The game's promise: put in the time, the effort, and the work, and you can fly throughout the galaxy in the best ships, loaded with the best components your money can buy, and do whatever you please. And the avenues to that success are varied: trade legal/illegal goods, taxi around rich people and war criminals to high-profile sightseeing spots, engage in conflict with one of the three factions, or just pick on anyone and everyone you come across as a bloodthirsty pirate. And that's a fairly brief summation of the sorts of things you can do.

But when I say "put in the time, the effort, and the work," that's really what it is. This game demands your time and demands a pound of flesh from you before it starts returning the favor, and the grind in this game is very, very real. You're going to be doing a lot of monotonous jobs at first, until you're able to get your first proper trading ship, or combat ship, or exploration ship. Once you get that first ship, the grind alleviates a little, but it's still there. I've been playing this game since the beta, and I'm still far from where I want to be and what I want to have. And it's a bit discouraging, knowing I still have a couple hundred million credits to earn before I'm near my goals. You can help yourself during the grind by listening to audiobooks (I've gotten through half my Audible backlog thanks to long distance cargo running!), or finding some other thing to multitask with.

Despite the grind, though, this game shines when you're playing with friends. I have so many stories where I get into a flight wing with my buddies, and we jump into a hazardous resource site in time to see a massive conflict flare up amongst pirates in massive ships like Anacondas and Imperial Clippers, and jumping into the fight to take down the pirates using a combination of our own heavy warships as well as player-controlled fighters, and successfully shoot down several separate wings of pirates, all of whom were far deadlier than we were. It's a deeply satisfying way to game with friends.

If you're thinking about getting this game, then, remember these two things:
1. The game has a grind that can get monotonous.
2. Playing with friends is the best way to play this game.

Fly safe, Commanders!