My platform: Xbox One
Startpoint Gemini 2 is a great game, but it's a game with a lot of complexities and buried functions that aren't taught to you in the beginning. You can open up a tutorial snap-in app, which is little more than a longwinded Word document telling you what you already can see in the controller map screen, but nobody is going to read all that. Easier to just look at the controller overview. This is why dynamic in-game tutorial lessons are necessary these days. You will play countless hours and discover a menu you never knew about that will give you more play-style options.
The controls on the console are pretty poor, with no customization options. When I watch PC players on Youtube the aiming is gorgeous. I wish there were a left to right sliding/ skimming motion to make maneuvering more spacey and dynamic. It would be nice if they included an Xbox Elite configuration, too. Now that the controller is out it could change everything about how a PC game translates to console. Adding more button options and allowing for finer movement control.
Graphics are a hit and miss...it look really good, on one hand. On the other hand it is very aliased. You can tell that game is simply not running anti-aliasing, or much post processing(if any). The performance is also rough. I do end up with intense slowdown and stuttering that never stops, and it forces me to have to exit and restart the game.
As for story...let's face it, we don't play these games with much hope in the way of story. You're not going to find the lore-rich universe of Star Trek. We play for the combat and exploration. From what I understand the story is about a war. A great threat, or evil rising empire...but it's easy to forget, on account that every mission is a fetch and fight quest and seems to have no bearing on the greater story. You're either helping some collective of people to raid and pillage, or defending against pirates in exchange for some device, or intel on a person that has what you seek. The voice acting is a mixed bag...sometimes it's convincing, other times it's incredibly cheesy and cliché.
Conclusion
Starpoint Gemini 2 is an incredibly fun game, but the lack of post-processing, the stuttering performance and controls are its biggest issue. The controls were obviously designed with the PC in mind and it does not translate over as beautifully on console, but still better than some PC conversions I've played. I often find that my ship is tumbling around, as I try to determine my nose from my a**, and which way either are facing in relationship to the enemy. By the time I've figured it out the enemy has passed over, or under me and so the tumbling continues. Sure, you can center yourself by clicking left thumbstick, but this does not help distinguish your angle/ direction in relationship to the enemy. In fact, using the feature will most likely will point you away from the target and reveal your flank. It should be removed and replaced with something more important, as there's no horizontal plane in space anyway. All frustrations can be alluded to the fact that any space game needs a left and right sliding option to supplement the general nose-pointing motions. On PC, you usually accomplish side-to-side motions by holding down a button and moving the mouse side-to-side. On console, you have two thumbsticks and one of them should be doing this. Complete axial control, to enable controller users to stay facing the enemy. Imagine if NASA had no means of thrusting a ship side-to-side and could only point the nose left and right, up and down. I know, right? Absurd! They could never dock with the ISS. You need to face the enemy to focus all guns. Not all of your guns are 360 degree. My proposed controls, for console are as follows:
Left thumbstick handles X, Y, Z axis movements, e.g. pressing forward on the stick will raise the ship, while pulling back will lower it, in addition to left and right sliding/ strafing movements.
Right thumbstick will have two modes. It's main mode being responsible for a combined camera/ ship movement function, just like most flight games and first person shooters. e.g. the direction you turn the stick will behave as the left thumbstick currently does. It simply points your craft in any one direction, e.g. nose up, nose down, nose left and nose right. However, clicking the right thumbstick will allow you to freely move the camera and see what's around you and shoot your 360 degree turret weapons freely.
You can keep the D-pad as rolling and zooming, or remove zooming and zoom dynamically, instead. For instance, the game could pan out when battle ensues and pan back to a chase view or medium view. The zoom function can go into a context menu somewhere e.g. the Select button, which normally calls up your power balance UI should also perform a zoom if pushing Y or B while held down. This will reserve the up/ down D-pad function for something more important. A smart camera can save on buttons.. Trust me, console gamers will thank the developers if this could at least be an alternate controls profile. Not necessarily to overwrite the current. It can't hurt to have more options.