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Aims very high, sort of delivers

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is most similar to some of the massive online games I've played. Alot of your time in the game is spent in transit to various systems, or just waiting for your transports to move around. (Definitely set the SETA time compression to 10X!) This is the kind of game you want an entire summer to do nothing but play, and might want to pull up a T.V. and throw on a movie while you are waiting for stuff to happen. Once you explore all of the systems and realize there isn't a whole lot of difference between them, (different factories, races and theme music, hurray) the game settles in to trying to build up your economic empire of factories and trading runs, and trying to get better ships. The controls on this game and interface are pretty awful, think spreadsheet sytle menus. I found myself staring at one spreadsheet/menu of where all of my ships are for quite awhile, watching them march across to my various factories. In between trying to keep all of my factories from blinking yellow (meaning they are out of a resource), I spent my time trying to keep the khaack (aptly named) away from my shipping lines. The problem is they just spawn in from nowhere, and the computer can spawn them in alot longer than your patience for it. Definitely do only the fewest missions possible, as the Khaack get alot worse later in the game. I'd say wait until you have an M6 corvette before completing all the missions. (You could do it with an M3 heavy fighter though) Also, when you have the TP class ship at the beginning of the game with the annoying scientists on board, strip it down before returning the ship and get 400K credits! Huge time saver! The learning curve is absolutely unreal, and took me more than a week to figure all out (I hate tutorials). So, play all the tutorials, and good luck figuring it all out. Overall though, this game aims extremely high, but rapidly turned into the game I love to hate. (Or more like hate to love) It just isn't nearly polished enough for a game demanding this much playing time. (Why can't my freighters go AROUND khaack ships like they do for other obstacles? Why don't the Argon defense forces go after enemy ships in the area? Why isn't there a "buy domestic goods" command, forcing your freighters to buy resources continually from your own factories along safer supply routes? etc, etc) If it were done by the likes of Blizzard, it would undoubtedly have been one of the best games ever, but as it stands, I give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5. From what I've read, X3 is even worse when it comes to the programming and finishing touches, so I'm not planning on getting it anytime soon.

Year round gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a very very good looking space simulation. O man, my mouth dropped. The last good simulation I played was Wing Commander 3. Flying through Nebulas with the cockpit view made me feel like I was there. The cutscenes however could use some work (needs a good artistic touch with textures - they were off color).

This is a long long game period. The parts I played were fun. However, I didn't quite get what I am supposed to do at certain points. For example, Argon One... what the hell was that? It took me a couple of memory walkbacks later I realize it was the first ship I came out of dock with. You won't find it easily on the map without some searching or a good scanner. The economy is good and realistic enough to be fun. The only draw back is that I find the whole game to be really really long. Then again it could be a good thing since I usually beat the whole story of a game in just a week. Very replayable with the egosoft site pointing gamers to forums and a modding community.

Btw, simulators are an absolute necessity since the learning curve is more like climbing a cliff... a really large cliff... with no safety. Partly due to the difficult keyboard interface. The rest of it is due to the many things taking place around you. Not only do you have to keep track of the enemies in front of you. You can have around 5 "monitors" to look at in addition to the main screen in capital (larger) ships. It's not a bad thing nor is it a good thing. I just feel it is necessary to the playing of these game types. However, I do feel the tutorial should not need an update in order to function properly.

The update you have to be careful about. Some of the versions can't use certain updates. It took me awhile to realize this fault in the update system. (caused my system display error message after error message)

Graphics 10/10
Gameplay 8.5/10
Ease of Use 7/10
Overall 8/10

This is a pure SPACE SIMULATOR and ECONOMY game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: April 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

And this game sure delivers on that! The character animation is horrible and the story/plot line of the game takes only a few hours to complete. Don't get this game if you are looking for structured linear gameplay... Also don't get this game if you dont have a good programmable joystick and throttle control. Also don't play this game if you are looking for an awesome battle soundtrack (use you own music for that... rob zombie music makes the battles awesome!). I love the game because it has an option called scripting thats activiated through a sort of cheat code making a console window appear on command ingame allowing endless modifications and add ons. Since the laser battles in this game stock are pathetic and slow there are scripts you can get from fan sites to speed up or slow down or even animate and automatically take care of the boring stuff so you can go out and blow stuff up and take over the entire universe... there are even scripts that get rid of all spaceship sounds sines some people want realisim in space battles while keeping that menacing rumble of a starship in the cockpit view... But YOU NEED A FULL JOYSTICK. I actually broke my joystick from playing this game so much and pulling hard manuvers.

