If people are still curious, I've been streaming the game on and off and have a few opinions.
Why haven't you heard much about this game? A failed kickstarter. The preview that was available was lackluster, and didn't drum up much enthusiasm from the coverage it did get. However, it has come a long way from then, and it is quite a good game. It won't be a classic - the narrative is lacking, even considering Descent is hardly a plot-based game.
Weapon variety is greater than it first appears, even when you only have two guns, and to explain why I need to touch on the experience system. Experience in the game is mostly finite, and slow to gain (as in multiple 'game' levels to each 'experience' level, at least early on). However each level lets you pick a perk, which can be reallocated w/o penalty at any time. You can pick your perks from three trees, no pre-requisites, some of which are mutually exclusive. Some perks will give you vampirism, let you damage ships with your boost (run, afterburnerer, whatever you want to call it), store extra healing/weapon reloads, and those don't lock anything out. However, each tree also lets you unlock a variant of each of your weapons. Your starting weapon is more or less a laser cannon with average fire rate, average travel speed. You can change that into a Snare (slows target), heavy weapon (more damage, slower shot), or dual rapidfire hitscan lasers. The last are my favorite but can easily burn through your energy reserves without some other perks . For the first three variants of this, each shot leaves behind a glowing mark for a while, which you can scan to cause it to explode doing extra damage. The second weapon you get is a shotgun that when the shots are scanned causes a gravity well that pulls enemies towards it. The perks for that alter it in several ways, including a significantly stronger gravity well - and one that repulses everything near it (including you).
The interaction and experimentation is pretty fun and despite letting you pick up front from every perk doesn't overwhelm you with choices, due to the rate of leveling and being balanced around letting you freely respec. The need to respec is well balanced as well - new enemies, more perks, more enemies require you adjust your playstyle to each level, but not to each enemy. For instance, my favorite dual hitscan lasers are a bit weaker individually, and can rapidly drain your energy. When you're facing just a few enemies, it is quite fine on its own. Once the enemy count picks up, you either need to switch to a more energy conservative variant or combine it with vampirism (scan the enemy first in order to get energy and health back) or other perks such as the one that lets you carry extra recharges (reloads). When you unlock the third gun, you get a minicannon, more or less. Do you adapt this weapon around your playstyle, or your playstyle around the new weapon? Feel free to try and experiment.
