I went into Star Wolves 3: Civil War about as blind as I could be. I’d never heard of the series nor had I any real idea as to what type of game it was.

Turns out, I’m still not sure. It’s a tough game to define. Part real-time strategy, part role-playing game, part economy-driven space sim, and part campy sci-fi, it’s a game that draws elements from a lot of places. And while it doesn’t excel in any of those areas, it pulls them together well enough to make the game playable, and even enjoyable once you get past its quirks.

The game’s story is an absolute non-entity. The backstory could be sucked straight off the pages of any number of sci-fi paperbacks: humanity has outgrown earth, moved into the stars, become an Empire, then there was a rebellion, and then some aliens showed up, and … none of it really matters, anyway. The story is a poorly stitched together excuse to get out in space and kill stuff.

There are several different factions, but basically, no matter where you go in the galaxy, almost everyone wants to send you rocketing down a black hole. Occasionally one faction or another will content themselves with throwing space-insults at you instead of automatically opening fire. But nine times out of ten, if your space radar picks up ships other than your own, it’s time for a fight.

It’s hard to blame them for being so aggressive, however, seeing as your character is a complete tool to everyone he meets. Dialogue is not voice acted, which is actually a positive thing, because the writing in this game is so poor that even imagining people saying the lines hurt my ears. In rare instances, you’ll have a choice of which horrifically written bit of toolery you want to spout, but usually the game forces the choice on you.

But again, not much of this actually matters. You’ll find yourself skipping past most dialogues anyway in order to get on to the next bit of space killing.

You start out in an unarmed cargo ship, quickly upgrading to a slightly less unarmed cargo ship, and shortly thereafter upgrading again. And then, a while later, again. So don’t get too attached to your ship.

Each ship has multiple slots for equipment – shield boosters, weapon emplacements, repair facilities and the like. Your character, and any characters who happen to join you along the way, can either pilot the mothership, or can more usefully pilot one of the fighter ships you’ll purchase and launch from the mothership. Tricking out your ship and fighters provides enough loot lust to keep you playing.

And properly equipping yourself is critical. As I mentioned above, most star systems are stuffed to the gills with people itching for all out space war. Combat is the game’s strongest feature, and where most of the fun is to be had. It works like a real time strategy game – if you’ve played Homeworld, you know basically what you’re getting here, albeit not as complicated as that. You grab your ships, select an enemy, wait for him to be reduced to space dust, and move on to the next.

During all this time, you’ll acquire gear from destroyed ships, pick up escape pods and turn them in at patrol stations for a reward, upgrade your ship’s firmware for increased performance, level up your character with new abilities, and a variety of other activities. You can learn rumors at space stations and explore random star systems if you really want to, but there’s rarely any reason for doing so other than to kill pirates. Which you get to do plenty of on missions anyway.

The game is beautiful. Ships are well designed, planets and systems are quite often breathtaking. Visually it evokes feelings of EVE Online.

There aren’t any content issues to speak of – some mild language pops up occasionally, and you’ll engage in activities that are technically against the law. But there’s nothing that should concern most gamers.

What will concern most gamers is the game’s frighteningly slow pace and difficulty spikes so infuriating they’ll pull swore words out of mute puritans.

Star Wolves 3 is a conglomeration of elements from many games. Simplified RTS, simplified RPG, simplified EVE economy, and simplified space opera. It doesn’t really excel in any area, and it has a lot of rough edges. There is fun to be had here, but it takes patience and perseverance to get to it.

If you liked the previous entries in the series, are a huge fan of RPGs or are just looking to take a spaceship out and kill things with it, give this game a whirl. Casual gamers or those looking for a more rounded experience will want to look elsewhere.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.