It's unusual, and tedious + punishing at times, but quite fun once you've figured it out.

This has unique gameplay that phr00t's newer action RPGs don't capture, like destructible terrain, night vision, anti-gravity backpacks which makes the game more vertical than later entries, and co-op supports more players.

I think the weight system is too restrictive. antigrav and grapple hook weight limits scale up way too slowly per level which makes it very easy to render them useless if you loot too much. If you want more breathing room, you must take a risk and enter a high level zone, buy or find one, then return to where you were before.

It is very painful to die in this game because you permanently lose an item, and it often will be an item you find very important. For example Demon smiters are the only weapons capable of killing demons, as far as I know the only way to obtain them is the main questline, and just like every other weapon, if you die, you can lose them.

What adds to the frustration of dying is that there are moments of inescapable death. Enemy jets will surprise you, then stunlock spam you to death if you can't kill them in time. capital ships, demon ships and demons deal insane damage when they don't outright oneshot you.

The skill system in this game is not great because it is only earned passively from bad outcomes- running out of energy, moving while over-encumbered, taking damage while sneaking, you get the idea. With this being the only way to level, there may be tedious moments where you will feel forced to grind to get the stats you want, to get your full movement speed back, to make a weapon you have usable.

some things i wish the game told me

• if you anger a friendly faction, you can make them friendly again by killing members of the other faction
  
• hang onto those demon smiters! it doesn't matter if you have a higher level one- if you lose them, i am pretty sure you can only get new ones from later in the main questline, never as an organic drop (or perhaps otherwise they only drop from demons themselves).
  
• if you are really really struggling with the demon ships, you can go to a lower level zone to kill them
  
• if you need to get around quickly, or get un-stuck, you can use /goto <x> <z> command. requires full HP and can't be done willy nilly, you can only TP as far as you've gone on foot
  
• status effect gun thingies can be self applied with right click

general advice the game DOES tell you but you may take a while to notice

• initial spawn point is level 1. the further you go from spawn, the higher the level. take it slow until you know what you're doing.
  
• keep your radar up to level, it sees friends and foes up to <radar level +1>. any higher and the radar is blind. night vision is similar, if they are outside the supported level of your NVG they will be harder to see
  
• when talking to a trader, you can upgrade the build points of your construction tool for a fee by right-clicking it. this is necessary to place a "/home" block
  
• antigrav and grapplehook aren't redundant, you should always have both; grapple + antigrav will help you reach places antigrav alone can't, and grapple is very good for escaping danger
  
• keep a safe, moderate distance from the final boss until you figure out why i am warning you and what you can do about it