X4: Foundations

You may feel like this game is similar to Elite: Dangerous, since they're often lumped together in space game reviews and they look alike in some aspects. It is not. Elite: Dangerous is, at its core, a cockpit flight simulator. There are other game loops, but when it comes down to it, the point of Elite: Dangerous is to feel like you're actually inside a spaceship, physically flying from location to location throughout the galaxy. Engaging in combat, trading, mining, or simply exploring, you and your ship are the focus. Yeah, there's some FPS aspects of the game, but it's not a shooter. It's a spaceship sim game wrapped in the bare bones of an MMO. X4 is... not Elite: Dangerous. Yes, you fly around in a spaceship, and yes, you're in a cockpit. Yes, you can fight other ships, you can "explore", you can trade. And that's where X4 and Elite part ways. At its core, X4 is an empire-building game. You may start off in a small starter ship, but the end goal is to build massive fleets, carve out a huge empire, and reach some kind of 4X endgame. If you're looking for a game where you really feel like you're a spaceship pilot and you want to fly it around an immersive, expansive galaxy? This game isn't it. You're looking for Elite: Dangerous. If you're okay with piloting a ship every once in a while, enjoy "spreadsheets in space", and empire-building, then you're looking for X4. The learning curve in this game isn't around figuring out how to pilot a ship well, or how best to engage in combat, how to dock at stations, land on or take from planets. Yeah, it's part of the tutorials. But once you're past those, it's pretty much "figure this submenu out". Once you figure that submenu out, you move on to the next submenu. You will be clicking on a LOT of submenus in this game. Does that mean Elite: Dangerous is a better "space" game than X4? That depends entirely on the kind of experience you want. Do you REALLY love outer space, spaceships, and the idea of piloting one tickles your fancy? Elite. Do you want to become the corporate overlord of a galactic economic superpower? X4. Personally, I want to like this game. It's slick, it's well-made, and there is a ton of content with all of the DLCs. But I come from a "wanna be a Han Solo" mindset, where I am an ace pilot who crosses the galaxy to see all the awe-inspiring sights it holds. But in the end, that is not what this game provides. I'll keep dabbling around because I enjoy the ship designs and it's a decent time waster, but I lean more Elite than X4. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Elite is an online multiplayer game with PVP elements. X4 is single player only. And please, no comparisons to Star Citizen. Star Citizen isn't a space game, it's a money laundering and embezzling scheme and there isn't a single thing a SC d!ck r!der can say to me that will in any way change my mind.