So far... tough to say. The battles seem arcade-fast to me so it's a bit more twitch than tactical; I'm coming from having just finished SPAZ, which is a bit slower and somewhat more tactical. Some interesting ship tools are used as weapons early on in the game, so that bit is fun as you learn new ways to blow up stuff. One game mechanic that takes getting used to is that at least some of the key-bound and mouse button-bound weapons and doodads are activated when you release the key / button. Makes sense for items that can be 'charged' for more power by holding down the key, but there is at least one instantaneous item that does this and it makes it somewhat cumbersome to use until you get used to it.
I need to dig into the graphics options a bit since I periodically have trouble losing the ship: the screen does not always stay centered on your vessel and a dark ship on a dark space background means you can lose it for a moment, especially after your ship gets knocked around a bit. If you look at the screenshots on the game card, you can see a sort green-gray line extending from the ship - this is your aim-line and also your steering / "nose is pointing this-a-way" vector. Like the ship, it can be lost in all the excitement so I need to see if that can be brightened up. The camera also zooms in and out depending on what's going on, and I haven't noticed (nor looked for, beyond the scroll wheel) a way to lock it or do manual zoom / retreat.
Hopefully there will be reverse- and sideways-thrust modules later on in the game, or maybe I'm missing those controls somewhere.
As far as "hilarious" is concerned, so far it's not. Funny-ish, sure. There are a couple "poking fun at games" comments early on...
I haven't yet bumped into any of the RPG or 'purchase stuff with the in-game currency' mechanics so I can't comment on those. Also can't yet comment on ship customization since that hasn't started yet (beyond changing your key- and mouse-mapping). Guessing that those will be introduced once they're done teaching the player how to play the game. Thing is, it doesn't really feel like a tutorial so you might feel like "Oh crap - what do I do?", but the game is doing a decent job of introducing concepts so far.
One big plus is the small installer size and the installed footprint on the hard drive. So far, the story is all covered in simple and easy-to-read dialog boxes so space isn't wasted on cut scenes, audible dialog, etc.
An annoyance on the missions: there are bonuses available at the completion of each mission (you can earn more of the in-game currency by completing certain objectives) but you don't know what those objectives are until the mission is complete. In general, they follow the lines of flying "clean" (not hitting obstacles), coming through unscathed (no damage taken), avoiding use of certain weapons, killing a certain number of enemy, or completing the mission in a certain amount of time. I'll never meet that last criteria since I plan and plod - probably not the best style in a twitch-like shooter. I'll check later to see if there is a 'mission objectives' screen available mid-mission where you can look up these bonuses.
The menus are purty but they can be a bit of a challenge to navigate. It has a sort of "smart pointer" thing that will move your pointer once you click a dialog; I'll have to see if this can be turned off. If I remember correctly, there are separate mouse sensitivity settings for the game and the menus, so I'll adjust that later on. Nice touch.
Mission failure means you can restart the mission. Basically, you replay it from scratch. Not sure if, later on, you'll have the chance to change your load-out if you fail a mission. Oh, and you don't have to fail a mission to replay it: once the mission is complete it'll give you a wrap-up detailing the time it took, what you blew up, and the bonus objectives that were and were not met. From there, you can go on to the next mission or opt to replay the last mission. Helpful if you found one particularly fun, want to play around with the weaponry, or want to get those bonuses.
A couple suggestions:
- if a mission gives you a chance for some free time to screw around (some of them don't end until you fly to a certain point), use this time to learn how your systems work, customize the controls, etc.
- sometimes your brain-implanted companion wants you to hurry up and get things over with, but many of those mission bonuses come from ignoring his whiny ass and instead flying around exploring or blowing up stuff.
