As you progress through the game, you'll gradually upgrade to new ships and attach better weapons to your hardpoints - which is initially a lot of fun, as your hard-earned credits go into new and more evil beam weapons and missiles to knock your targets out of the sky. However, this gradually begins to feel like a levelling treadmill - not least because the degree to which you can upgrade your ship at any given point is fairly limited, and the enemies you face become harder at almost exactly the same rate as your ship becomes more powerful. Although it can be fun to go back and slap around some of the people who gave you trouble previously, ultimately it's a bit of a shame that later battles in the game don't play out in a particularly different way to early ones, and the tactics which work two hours into the game will work just as well ten hours later.