You'll be annoyed and frustrated long before you come to appreciate the good points. Playing With Actual Humans Multiplayer games sport a variety of options. Play is possible by modem, LAN or the Internet, although a matchmaking service is not available. Once you find an opponent you can choose between cooperative, team, and death match play. Missions are similar to those in the single player game and include recon, attack, and escort duty.
Characters used in multiplayer games are persistent.
By flying missions and getting kills you are awarded money with which to upgrade your ship, weapons, and buy ordnance. Prior to the mission start you are able to purchase and swap out any equipment you wish, provided you have the funds, and only then do you launch into space. This is a cool idea, although it puts newcomers at a serious disadvantage in terms of the equipment they can afford. Dieing in a mission costs you cash, and you can even duck back to your base in the middle of a mission to switch equipment if you need to. Once a mission is over you are just sort of left to figure that out.