's technically a 7th but it only exists on 6 one-time only missions within the campaign (I use the term generously here) sectors. It is also the worst offender when it comes to turning the game into an unfun slog.

Extremely repetitive experience. Playing the last system in the game is EXACTLY the same as playing the first. The closest thing to a difference is that the bigger ships show up more often in the final systems.

No depth. The game is purely combat based, and due to factions not existing, and sector control being a non-factor (no diplomacy, no trade, no ability to influence things aside from farming xp) and you have a static dead world. You instance into a system and it's the same as the 5 systems before that. There are no environmental modifiers, trying to ram an asteroid at max speed results in you just stopping, no hazards.
If the last 5 hours of the game, are exactly like the first 5 hours of the game, something has gone wrong.

Obfuscated mechanics:
The game doesn't explain how armor values and armor penetration interact.
The game also doesn't explain how veterancy impacts performance. (I still don't know if it does, and I'm on literally the last mission of the game)

Last point before we dive into conquest sectors:

Annoyingly, the game allows you to assemble a massive fleet. When you're not in a level. However, you can't use it. If you lose one of your ships in a mission, you can't call in another one to replace it. You have finish your sortie with the ships you started it with. It doesn't matter if you have 50 ships sitting in your base doing absolutely nothing. You can't use your stockpile of ships for anything, by the way. Only the ones you select to go on your mission can do anything, and the rest just sit there collecting dust.

Conquest Sectors:
This is the 7th mission mode and honestly the main reason I am even writing a review. I'm about to clear the last one and finish the game, and this mode is a problem. It's meant to be a more proactive mission type, you have to take control of enemy bases, reduce their supplies, while growing yours and then slowly push on the final base to capture it and win.

Great premise. The execution is a different conversation. It turns into a 20 minute whack-a-mole experience where you jump back and forth between refineries to capture and recapture them until eventually you win.

There are 6 or so of these in the game and the all play exactly the same, down to the tiniest beat. They're the closest thing we have to an RTS mode, except you can't do anything in that mode aside from moving your 6 or 7 ships you brought along. Everything else is managed by the AI in a very predictable fashion.

It's a pretty enjoyable game so far, though it's got bugs....really annoying ones like the the dev window popping up every time I return to the hanger, but then there's one that completes the mission as soon as you arrive in the area. It needs work...and maybe some more credit gain.