I'm a bit curious as to if this game is good or not... It seems quite cool, with all the open gameplay and such. I'm a big fan of the old game Freelancer... How is the gameplay in X3 compared to Freelancer? Is it playable with keyboard and mouse, or is joystick a must?
Are there cool dogfights, or is it all trading and management?
You'll spend the first 30 hours doing the same 50p profit cargo runs, having to reload any time you take the slightest scratch, because repairing that damage costs 400 times your cash.
It's a game I really want to like, and I respect what it does, but it's so goddamn slow and in parts, lacking (there's limited interaction with other pilots, which is a real shame as some more of that would make the game feel much more alive), and generally awkward.
It's the best X game I've played, but it is an acquired taste. It's more about running a simplistic business (in that you have no people management to do) than about being adventurous. I personally control it with a 360 and xpadder, but still need to use the keyboard for a fair few functions. Mouse control is doable though.
There is fighting in it, but if you want to stand a chance of making any money out of fighting (as opposed to spending more money on repairs than you make killing), you'd have to spend months of your life trading first.
it's not like freelancer :(
If you want more Freelancer, DarkStar One and Independence War 2 are both decent bets, and can be bought cheap these days.
The Terran campaign itself avoids that. You get three free ships in the first couple of missions for a start ...Originally Posted by sinister agent
Yeah, I tried that. The ships you get are completely broken, so you have to save up for repairs anyway. It leaves you in basically the same boat.
I'd choose Independence War 2 over Darkstar One. It forces you to be a pirate, true, but it's just a more fun game. Darkstar One isn't bad, but it's quite dull.
You can exit your ship and repair the ships yourself. But it's soooo tedious to do it.
Huh, I didn't know that. I knew about getting out of the ship, but how do you repair them? Is that what the laser thing does? I assumed it was a weapon.
Yeah, the laser thingy. Right click by default I think.
It requires patience, that's for sure. Comparing it to Freelancer.. even though the combat is serviceable it's not a very good space combat sim compared to the glory days of the genre. There's a hell of a lot of game in there though, especially if you find yourself enjoying building up a trade empire, and a great sense of progress as you build up your financial might and a fleet of ships.
Or you could play as a pirate, or a lone trader, or anywhere on the scale you want. The amount of freedom you have is staggering but it comes at the price of the game being very slow paced and it doesn't give you much incentive to do anything. There's a campaign but it's not very interesting and there's a wide variety of quests given out from stations and ships but no real incentive apart from money to do them. You'll have to enjoy setting your own goals to really enjoy the game.
In my current game I've just done some trade runs, used the profits to set up automated traders and then got myself a decently fast ship with some weapons, shields and a jump drive to roam the galaxy with. It's a nice relaxed experience, exploring the game world (which is huge) while I watch my pile of credits get bigger and bigger. Sometimes I'll hunt down some roaming pirates and I've had to flee from alien destroyers. I've come across battles between huge capital ships and dozens of fighters, explored uncharted sectors, found and claimed abandoned ships in asteroid belts.. There's a lot to see and in a game where, whatever you do, you'll spend a lot of time flying from one place to another it's worth mentioning that it often manages to be absolutely gorgeous.
I have really mixed feelings about it. There are enormous flaws but at the same time there isn't really anything else like it (that I've seen at least) and it's pretty cheap to pick it up now, so if you think you'd like to make up your own fun in a giant sandboxy universe why not give it a go? :)
Last edited by Skalpadda; 01-11-2011 at 07:31 PM.
I'd wait for the next X game and see if that has improvements for the hard beginning. Also a bit offtopic but is Galactic Civilizations 2 a good game?
If you like space combat and haven't played it, I can recommend Freespace 2. On gog for cheap. There is a mod available which greatly enhances the graphics, and even a port of the first Freespace to this mod.
Should be noted that FS is more of a guided narrative affair, with missions and clear objectives, while you travel your own path, more or less, in the X series (though there are campaigns to follow in X3 as well). FS is effing brilliant though and the FSO mods elevate it into something holy.
It is indeed (also that's probably a good idea about waiting for the next X game - it sounds quite promising). It captures the compulsive "one more turn" feeling of Civilisation but mixes it with spacey goodness, less obtuse combat, and more unique research and diplomacy. You won't find better AI in a strategy game. Some call it a bit dry, however I disagree.
It's very easy to pick up and play for such a complex game, and there's a real feeling that you have options, rather than being inevitably forced into conquering everyone. Diplomacy is particularly fun/tough - some people will simply never like you, so you'll have to find a way to get rid of them and/or manipulate them into doing what you want. I won my first campaign having fought only two battles - a scuffle with a few fighters and an invasion of an enemy homeworld. Everyone else I united peacefully, except for the two races I paid my allies to wipe out, because I couldn't be bothered to fly over there and do it myself.
If you're not sure, try the demo. I did, and bought it as soon as the demo was over (Well actually, I pirated it, because it was a Saturday and I wasn't getting paid until Monday, but dammit, I've got to keep going. An unusual moment of impatience from me there, which hints at how fun Galciv is. Excellently, when I bought it on Monday, I was able to auto-update the version I'd pirated without any fuss).
Thank you sinister agent for your reply on Galciv 2. I'll try the demo.
The thing is, many of these games often mentioned focus heavily on one aspect, and are insanely great at that.
X series? The best 3D space trading/space business simulators.
FreeSpace series? The best 3D space combat simulators ('old-school style')
Space Rangers 2? The best 2d top-down turn-based space RPG
EvE Online? The best space MMORPG Excel sheet (I kid, I kid!)
Freelancer is.. slightly different. It doesn't truly excel in anything specific. The trading is average, the persistent universe is average, the combat is average, and the story has its flaws. The combination of everything, however, is the best of its kind. It just doesn't seem to focus on anything truly specific to really excel at.
That is why recommending X3: Terran Conflict to those who have played Freelancer is perhaps not the best idea. Sure, there are loads of similarities, but X3:TC focuses heavily on the business simulator/trading thing.
You should probably ask yourself the question: "What did I like most about Freelancer?", and pick the game you want to play accordingly. Was it the combat? Look no further than FreeSpace 2. The trading and business? X3:TC is your thing. Something else? There's bound to be a game that matches what you loved about Freelancer.
Space Rangers 2 is officially the bestest game ever though, so I assume everyone automatically owns it.
In fact, I heard the UN is close to declaring people who don't own it unpersons.
Even I like Space Rangers 2.
I've never understood the Freelancer love around here. It's a half-decent space action game, but that's about it. Wing Commander: Privateer is better in every way except mouse control. Grab a joystick and the Gemini Gold remake.
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