Great space-sim action. The space combat is fun, graphically impressive and the best since Privateer and Freelancer. However, it's not much of a trading game since it is much easier to make money as a bounty hunter.
The settings are also very generic and fast become boring (each system has a trade station and other similar ingredients). There is no real differing character, atmosphere or feel to the different systems (other than the space stations and ships for each race look different).
It starts out being fun to play, but ends up being boring very quickly as missions and tasks tend to be fairly repetitive (except for the campaign missions). I gave up playing the game halfway when one of the campaign missions put me in a massive, maze-like factory (without an automap) and had me flying around aimlessly looking for the "yellow door". Such a shame as the developers had the space combat part down great - if only they had put more effort into the other aspects of the game.