I played on easy, but chose to go to the optional area. I like that there was an option. I had fun and it was "fair" for being one against so many.

I like having a separate section that's all bonus for racking up the points. Base mission is pretty simple (one ship has to board another, varying degrees of threats depending on the difficulty level)

Think I might have been missing something here - nav bouy disappeared and I was stuck in the first area, yet mission completed okay, so hey, all good!

Playable / not broken, understandable primary objectives, and beatable in a reasonable amount of time: that's why I give this one a 4. If you want a quick and easy mission then it's good, and if you want a challenge going for a high score then it's also good. I would recommend playing it, but I'm close to rating it a 3, but suggestions for improvements are minor compared to the overall mission, and some things I didn't like could be seen as strengths. There was a high difficulty spike when it comes to bonus points. Allowing many load out options is a hint, but a little too subtle on first play through. Having opened the mission in the editor, bonus points were not very intuitive, though, if you play it out without the editor, then you'd probably still get them. Things that could improve it: brining wingmen to bonus area, messages / briefing with more hints, and the option to reload. Going for the high score does not seem very fun to me.