Since most reviews here are a little blan Im going to describe what its like after it's modded and scripted correctly. Tweaked to my tastes, if you will.

Imagine cruising in with your carrier class starship... bigger than anything else in the game. You ship is upgraded and modded to the max... this is something that could scare the gods themselves as it unleashes its full load of 150 heavy, medium, and scout class fighters to all swarm in on the usually overpowering enemy. The battle lasts for hours and you have to do everything in your power not to let your beautiful and heavily armed Carrier or battleship from getting destroyed by the enemys larger ships.

You have your own personal and heavily armed corvette class ship waiting in your carriers docking bay for a quick escape just incase the unlikely event of having your carrier or battleship destroyed happens or if your carrier or battleships jumpdrive is destroyed and or the engines are damaged to the point you can't save the pride and joy of your armada. The battle begins to shift in your favor as your fast, heavily armed, corvette class ship squadron breaks off of their sector to sector patrolling to aid in your fight. They exit the jump gate into the system and begin wiping the enemy out of existance almost effortlessly, using their own single scout ships for coverfire or as extra moving sheilds. Missles, laser light bolts, ships, debris, asteroids, even foolish trader and passenger ships fly by your view as the battle rages on.

After a few more intense moments... the enemy system is now yous to plunder and take over. You have your corvette class ships go in for repairs and then back on their patrols to keep the errant pirates or alien ships from messing with your trade routes and freighters and stations. You send out your carriers wing of heavy freighters to search and pick up all the spoils of battle. Bringing you back enough supplies and parts to not only upgrade, and repair your damaged ships but to buy you a second battleship.

And when the battle is over you now have fame! Every distressed system in the universe wants your help! After re-arming and repairs, you head off for yet another intense and extreme space battle... where there is no right side up or down, and there is no gravity to slow you down. The enemy can, and will, attack from every possible angle... And this time, they know your weakspot... and the enemy heads right for your prized carrier in a kamakaze style attack... It's time to get in your personal, customized, one of a kind corvette class ship and help with taking down the enemy in the hopes you will be able to get your carrier to limp out of the battle and to a station for repairs before it gets destroyed completely.

Now it's time to be sneaky and use underhanded tactics such as hiding in asteroid tunnels and blasting anyone that flys by. Or using the sun in that system as visual cover for your ship while you come roaring by, blasting everything that moves. Strafing, sliding, barrel rolls. Making your fast and heavily sheilded corvette class ship a big enough of a threat to the enemy that most of them break off the attack on your wounded carrier, giving it enough time to limp its way to a jump gate and get to a protected and friendly star system.

You also send your other ships along with it... It's now you and your corvette class ship and it's single docked medium fighter against 10 enemy battleships , 4 enemy carriers, and hundreds of every size enemy fighter coming to splatter your atoms all over the universe... You can run for your life... Die (surrender is not an option)... or... you can turn up your heavy metal battle music, grin, and charge full speed at the unstopable hoards of enemy fighters and capital ships and damage and destroy as many of the smaller ships as possible by getting them to crash into each other or follow you into an asteriod tunnel network and have them crash into the rock walls in the darkness before blasting out of the ateroid with a huge fireball following you, leaving the battle and jumping to another system while the enemy now fears you... it's your choice... there is no commander to give you orders... there is no structured storyline to hide in and recover for a while... It's just you and a universe full of danger and profits and edge of your seat action space battles.

