I played with 388D-1 0.5mm as penhold forehand rubber. This is where the rubber shines for high-level players. Amazing for attacking with wobbly deceptive balls, and gives great spin reversal. Best suited for a hardwood blade, like ebony or rosewood. 388D-2 is also quite good, but suits a more defensive style.
If someone is interested in changing to long pips, 388D-1 with 0.5mm sponge is the rubber I would recommend without hesitation. For penholders it is a godly rubber, you will never need to change. For shakehand players it is a jack of all trades, but master of none -- good for a new pips player who has not developed their style yet. Shakehanders should use an allround or defensive blade.
The topsheet is mildly grippy. Blocking gives a lot of spin reversal, especially with OX. Pretty fast, as far as long pips goes.
The rest of my review is devoted to the shakehand grip, where I have experimented with 388D-1 in OX, 0.5mm, and 1mm sponge.
My impression is that this rubber can play a decent chopping style, a decent blocking style, and a good attacking style, but it is not exceptional at any of them. I would not recommend this rubber to an advanced shakehand pips player unless they are a "chameleon" who likes to change their playing style based on the opponent.
OX is wonderful for attacking. If you put it on a Viscaria, you can play flat smashes as fast as short pips. Hitting through backspin, if you can land it on the table, is almost impossible to return. A bit hard to control, though. Defense is ok, but not great.
0.5mm is my favorite, and the most flexible. Much more controllable than OX for chopping and blocking. It can't create much spin on its own, but it can create enough spin for a deceptive serve, and enough spin to make the chop consistently land on the table. This is a rubber which will allow a newbie to decide whether they want to play a far-distance chopping style, or a close-distance blocking-attacking style. Chopping works best when your opponent gives heavy topspin -- dead balls are harder to return.
I do not recommend 1mm, since it is too sensitive to incoming spin and does not have the chopping capability to justify such sensitivity. The extra sponge does not increase the spin generation (in my opinion), it just makes the pips more bouncy. I thought that 1mm was worse at chopping than 0.5mm, because of the increased bounciness. Attacking is worse and less deceptive than 0.5mm because of the spin sensitivity. No idea why they make this rubber in 1mm honestly.
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