...
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.
User Friendly as using a hack saw on granite
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 2 / 8
Date: January 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User
Okay, I couldn't give the game one star because it had really good space graphics. I actually felt like I was in a cockpit. But it certanly dosen't warrent anything above what I gave it.
Allow me to write this in a recognizable fassion.Pros:
1- Great Space Graphics.
2- Somewhat Interesting Storyline.
Cons (allow me to clear my throat):
1- The character graphics are some of the worst I've seen in a long time. Even the original Monkey Island, or Space Quest had better character animation than this.
2- It has a serious problem with character interface, and user friendlyness. This is it's biggest problem. I will garentee you, it has no tutorial, training, hints or tips, or anything else to help out. It throws you in and expects you to know how to do everything off the bat. I couldn't even figure out how to repair! And I was DOCKED!
3- It had a review on the box saying: "This game could be better than Freelancer!" or something like that. But I consider this to be something a desperate company would do to sell a completely useless product. It's a very nasty, dirty thing to do.
In conclusion, This game ranks only two stars because of it's Bad Character Graphics, Terrible gameplay, and nasty marketing. If you want a Space Sim, get Freelancer, at least the characters look like they have joints!
The best space combat-trade sim of the last 20yrs, almost...
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I am giving X2 the Threat, 3.5 stars. It could be a 5 star game. The review above, "X2: Threatens to be great", pretty much covers it on content. This game could be the best space trading-combat sim ever. Since the "Threatens to be great" review is so concise and I larely agree with it, I am going to cover the system specs required to run the game.
My system specs:
1.3 GHz AMD processor
512 RAM
128 MB ATI 9500 Pro
Cyborg Gold USB Joystick
Windows 98 SE
I have all the eye candy options turned off and the game is running fast enough at 1028x780x32 to be playable. My system is very clean and runs every other game I have ever tried, with all video options turned on, as smooth as silk, but not X2. The game probably isn't playable with a system that is lower-end than mine.
Most gamers playing this game have some of the video options turned down, even with systems that have 3.0 GHz processors and ATI 9800s or high-end Nvidias.
THIS GAME IS PROBABLY NOT PLAYABLE ON A SYSTEM WITH THE MINIMUM SPECS LISTED ON THE BOX! It will be like watching a slide show. The lack of a playable demo really makes it hard to tell if the game will run smooth enough on your system to make it worth buying. Egosoft gets a minus 1/2 star for putting out a 'rolling demo' instead of something meaningful.
NOTE(added 1-24-04): There appears to be a serious problem with ATI video cards and the performance of this game. No matter how fast your system you will probably average about 20fps if you have an ATI card.
Right now, the main tactic of opposing ships is to ram you.
If the game's creators will optimize the game engine and modify the combat AI so it does more than just try to ram your ship, I will happily bump my score to 5 stars.
This is a hard game, but it could be one of the greats. Hopefully, Egosoft will put some effort into optimizing the rendering and AI combat code. With some fixes in those areas this game will stand on a tier above Freelancer. (Or any other game in this genre)
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.
Buy at your own risk...
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User
Enlight has seen fit to add an extremly lame-brained copy protection scheme to this game. The system is called exe cop, and, from what I've seen, it cripples your game (after many hours of play) if it decides you have a pirated copy. According to several posts on the tech support forum (which you can't access unless you have a registered copy of the game) things like having Nero installed on your system may trigger the scheme (or even for no reason at all). The result is a declining reputation (everyone becomes your enemy) and disappearing credits. This is a major bummer since the game itself is a lot of fun to play. I haven't experienced this myself (I've only played the game for several hours), but this seems to be a recurring post on the egosoft/enlight forums. Hopfully, the next patch - 1.2 - is going to address the copy protection problem.YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
As far as the game goes I have very little to complain about. It runs fairly smooth (2.4GHz, 512MB, 128MB GeforceFX 5700 Ultra - patched to 1.1 w/all the goodies except AA enabled) and is VERY immersive and detailed (if you like a complicated space trader w/less action). The graphics are great, especially the bump mapping and lense effects. Despite what other reviews have said, I didn't find the learning curve to be a big deal. Help is available in abundance throughout the game (as well as an active community forum) and the tutorials are complete enough to get you started. The first two or three mission will reveal how to start earning a few bucks. The manual is a bit thin - but exploring the game and fuguring out what's what is half the fun. Given the amout of detail in this game, its hard to overstate how creative you can be in making credits (visit the tip/tricks forums to see what I mean - I believe you can access those without a copy of the game). The only other complaint is that it *seems* DirectInput is being used in an unbuffered mode. Key presses are somtimes lost between keyboard polls, and this becomes more pronounced during high CPU load situations as the frame rate drops (like during combat).
