This was one of those games that came out at the tail end of my interest in this type of game (I became quite addicted to this style game with Wing Commander III on 3DO). I didn't grab it, I passed on this one and it has haunted me often over the decades since.
I have tried to get back into these style games but just can't do it for some reason. The last one I played like this was Freespace 2 and I was spoiled with all the mods I was able to download for that. That may be why commercial releases are hard for me to get into anymore.
Definitely one on my list to play some day, just not today.
I hope you can play it soon