Terminus requires patience, plain and simple. The developers took great efforts at making realistic physics, which means a totally different approach to flying. The fact that most story-based missions are split up by mindless tedium (patrol the gates AGAIN?), doesn't help add excitement to the game. The graphics are very basic shapes with textures wrapped around them - certainly not cutting edge, but they get the job done. The sound is almost nonexistent, though running the sound CD while you're playing the game helps (though I find it odd that you have to play a conventional CD for ambiance rather than the sound being included in the game engine.) The dueling reveiws above are both half true regarding targeting commands. Terminus offers a plethora of commands, but not many of them are particularly useful. You can target incoming torpedoes, but you can only "target nearest ship", not "target nearest attacker." Also, it doesn't implement IFF codes like most sims, so there is no "target nearest enemy." Rather, you have several keys for targeting specific factions (Target Next Mars, Target Next Earth, Target Next Pirate, etc.) So, you have to know which faction you're hunting, and if they hire mercenaries you're outta luck. The fact that each faction maps to a DIFFERENT key means mapping targeting to your joystick isn't really practical. Also, if you take too much damage and your ship becomes practically unflyable, there doesn't seem to be an eject or distress call option. SO - even if you win the mission, you lose. Terminus includes decent stories, a decent economy, and decent space flight, but bottom line, it requires lots of patience to get into and play. It takes time to learn the solar system, learn the multitude of key commands, learn the economy, replaying missions if your ship takes too much damage, and simply WAITING between interesting missions. So, Terminus is not a BAD game, but you can do better elsewhere (Tachyon: The Fringe, anyone?)
