I think one thing needs to be said about this game that a lot of people don't seem to get: As far as I know, there is no end. You do not win. The systems, galaxies, and universes are randomly generated. The game will continue as long as the player doesn't initiate a reset.

A lot of this game isn't directly explained to the player, the player has to figure it out for themselves. Normally, that learning comes from the player messing up.
Outside of the tutorial telling the player the basic functions, one other thing it tells the player at the start of every new game is how to reset the game in the event that all drones are destroyed or aren't rescuable.

One thing the game doesn't tell you about is the objectives on the map screen. From there, the player will find that what they're actually doing - aside from surviving as long as they can - is piecing together different mysteries via uncorrupted files found when first docking with ships. However, some may require more than that:in the "pandemic" objective, one later step is to board a quarantined vessel and lure a biological enemy into the player's ship so that it can be scanned.

When the player resets, the data they've gathered isn't lost. Seemingly, the only thing with an end in this game is when you've pieced together all of these mysteries. What happens after that? I have no idea.

You might have noticed the "horror" tag on this game. This game can be terrifying. Like what was done with Alien: Isolation, there is no music; just the ambient noises of space and the sounds each drone will make, as well as audio clues that the hull of the ship might have been breached, or warnings from scanners and such. However, at the same time, there is only one kind of enemy that has the ability to jumpscare the player. The rest of them are just scary because if you even loose one of your drones, that's going to severely impact you.

The screenshots, other reviews, and information will give you a basic rundown on what you'll be doing. There's a lot more to it, but that's for you as a player to discover (or look up... I'm sure there's a lot of guides).

One thing to take away is that this game isn't short. After just over 18 hours of playing it, I think I've only scratched at the surface of what this game has to offer, and I'm both excited and terrified to discover everything.