Draft Review: Masterpiece in Progress

[tomchk]

If anyone has constructive comments for this draft review, please let me know. I wanted to share here because it's not posting on GOG and I may have missed key points. Thanks!

The developers are actively working on this game, which is good because it does need a lot of work, especially on controls, convenience/layout of the interface, general unrefined/unfinished features, and minimal story and lore, to name a few issues. The developers have acknowledged this and have a reputation for handling such issues after release. Version 2.5 is quite good, and 3.0 will be much better. I hope far more story and lore is added, and I hope they port over certain truly awesome assets from previous game(s). I also hope they keep improving this to 5.0 and beyond.

Despite its in-progress state, the game deserves 4-5 stars now because it does so much so well already:
-Want "space legs"? You can walk around every ship with a cockpit, take over from your hired pilot and give them back the controls anytime, climb down to a station or carrier's dock, talk to full-motion NPCs, see all your ships and stations on foot, watch ships that are actually doing something you can track in the economy, climb into an NPC ship for a cool ride, and more. The scale of it just needs to be seen.
-Want an economy that is almost 100% "real"? Almost every single good, ship, station, etc. is made and traded via ships in-game (other than when first created at new game start).
-Want a RTS-like map of the entire game universe? Check.
-Want to customize almost everything on almost every ship you own? Check.
-Want to be able to destroy effectively anything in the game and take over with your empire? Check.

I recommend buying this game. It can give you now in a single game what no others can. It truly is a masterpiece in progress.

[mr.WHO]

IMO my recomendation:
Fans of the series - you can buy it after 2.60 (several irritating and serious bugs fixed - like unkillable stations)
Never tried the series - wait for 3.0 + DLC


The more I see and read about what will be in both 3.0 and DLC, the more I'm convinced that this will be positive turning point for X4.
The DLC will be nothing like X-Rebirth DLC - seem that we will have full ship set, stations, interiors, split NPCs, huge region (nearly the size of current X4 space) and storyline/missions.

Also the speed and quality of X4 patching is the best in entire series - it is less than year since release and we are nearly at 2.6. It took ages for X-Rebirth to get to the same state as X4 is now.

[radcapricorn]

Also the speed and quality of X4 patching is the best in entire series - it is less than year since release and we are nearly at 2.6.

Well, you know, one could say that a major update + DLC could've been 2.0. As in, the amount of patching required within a year isn't exactly a strong selling point. That the patches happen though is, of course, awesome.

[mr.WHO]

the amount of patching required within a year isn't exactly a strong selling point.

Unfortunately this is normal this days. Funny thing is that this was also normal for Egosoft long long loooooong before it become industry standard

[radcapricorn]

Ain't nothing normal about it. Widespread? Yes. Normal? No.

[Buzz2005]

Ain't nothing normal about it. Widespread? Yes. Normal? No.

But it is for Ego, if they ever get a new game out that is actually finished that will not be the same Ego

[mr.WHO]

I think there is bigger chance for Egosoft to release actually finished new game, than EA release a decent game or Ubisoft release innovative game

[sh1pman]

Masterpiece or disasterpiece? Hmm. I’m not quite sure. It might become a masterpiece at 5.0, but there’s soo much to improve still. IMO, it needs a proper story, it just doesn’t work as a pure sandbox, because you get to the top very quickly, and then there’s nothing to do, nothing new to explore. Ship and weapon balance is out of whack, there’s countless threads about it here on this forum. In X3 ships and weapons were balanced well (except the OP Hyperion and a few others), and with XRM mod they were perfect. In X4... well, see neighboring threads. It needs work. Regarding the AI, they seem to be moving in the right direction, though, as can be seen from 2.60 beta patch notes.

[tomchk]

Masterpiece or disasterpiece? Hmm. I’m not quite sure. It might become a masterpiece at 5.0, but there’s soo much to improve still. IMO, it needs a proper story, it just doesn’t work as a pure sandbox, because you get to the top very quickly, and then there’s nothing to do, nothing new to explore. Ship and weapon balance is out of whack, there’s countless threads about it here on this forum. In X3 ships and weapons were balanced well (except the OP Hyperion and a few others), and with XRM mod they were perfect. In X4... well, see neighboring threads. It needs work. Regarding the AI, they seem to be moving in the right direction, though, as can be seen from 2.60 beta patch notes.

Yeah, I definitely hear you. I still think it deserves a 4 or 5/5 already, and I should stress the "in progress" even more.