X2: The Threat

"A new breed of space simulation"

X2 is a space simulation game at it's most advanced form of current evolution. A sequel to Egosoft's previous game, X: Beyond the Frontier, X2 takes the player deeper into the massive X-Universe. The player has opportunities to do many things, from running a galactic empire and becoming a business tycoon, to stealing ships and becoming a feared pirate. It is a game with an open-ended plot, meaning that once you have finished the story missions you can carry on and continue to build up your empire or destroy an entire race - basically whatever you want to do. The game boasts a supposedly dynamic economy, and has around seventy different ships that are available to own and playable by you. Combat, strategic tactics and business management are all included in this epic game.

Trade. Fight. Build. Think. Or so the box says. This game allows you to do pretty much anything you could expect of a space simulation game. You can fight enemies and capture their ships, trade common and rare commodities for credits, build factories to be a base of operations or just a plant for producing certain goods and manage epic battles through a series of menus against enemy forces.

The combat in the game is rather simple to get the hang of. A vast selection of both ships and usable weapons makes the experience easier as you become able to afford the more destructive lasers and missiles while using the stronger shields. The HUD markers on the screen make tracking targets easy, and the simple controls make blowing away a few pirate ships relatively easy once you've got a decent ship yourself. Collisions can pose a large problem, as AI ships often move away from you then spin one hundred and eighty degrees and charge at you, blasting their lasers, swerving to avoid you at the last minute but almost always seeming to crash into you - often crippling your shields.

The trading aspect of the game can either be your focus or just a way to make a few extra credits to buy a new fighter ship. Prices of different items change using a supply and demand system, so if one factory has lots of a certain commodity it won't pay as much for more of it. There are a large variety of tradable goods, some of them legal and some of them not. Flying from station to station buying and selling goods can, though, become quite boring after a while and so there are a variety of transport missions that will test your piloting and timing skills while giving you an extra boost of credits.

Building factories is another resource for revenue. While not challenging, the micro management of factories can be entertaining as you assign your freighter ships to buying and selling the produce and requirements, and order your fighters to protect your station and ships from pirates and other hostile beings of the galaxy. The novelty of micro management can wear off, though, as you has your Empire continues to grow and grow and, if you don't protect your stations well, you may find that you spend all of your time purchasing new freighters for your stations placed in dangerous territories.

The strategy aspect of the game is handled through an array of monitors, which you may assign to various ships or stations, imposed onto your screen and a selection of menus and commands to tell your ships, turrets, et cetera, what to do. While quite tricky to get this working, it can be rewarding to destroy stations with a collection of smaller ships just from your skill as a commander. However, the system isn't quite as extensive as one could wish. There are only twenty or so commands that you can issue to any ship, and the wingman and formation systems do practically nothing.

The graphics in this game are definitely above par. While space may look slightly bland, and the sector backgrounds of planets are nothing special, the clouds, ships, stations and a lot of other things are rendered in great detail. Each race has a distinctive look around their ships and stations, adding to the atmosphere of the game, and each ship class has certain characteristics that make them different from one another. There is definitely a beauty about this game. The game is let down, however, in cut scenes, as the character rendering is not nearly as good as that of the ships. These cut scenes don't happen very often, though, so it is forgivable.

The sound effects in this game are great. Lasers sound different if you fire them faster, explosions depend on the size of the ship and engines give a real sense of atmosphere. The computer voice grates a little, but it's meant to be mechanical, as is the station announcer which will get on your nerves after three or four minutes of sitting in a station trading or upgrading your ship. The voice acting, which goes with the cut scenes, is done rather well, but the poor scripting for conversations doesn't allow it to become a great feature. The music, which consists of three or four tunes, is good and changes depending on your situation, but since it's only a few tracks it does get annoyingly repetitive after a few hours. The player can choose between stereo and mono sound.

The controls in this game are rather easy to learn, as the game gently eases you into them. If you have a joystick, the more used command like shoot, change target and open menu are programmable to buttons. There are some commands that are not available for customisation, but they aren't too difficult to learn. The manual in the game has information on all of the controls, as does the game's README file. After half an hour of playing, you will probably have got to grips with the majority of the game's commands.

Taking into consideration all of the good points weighed against all of the bad ones, I think that this game is worth both financial investment and investment of time. While the cut scenes and scripting may not be cutting edge, the game's plot is still entertaining and while trading may not be quite as dynamic as one could hope it is still fun to build up and empire. The continual release of patches and large community of people writing scripts and modifications for this game make it even better, as new things to do are always available. With promise of an expansion pack in the future, this game will keep you playing for a long time after you've completed the plot.

I think that this game is definitely worth buying by anyone who's even remotely interested in space simulation or empire building games. It is, in my opinion, the best space game since the days of Elite II and will keep anyone who's even partial fans of the genre happy for many, many hours. Though it has a few flaws, these are being corrected and made up for by the development team at Egosoft, as well as the large community of unofficial scripters. This game is definitely worth your time and money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04