It's not difficult to get the hang of. It plays like most any space-combat game, only throwing you into a series of randomly generated levels with various enemies, resources, and sidequests.
One run is basically a trip through 7 sectors, each consisting of 5 or 6 levels, except 7, which is only one, and always the same location. Upon exiting each level, you're shown a map of the sector with icons showing the difficulty of particular areas, and which sidequests can be advanced from which areas, so you can somewhat select the path you take through each sector.
You lose everything upon death except for the money you earned from that run, which you then spend on permanent perks (upgrades) for your pilot and ship. There are four ships to choose from, and they each play differently. I found the starter ship to be best overall, but the DLC ship (well, it was a DLC ship originally but is included in the Switch version by default) is solid as well.
It takes a few runs to get to a point where you start being formidable. There are plenty of different weapons and tools so you shouldn't have an issue finding something to suit your play style. You will die a whole bunch of times, but the upgrades pile up over time to make things easier. At the start of each run, you select one of three difficulties (easy nets you -25% money, but I still recommend starting there because it won't make a difference once you put enough cash into loot upgrades).
Also, it's not just first-person. The cockpit view is one of several camera options.