Sail On Software - Dishonest Company

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 26
Date: March 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

We ordered a DVD through Amazon via Sail On. They sent us a used DVD (no packaging), which did not work. After stringing us along, we returned the DVD and were promised a replacement or refund. Needless to say, they have avoided our e-mails since. I would recommend NOT dealing with Sail On Software.

A game that lasts

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing X2-the Threat for about a year, and I have not gotten board yet! There is a lot of stuff to do. And then there is some more.

You can own more than one ship at a time. A lot of them. You can own stations and factories. A lot of them. You can own battleships. If you can pay for them.

If you get tired of running the details you can automate them.

In most games things only run when you are there. The places you are not are frozen. But in X2 everything runs all of the time. All over the "universe" of the game. Even in places you have not discovered yet. Leave your factory and go exploring and when you come back it has made you half a million credits and boosted the economy for six sectors around. But one of its freighter ships has taken damage from a pirate attack.

The economy starts out in a recession (probably to give the new player opportunities for profits) and as you build factories and trade products the other nations economies start to wake up. If you corner the market prices will go up. But the factories will got buy from other nations when the prices get too high.

The menu controls are a little slow and the character animation is clunky, but I can live with that.

And it does too have a training and tutorial section! But most of my onfo I got from the EgoSoft Forums.

Awesome Space Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is the best space game I've ever played. If you like freelancer, then get this game. One thing I love the most about this game is that it isn't linear at all, unlike Freelancer and such. I love the idea of building stations and factories. All the makers of this game need to do is enable you to land on planets and simply add a lot more weapons, ships, etc. One more thing about this game that is cool is how it evolves.

update

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Basically, all was said above. The Patch 1.4 removed the flaw of ramming enemys, much features came in addition, and on my AthlonXP 2.8 with 1024 RAM and Radeon 9600 256 MB it runs smooth with all Details in 1024*768*16.

Genrally I tend to the higher reviews as stated above. It IS needed to "bite your way through" at the beginning, but the reward is good. The story is a bit short, not in the time needed to complete, but in a somewhat open and unsatisfying end. On the other hand, most of us probably wont buy a game of this type for the story alone, but for the empire to build. Another problem is the fact, that somewhere in midgame wealthness-wise, you get some troubles with protecting your ships and have to do lots of repetive work to advance, which in itself isnt bad cause it stays fun. But the living-universe-feeling looses a bit once the news on the blackboards of the stations begin to repeat only "news" you already know. As I didnt play for a while because of hardware damage, I cant tell if that is still present in 1.4 though.

All in all nothing more but small flaws in a great game, if you are looking for freedom. 'Cause thats what you got, what freelancer always missed. The freedom to abandon storyline, to pirate, patrol, trade, build and explore as you wish. What keeps the station still somewhat alive are the audio-announcements like "Small Lisa is missing her parents, please come and get her at the casino, deck 20, section 23."
or
"Deck 34 is closed due to maintenace work on reactor."
or
"Please note our special offers in the family market on deck 12!"

Just a small detail, but it really adds. And there are many such details in this game.

Very good complex space economics game (don't forget combat)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

X2 is definitely a complex game that can be difficult to learn and even more difficult to master. However, if you like games that are similar to Privateer and Elite, then X2 shuod be worth the time and effort to learn how to play.

For the most part is an economics game that takes place in space. Yes, yes there is combat too, but how do you think you will be able to afford a heavy fighter, not to mention a carrier than can carry large numbers of fighters? The game focuses a lot on making money. One way would be to trade commodities from stations that supplies such products to those that demand such products like energy, and silicon waffers. The game is truly expansive and there are more ways than one to make money.

