X4: Foundations

I didn't notice the AI disclaimer when i got this game. I realized the Gen AI usage when I heard the npc's speak. Because they are beyond freaking awful. I would have sunk so many hours into a game like this if they chose to just have no voiced lines as opposed to AI, and its not even just that Gen AI is unethical and damaging to the environment and driving prices high, but the gen AI yall use for your voices are just horrid and inhuman sounding. Refunded, don't waste your time learning the game that doesn't want to learn how to hire real humans. Also if you do get this game bc you don't mind AI, get this game on discount. It's ridiculous to sell a game for 49.99 when you used corner cutting methods like Gen AI to save on costs.

The best space sandbox game. Don’t pay attention to reviews from people who’ve played less than 5 hours. The game is indeed challenging at first and it won’t guide you with a hand (though it sometimes tries and even succeeds at times). The game’s true charm unfolds gradually - it’s a true sandbox where you choose your own activities and ultimate goals. If you want, follow the faction storylines; if you want - play as a tycoon building massive complexes and setting up supply chains. If you want - feel like an admiral, build fleets, and make war against factions you don’t like, or against the global threat - the Xenons. Or, if you prefer, combine these elements and use the map of the universe as a chessboard, influencing absolutely every aspect of a fully living universe that exists independently of your actions and your presence in any given system but always reacting on them. Conflicts break out regularly - sectors can shift from one warring faction to another; in some places, the Xenons are methodically wiping out all life, while in others, the races are joining forces to fight back and launch counterattacks. Pirates are a doing they job (making your *** burn sometimes) demanding pilotes drop their cargo, the Khaak's harass miners in the asteroid fields - in short, life goes on as usual. All of this is complemented by excellent soundtracks that capture the atmosphere of both specific sectors and the factions that inhabit them, along with beautiful backgrounds. The most important thing is that you really get a sense of scale here. From an S-class scout to an XL-class carrier and a massive space station - you can truly experience that “wow” factor and feel like a speck of dust in the vastness of space. The combat and flight mechanics here are some sort of unique - you won’t find here a true sim mechanics like in Elite: Dangerous - but you get used to them quickly, and if you learn to turn off the flight assists at the right moment, they can be incredibly thrilling. On top of that, it’s incredibly cool to watch fleet battles, where fighters wage their own war by taking out enemy S-M ships, bombers break through enemy lines and, closing in on a large target, unleash a barrage of missiles, and the turrets of large ships leisurely fire heavy-caliber salvos at their targets - it all looks incredibly spectacular and memorable even though the graphics here are more like a 7 out of 10. The game also has a... complex interface that can be hard to figure out at first, but eventually you’ll realize it’s like an airplane’s instrument panel—there’s a lot of things, but everything is in its place. And when you get used to it you also realize it’s actually quite convenient. 9.0 introduced diplomatic features that make the universe feel even more alive - factions can now constantly form and break alliances, change their attitudes toward neighbors, and wage wars. And this is despite the fact that you have the opportunity to fundamentally change the course of certain factions (once you've completed their main story) - you can reconcile them and unite them into a single conglomerate, or, conversely, intensify their internal strife. Your relationship with the factions will also be clearly evident beyond the well-known ship purchase permits. If your reputation is high, you can count on assistance from their fleets (including capital ships) which will patrol the borders of your sectors or areas where your fleet has come under attack. Conversely, if your relationship drops below a certain threshold, you can be sure that the faction will certainly try to destroy your assets and may even come after them from a great distance. So... this is a true sandbox game, and you should treat it exactly like a theater where you choose your own path. Give the game a little more time, and if you like this genre, you're sure to love it and the game itself will pleasantly surprise you.

