My first few hours with the game have been amazing.

 

Saying I’d want to be playing right now rather than writing these impressions is an understatement.

 

With RPG upgrade mechanics to your pilot, ship, weapons, and bases, as well as offering planetside locations to customize and upgrade, there is plenty to see and collect.

 

Movement and combat feels satisfying, though I did have to adjust my sensitivity for the joysticks.

 

Weapons have elements and damage types, which can be used to create combos such as freezing an enemy with ice rockets then heating things up with a flamethrower to deal a burst of heat damage. 

 

Most of your time will be spent traversing between the planets and space.

 

But fear not, there are no menus here.

 

After a brief tutorial mission you’ll unlock the ability to fly freely and off you go! In a seamless transition from planet surface to outer space, featuring a quick “breaking the atmosphere” scene that makes the game feel more realistic, you can easily move between planet and space without any delay.

 

See a new planet you wanna go to?

 

Just fly there!

 

Done with the planet you are on?

 

Up, up, and away!

 

However, space is vast and you’re not the only one out there, so you may encounter some rogue bandits that are itching for a fight.

 

I believe this is Ubisoft’s way of trying to keep people on track with story missions.