X-Universe fans have been patiently waiting a long time now for the release to the next chapter of Egosofts' sandbox space simulator. X-Rebirth has been in development for 7 years, and it is now finally here.
The most obvious questions are: Does it deliver? Is it worthy of the X-Universe franchise? And does the new addition cater to the fans as well?
At most, it does. Although a little early on its release, with having an array of bugs experienced in the game from many users, X Rebirth should not disappoint neither the fans of the franchise nor the newcomers. It caters to both depth and functionality, keeps true to the franchise in almost every way, and adds changes that make it easier to pick up as well as easier to enjoy in the long run without ditching that depth of the past. Egosoft have gone into delivering these elements for their new X title in one of the most well-balanced and complete approaches that a single player sandbox space simulator has ever seen till now. (minus the bugs)
What's New in X-Rebirth
What we can expect to see in the new chapter to the franchise is still, beyond anything else, all the elements that we grew to love in the previous titles. The Trade, Fight, Build, Think scenario is as present and as evident in X-Rebirth as it has ever been in the previous titles. The difference now is mostly one, immersion.
The biggest thing one should expect in the new X-Rebirth is immersion. An immersion that has been achieved with three things in mind. The first would have to be the simplification of all elements within the game and how they are accessed. The second is keeping the depth of the previous titles present. And lastly the third, is the realism in everything designed. For old fans and new, the biggest trademark possibly evident in the design and direction of X-Rebirth would have to be the realism of the game, with which everything feels like it has a purpose and could actually work or exist in that way within the designed universe.
The game is no more a "programming console" through which scripts and actions are inserted, a common feeling the old titles gave time and time again. It no longer creates the occasional barrier that of old between the player and the universe thus making it feel like a distant simulated and partially empty, still or even dead, universe. A universe in which the best elements till now were the settings themselves and exploring them. X-Rebirth now actually feels like a game. What's more, it actually feels like a living world.
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| Every single station is strictly designed with components and parts that actually have a purpose and work (click for larger resolution) |
To create this immersion and realism the franchise, apart from the interface changes, has now moved forward with this title in the level of detail that has been put into the actual universe itself. It now feels alive with so much going on in it and at times even crowded, the way an occupied universe should. It feels less stiff and there is a flow in all the animations rather than clunky scripts evidently breaking things down. Players can expect a complete simulation of freedom within one of the largest if not the largest single player space simulation universes created. Explore, trade, fight, build and live in one of the largest most interactive X titles so far.
Changes, Similarities and Additions for both Fans and Newcomers
What changes have been made to the game are not for the newcomers alone, but have been also made to keep a large amount of the older fans happy with the title too. There was a large number of fans (myself included) that although loved the X titles felt that the interface could go a long way to be better presented, fixed, and simplified. We all got our wish come true in this newer interface. And make no mistake about it, the game has not been dumbed down at all. The learning curve for X Rebirth remains to be a very large one just like the old titles, whilst inclusion of all previous tasks remains present within the game.
With X Rebirth you can go ahead and do more or less everything you ever did in the old games, whilst unnecessary learning curves (that is learning the actual interface itself) have been taken out. Much easier to jump into, yet with all the depth it previously had and more, X Rebirth focuses on you actually doing things in real time rather than spending hours on end for you to do them in the first place. You are required to think and plan your moves in this universe as much as any X universe till now. Having a simplified interface now makes tasks easier to look for, track and execute whilst everything is now also neatly organised.
The similarities are as many as the differences and Egosoft have carefully taken to plan out which would be which. Additions such as manually piloting drones, or even the biggest addition of all, being able to walk around stations, might not be the biggest game changers but they really are great additions. Stations and walking around in them in a first person fashion give for nice breaks between your flights, as well as give the feeling that there is more to this all than just models in space floating around. Making graphical representation of vendors and other individuals does not make the game simpler, it makes it more realistic as opposed to scripts and texts alone representing every individual that you come across in the universe (like in previous titles). The stations become a little repetitive perhaps, but still good enough for what is a space simulator that generally focuses on the flying and flying alone.
