Been playing more and more of this, especially its multiplayer.
The singleplayer is fine, throughout its missions it's hectic, star-warsy fun. I like how the rebel squad are all a bunch of misfits whilst the imperial squad are all egocentric assholes. What I don't like is how the hangar conversations are written: It's just the other pilots talking long monologues at you, which is weird enough with your pilot literally having a voice. It's just too long and doesn't really fit the rest of the dialogue in game.
The multiplayer is amazing and clearly what this game revolves around. The game has character here still: Each player gets a call-sign, each player can select their voice's personality, and the pilots all talk to each other still, which really helps the dogfight movie feel.
Here the difference between the TIEs and the alphabet-wings becomes most apparent: The TIE Fighters are not the flimsy "goes down in two shots" thing it is in the 90s games, but they still lack shields and are more manoeuvrable then their Republic counterparts. They are also far more "in the moment" wonders: Whilst the republic pilot has to systematically overcharge their systems and plan ahead wrt what system they feel they need the most when entering combat, the TIEs can just happily shunt their excess power from engines to weapons and back: If a TIE pilot decides that the thing in front of them needs to die right now, it can happily drain all the power from engines, becoming a mobile turret, and blast away.
Meanwhile, in my lovely X-Wing (I'm adoring the X-Wing), whenever I spawn in I overcharge the shields first, then weapons, and then put all power in engines. The overcharge in the alphabet-wings drains very slowly, so I can use the increased manoeuvrability that having more power to engines offer, and then boost away once my shields or weapons are drained, to safely recharge from a distance.
Fans of WW2 pacific fleet combat will note that the TIEs tend to occupy the same space of the A6M Zero of being really good turn fighters whilst the Republic ships are more like the Wildcats' booming-and-zooming, and yes. They absolutely nail that feel.
Also you can paint the X-Wing pink which is great. And the Imperials get the option of slapping royal purple on everything, which is also very good.