Having a great time so far. Really good VR integration, HOTAS is a little bit of a pain to set up but works great once you figure out what buttons to map. You can replay missions as many times as you want on any difficulty setting so you can figure the gameplay out quickly. I wish it had true 6DOF controls but it's made for a controller so I understand why it doesn't.

If you like ace combat sims this game is insanely fun. It's a compact experience to be sure: controls are very simple and intuitive, movement feels really responsive and nimble, and it's excellent fun to blast baddies out of the sky. The strategy component of the game is similar in that regard - shallow, but very engaging. There are a relatively limited number of ways you can load out your ships, and you progress quickly through unlocking these options. Choices of ship weapons and accessories are limited, but loadout choices you make *do* feel really impactful on the scenario. Commanding ships during battle is a little clunky with a gamepad, but i think short of actual flight stick that's prob the best way to play the game. If you choose, you can also load your larger ships with just long-range weaponry and then mostly ignore the RTS component and focus just on first-person combat. I'm not sure this is really how it is meant to be played but people should know it's not imperative for successful completion of the story missions.

Simple mechanics allow for some really fun gameplay maneuvers, like avoiding homing missiles by narrowly dodging through an asteroid belt, or hiding your frigate behind a moon so that when the enemy comes around in orbit they get a surprise broadside. Every mission has *at least* one timer, usually more, so the game has a sense of frantic urgency about it almost all the time which keeps it engaging.

I really wish the developers had made some simple additions to the story and texture of the game - i could see myself playing this for many more hours if there were more depth. As it is i'll occasionally come back to the daily challenge level to put myself on that leaderboard, ace pilot that i am. Today i placed 4th.

Get it on sale and it's a great deal. For full price it is a little bit sparse in terms of total gameplay. But honestly for fans of the genre this is a must-have entry.