Finished mission two. Feels like crap with a controller (I hate flying with controllers in general so this isn't a negative towards the game), so went back to the mouse/keyboard which is much more accurate/fluid.
The performance could be better, but that's also been mentioned by others. Definitely in need of optimization.
As I mentioned before, the ships aren't anything to look at. Compared to the amazing backgrounds, everything else looks bland.
Combat is pretty fun, though, even without the strike suit. I usually don't play these kinds of games, and I didn't play the old school space shooters since I was a kid when they came out (and I was much more interested in Donkey Kong at the time).
I like how dog fights actually feel like dog fights and you have to bob and weave as you try to track down your targets. My only complaint is that when I try to use the .75 mm guns I have a really hard time seeing the cross hair to line up the shot because it blends in with the background. Having the ability to change your crosshair or change the color of your crosshair would be fantastic.
It would also be great if there was a graphic option to run the game in full screen windowed mode, as I've come to much prefer that option to just full screen or windowed (regular windowed sucks 100% of the time in any game).
Now, my major complaint is that mission objectives are really hard to locate. Everything has red arrows, and even if I spam F half the time I have no idea where I'm supposed to go since things tend to blend in with everything else. There's so much red in the UI that I find it difficult to differentiate one thing from another. This could really be cleaned up a bit, and it would be nice if mission objectives (especially if it's a ship all the way in the back of the map) had a clearer indicator of where they were in relation to your ship.
Because of this, I ended up failing mission 2 4 times while I tried to blow up torpedos, blow up ships, blow up turrets while blowing up torpedos, then blow up a ship which was still shooting torpedos, which I also needed to shoot. That aspect was not fun and it could really use some more polish.
This is my first impression of the game - I still have to play more, but it definitely feels like an indie game so far. Everything it needs is in place, but like most indie games, lacks the fine tuning and polish needed to really be a great experience.
Summary: Beautiful backgrounds and fitting music accompany fun combat scenarios, but some poor UI and gameplay elements detract from the experience and make the game frustrating at times. The ship art is nothing out of the ordinary, and leaves much to be desired.