Available orders include instructions to engage specific types of ships (and at what range they'll try and do so), if they should try and stay in formation with or protect a specific vessel, if they'll have a tendency to target already-crippled ships to try and finish them off, and so on. By laying down these commands and fine-tuning the values for ranges and targeting probabilities (where applicable), you can drastically affect how your ships will act in a given battle.

The system actually works pretty well and offers a rewarding feeling that you really are playing as an 'Admiral' who's trying to predict how a battle will go in advance, but having to specify what each and every ship in a battle will do can be time-consuming, and I'm a bit concerned that the somewhat generalized order system might lead to frustration when it meets fans who prefer a more hands-on method of bossing their ships around. Additionally, many of the missions don't have any kind of a central plot beyond a dramatic-sounding name ("Ambush at XXXX"), which might make the experience feel a bit shallow after some time. I'll be most interested to observe how this turns out in the long-term.

Since all you can do is watch once a battle is under way, this means the game's graphics must be sharp (if not gratuitous). Thankfully, despite the fact that the game operates completely on a two-dimensional top-down perspective, it still manages to look fantastic. As ships pound away at each other across deep space, you'll see shield bubbles rise and flare up in response and armor sections briefly glow bright-red as they deflect any direct hits. However, once a ship's defenses are breached and things get down and dirty, you'll start seeing pockets of flames erupt on a ship's hull, winking lights as engine nacelles sustain damage, and massive explosions as turrets and vital systems are destroyed.

Even after a ship is eventually annihilated, you'll see pieces of the hull break apart and fragment across the battlefield, eventually forming into a pile of debris that remains for the rest of the battle. The game's graphics definitely look top-notch for a 2D title, and the only complaint I really have is that the animation for the rotating turrets tends to be a bit inconsistent; sometimes they'll slowly rotate into place, while other times they'll 'jerk' instantly into alignment when acquiring a new target. Still, it’s just a beta and there’s time to iron that stuff out.

The game offers an online 'Challenge' system where you can set up your fleets in a given battle and then post a challenge in the game's online BBS. Competing players can then download your challenge to try and find a way to beat the fleet you've put together. The system works nicely with the witty commentary you can put into place and the interesting community interaction this encourages, but I still find myself craving something a little more real-time for multiplayer.

Minor complaints aside, there's just so much going for this game that I can't help but sit in anticipation of the final release; the cheap price, the fact that you'll probably be able to run it on just about any system (and still have it look pretty), the perverse pleasure you get when a well-planned battle goes off exactly the way you predicted it, and the sheer novelty of seeing your own personally customized fleet duking it out with enemy ships, with space lasers, beam cannons, missiles, rockets, and explosions flying all over the place. This is definitely one to keep an eye on.