Been playing it all morning.
Well, it's different to SPAZ, but still kind of the same. It is harder though.
Not entirely sure I like the new ship building. Finding it more frustrating than anything at the moment. The ability to blow bits of other ships and then pinch them and fit them in mid fight is pretty fun though.
It's in no way an alpha release. It's polished and stable. Had 4 updates already. I think it's mainly bugfixing and then adding the actors voices instead of the synthesized ones they are currently using.