X2: THE THREAT

Reviewer: Bunn Review Date: 13/05/2004 Score: 95% Since Elite on the BBC Micro it?s taken some time for a decent space trading/combat sim to appear, and successfully take the reigns. Recently we had Freelancer, which promised much, but failed to deliver on its promise. Okay it was fun, but it had major flaws. The economy was very basic only allowing for 'take this here to make the most cash' type trading. You knew to take weapons from New York to the Outcasts? main base and easily make a large profit. Combat missions were also very linear. Take a contract, fly out into the middle of no where, and dispatch a few enemy ships. Nothing different! Freelancer was an arcade space game, nothing more. Since X2: The Threat appeared as a preview on gaming sites across the world, we have been dribbling at the prospect of playing it. Visually it looked remarkable, shiny ships, large rotating space stations, exciting enemies, build your own empire, the list went on. X2 was touted as the next Elite, the 21st Century Elite. Well, has it lived up to these expectations? Is it the best space game since Elite? Does it really look that good? Yes, yes and YES! X2 is bloody amazing! From the day you first get the box you?re in awe of it. The box is lovely. Nicely packaged, shiny decals it even looks nice inside! No DVD case for X2, oh no! This is a proper package, hell I'm happy just stroking it! Dear Lord, look at all these exclamation marks, must mean something's good? (Okay more exclamation marks)!!!!! So I'll get on with it then shall I? Every game has a plot and this is no exception, however you can leave the story line at any point and just do as you please. If you want to build a huge space empire then you can. If you want to just explore the massive universe then do so at your leisure. The plot is always there and you can come back to it when you can be bothered. I shall now try my best to explain the story, well at least the start of if. You?re Julian, a convict who has just been released from prison early. A high ranking official has made sure of your release for reasons only known to him. He gives you a basic fighter and a few upgrades. He then sends you to meet a friend of his in another system. The first two missions are designed to ease you into the game, and give you a small amount of credits to get yourself up and running. If you continue the plot you reach a point when a massive invasion begins. Presidents End is invaded by unknown ships and everything is wiped out. The invading enemy are known as the Khaak. Their craft are odd and don?t look dangerous, however you won?t make that mistake more than once. Their weapons are deadly and can decimate any craft in seconds. Their appearance is vital to the plot and it?s your job to deal out some justice. They move fast and are a bitch to shoot at and this is one of my major gripes. Combat is difficult and is best done using a joystick. Mouse controls are sluggish and make it a lot harder to get a solid lock on your targets. Joystick control feels a little better, but again takes a bit of getting used to. Anyway I?m going to leave the plot; I don?t want to spoil it for you. The X Universe trading system works well and is based around supply and demand. If you see a station low on Energy Cells, find a solar power plant that?s selling at a good price, buy some and sell them at the best buyer. Making a profit and becoming rich is a slow process. You will not become rich over night and you will have to work for your pennies. Once you have a few hundred thousand you can build a Solar Power Plant. This is your basic station and will create the basis of your empire, no energy cells, no profits, and no fancy cushions! However that station needs crystals. It also needs, ideally, 2 ships to trade for you. One to sell the energy cells, one to buy crystals. With your ships you get a basic command system. This command system allows you to remotely instruct your vessels to do things. For example, if you buy the required upgrades for trading you can instruct your trading ship/s to buy one product from one station and sell it at another station for a profit. Giving each of your stations a few ships, then assigning them to use that base as their ?home? means a new selection of commands become available. You can now instruct them to buy and sell, to and from your base, that way you make money without having to be there all the time. This works very well but be aware, don?t price your products to low or you won?t make anything. Getting yourself a better ship is also a must, so maybe you?d better wait until you can afford a good fighter before you buy that power plant. Or maybe if you have a few power plants you could have a small army of fighters once you start making a good profit! How about becoming a ruthless pirate? You could create an army of pirate ships and invade territories. You could attack trading vessels and steal their cargo! There are other ways of making credits. These vary from ferrying a station inspector about, to taking food to some snob's party. There are combat missions too, but these are a lot harder than in Freelancer. Combat in X2 is hard, very hard. If your ship has a slow turning rate, you'd better buy some rudder upgrades. Is your ship a tad slow? Better get some speed enhancements too. Each type of ship in X2 has its own maximum speed, which can be upgraded to reach that. Each ship also has a limited amount of cargo space which can be extended a limited a mount. Saving the game isn?t as simple as other game either; you have to buy Salvage Insurance from specific stations in the X Universe. This is a neat idea and makes you value your save games. No 'quick save' every minute. Should you risk flying into the Xenon space without saving first or take a risk? Buying Salvage insurance isn?t cheap either coming in at 3000 Credits a pop, however it?s well worth investing in. Your enemies are not just limited to the Khaak. The Xenons make an appearance as do Pirates who have this nasty tendency to attack your trading vessels. The Xenon race are basically robots and their ships are strange to say the least. The Pirates are a collection of bad guys from every race, the Teladi, the Boron etc. A lot of people say this game is slow, yes it is, but this isn't an arcade game, it's a space trading/combat sim. Space is HUGE it's not something you can traverse in a matter of minutes. If you are in a hurry though there is a useful device that can be bought. This is called SETA. SETA basically allows you to speed up time so you get to your destinations quicker. This is a God send as without it you'd be pulling your hair out at the time it takes you to get to your destination. There is so much here that I find it impossible to tell you it all. This is a massive game, way bigger than Freelancer, visually better than Freelancer. Oh hell Freelancer sucks! This is the BEST space game ever, no question. Elite has now be officially consigned to the rest home. Anyone who feels Elite still hasn?t be surpassed is living in a bubble. WAKE UP!   NOTE: While I do agree with the limitations Freelancer had as stated by Bunn, I feel he has been a little harsh on the game. Freelancer scored in several areas that have still yet to be beaten or indeed reached by any other online game that is not a subscription-based MMO: - Simple to fly the ships and engage in combat - Simple to set up a dedicated multiplayer server - Simple to get players together and take missions as a group. Fans have created some very nice mods for Freelancer and even created server admin programs that allow you to change many aspects of the game (starting money, starting ships, starting location and faction relationships). X2 looks visuslly stunning - no doubt about that at all. But the combat is not quite as polished, the empire building is great (if you like that sort of thing) but very complicated and time-consuming and most importantly, HAS NO MULTIPLAYER SUPPORT. - Quercus.