The space based missions allow you to fly up against ships in real time combat as opposed to the turn based combat found in the rest of Star Wars Galaxies. The controls are basically the same as any other space based action game and you control the ship itself via the mouse and keyboard a la Freelancer. During my first few hours in space above Tatooine I encountered a ton of pirate space ships from the Black Sun crime organization that needed some blowing up and my small ship was equipped to do just that.

As I said, combat is in real time with your ship able to target enemy vessels with missiles and lasers as well as using counter-measures. Flying the ship was fairly simple and the enemy AI was surprisingly up to snuff even at the lower level end of things. You have shields so you can take some damage at first but it doesn’t take long before a barrage of fire can strip down your shields and leave your vulnerable.