Absolute mediocre, disappointing and boring!
In fact it doesn't even merit an academic style review, I will just write simply - it is boring. Everything about it is. Fighting is boring. Graphics are boring. Missions are boring. In fact what missions? There are like 6 types of missions and all missions are just a variations on the theme. The universe is static, fake, boring and just plain lazy, every star system is like the other one. Every premise of the game is boring, the characters are boring, the trading is boring, the darkstar is boring, the weapons are boring. The dialogue is horribly lame, ye gods bring the dark Privateer 2 back! The story line is absolutely dead and non-involving, there is no sense of urgency, the Thul are not scary. In fact this is the first space sim I gave up because it was just too boring to finish, ploughing through the same missions ad nauseam, argh!! I usually trust Gamespot on reviewing games, but this review is absolutely misrepresentative, I do not think the reviewer played the game enough to realize how utterly boring and mediocre it is!