Pros:

1. A space simulation that focuses on making money as well as combat.
2. A simple to understand economy, however due to the dynamics of of the economy, mastering it can be difficult.
3. Multiple ways of making money be it trading, providing transportation, travel tours, or assassination missions, and a few more.
4. The ability to change the economy be build several different types of factories. There are some factories that are unique to certain races. You can truly build an economic empire that can span throughout the explored sectors.
5. You want ships, or better yet, your own space faring armada? You got it! Provided you can make enough money to buy capital ships, various types of fighters, corvettes, and a fleet of transports to keep your factories going.
6. Each ship has different flight characteristics so learning how each ship fly can be interesting or exasperating depending your point of view.
7. Space is huge, and so are the number of sectors to explore. The game is expansive and freeform, but not to the extent Morrowind is.
8. The Forum. Yes, the Forum. Believe it or not, but one of the best features about the game is the Forum at Egosoft.com. Are you stumped, want to learn tricks, or just looking for info? Then don't hesitate to go to the Forum, you'll be glad you did. There is a wealth of info there.
9. Scripts and mods that are freely available that can change the way the game is played. Some user created scripts are even signed off by the developer. Thus, they are completely safe to run in the game.
10. Oh, did I mention the nice graphics?

Cons:
1. Not a game for those looking to jump right into combat.
2. Can be a little time consuming just to get acquainted with the game.
3. Different flight characteristics for each ship. What, you expect a frieghter to turn on a dime like a scout ship (light fighter)?
4.Do you want to humble your computer? Think your system can handle any current game out there if it can handle the likes of Doom 3, or Half Life 2? Then go build up a sector with lots of factories, and watch your frame rate plummet. You'll think there's something wrong with your computer or graphics card. Nope!!! There are a lot of calculations going on in the background. The more factories there are in a system, the more traffic there will be, and your poor CPU will have to calculate the path of all those transports running around.
5. Combat can be frustrating in very populated sectors.

This is not a game for everyone, but it is the best game there is for those looking for a space econmics game like Privateer, and Elite. Oh, wait let me rephrase that. It is the only game out there.

So much hope, So much of a let down...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I tend to see what others say about games and very rarely take the time out to write one of my own but after (wasting) spending some time playing X2: The Threat I felt that I needed to share my views so that anyone looking for a Privateer(esque) game can weigh them in.

Frankly, wait until this title hits the bargain shelves and only if you have NOTHING else to do!!! I went out and made an impulse purchase of this title because I needed something to do while I was sick for a few days and read that this was a great game. Never saw one bad review on it and the screenshots looked action packed and simply breathtaking. After a 45 minute install and patching process (patching to 1.4 required 3 separate downloads off of a VERY slow server) I finally got into the game. No tutorial and a hefty printed manual in my hand I set out thinking that I was a rather intuitive person I could figure it out. I did with relative success and found that the troubles that I had weren't problems with my knowledge, rather the way that the game is meant to be played.

No way is this title meant to be picked up and played like Privateer, or given the empire building tactics as in Masters of Orion, Rather think about picking up an Encyclopedia at the age of 5 and trying to read from beginning to the end.

Granted, the graphics and in ship play are spectacular though nothing can make up for a game that you would have to devote your entire social life to.

My ultimate thoughts, if you are looking for a Privateer substitute look elsewhere. If you are looking to spend countless hours performing repetitive tasks in hope that something better comes of it you may find enjoyment in this title.

Enjoyable and Worth the money

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This truly is a great game but with any game it has its strengths and weaknesses. You simpily have to weigh them according to what your looking for in a game. As far as economic empire building and large scale naval stratagy it shines above many others. The economic model is very complex yet easy to learn making it fun to explore and build up massive industrys all with fully automated transports that actually do what you tell them (the AI actually uses a bit of common sense when doing so).

However, if your looking to hop into the cockpit of a heavy fighter for a dog fight with lasers blazing you'll find that the flight controll is so sloppy that you will want to turn the auto-pilot on and sit back and watch the computer smoke the enemys itself. Which again it does a decent job at. As far a the people anamations go, yea there so terrible I actually found them rather houmorous but it takes up about 3-5 minutes of a game that may last you several weeks or even months. At any rate its not what you would buy this game for so who cares, hit ESC and skip'em.

All in all I am glad I bought this game and the company "Egosoft" stands behind their product with free game "updates" which combine add-ons and patches into one and have a "modder kit" to help the gamer create there own changes to the game. Rather than microsoft who published Freelancer and abanded it this company continues to make it better by listning to what gammers have to say in their forum on the company website. And that says alot about a company and its product.

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