Terran Conflict met and exceeded my expectations.
This game is good if you have a lot of time that needs to be killed, although the save system is friendly towards short play sessions too. You can spend hours playing this game, and you will be surprised at how high your total play time has accumulated. I started the game off with the Terran fighter route, but I spend most of my time off script hauling freight buying low and selling high for a profit. Basically, the game gives you a feeling of being a spaceship semi-truck driver. Then there are the Crazy Taxi missions, minus the chaos, where you give people rides from one space station to a space station in a different sector. The game has several other mission types along with advancing the main plot. It doesn't force the main plot on you, and you are free to do whatever you like; you will be mainly trying to figure out how to earn more credits (money), so you can buy better spaceships. Some spaceships cost millions of credits, and credits seem to take a while to earn.
The previous mentioned taxi and freight missions can feel like an actual real world job; still, the game is fun, and you will want to keep on increasing your credits. There is something satisfying about dropping off your freight at a space station and making a profit in the five figures. When you start thinking hauling freight is getting kind-off boring the game gives you something new to try out. For example, I bought better shields on my non-beginning cargo ship and I was surprised that a bump that would have previously seriously depleted my hull didn't do any damage at all to my hull as my ship's shields held up and took the damage.
I also like the customization: You can buy different strength shields, different weapons, and so forth. There are also different spaceships to buy with different price tags that specialize in different things. After 32 Hrs. of playing, I still have an average freight hauler which I was impressed by when I first bought it. The game holds the fact that there are better ships to purchase as motivation for the player to keep playing. The dogfights are also interesting with two ways to aim/shoot your laser fire. Shots of laser fire across your spaceship's bow look pretty nice. I use a joystick for this game. Although I can imagine using a controller works, I wouldn't wish to do it. The game has quite a few options which the player can customize, for example, spaceships' "wing" options. This refers to your wingmen, ships that accompany you.
My main negative point with the game, and why I can't give it higher than 8.5, is the graphics could be better. The ships I have gotten look plain, I am early into buying ships, and the space stations also do not look as spectacular as they could. The game is from 2009 though, and a lot of the planets look pretty nice. The game also has wonky friendly AI where the AI will too frequently crash your ships if the AI is used to pilot your ships. This may be able to be explained though if you think about it. Also maybe there is a workaround where you give them powerful shields, not sure.
Overall, the game exceeded my expectations, and I am glad I picked it up. I bought the X3: Goldbox (3 games bundle, including Terran Conflict) on a Steam sale and saved $7US off the regular price. I have only played Terran Conflict out of the Goldbox, and I feel the Goldbox is a great value.