Очень красиво, иногда даже эпично. Визуал на высшем уровне, для игры серии"X". Стоять на палубе и смотреть за жизнью в реальном времени, это топ.) Проблема только в том, что чем дальше, тем меньше вы будете видеть красоту и больше тыкать в карту и таблички, которые содержат массу ненужных строчек. Зачем, к примеру, в действиях корабля строчка "Редизайн"??? Каждый раз, ищешь нужное в этой стопке шлака.. ЛКМ/ПКМ, они же, двигают карту, регулярные "мисс-клики". Вроде бы, задумано так, что НПС будут всё делать в автоматическом режиме? Так нет же., Они постоянно застревают с выполнением команд. До автоторговли надо ещё дожить.. Первый капитан дорос до трёх звёзд после, примерно, 220 часов игры. Автомайнеры, приписанные к базе, постоянно зависают с полными трюмами и оранжевыми метками, хотя на базе полно места и ресурсы регулярно закупаются у НПС. Из-за багов, самая частая команда "отменить все приказы", также, помогает перезапуск игры. Соседи наслушались ненормативной лексики, короче.. Экономика в игре убитая, совсем. Большая часть фабрик остановлена. Флоты XL есть только у Ксенонов, Земли, и у СОП. За 200 часов Ксеноны полностью снесли Аргон, ни одного аргонского XL корабля так и не появилось. В сектор залетает группа из "I" и 4-5 штук "K", выпиливают сектор минут за 30. Где минимальный баланс сил? Или это приколы "земной" ветки? Алгоритмы автоматического боя, это боль.. 30 минут с нулеывм результатом, то же, вручную-10 сек. Периодически, корабли вообще, бастуют, тупо отказываются выполнять команды - перезагрузка помогает. Список того, что бесит - бесконечный... Когда игра только вышла, купил одним из первых. За 200 часов задушила, бросил. После 100500 патчей, спустя 8 лет, вернулся, купил "земное" дополнение.. думал, исправили.. ощущение, что игра стала ещё душнее, а ИИ ешё тупее. На "Асгард" без модов сколько времени копить, 1000 часов?))) Играл во все игры серии, начиная с Икс-Теншн, а в X3 наиграл больше 10к часов, багов минимум, контента в разы больше, экономика адекватней, корабли-оборудование разнообразней, постоянный "движняк".) X3AP - идеальная игра (имхо). Вы чего с "Иксами" сделали? Порог вхождения и так высокий, из-за сложности управления, так игру сделали максимально кривой и душной. Остальные ветки покупать расхотел. Короче, только для любителей серии и фанатов "Эгософт". Для новичков лучше X3, X3 на порядок удачней.

Wartime profiteering sim. It is very shallow and boring. I did a Terran cadet start, and piloting the initial two fighters felt janky and unresponsive. I figure that is ok, this is perhaps more of a sim game, so I did some menial tasks to get money, then bought miners. It turned out these print money forever, risk-free. Since piloting felt so bad, I idled until I felt I had enough free income. This was boring. So, I tried trading. That will be more interesting, right? Wrong. Trading is hell in this game. It cannot be automated (in a sensible way) and manual trades were janky due to constant economy updates. Trading routes cannot be planned, and doing it manually was heavy babysitting. This was frustrating. The game forced me to do station building early on. So I did, and it was hell because it was tied to trading. It turned out none of the AI factions were supplying their own factories for something I needed, so there was a universe-wide shortage of it. I had to manually send my own trading ships to resolve really basic supply blocks. All it took was a few shipments to fix the problem while countless AI traders ignored it. This was frustrating. And dumb. I tried exploring the game world. That will be interesting, right? Wrong. It can be dynamic - I witnessed an "end game" invasion just a couple hours into my game. But there was no purpose here. The defenders won, and the invaders never followed up in 40 hours. After exploring much of the universe, I found very few points of interest, no secrets and only a couple of truly unique sectors. There were only two permanent enemies in the game, so most of the universe was too safe. There were very few sworn enemies between factions, and those relations did not seem to dynamically change. This was boring. Wartime profiteering (aka "winning the game") required me to locate factories and docks of interest, then place satellites near them to monitor prices and stocks. But there was no way to automate scouting or satellite placement. The "Explore" option for scouts was obviously broken because ships would spin in circles or travel short distances instead of efficiently scouting. As with trading, I had to manually scout and place satellites and this involved a huge amount of babysitting. This was frustrating and boring. Finally, I realised I was God in this game, but a God of nothing. I had endless risk-free income and I could build my own factories (and ships, eventually). The AI factions largely took care of themselves, so they didn't need me. But after a while, I didn't need them, either. There was no need for trade, relations didn't matter, and inter-faction relations never changed unless I made them. I know it's a sandbox game but it's still a game and there is no challenge or fail state. This made me quit.

Being opaque is not depth. Random difficulty spikes, or missions your character is literally incapable of completing is not challenge. This game wants you to think it's Privateer. It is not. It's a game that will ask you to literally fly around the galaxy scanning enemy vessels to see if they have drugs. It is an exercise in tedium, made by developers who clearly wouldn't know a good quest design if one walked up and shook their hands.

