It is highly recommended - it's return excited me to the point of forgetting my ettiquette! :eek
It really captures the feeling of maneuvering these huge spacecraft, while dishing out snap orders to your crew via a really cool Voice Order System (which is not actually voice recognition, but navigating menus by the numberline above the keyboard - it sounds lame, but in practice, you feel like you're tapping away at a console, and also like you're smoothly ordering the crew around like a proper captain). During the time it takes to swing around and bring the forward torpedoes to bear, you'll have diverted power from the impulse engines to the tractor beam, prepared a boarding party, and increased power to your electronic countermeasure system to confuse the enemy's sensors.