The gameplay loop is quite enjoyable to me, though I think it needs some balancing tweaks. Played it a bunch of times, and no matter what I do it always ends with one of the crew mates getting to level 15. Even if they're at a major disadvantage, the players almost always succeed if they're level 13 or 14, and the level 1 and 2 crewmates die a lot even if they're at a major advantage, so I think the impact of level on success might be a bit too much. As it stands, I can't send out lowbies to level up a bit while I wait for the perfect opportunity to take out the highbies.
Also, very minor detail but the "Player" and "CPU" UI elements at the top are confusing. They don't seem to do anything, and they show characters that are crew members. I'm guessing they're artifacts from a shift of development plans?