Review of X2: The Threat

I've been called a great many things in my gaming days. I've been called a scallywag, a scruffy nerf herder, a rat bastard, and many other wonderful phrases. I've also been told, "Wake up, it's time to die", "You're dead pal" and "How about a little fire scarecrow". Well okay, that last one was me shouting it over the com-line but it still holds true. However, I've never been told that I'd look good as space debris.

Damnation. It's good to be back.

If you've been a fan of space combat days you've heard most if not all of the commentary that I've spoken of above. Except for looking good as space debris. That's new. Like so many other things in X2: The Threat, boatloads of new content and ideas have been added to one of the classic space game sub-genres that I like to refer to as "The Privateer Group." I call it that because in my opinion, Wing Commander: Privateer was one of the greatest games of all time. Fans of Privateer have been waiting for a decent game to take the title away from Privateer. Privateer 2 was a sad sequel and probably helped to lead to the demise of the Wing Commander dynasty, and Tachyon: The Fringe was too linear to be considered a true Privateer game.

X2, however, manages to fit quite nicely into that genre, and does it in spades. The graphics are excellent, the Gameplay non-linear and the universe is big. Really big. I mean "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" kind of big.

Graphics

Graphically, X2 has managed to create a beautiful world of spaceships, cargo freighters and space stations. The designs of the various races are as varied as they are beautiful. The Argon trading stations look very different from the spiked, spinning Boron stations. The ships look like their function, with the cargo ships looking like the space truckers of the future. In space, all of the graphics are smooth and quite impressive. Even with 3 space stations, a planet and its moon on the screen there is little slowdown even on my poor 800mhz machine. Unfortunately it tends to get a little choppy once combat begins.

Flying through Nebula and asteroid fields is a very beautiful experience, even if sometimes it's most unnerving. One thing that I always had a very difficult time with and still do is trying to navigate through asteroid fields. The fact that shadows are cast and will often change in asteroid fields makes the experience all that much more frightening to me, which is a good thing so long as I keep the lights on and take care not to crash.

One place that suffers greatly is the cut scenes that seem to be rendered using the same engine as the space flight. However, it obviously is not complete as in several places there are only placeholders for the future artwork. Given the time between the review build I am using and the release date I hold no doubt that it'll be cleaned up and as smooth as space flight.

Gameplay

Gameplay in X2 is exactly what you'd expect it to be in a space simulation. Players outfit their ships with various weapons and cargo and go out into the universe to make their fortunes. Egosoft has been quite insistent that once the game begins and you have your ship, you're quite free to do whatever you want. If you want to go run cargo for a living or become the terror of the system, you can do that.

Something that's a very new concept in X2 is the idea of a dynamic economy. In theory, the laws of supply should dictate the market price for various types of cargo. So if you wanted, you could attack ships carrying a specific type of cargo in order to create more of a demand for the item, and then proceed to sell that very same product for a very nice profit. Of course, the authorities may not like that.

Speaking of the authorities, in X2 players have the ability to buy their very own police badge for the various races. Buying it means you're recognized as a police officer and will be paid each time you kill off an outlaw that is wanted by that empire. This idea existed in Privateer 2 but was automatic. In X2 you gotta pay if you wanna play.

A fairly unique idea is how ship docking works in X2. In traditional faire, you communicate with the station you want to dock at and request permission to come aboard. Of course, some places are friendlier than others and your results will vary based upon your reputation. Once you're given the green light however, you have to find the docking port and fly into it. After a short loading period, you have to fly your ship through the internals of the ship and find a place to interface with the station. Often times, the internals (and sometimes the outside as well) will be rotating in order to provide gravity for the inhabitants of the station. Unfortunately, this has the nasty side effect of creating a slight sense of vertigo, which is most unsettling. Sometimes trying to pilot your way in and out of the stations becomes very difficult due to this effect. Fortunately, there is a handy dandy piece of hardware you can purchase called a "Docking Computer." Thankfully, it automates the process for you, but when you first start out you're going to have to learn how to dock manually.

Speaking of handy technological aides, X2 has no shortages of them. Players can buy their own satellites to launch in various systems to maintain a constant picture of events in the system. For the cargo hauler there is a device that will automatically locate the cheapest places to buy a kind of cargo and the place where it can be sold off for the most profit. If only I had one of those available in the real world. Another neat invention is called SETA that basically compresses and accelerates time so that those long voyages don't actually take very long. Think of it as a fast forward button because it comes in very handy since the X2 universe is big. Really big. Think along the lines of 50+ systems as far as I can tell.

Lastly, we come to combat. Unfortunately, combat is somewhat awkward in X2. Maintaining control of your ship and aiming properly while your enemy tries to do the same can lead to some very long and frustrating battles. Often times it becomes very difficult to hit your enemy because it likes to duck and dodge as much as you, if not more so. Another thing to watch out for is accidentally shooting a friendly ship or station. Fortunately you can turn your weapons on and off quite easily and I highly suggest doing so before docking with any stations, lest you incur the wrath of the authorities. One strange thing is that if you bump into a station it's considered a hostile act and may cause the police to come-a-calling.

Sound

X2 sports a fitting soundtrack, with tracks that seem to have been pulled from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's nice to have some background music while you're cruising through the cosmos or skirting the edge of a nebula. It hasn't gotten annoying or repetitious to the point of being shut off yet, but without the ability to add your own mp3s to the play list it's only a matter of time until it becomes boring.

The voice acting leaves a fair amount to be desired with some of the characters. Some of them sound as flat as the paper they were reading the lines from. Others have more life and seem to fit their roles. Hopefully some of them are merely placeholders for the future voice actors.

Story

At this point the story is mostly unknown and is not implemented yet, but what we do know is this: The player takes the role of a pilot of the X2 universe. The opening cut scene involves the player and one of this friends trying to steal a ship from a dock and they are both quickly caught. While being transported to a prison planet the character's prison ship is intercepted by a battle ship run by Ban Danna (har har har), an important character in the first game. Ban asks for you to be transferred into your care and, oddly enough, the authorities agree.

Ban gives you a ship, some advice, a few contacts and sends you out into the world to make your way. Exactly why he does this isn't clear, but logically the player jumps at the chance to avoid going to prison. As the player goes about making money and running missions, a new threat slowly begins to make itself known and the player is called upon to help against the Khaak. The rest remains to be seen.

Overall

Overall X2 looks to be the Privateer that loyal fans have been waiting years for. With massive Gameplay possibilities, excellent graphics and the ability to do as you like, X2 will consume massive amounts of time of all gamers, both casual and fanatic. I'm looking forward to seeing X2 being unveiled this November. Overall, X2 gets a score of 87% from me, and if it's cleaned up it'll easily be a top game for the holiday season.