Great game, but...
I'm an X3 vet, so I am no noob when it comes to dogfighting or space sims, but holy crap, the learning curve on this game is ridiculous, in a bad way. I gave up on this game the first 2 times I bothered trying it. However, once you've died a few dozen times, replaced a mouse and/or keyboard and blew enough hours trying to figure this game out, it's actually pretty outstanding. Although I never even came close to completing half the game, I can safely say once you've upgraded your ship and know how to fight, you'll be fine for the most part, just don't go thinking you can take on a destroyer like in X3...there's not really any weapons fire that can be outrun here.
I still however run into the occasional pirate who outclasses me and I have to take off like a coward for 5 mins while he doesn't f off, thankfully a good percentage give up much earlier, but it's still quite frustrating at times, especially when you get flanked and/or ambushed while mining or exploring, or your just trying to continue with the main story line.
The game is damn fun and you can blow a load of hours into it, buy it, it's 10 bucks on steam, even if it pisses you off, it's still a bargain.
I gave it an 8 because of it's steeeeep learning curve, and not a 7.5 because of the great price/value.