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| The choice of one ship and hence one cockpit view alone sounded like a bad one, yet is much better in execution than one expects. |
Another change is that you now no longer have multiple ships to board and pilot like in the previous titles. Being initially sceptical about such a change I myself found it to be more enjoyable in this way. The ship becomes much more personal too. I really would rather have one ship that is detailed all the way to its interiors and everything else rather than many ships with much less detail. I for the moment do not find myself wanting or even missing the function and ability of selecting ships like that of old. This new approach has become a very enjoyable experience after all. I expect the modding community none the less to come up with some neat additions in the future with regards to this. Not being able to change your characters name (and all ship names as well as I am guessing) is another detail of the few with which I am not entirely pleased with.
Mostly, the differences in the game are those of the interface. This includes even the space highways which are not really content alone but also an interface means for getting around sectors fast, getting rid of all that time wasted in the old titles on going from point A to point B. Everything has been at most implemented to make the experience more fun and also more functional for what could be the "inhabitants" of this universe.
With all things changed, kept the same and others added, X Rebirth continues to simulate that which the franchise always did till now now yet in even better ways than before. Fans have access to more or less the same universe but in a better layout. Newcomers can enjoy the game as well without being bored by endless hours on end to learn the basics alone of the game.
X Rebirth has something for both, outgrowing and outdoing its predecessors in so many ways.
Strap In, time to roam!
Being always a fan of the Free Roam option in the X titles more than the campaign, I plugged myself into it on the go as soon as the game launched. I found like stated above so many differences and changes as I did similarities in the game, and did not experience a "too simplified" simulation as I expected I would. There is still a large learning curve and time required to figure out how it all works. The game is not just an arcade simulator, and it is not just command prompt panels any more either. The environment and interface feel like they could actually exist and you keep learning things the deeper you head.
I have ranked up to more than 8 hours of gameplay so far, finding also that time drifted away so easily as I enjoyed my stay in the new X-Universe and exploring it. There are still elements I have to experience and the campaign of which I played much less of is a good way to getting to those.
With X-Rebirth, one of the biggest differences I witnessed was how thorough the campaign felt. It explains things and gets you through the elements of the game in a rightly fashion (so long as the process is not interfered with game breaking bugs still evident even now since release) that simply makes sense and for my case makes things easier for Free Roam as well.
The flight path animations and the actual manoeuvrability with the craft seem even better and more fluent now. I had more fun controlling the ship around stations, in and out of space highways, chasing enemies down, dodging enemy fire, and everything else, than I did with the older titles.
With realism still being the biggest part of the immersion, I found that even every last bolt fired from my weapons should be well thought so as not to create friendly fire. Using a simple scanner can be illegal and noted by the police, and everything else is to the detail were you do not feel like a ship wandering alone in a lifeless space.
With still much more to go, including excessive trading, mining and building, my 1st impressions thus far of X-Rebirth even with some few bugs experienced here and there, are all good. The game delivered in every way possible that I could hope for and finally fixed so many problems and nuisances that existed in the old titles. The last 8 to 10 hours have passed in one of the most calm and enjoyable space exploration/combat/trading games I have ever experienced so far. The biggest part of the game is the lack of frustration. The developers really went out of their way to take out of the franchise the frustration of learning things, making it easy to pick up at any point, yet still hard to master and completely learn.
The Tech - Graphics, Audio, Artificial Intelligence and the Bugs!
The graphics of X Rebirth don't have anything new in terms of technology and seem rather outdated. Even the shaders are nothing special of note, but even so they are in no way less pleasing. Compared to the old titles they seem like they are really around the same kind of technology more or less, until the more atmospheric elements of the game start to present themselves. X Rebirth seems to handle smoke, clouds, lighting and other effects much better overall this time around and the quality in the image is not so much a technological update as it is a design update.
