An impressive, full featured space combat and trading simulation that's a lot of fun to play.
Gameplay is the classic freeform space trader/combat style, but with some new twists. Everything occurs while you are playing the game. What I mean by that is you aren't pulled away from playing to watch a cut scene or loading screen at any point (such as landing on a planet or docking at a station). The game's universe continues to go on around you while you are trading or doing other activities. The economy in the game is dynamic, prices and available change realistically instead of just remaining the same all the time. Exploration actually pays off in this game. Like the training suggests, there are hidden containers and weapon depots that offer free stuff if you can find them. There are also wormholes scattered around to provide free travel for distances your jump drive can't handle. And when you find these hidden benefits, the game even lets you mark your navigation map so you can remember where it is for the next time you are in the area (nice touch!).
The graphics are good. No shiny 'hulls-of-glass' here, but there is a rugged look to the ships and stations that is quite effective. I would describe the object graphics as more functional than flashy, but that's not to say they don't look good. There are some great light and exhaust effects applied to ships and stations that look very impressive. Space looks great in this game and the various environments (many of which are often in the same system) can be very useful to you (more on that in a minute). The jump drive warp effect is awesome and really makes you feel like you are accelerating to wild speeds. There are no gates or 'trade lanes' as in Freelancer and most other games of this kind which force you down certain paths, you are free to go where you want when you want (as long as your energy system is charged). As a gamer who enjoys freeform gameplay, this is a very welcome feature.
When it comes to space backgrounds and environments, this game really shines. You can fly into and out of nebulas seamlessly and they offer more than just eye candy. Nebulas can actually be used for radar cover, sheltered mining, and sometimes hide valuable containers (they also provide a neat lightning effect). You can also descend into planets, again without a loading screen or cut scene, it's entirely seamless. And landing on planets has several purposes as well, you can mine for materials and dock at a city station for trading, reloading, upgrading, repairing, and reviewing contracts. The environment around you is actually useful, unlike most other games where such environments really don't serve any purpose other then scenery. There are black holes, huge stars, radiation belts, planetary rings, wormholes, and more. And some of these even have a feature that most other space games tend to overlook completely... gravity. Get too close to a black hole and you can be sucked in, which makes for some pretty intense dogfights.
Combat is another well polished area of this game. The newtonian physics really work well and add a very realistic feel to the game. It's a lot of fun to disengage the inertial system, then flip around and fire at a target while flying backwards at high speed. You can track several targets at once through two different tracking modes on the HUD. One provides a list of the nearest targets, which you can use the mouse to click on. You can also use the mouse to click on any target in your view directly. Also, you can bring up a more detailed targeting display that provides specifics about the ship you're tracking. All of this can be controlled with either the keyboard or the mouse (and you can even bind the controls to a joystick). Speaking of controls, you can play the game with the keyboard, mouse, joystick, or gamepad. The mouse control modes are great, the default mode is very similar to Freelancer, which is the mode I prefer. You can also change your controls in the game with the option to bind keys, joystick movements, and buttons. If there's a control method you want, this game provides just about every option imaginable.
This game can also be customized a lot. You can design your own HUD in your favorite image editor, including all indicators/graphics, then import it into the game (sample files are provided at the game's website). You can change the cockpit and even your ship. You can rename just about everything in the game as well as import your own star systems. I was able to design and import my own star system in less than 10 minutes (there is a handy editor available from one of the fansites that makes it really easy). Lots of design options are available, including the ability to make transparent ice-like asteroid fields, which I thought was particularly cool. You can even place wormholes and link them together across several custom systems. This is one area of the game that is a lot of fun to play around with and is much easier to do then trying to do just basic modifications in many other games.
It takes a while to get into the game and make a lot of progress. Starting out can be pretty rough if you try to pick fights with other ships or travel to hostile space. It's best to take things slow and start with some trading or mining to earn some upgrades that will help you survive in combat. There is a multiplayer mode, in case someone wants to join with friends to work cooperatively or dogfight each other. Plus, you get to keep what you earn in single player and take it into multiplayer with you.
Overall, this game is a great addition to space-sims. I hope it gets discovered soon, because this game is what we need more of. Fun without too much complexity, runs well on almost any system, has good graphics, features Newtonian physics with awesome combat, and offers excellent freeform gameplay. I recommend at least checking out the free demo either here or at www.evochron.com for the latest version if you like this type of game.