X: Gold

I loved Elite back in the day being able to be a Han Solo type character trading, smuggling and fighting my way across the stars. In this game you still get to trade and fight like a Han Solo character, but be way more of a entrepreneur like a Lando Calrissian character. This game has all the pacing of 2001 A Space Odyssesy the movie, as in a very slow burner, but worth it.

The first game in the X series (and also my first experience with it) is an interesting, but flawed beast. The initial first hours of play are painfully slow, as you trade small goods between stations in a attempt to build up funds. Eventually, after a lot of grinding you can start to build your own factories and the money starts to flow freely.You can start enjoying the game now right? Well, sort of. Upgrades to your ship cost a hell of a lot, and I found myself just flying to each of my factories (spread out over the whole galaxy), picking up my profits and eventually having the funds to buy an upgrade. Rinse, Repeat If the story was a bit more substantial, then perhaps X would have been able to hold my interest, but currently the unfortunately dull nature of the game lessons my enjoyment. If your interested in the X series, its probably best skipping to "X-2 The Theat" and just reading a plot summary of this one

On the surface, X: Gold has a lot going for it. A huge universe full of space stations, and races to explore. An economy that you can interact with by moving cargo and building space stations, and a fairly workable plot, you are the first human explorer to use a warp drive system, that fails terribly and leaves you stranded in unknown space. But scratch that surface, and you'll find a game that's unnecessarily complex with not a lot of reward for your trouble. There's grinding galore, especially early on in the game when you're trying to make your first pile of money. The game has a steep learning curve, which would be fine if there were anything substantial on the other side of that curve. Ultimately, however, there isn't. Figuring out how to build space stations, where to place them and how to use the economy is initially interesting, but quickly turns into just another chore. Travel in the game is long and boring. Eventually, your ship gets powerful enough to the pirates and enemies no longer become a real threat, and you have enough money to do whatever you need to in the game. The galaxy your ship inhabits is a barren place without personality, just lots of empty space stations that your ship parks in, to pick up generic supplies and move to another empty space station. Conceptually, it's an interesting game, but it ultimately is not a very fun one.

For a hardcore X series player it's like a place of pilgrimage, the past that defines the future. I played this game after countless hours of Elite on Speccy and PC, and the first impression was, why the game's universe is so small? Why the combat is so easy? The "Verbose Shipcomputer" is a total disaster! Shut up, you stupid piece of silicon! Ha-ha-ha... These are the only cons I'm aware of regarding this game. This is an exploration game. It's like any other space or naval exploration game, where you have to do your homework: make notes on prices and places, draw a chart (mine was about 1m x 1m), and think about what you are basically doing. Money are very easy to earn once you get the solid idea of goods and prices in the 5 or so initial sectors. Speed upgrades are progressively more expensive, so you always have something to spend money on. Upgraded ship is very fast, and the game world is becoming even smaller. The late game turns somewhat challenging, but dispatching Xenon destroyers is pure fun. Kids really like them, they look like chocolates. Proper flight joystick is a must, you need that speed control handle, otherwise the big destroyer will easily ram you while turning - they are heavy, and they are fast! I went through the XBTF plot at least two times, and replayed the end game countless times trying different strategies. The plot itself is engaging, a little brief in terms of storytelling, but still requiring a good amount of time to complete. The whole X series truly follows the spirit of original Elite, so if you like space opera games and movies, you'll find yourself in a place where you belong.