X Rebirth has been designed with much more creativity, detail and also clarity. Textures seem neatly placed everywhere and more colourful. That old silver-only or silver-shaded-colour metal look the old titles had is gone, and in it's place is something much richer and more appealing to the eye.
But the biggest improvement to the graphics is the model detail. There is so much detail on every single part of a station it is uncanny. A lot of work was really put into designing a universe that was complete with fully functional stations and what not. The game engine handles all this relatively good though does seem to need more CPU processing power when compared to other titles in general. Increasing the draw distances and all details results in a very crowded scene at times and occasional drop in frames. The density however of this all really puts a much more epic scale to the game and the universe as every single thing has been tailored to extreme detail down to the smallest part no matter how much you zoom or close in. Even the interior designs in ships are richly designed and by comparison add to a superior experience than that of the old X-Universe titles.
The audio is great and I found no problems at all with sound effects, ambient sound and voice overs. The soundtrack remains to be that old calming exploration theme we always loved from as far back as the older titles. The feeling to the game is harmonised between all the sounds from music to events to everything else. Although, some voice overs can be very annoying to listen to. Apart from that the audio in general is above average if not excellent. The soundtrack itself makes for a great ambient experience even for outside of the game. Simply wonderful as always. Click here for the entire OST to X-Rebirth
Artificial Intelligence seems to be much improved as well, except for the times where the person you are talking to decides to start doing crouches for an exercise before you, and things seem to be tracked to a much greater detail. The simulation of the world so far by my experience is coordinated to much greater depth and logic as well when compared to the old games of the franchise. Everything depends on everything (more or less). Although, none of these are as enjoyable as they should be when and if there is a constant bombardment of bugs.
I myself have only seen a few. Some of the more visual bugs include caps/hats on npc's twitching and turning when they talk, or the animations in my cockpit not working at all resulting in a monitor that would not pop up, hence making the game unplayable period (fixed only by reloading previous checkpoint, so having several save files is a good practice for now). But even as being on the luckier side of the line with fewer bugs, the game does suffer from them from time to time becoming either unbearable with large efficiency drops, or campaign bugs rendering you incapable of further progressing in the game. Fixing these should not take long under normal circumstances and the game is truly enjoyable even in it's current somewhat-broken state. I foresee the polished result aiding in an experience nothing short of unforgettable.
X Rebirth is easily a title worthy of the franchise. Giving it time to sort out the problems it currently has is more than worth it as it offers the best immersion of any X universe thus far, unprecedented attention to detail, easy to pick up and also with a lot of depth. Quick to get into, long to master. A title worth purchasing for any space simulation fan out there, if not now in its current state then definitely in the near future.
X Rebirth is easily an 8.5/10 capable of perhaps even a 9/10 once all the problems are taken care of. There really is no other offline, single-player rival to this game within the genre that can match it for now, and chances are there wont be one for a while.
Don't let the bugs fool you people, X3 Reunion was just as buggy more or less and still turned out to being so popular. By comparison so much more has been made, improved and added to X Rebirth, and even the smaller map in less Systems to count feels very big as every aspect is made to completely new levels for the X franchise. More immersion, more sense, more detail, more fun. This new direction and rebirth of the franchise is simply much more than the old titles at launch. Not an X4 title, so differences will be present. And thank God for those differences. Give it time, and the score will soon be justified for everyone.
Don't let the bugs fool you people, X3 Reunion was just as buggy more or less and still turned out to being so popular. By comparison so much more has been made, improved and added to X Rebirth, and even the smaller map in less Systems to count feels very big as every aspect is made to completely new levels for the X franchise. More immersion, more sense, more detail, more fun. This new direction and rebirth of the franchise is simply much more than the old titles at launch. Not an X4 title, so differences will be present. And thank God for those differences. Give it time, and the score will soon be justified for everyone.
