The gameplay is not much better. It suffers from a lack of realism and a high level of frustration of control. The fun seems to have been overlooked as well. The training, for example, is nothing but a bunch of sample scenarios. There is no real explanation or teaching that occurs during training.
Realism is poor in just about every respect.
The plane's movements through the air more resemble those of a toboggan than of a jet. The weapon models seem to be no better. Get an itchy trigger finger in a real jet, and those loaded rounds will be gone before you know it. A load of 600 rounds lasts a nice long time, something that is most definitely not the case with real Vulcans. For the sake of example, whenever I fired that darn Phoenix within range, I always seemed to get a kill.