This game would get 5 stars from me without the exe cop garbage (and maybe a bit more optimization - although the 1.1 patch is an improvement over the out of the box installation).
Great Game for the Elite Fan - so far...
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 30 / 30
Date: March 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User
This is the closest game I found in the Elite genre of space faring simulations, which is both good and bad. I always enjoyed Elite on the truly Old School gaming computer platforms, and I remember being discouraged at it's difficulty and obtuse interface - but eventually satisfied knowing that I used skill to overcome those obstacles. X2 comes with many of these same problems and reminds me that it will eventually have the same reward.It's a fantastic trade-combat space simulation based in a giant universe, filled with hundreds of stations and planets and plenty of bad guys. You fly around in a ton of completely configurable and different ships, dock and trade with many stations, create your own factories, and eventually develop a fleet filled with fighters, cruisers, and destroyers - all of which you can put into formations and control at any time, including any of their turrets.
Sounds great so far. I was hooked. However, there's a very steep learning curve involved at first, and the tutorials do little to help you other than give you basic controls and only a slight mention of how the economy of the X2 universe works. The game is not originally in English and the cutscenes are often poorly translated and very lame, with bad character animation, awful camera angles, and confusing mission parameters. Personally, I chose the "sand-box" mode by ignoring any mission past #2 and giving me free reign throughout the galaxy.
Anyway, you have to find out much on your own, and you'll find yourself creating multiple Save Game files before and after you buy/sell some expensive items - just like the original 1990ish Elite. That's a good thing for experienced and "realism" sim players, but bad for the casual player. In another nod to Elite you can only save at stations or when you have bought "Salvage Insurance".
The game can be very unforgiving. You'll be excited after your 2nd mission when you are rewarded with a decent sized freighter, just to find it comes with NO weapons or shields... AND there isn't a base selling those things anywhere near you. Or, you'll find this freighter MUCH slower than the ships you piloted before - we're talking 10 times slower, requiring you to spend 4+ minutes travelling to a station before you can even dock to sell your Energy Cells for a mere 7 credit profit each.
The initial pacing of the game is more than a little bit off, because you'll barely want to spend time exploring the trade opportunities in the first system, let alone screw around in the other 4 systems you discovered during the first mission.
Manual flight and combat is very hard, mostly because your initial fighters behave like a slug, and you can tell the navigation console in the game is NOT built for real time action. Forget the intuitive control of Freelancer or even Freespace 2. Learning to use the mouse or joystick for control is a fairly involved effort, especially because the game simply doesn't let you remap many hotkeys.
After 10 hours in the game, you'll rarely bother to pilot your ship manually, often relying on Sector maps, auto piloting and time compression - and pre-programming fighter wingman defense - to get your to your destination.
However these automatic features make the game a ton more fun. With enough cash, you can create a massive, shielded freighter - or five - and assign each of them an escort of completely configurable fighters. Every figher or freighter can have multiple turrets, each with individual AI. If you don't care for the AI, you can use the Remote Monitor features to jump into command of any ship in your fleet, at any time - in the current system or any other system. The options are daunting, especially considering that you can create your own factories (and transports for those factories), and then set fighters to defend them if they come under pirate attack.
Although difficult to get used to, and not necessarily for the average Freelancer-ish game player, X2 is not without it's charms. The graphics are gorgeous, the universe is huge, and the options to create your own stations / factories / economy / fleet are there. The options to manually dock with stations and escort your ship inside the station and into their actual loading bays grows old after a while - and you can skip it with autopilot and the right equipment - but it's still a nice touch.
Definitely head to the developers website to download the latest patch after you install the game, which improves on the often suicidal enemy AI and fixes a ton of bugs that ship with the commercial reelase.
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.
Yeah....
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User
Everything everyone has said about this game is true. I happen to like the game as it is, but I can see where ATI users would have a problem. The game's learning curve is tremendous, but the online forums at www.egosoft.com and the commander's page http://www.the-commander.com/ are a great couple of resources. Keep in mind that the gameplay mechanics are a little wonky at times, the developers do pay attention to the forums and there is a great player-mod community hard at work.A note to college students: this is one of those games with ALLOT of thumb-twiddling. I've found this is a good time to read up, since I'm too stupid to pry myself away from the game for an hour.
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