Well, since we're talking honest opinions, I'll voice mine.
Let me start off by saying that I'm a fan of the Genre. I proudly own Fury 3, Hellbender, StarLancer, Tachyon, FreeSpace 1 & 2, Wing Commander Prophecy, Terminal Velocity and other's. So please don't expound that I'm not a fan of the Genre, or don't know what to expect of a Space Sim (as I've seen done to some in other threads).
I was expecting to hate this game for the lack of Joystick support and a cockpit view. After playing the Demo I have to admit that overall, it's not bad.
The "Mouse" flight control took me quite a while to get used to. At first I couldn't control the ship at all. After about 6 hours of playing now, I can control the ship good enough to get around, but I still have problems in combat. It just doesn't feel right. Plus, I have to keep looking down at the keyboard to make sure I'm hitting the right keys for "Target nearest enemy", "Target next", "Tractor", etc. Usually, when I look up again, my target's no where in sight! I really miss being able to map the buttons on my Joystick to do these things and just move a finger to press them, not needing to take my eyes from the action. I only hope that it'll get better with more practice.
Aside from that, I just don't feel that I'm in a spaceship. Maybe it's the lack of a cockpit view, but it just doesn't feel like I'm there.
There are a few other quirks that bother me, but I don't want to give the impression that I hate the game. I'll probably buy it, if for no other reason than because I'm dying for a new space sim. They're few and far between and I certainly want any that come out to do well to keep the Genre alive. But, I've gotta say that the lack of Joystick support for flight and combat, along with the lack of a cockpit view makes it hard to suspend disbelief and really feel that you're in a ship. Anyway, just my honest opinion, like the topic says.
PS- For my two cents, the Demo would have been a lot better if they would let you advance to level 2, so you could fly the other ships you see and use a few more of the weapons to see what they're like. No travel to other systems, or new missions or anything like that. Just let the player officially advance to level 2 without being kicked back to the desktop. Push that off until we hit level 3.