11 minutes ago, RaTcHeT302 said:nah
If you do things right, the combat should only be around 5-10% the length of the average mission. I think you're letting the learning curve taint your entire impression of the game. Art direction is amazing, the best there was, and perhaps it was not all by design either. The HUD and ands menus are minimalistic and the ships are a bit boxy(no doubt limited in some way by the tech of the time), but that's precisely what space is: empty and utilitarian.