I think this game is not bad if you play it as a RPG.
If you're looking for a space simulation game, don't buy this.
This is NOT a good simulation game.
However, you can just play it like Mass Effect.
Doing quests, shooting bad guys, selling loots, and upgrading your ship.
You can feel totaly free to playing in this game (although some people are too free to understanding how to play it).

Pros:
Free style RPG
High C/P value (it's very cheap)
Easy controlable - it's not simulation game, you don't neet to press a lot of key for just a simple action (such as yaw or U turn)

Cons:
Bad trading design - I need to remember all item prices by myself?!
Bad documentation - and it cause some player hard to know how to play, and they may think this game is trash
No friendly quest list (for reminding)

I really enjoyed playing this game. Finally played it to the ending of the story line. The shooting is fun in this game but It doesnt keep me coming back to it like X3 A-Prelude does. Still I recommend it to any space shooting fans out there. To me it is a better game than what the critics have rated it.

The game is similar to Freelancer and the old Privateer. Yes there is a learning curve. Best to just get the online manual and look it over like we used to before they put tutorials in games. Once you get the hang of the controls (Enter to Dock or interact with Satellites), it plays quite smooth. Yes it is hard in the beginning to fight and win against multiple targets, but that is what makes it challenging. You have to have skill to win battles. I suggest you use "match target speed" (Page Down) once you lock on a target and lead him. There is a blue mark that does the work for you. As soon as you can, do some mining and get the materials to make all of the upgrades. Once you have level 1 upgrades on everything you are pretty much ready to venture out further. Yes you will put a bit of time into mining and building the various upgrades. Its a slow progression, but it feels like you have accomplished something. If you are not into a challenge and need to be spoon fed with tutorials and have things on easy mode, this game is not for you.

Boring. It takes too much time to defeat a single enemy ship and the resources they give its so little that the player must spend hours killing enemies to buy one upgrade. Very tedious and poorly balanced.

UPDATE:
Some tips i wish i had known at the beginning:
- Avoid the "Destroy Subject" missions at the beggining. Focus on "activate satellite" missions and increasing the diplomacy with other races (every mission completed gives 3% of diplomacy to a chosen faction)
- The big containers near the space station are warehouses. If you dock in there you can drop your loot from your inventory. Useful to save narcotics and resources.
- Focus on mining, and get the upgrades. If you max out a stat, you can sell the upgrade for lots of money to a space station latter in the game.
- press "F" to target an enemy and show him on the screen. The screen shows the level of the ship and the type of shield and armor it uses. Avoid confrontation against higher levels.
- Try to not attack anything until you get the sniping tool. Then, you can change to sniping fire mode and destroy your enemies easier than using other fire modes. (easier to aim and it does more damage)

The game suffers from lack of information about basic controls. If you get pass the dificulty curve its enjoyable.

Great game! Especially now, since I got a far far better computer than I had when I first bought this years ago, and I can crank up the graphics to max. There is plenty of things to do. You can mine and use the metals to upgrade your ship in many possible ways, while you can also buy plenty of stuff you can sell in other sectors. While the controls are not the best, it's challenging, and not to mention, that you HAVE TO upgrade your ship to have your ship be manuverable and faster etc. You can make factions like you if you do their missions, but pi$$ off others if you get into their domestic issues with other races (shooting down their enemies, which may be neutral to you) . You can get friendly with the pirates and get their ships and do their missions. There are jumpgates and you can even bookmark locations in sectors , where you can jump to with autopilot. The galaxy is huge, there is plenty of things to do.
Also the music is top notch (maybe a few songs aren't, while a few are fantastic), voice acting is not the best, but this was a budget title (and a very good budget title) so I don't mind.
The game is far far better than what they offer today with (half of functionality and depth than this), even though when this game came out, it was measured against Freelancer and even the reviews said it's a "diamond in the rough". Today - unfortunately - this diamond in the rough is a better gem, than anything else in similar category.
There were even mods for this game! Updated planet textures and better starfield etc. Not sure if they are still around on some deserted websites.
I can see it's been offered for a few bucks. If nothing else, it's worth it. Just have patience for the first half hour and learn the controls (works great with both mouse control or joystick) .
For the question that comes up in your mind (in 2014), if it's better than X: Rebirth the answer is Yes.

Long-suffering space simulator fans will take what they can get. This game has appalling voice acting and what I've experienced of the story is quite weak. There are some nice graphic and gameplay elements, but older gamers who fondly remember Elite, Privateer and Freelancer won't find the game they've been waiting for here. If you're desperate, Space Force rogue Universe is a half-decent alternative to X3.

Great Little game for what i played some indepth features i love the feel of exploring these space games. big fan of freelancer this comes close although combat feels little sluggish at times still a good game to play especially for less than a fiver!

Wooden voice acting and a lack of tutorial nearly made me regret buying this. That said, once I got in to the game, I found that it's an entertaining blast from the past. Set to high quality, the graphics aren't that bad considering the age of the game.

The learning curve is quite steep (see no tutorial), and the combat can drag on a bit sometimes until you figure out what you're doing (and even then your starter weapons don't do much damage), but there is plenty to do, and it's cheap as chips.

Main story aside, the game has a fair amount of depth including side quests, ship customisation and upgrades, as well as being able to buy new ships when you have the cash. There is the obligatory looting and trading, and a tech upgrade "crafting" section too.

All in all, worth a play.

Very nice Space RPG. I do recommend SpaceForce with the use of a JoyStick ( I am using Cyborg Graphite on an Acer TravelMate Win7 64bit Laptop and did not have to calibrate. Manually change the keyboard control to Joy/keyboard.) If you like the X-Universe, but wanted it to be fun and not a job, this game is for you. Learn the Keyboard controls with the Joystick. Listen to the trainer at the beginning of the campaign mode and get lost. Experiment and try to make some cash,upgrade ship assets with mining, survive in Sol before moving on. You will have fun.

This game is deceptive. Looks good, seems to have some fair depth, but the reality is that it's straight-up awful.

Starting off, following the usual (cheesy) story introduction, you're dumped in the middle of a fight, with only the basic nav controls explained. No interactive tutorial, no chance to get used to the controls and UI. Just dumped in a fight and left to figure out every single relevant interaction in 5 seconds flat. Then, if you survive that ("if")... well, don't expect much else. There's a marker to pick up a mission, but that's it. You're on your own! I'm not one to advocate for games holding your hand every step of the way, but this is just masking poor design under the guise of "freedom". Honestly though, I couldn't stomach getting any further anyway, because...

...the UI is pretty much unforgivable. The basic information displays are largely ignored - absolute velocity for starters. When in space, with little visual reference, this is pretty much mandatory. I also noticed that the primary-fire lasers are limited by some kind of refilling capacitor (standard in games like these), but there is no indication of that on-screen; you're again left guessing. The few details that are visible are done so in a poor slap-dash manner, with irrelevant items instead given more prominent placement. For example, the comms screen, which shows static 98% of the time (and pre-animated heads on occasion), is given marked priority over more vital engine read-outs (the few that exist anyway)

It's not just visual interaction that suffers, but controls too. By default, primary-fire actually launches your secondary missiles as well, despite there being a separate missile-fire key. So, if you don't want every shot of your lasers to near-instantly waste your missile stocks, you have to... completely unmount your current missiles. Hope you don't want them in a hurry during a fight!

This game could have more depth than X3 and it wouldn't matter. The interaction is so poor that it doesn't take long before you're left mashing Alt-F4 in frustration.