I have tried all the X series. They are known for ‘steep’ learning curves and insanely awkward controls.
But the games are amazing. True living sandbox.
X4, has the most ‘intuitive’ control structure of all the games in my opinion. But still expect a steep learning curve. I think it took me 10 hours to get ‘comfortable’ with how everything was expected to work. But then I am a dummy. You might pick it up earlier.
This is the closest you will ever come to being a starship Captain or Admiral.
And that Star Wars mod!
If you already have X4 Foundations, downgrade it to 5.1!
If you are thinking to buy this - wait at least 2 or 3 months!
This was pushed out early, while the Beta test with every day new reported bugs was still running, obviously to sell the new Kingdom End DLC, which is nice, but also not ready und not playtested.
If you are in doubt, look at the Forums at Egosoft, there are pages full of reported, proven and accepted bugs, which are not fixed after 2 weeks!
The reason is they just started another Beta for something else, give out no Hotfixes, and if you think to join the new 'after release Beta' think again: They test something else, and the old bugs from the 6.0 Beta are still not fixed.
Egosoft had a very good record in bug fixing, when 5.0 came out last year, there were 4 Hotfixes in the first 10 days! No more...
2 weeks passed and the developers are busy with new features (which will introduce even more bugs) instead of fixing the 6.0 release.
If you think by participating in the new Beta you will see bug fixes for Kingdom End and 6.0 earlier - think again, they are busy to test and fix a lot of new things, instead of fixing 6.0. And as a new player you will not want to do the Beta tests at all.
So - do yourself a favor and wait at least 2 or 3 months before buying!! Version 6.0 is not exactly unplayable, but - especially for a new and less experienced player - it is an annoying mess, with no help from Egosoft at all!
I have to admit, i pirated this game first because i didnt think it was worth it.. After over 25 hours of a lot of fun starting out as a lonely pirate and working my way up and still feeling like there are so many things to do and so much gameplay to uncover i had to purchase the collection and leave a review.
This is a phenomenal game.
The whole universe is simulated, even if you are in one area far away maybe one faction in the other side of the galaxy is starting their expansion plans , if you have sattelites there you might see it if not only when you actually visit or send scouts.
You can do things yourself or, you can hire pilots and crew and purchase aditional ships to do it for you (not as well but suitably)
I know you can also build bases and stations but in my around 35 hours of current gameplay i havent started that yet, so i cant speak too much about how base building works but it seems very complex and cool.
Honestly this is a great mix of elite dangerous and stellaris
it´s not as good in flying and combat as elite, not as good in empire sim as stellaris, but it´s the absolute best game i have seen that has both of those in a single game.
The scale of X4 is amazing and the in-game galaxy actually feels alive. From piloting a ship to building a galactic empire, the scope of the game is insanely ambitious yet it still delivers. Since the mechanics of the game are deep, it has a steep learning curve. Once I learned how the game worked, X4 became my favorite game. Highly recommended!
