With games like First Encounters to build from it makes you wonder why developers aren't stepping up to deliver MORE.
Not really. The graphics are certainly beautiful, but designers these days seem to be compensating for a lack of creative flair with bloom and pixel shader 3. The plot of Spaceforce plays out like just about every other game before it with no surprises or innovations. The design likewise suffers from a distinct lack of originality, though I can only blame the industry as a whole for the non-creative garbage they've allowed to spew out in the last ten years.
Story: paper thin and predictable as it gets. You'll most likely want to free play if you play this at all.
Graphics: extremely nice to look at even at the lower settings and it runs smooth on my Geforce 6600 GT with max settings and the X-TREME G boosted drivers. Planets look suitably realistic with coronas, asteroid belts in orbit and such. Ship designs are varied and more interesting than a lot of recent space sims and there is the odd nebula or anomaly you can observe.
Design: There's really nothing new here. The missions are extremely run of the mill and are either spy on someone, destroy a building or kill people. They don't even offer escort/trading missions like in Frontier. To top it off the mission structure is buggy and if you take missions in a friendly system prepared to be targeting FRIENDLIES. It boggles the mind how they could have messed that up, but the last thing I want when I take a quest is to go out and discover it's to kill people from the group I'm working for. Also, as far as I can tell you can't actually abort a quest -- at least I haven't been able to. Space station docking is likewise unnecessarily complicated at times, simply because you cannot target and contact stations, only ships. Ship upgrades feel like a watered down version of Darkstar One's approach, though it's better than being stuck with the same crappy loadout until you can afford the bloated ship prices and actually FIND a better ship. Sound: I found the music to be quite good overall and fitting. The dogfight music gets you going, the space music has a good variation and sounds pleasant. The enemy voices are grating at times, particularly since the comments made are quite obviously random at times (a pirate will say his ship is about to blow up and you've barely scratched the shields).
Gameplay: Moving around in space is about what I expect from a game of this type and the ship is responsive even early on. Trading seems like a last minute addition to the game with a clear emphasis on frequent combat and tractoring in the cargo from your enemies. Mining seems likewise rushed. Enemy AI is also problematic, with aliens that were on your side suddenly turning against you and then being easily bought off with 100 credits. The constant insults and random comments made by the ai pilots adds to the frustration. One other thing that I found really weird are the ships whose sole purpose is to allow you to 'buy' your way into better diplomacy when you can pay off any group from a station. The inability to land on planets or really DISCOVER anything new and interesting in the game is a real negative in my book. Frontier: First Encounters, despite its age, was able to deliver a complete exploration and combat model with hundreds and hundreds of unique systems and planets you could land on and explore. Looking back at games like First Encounters it really makes you wonder why developers aren't stepping up to deliver the kind of depth and entertainment of games made 15 years ago.
Overall: Spaceforce is an interesting but highly flawed game with numerous small but significant shortcomings. It plays like a beta release that's still missing a few things, like a coherent tutorial phase, the ability to contact and target stations, polished quests and varied gameplay. I see no reason to buy a game like this when something like First Encounters is superior in spite of having dated visuals. My advice is to wait for extensive patches and for the game to go on sale, or like me, just keep hoping that someday these guys will stop making shoddy games just to turn some coin.