I don't play many of these types of games, and I haven't played a space shooter in decades - and they've come a long way since the days of Descent or Elite. The game is fun, with tight controls and works pretty well with mouse + keyboard, although I'm sure it's even better with a "proper" controller.
The story revolves around Nara, a former pilot who is trying to come to terms with an atrocity she committed (she destroyed a planet!). That is all you learn at the beginning of the game, and the entire lore and back story is subsequently told through "memories" that you find as you go on your journey. There is a problem with telling a story this way imo, in that everyone else seems to know what's going on except you as the player. I was very confused with the plot at numerous times, where Nara is interacting with and doing missions for people she knows very well but we (as the player) don't, which removes a lot of player agency. A great deal of the dialogue and story is simply Nara talking to her ship, Forsa (the origin of the ship's "AI" is explained), and her own subconscious (similar to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice), and this works extremely well in fleshing out characters and overall lore.
Graphics are great and it consistently ran very well on my RTX 2060, maintaining a consistent 60 fps at 1200p at near the max settings. Sound is also really good. There is a major issue with custom keybindings in that to accept/reject missions you HAVE to push Q or E, and if you rebound them, they don't register, so you have to switch back to the original scheme (there are 3) and then flick back to your custom controls after accepting the mission.
Difficulty is hard to gauge - as someone who doesn't regularly play this type of game, I found it very challenging at times on the Normal difficulty, and at about the mid-way point switched it to Easy (you can change on the fly) and had immediately significantly more fun with it. You also unlock various "magic" (for lack of a better word) abilities for your character which if you master them (and upgrade) really helps alleviate (and shake up) the combat options.
Overall well worth playing for fans and even non-fans of the genre due to it fun combat.