Look. The game is incredible. Egosoft are vastly overly ambitious with the resources at hand to pull it off smoothly, however. Despite my playtime, I can't recommend this. Why? Save file corruption. I've done all the searching. Took action using all the tips reddit, steam, AI, you name it, have given me. Nothing - nothing has prevented me twice now, from losing multi hundred hour playthroughs in an instant. Some will not be bothered by this, the sandbox is what matters. And I wish I were like them, but I am not. I want the story alongside it. The missions, the changes, the feeling that what I'm doing matters. And that is failed time and time again by save file corruption.

It took me 45 hours to figure out the menus for this game. Not because they are bad, but because there is so much to do. This is Eve Online, Singleplayer edition, but somehow better. Ship mods, ship equipment, ship type, ship size, schematics, various factions, large game world that seems capable of expanding as you fly out from central gates, etc. Its quite an interesting game. I have enjoyed not playing it thoroughly! Now that I figured out the menus, I see a genocidal campaign of gate network conquest coming! The fact that it only takes a few button presses to go from fighting in a fleet battle as the main carrier with a wing of 100 small craft and 4 medium, all crewed, all fighting enemies... the game literally lets you be anything from one random pilot to the leader of the entire Universe. You can command ships across the whole of space in real time while watching your fleet crush your enemies. Amazing game. I bought every single DLC within a few hours of buying it!

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS The game's visuals are sufficient for modern day, but I would not consider them a highlight. ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't I don't even know where to begin with this one, but I'll just say this is a true sandbox game, and there is no feasible limit to how you can play this game, so long as you can at least enjoy flying a spaceship. And so far I've enjoyed every aspect of how this game can be played. ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf Similar to graphics: sufficient, but not a highlight. The OST however is quite enjoyable. ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma Nothing in this game is exceptionally graphic, minus illicit drug references for trading. However, the sheer complexity of this game warrants a player with adequate sim-genre experience to get the most out of it. I never would have been smart enough to play as a kid or teen. ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer Do your research, but I haven't found this game to be particularly taxing on my system with REASONABLE amounts of actors and visuals rendered. Keep in mind, a sandbox game can get BIG and taxing. Also, volumetric fog is disproportionately taxing. ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data Honestly, I haven't even needed to check to see how much room this game is taking up. Modern systems shouldn't need to worry. ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☑ Dark Souls As simple or complex as you want. Just feel like flying a space fighter around, having two wingmates and blowing up bad guys? Possible. Want a massive trading empire with myriad stations, thousands of employees, intricate internal economy, and massive armadas flying in formation to eliminate major factons? Also possible. ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☑ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding Similar to complexity. The more you want to accomplish, the longer the grind. Good news is that subordinates can be automated to start to replace menial tasks. ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life Story is not explicitly told. Much of the lore comes from faction disposition, and more importantly the three books (not groundbreaking, but recommended). The lore is actually insanely deep, but the game spares you from being required to learn it. ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond Again, as a sandbox game, there is no end time if you don't want it to end. ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money I'd say it's worth full price, but I'd be a hypocrite because I bought it and all DLC on sale. However, for a game that isn't AAA, I'm getting a $60 experience from it without a doubt. I can see sinking a thousand hours plus into this over the years easily unless the sequel comes out first. ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs Nothing game breaking, but there are certain oddities with NPC movement and behavior, so I've found myself save scumming sometimes to save some of my fleet that felt unfair to lose. Everything else including save game stability seems great. ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☑ 10 I personally hate when people give either a zero or a perfect score, but I'll add the context that I'm not looking to review games yet that I find less than a 10. It's been so long since a game has immersed me into its universe with gameplay and lore and even a book series as well as X4 has, and makes me sad that more games aren't able to do this. Between player variable complexity, fun combat, base building, and just excellent cool factor, I highly recommend this game. But remember, it definitely isnt for everyone, and if you're unsure, unfortunately the 2 hour refund window may not be long enough to get the game to make sense. I would say, like what I did, get the base game on sale as like a cheap demo, then see how you feel about DLCs. I certainly found this experience to be well worth it.

Spielt die Tutorials! Am Anfang einfach etwas überwältigend zum Einstieg. Dann die Tutorials gespielt (ja, nehmt euch die 2-3 Stunden :D ) und auf einmal ist es gar nicht mehr so überwältigend. Einfach drauf losspielen, das erste Geld verdienen und die Freiheit genießen machen zu können was man will. Wer ein Story Game erwartet, ist wohl falsch. Aber ich als Mount&Blade Spieler habe hier einfach eine Sandbox im Weltall bekommen, die mich glücklich macht. Wer also Mount&Blade mag und Weltall, ist hier richtig!