You start with a ship of your class (Its just looks) Like Tactical, Science and Engineering. From there you start in the Earth Space Station, run around do stuff etc then you get mission go back out into space on your ship then you fly to the Universe Map or whatever you call it, then you fly to systems then do missions etc there, some missions make you kill all enemy's in a planets orbit then beam down to a station/ship then do the ground fights/objectives then bail out and fly back to the sector space.
Space Combat is 3D but fought in 2D, as in your shields are only 2D (Directional) but you can't fly outside down etc you can only go 80 degrees up/down. Its still 3D because of the distance between ships X Y Z. You ship has slots where you can play Phasers/Torcreepes/Mines etc on the front or back or where every you ship is capable of placing them. The Universe/Sector Space Maps make zero sense, you go in 1 side then end up half way across the universe, its utter non-sense.
Ground Combat is pretty basic, the best part about this game is its space battles. TO understand ground combat think WoW but with 5 total ability's and just a stuff ton of Talents that boost attacks.
Its good fun but I insist on playing with at least 1 friend, Solo would be stuff boring and harder. Multiple Star ships and units on the ground is much fun.
Poll