The gameplay is just a poor rip-off of the X-Wing/TIE Fighter series. There's just enough to showcase in marketing to convince players that it's being faithful to those games, but enough is missing for that gameplay to not work. Also, even though an attempt is made to have Imperial navy soldiers who just want to do the best job they can, the story still slips to cartoonish evil, because Disney can't help themselves. The villains can never be sympathetic in their eyes.
Here are some of the things that are wrong with the gameplay:
● Unlike XW, throttle presets of 0, 33, 66 and 100 don't exist, just throttle up and down. Being able to set increments is still not enough control, because it's hard to keep track of smaller increments, and big increments don't give you enough control. So, targets always move too fast or too slow.
● On a related note, there is no button to match target speed, which is an essential feature in the XW games
● The yaw-roll hybrid in the XW games seems to be a better form of control for space dogfights than full three-axis control, but there is no option for hybrid axes
● There is no tactical battlespace map, and you can't select targets to assign hotkeys for selecting them
● Dual radar for front and back is replaced by a single radar for front only. That is simply worse.
● Friendlies do not cover you from enemy starfighters even when your combat role is a bombing run. You will essentially have to do everything like it's an Ace Combat game
● The command to ask for assistance from your wingmates simply does not work. It does nothing. Your character clearly tells wingmates to target specific craft via radio, but when you press the support command key, nothing happens. So, all support basically just happens randomly.
● They actually have the audacity of having "return to playing area" warning in a space combat game. Where does the game think I'll go? There is empty space there, not a visible level geometry boundary.
● Capital ship turbolasers deal less damage to other capital ships than the player's normal blasters deal
● Solid objects have inaccurate hitboxes, causing you to collide with empty space if you try to fly close
● Mouse control cannot be unbound from ship steering, so you can't use it just for looking around the cockpit. All you're allowed to do is disable all mouse control, which means menus as well.
● You can select your character's face and voice, but the character is never seen, and only speaks during gameplay. In "conversations" the others just talk at you and you never respond. Selectively silent protagonists make no sense.
● They somehow managed to make an ambush mission as annoying as badly designed escort quests. Good job.
Here are some of the things that are wrong with the gameplay:
● Unlike XW, throttle presets of 0, 33, 66 and 100 don't exist, just throttle up and down. Being able to set increments is still not enough control, because it's hard to keep track of smaller increments, and big increments don't give you enough control. So, targets always move too fast or too slow.
● On a related note, there is no button to match target speed, which is an essential feature in the XW games
● The yaw-roll hybrid in the XW games seems to be a better form of control for space dogfights than full three-axis control, but there is no option for hybrid axes
● There is no tactical battlespace map, and you can't select targets to assign hotkeys for selecting them
● Dual radar for front and back is replaced by a single radar for front only. That is simply worse.
● Friendlies do not cover you from enemy starfighters even when your combat role is a bombing run. You will essentially have to do everything like it's an Ace Combat game
● The command to ask for assistance from your wingmates simply does not work. It does nothing. Your character clearly tells wingmates to target specific craft via radio, but when you press the support command key, nothing happens. So, all support basically just happens randomly.
● They actually have the audacity of having "return to playing area" warning in a space combat game. Where does the game think I'll go? There is empty space there, not a visible level geometry boundary.
● Capital ship turbolasers deal less damage to other capital ships than the player's normal blasters deal
● Solid objects have inaccurate hitboxes, causing you to collide with empty space if you try to fly close
● Mouse control cannot be unbound from ship steering, so you can't use it just for looking around the cockpit. All you're allowed to do is disable all mouse control, which means menus as well.
● You can select your character's face and voice, but the character is never seen, and only speaks during gameplay. In "conversations" the others just talk at you and you never respond. Selectively silent protagonists make no sense.
● They somehow managed to make an ambush mission as annoying as badly designed escort quests. Good job.