I would say that Endsieg shows well some of the main weak points of this game. Especially tragic inability of AI to attack, which has to be compensated by large numbers and other measures. Player gets too few units (Command Points) and choices restricted by other conditions, like objectives to hold not too favorable starting positions (AI can't handle pursuits). That makes player a tool which tries to keep units able to fight, which isn't too entertaining. Defensive missions with more freedom, mostly later, are usually pretty simple. All you have to do is to get out of the touch. Add a few well placed minefields and AI is lost. Offensive missions are better, but there are just a few of them as a reward. Even if you are still crushing attacking enemy, you have to follow historical line. Fine for a history fan, but I can see the problem here. And some other issues I can fit in: Specializations are mostly useless. SS3 units are good to increase your CP, but it also diverts lots of income from main army, making resource management even more complicated. Perhaps intended, but I avoided it. Unit types and upgrades are another wasted opportunity. History offers the best and most iconic weapons of the war here, but using them in the game usually doesn't make sense. And almost no upgrades do. You are stuck with fw190 fighters for the first half and me262 (upgrade exception) for the second. Air CP are heavily limited (especially in the west), so you need a few elite planes. There are some other fighters later, but none is better and because all planes cost same 3CP (WHY?), useless. Sometimes you can afford fighter bombers, which are better than outdated tac bombers. No room for strategic bombers. Tigers were too expensive even in reality, but much cheaper panthers are almost as expensive here. Assault tanks can do similar job for half price. Other units have similar problems, just infantry gets boring upgrades each year and recon never, as expected in this game.
Well looking TBS with good gameplay and care for details, which goes as far as to batteries for submarines. But to say something new here, there are also many little flaws which bother me. While the game is still playable and fun, it could be much better without them, or even with a few less. Just to give an idea for interested, here is a brief list of some. Please note that space is limited, so can't list them all, go into details or be always accurate. It's expected that my opinion won't match yours in every case. You may not consider some of them to be a problem. They are most annoying all together. - no undo, even simple misclicks - on load, computer has to build all units somewhere in parallel universe, it's painfully slow - high CPU usage, especially by AI - AI thinks for ages, but is only capable to make best result attacks, without consideration to situation - lack of capabilities makes AI poor defender and tragical attacker, not even capable to use artillery or bombers before close combat, or do something about minefields (if it does, it's luck) - AI difficulty is in superior numbers and cheats - scenario maps are playable just for one side, AI side would be easy - multiplayer needs special balanced maps - gameplay has priority over historical accuracy or logic, so it's better game than WWII simulation - unit parameters are similar for all sides, infantry exactly same, fighters very similar and so on, only tanks differ more - unit parameters are very similar for early and late war models, especially fighters don't evolve much - very few unit types per most sides, basically only important or iconic models, but considering lack of diversity and game mechanic, makes sense to use just a few of those anyway - strange speeds, infantry almost as fast as tanks, tanks just a little slower than planes, recon planes slower than tanks and so mostly useless - ground recon for special chapter of complains - can't delete unwanted units from core list without rebuy
After 5 missions, I wanted to say that this expansion is better than previous one. But I'm not sure anymore. First mission is not too much, but at least it's easy and fast this time, so it can be counted as warming up. Next 4 maps are well designed with increasing difficulty, though generally not much challenge on hotshot with exception of some fabricator nests and final/reactor rooms, which may be sometimes too difficult. Upgrade points were probably incorporated later, so sometimes they are hard to miss and sometimes pain to find. There are not so many, so you can upgrade just something (may be good) and distribution is very uneven among levels (worse). I don't like "sovereign missions" in Cronus frontier and despite some interesting ideas I wasn't amazed even here in 6th mission. But while you may like them, it's hardly nice that sometimes, when you load your position, paths which were open on save are closed (BEFORE you pass them) and you have to use older save or restart level to continue. That's even worse in combination with unpredictable upgrade points and "no return policy". The last mission is simple, uninteresting and apparently impossible to finish. Third wave of robots just won't spawn no matter what I do, so I can't get any further (playing on Linux, but otherwise without problems). Finally, the new challenge maps are mostly good and some of them even real design masterpieces. They could be great for multiplayer, but as matchmaking is probably as bad as ever and (casual) multiplayer basically dead, their potential is going to be wasted. We have quite a few challenge maps for single player already with previous expansion. The new ones seem mostly less fitting for this purpose and don't bring anything new or special, so their real value is questionable. I would say that this expansion is still worth for real fans or if you want to show some support, but otherwise you can miss it. At least until some multiplayer miracle.
Not really a review but attempt to help other Linux users with current (end 2017) distros like Ubuntu 17.10: If you have problem to launch X3 installed from gog_x3_terran_war_pack_2.4.0.7.sh and it crashes with "./X3TC_config: lib/libz.so.1: version `ZLIB_1.2.9' not found (required by /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16)" while you have zlib1g:i386 installed, you have most likely version 1.2.11 (or newer). Try to add "LD_PRELOAD=/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1" before the original X3 run command. Please note that paths are valid for my Kubuntu 17.10 amd64, you may have other path in error and you may need to find your 32bit libz.so.1 first. While there are other ways usually including (dangerous) messing with your libraries, this one is almost painless and hopefully safe (no need to download, compile, remove, link or break anything). No warranty included, it works for me and some others. I'm sorry if you feel that this shouldn't be here, but it seems as best place to improve Linux out of box experience and save other users from possible long hours of searching and trying (damaged systems and so). I sent this to GOG and I expect them to delete this post when they have their own solution, so please pardon me and bear with it until then if it's not useful for you. And on unrelated note, just to mention it - libasound2-data:i386 library may not be available on your system nor needed to run. Don't panic and try without it.
