X: Gold

I love the idea behind the X series and would really like to get into this game. However, I find 'Beyond the Frontier' to be a mostly frustrating experience. I get the game to run OK using Windows 10 but am somewhat disappointed by the way the developers opted to structure the tutorial. I get as far as the part where the containers are to be collected but for some reason following the on-screen instructions does nothing to collect them. Thankfully, one can skip the tutorial and go straight into the game. Frustration rears its head here too. You cannot save your progress without 'buying' a save which significantly hinders my ability to learn the game as a discrete whole. I just don't have the time to devote to build up towards where I can reliably save. In short, for me, the design decisions made in the first game not only mystify me, they actively put me off investing time in the game. This is a shame, as I would dearly love to make further progress in the game. I understand there are many who do not share my frustration and love playing the X series. All the same, if you are new to this world, you should know that 'Beyond the Frontier' is not one of those games that is easily accessible, at least not in my experience. I can see there is an immersive world in there, but sadly, to date, it remains just out of my reach.

Never knew about the X series until recently but I am glad I jumped into it and other space combat/trading sims. X and Freespace, among other titles, let you know just how unoriginal Mass Effect is. X: Beyond the Frontier is a fantastic game, but a game that does NOT hold your hand. Do not go into X BtF expecting a "friendly" hand telling you what to do left and right, the Teladi Capt tells you all you need to know and how to succeed in profiting. Again, she and others do not hold your hand and that is actually a classic charm of the game and other games of the 90s. You will need to use your common sense in this one and be brave with exploring. X: BtF is two things specifically, primarily a space trading aka economic space building, and secondary a Space combat/exploration. It does both of these well, but it does have its minor quirks. My biggest recommendation with X:BtF - look for a few tip guides, a galactic map you can print out, and a few hints on how to get the story going (again you can use some common sense with what the Teladi Capt tells you) I am going to be playing the expansion X: Tension next and from reading the manual it seems to have answered, fixed, and added many of my small nitpicks I did have with X: BtF but in actuality it makes perfect sense with the state of the several galactic groups and their current level of technology. I highly recommend X:BtF

X Beyond the Frontier is the first space simulation game from Egosoft. It tells the story of humanity in the X Universe, the plot is good, you can build, production stations, buy ships and manage an entire empire. It's a shame you can only pilot one ship. X Tension: An evolution of the well-known X Beyond the Frontier, it brings improvements in the SETA (To go fast), you can change ships to one you want, without always being with the same ship, as happened in X Beyond the Frontier, the graphics for their time, they brought many improvements and the plot is very good.

Beyond the Frontier has the skeleton of a good space sim - stations, trading, and combat. But none of these are really fleshed out enough to overcome to excruciatingly slow pace of the game. There's perhaps 5 hours of gameplay here, padded out with 30 hours of flying back and forth. X-Tension adds a lot to the formula, such as capturing mechanics and allowing you to own a fleet of ships and pilot any of them, larger map, etc. Unfortunately it is still plagued by the same excessively slow pace, especially at the start. It may pick up later, but with no storyline or other overall goal other than "make money," I really didn't feel any desire to sink the time in.

Neither game in this bundle work properly. Both start up with the 3D graphics clearly being broken into a indecipherable spaghetti animations which make it harder to see what is going one. X: Beyond the Frontier would always crash upon launch. X Tension: While a lot of more functional, still has the broken graphics animation with the voice recording being chopped up. The rending in both games are slow, erratic, and blatantly broken and should not be sold on the site in such state. The company responsible for these games, Egosoft, leave these games without fixing any of the bugs, according to the forums. You are better of buying Flatspace , Everspace, or Endless Space. You can also download Endless Skies which is for free instead.