X4: Foundations

I went into this with an itch for Homeworld Complex 9.1 style fleet management combined with a mixture of elements from MMO, simulation and RPG (EVE, Halo, Space Engineers, Star Citizen enjoyer). My expectations were, "hmm, this might do". 32 hours in, so far I'm not disappointed. I actually only just closed the game for the first time, due to my first crash/freeze, possibly related to either borderless fullscreen or a multi-layered undocking maneuver I was doing. From what I could see in the trailers, reviews and guides that I watched, the ships, UI and art style weren't quite my style, and were making me hesitant to try it. Also, I wasn't quite sure if it was an RTS or more of a first-person thing (turns out it can be either, at any moment in time). Now that I've flown around in-game, I really like a lot of the ship and station designs (♥♥♥♥ you SC dinky looking engines) and something about the overall art direction and UI feels very 2000s and cool, and I vibes with it. Feels like more BSG(O) inspired👍 As for some complaints which I observed prior to trying it myself: Bad UI? - Seems good to me. Not quite as powerful as EVE, which feels like an entire polished OS within your game, but it hasn't been painful to use in the way Star Citizen's mobiglass is (i.e. Starmap). It feels feature complete and useful for anything I've needed it for so far. Weird flight controls? - I quickly got used to flying ships and feel very comfortable maneuvering them in whichever way I want. Docking is also very easy. No problems with ship flight at all here. Bad EVA controls? - Spacesuit control is the same as ship but without flight assist, which means no inertia dampeners aka brakes. I've gotten used to it, but it is a pain to keep your character still, especially when you want to do repairs. Steep learning curve? - It's not so bad. I did the "basic" tutorials and went straight into the "Emergence" start scenario without much trouble. Took about 10 minutes or less to get started. I've only had to consult 2-3 of the advanced tutorials so far, mostly in regards to scanning. EVE has a long and arduous tutorial campaign by comparison. As for "don't like": - Voice acting is pretty bad and all over the place. AI voice acting is used for some characters and is very evident. I've observed weird delivery, emotionless delivery, mispronunciations, volume/gain mismatch between lines... it's very difficult to feel immersed in some of the storylines, definitely takes me out of it. I do feel like they could have done a much better job, even with AI use. - Soundtrack works, but it's not great. It's not "bad" so as to be distracting, but I am big on soundtracks, and I've come to expect a lot more from all media. Definitely not as good as EVE or BSGO (e.g. 'Below The Asteroids' and 'Something Dark Is Coming' ❤️), which this game kind of reminds me of. It's like one of those things that could have been really good, but they just didn't bother. - Formations and wings or squads or whatever, they seem a bit clunky. They can't quite smoothly follow you through a jump gate and can really fall behind depending on what you're flying due to stop-and-go behavior. If you're in a frigate, being escorted by fighters, it works a lot better than fighter-escorting-fighter. So far for me this hasn't been game-breaking or caused me a huge headache. It seems manageable but annoying and I would like them to improve it. - and I'm actually struggling to think of anything else of note that I haven't liked so far. I may update this once I've played some end-game. Back to "do like": - There is uh a freaking encyclopedia in the menu. YES. Always a good sign when the game has an encyclopedia (means they care about their lore). Lots of text for each item, ship, faction, sector, and more that you might want to know more about. Lots of stuff to read there and in the logbook and messages if you just want something to learn while your ship is en-route somewhere. - Cool loading screen, very BSGO. Not much loading screen outside of initial load and save load I don't think. - Performance is great. At 1440p on high, I'm usually 50+ fps on a 2060 / 5600x / 32GB system. In empty-ish space it's more like 80+. There is a sector (system) near the beginning of the Emergence start called Sanctuary of Darkness with a lot of clouds and VFX which tanked my FPS to mid 20s, but after enabling DLSS on Quality preset it was playable again. Didn't test with volumetric clouds set to off or low. Aside from that sector I haven't had any problems. There are plenty of settings to tweak if need be. Overall a pretty dope game to just lose yourself in and feel like you're in some simulated verse within your computer, as the marketing team likes to put it. I think the main selling point is that it's a COMPLETE singleplayer game for one. It feels like a completed version of SC without the insane technical scope or graphics, but it's impressive in it's own ways. The simulation aspects are really immersive to me so far. Lots of NPC traffic everywhere doing their own thing (instead of standing on chairs). I don't have crashes or bugs in the back of my mind 24/7 and if I do experience another crash, the autosaves work well so I'm not too worried. It feels like the devs actually cared about what they made. In summary, I got myself the Community of Planets Edition (2024) for $24 USD (or "two fast food orders") and for that price I am quite enjoying it. I think if this were $60 or over I'd feel a bit crappy, but anything in between feels good to me. If you're weighing editions, I would say don't bother with the base game only, unless you have no other option. I'm just happy this hasn't felt like a huge disappointing waste of time, as most games do these days.

Loving it so far, works perfect with Trackir. Ther'es literally so much to do. I've done taxi missions, repair, combat..anti-mine the scope is massive. I bought the Community edition in the sale and even after only 19 hrs it's definitely a bargain too me

This game is amazing, i love the complexity of managing an economy and an empire and the fact that you arnt forced into a singular playstyle. Trader, Conqueror, Pirate, its a true sandbox experience. It isnt for the light of heart however, managing stations, fleets, other aspects of your empire requires going through a very in depth economy and management systems. If you are a boomer or a COD Kid, this game does require you to use your brain for once, however it isnt as difficult as these negative reviews are making it out to be. There is a LOT of information out there, so much in fact that i have been able to get almost all of my questions about the game answered with just a quick google search or asking gemini. If your looking for a good space sim or a single player version of eve online, this is the game for you and it is really good.

Was watching Cohh play.. looked so much fun. But i dont have 10k ppl watching and guiding me. trying to ask anything in this forum and you get the most acoustic replies. Not so much fun alone and trying to watch videos taht make any sense on yt. over all it was a waste of money i dont thikn ill ever tough this again.

Best space sim

I like it

I've played No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen. This is the game I've been searching for. There's nothing else like it. Learning curve is a bit steep but well worth the time and effort. My only complaints are probably the usual: UI is a bit clunky/non-intuitive and the graphics are outdated. Once I got past those issues, I've been having a blast ever since.