Star Citizen's fine if you want potential, but if you want an actual game, you'd be better off looking into Elite: Dangerous 
I liked the direction E:D took initially, but the planetary exploration behind a paywall plus the empty vastness is a turn-off for me personally (not to mention being bound to your ship). I see the appeal for others though, definitely. Seems like a decent game.
The paywall is similar to an MMO subscription. The idea is that the game will keep getting content for the next 10 (now 9) years. They need money to do it, so every year's content updates cost a fair amount. I'm happy enough paying that. I've paid £60 total, and I've gotten over 170 hours so far. That's more than enough value for money in my opinion.
This year's content updates actually include
character creation, and
multi crew. By the sound of things, next year will likely introduce SpaceLegs(TM), where you can walk around.
As for the vastness.... yeah. Space is big. There is content, if you can find it. I admit it feels a bit empty, but then you can find yourself in a battle with 4 dozen NPCs in a Combat Zone. There are hundreds of those in the inhabited bubble. And the bubble is tiny. I'm currently 5,000 light years away from civilised space, just exploring the black.
It's not everyone's cup of tea. You have to make your own fun, find things to do yourself. I'm not always happy with it, I've taken an extended break, but I'm back now and loving it. And I imagine it gets much better once you invest yourself in a minor faction. Try to help them gain power and whatnot. And I'm pretty sure you can ask the developers to put a minor faction in the game for your community if it has enough members, or something like that.
