X Rebirth

My review summed up in three words: "short and pointless" Even after an avalanche of bug fixes and major updates the interface is still confusing, the plot is practically non-existant, and the mechanics behind trading are a joke. At least now you can technically complete the game; though why anyone would want to is beyond me. The only thing that really works is space combat, but endlessly popping enemies against a pretty background gets a little tiresome after a while without something to break the monotony. No price is too cheap for this title. Buy Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos or Freespace 2 instead; you will not be disappointed.

I believe this game is somewhat of a Egosoft's attempt to bring something fresh to a franchise. While it is obviously not a stellar sucess, it makes many steps in right direction, but unfortunately also makes some very bad ones and especially so in regards to its predecessors, which is it's single greatest sin. It is now tweaked and patched and a lot better than it was, but it still remains what I consider an important, milestone, but yet not really sucessful experiment. The bad: buggy, tedious, interface-ally confusing and frustrating, AI is sometimes downright ridiculous (autopilot, NPC navigation). It can be very repetitive on many different levels. Trading is not what it should be in essence, yet there are two paralel trading systems (cargo and personal)?? Many station and NPCs are feeling very generic. Mini games are repetitive and boring. Various aspects of game are not balanced, etc, etc.. The good: feeling of presence in the universe is fantastic. Graphically it's very good. Ship finally have believable cockpit; entering and looking around the ship now looks like you are really there (instruments, copilot, sounds) Stations are gigantic and are teeming with life and traffic. Ships are more detailed than ever. Boarding mechanics feels there is always a prize in carefully planning battles with capital ships. There are rare and hidden missions and items to find. Conclusion: I did very much enjoy Rebirth in the end. If in next X game developer keeps all mentioned good things, but instead of many dubious experimental stuff which was not received well at all put instead more effort in variety and content (more story, plots, missions, situation templates, ships and ways and paths to upgrade them, not mentioning different NPCs, their faces and roles, and interaction with them), than maybe Rebirth could be observed as a birth of something more than a hit and miss experiment it is viewed as now.

Tried to play the campaign three times. First time learned a lot, second time around tried to second guess what was needed and did so however stuck at building the forge. Third time started to run into issues where I could not save the game. Enjoyed the premise and UI however it just has to be one of the most discouraging games I have played. I am so glad I didn't pay much for this game and the extra content!

I planned on using my HOTAS 4 to play, but when not piloting, view camera keeps spinning like mad. I didn't find any solution, however, I once had similiar problem in some FPS game set up on UE4 and only option was to disconnect joystick before launching game. If that's the case here, then I won't even bother. So many patches and still such basic stuff spoils all the potential fun. MEH.

If the recent updates have made this game better, as other reviews say, then the original release must have been really terrible. The highway system is weird and glitchy. The controls are cumbersome and seem designed only for controllers. The first time I went to dock with another ship, 15 minutes into the campaign, the auto-dock got the Skunk stuck bouncing up and down inside the cargo bay and I had to exit the game. If you liked previous X games, this one will be a disappointment. Walking around in stations is not at all fun, it's repetitive and immediately tedious. Being limited to one ship makes the world feel a lot smaller too. While the X games have always had charmingly bad writing, it was okay because there was more to do in the game. Here, they've added more dialogue and story than usual, but it falls flat because the simplistic plot and cardboard characters just stand out a lot more. The initial companion character in particular is a cringeworthy bundle of tired tropes. I went back and played X3:AP to make sure I wasn't misremembering things, but that is definitely a much more enjoyable game than this one, warts and all.