I mean, when a ship initially blows up, it looks cool, but their debris, for some reason, turns into fiery comets that roar out in whatever direction they are blown. Sure, they have the real flight physics, but they also have an ass-load of fire in space. What a total blunder. If it was a brief blast of fire, a puff, something like in StarLancer, then that'd be acceptable. But they almost throw it into yer F'in face with the overly done and used and glaring and annoying fire.
Some sound is good.
Most is barely average. Some casual space simmers may find some things to like in it too. The music soundtrack kicks ass, btw. Too bad the manual sucks and they don't tell you who did it. It is a fun game though it feels like Ive been through it before aka Wing Commander.