X Rebirth

[brandonb]

Well, I got past the trading ship part. I was then in a battle (which I suffered no damage) but after the battle my ship magically got damaged (part of the tutorial I guess) and I had to find an engineer to repair it. I found an engineer, hired him, and once hired, you can't get him to repair the ship! Apparently you can only do that if you don't hire them. Ugh... Just little things like this are the lack of polish and really annoying, so I have to go back through my saved game and make sure not to hire him.

 

[lozina]

Dang, glad I didn't jump on it. Will wait for several patches before I get involved.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[brandonb]

All in all, it's an interesting game, just needs a few patches. I feel lost while playing, and I like that. I like having to figure it out. I've been playing for 2 1/2 hours, and I'm still not even out of the tutorial portion yet. I have to figure out how to do the drones next.

 

[Stuka87]

Every X game has needed a ton of patches to be playable all the way through. I really enjoy the X games, but it is not the game to be an early adopter of.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Kinda goes for almost everything these days....people can say what they want about the days before the internet, but games were not nearly as unfinished as they are now. Early adoption is not a good idea unless you have lots of patience.

 

[brandonb]

Ok. I think I got past the initial tutorial mode now, and starting to get into the real story mode. I haven't run into any more annoyances, and is starting to feel more like an X game, and even reminds me of Independence War 2 a bit. They have patched though mid-day so it might have cleared up some of the initial problems. I'm starting to warm up to it a bit, initial impressions are ho-hum, but that is starting to go away. The dialog is really bad though. Especially when your co pilot keeps telling the computer voice to shut up.

 

[CottonRabbit]

Game is gorgeous, but it seriously needs polish and motion capture for animations. Not a fan of the cockpit either, feels claustrophobic.

 

[brandonb]

I'm stuck in the campaign. I need a Trojan drone and I can't find any for sale anywhere.

 

[Markbnj]

I played through a good chunk of the tutorial and so far I'm in the disappointed category. I'm going to give it some more time, but there are a few things which just aren't working for me.

The first is the highways. I didn't like the gates in the previous titles. Just let me jump to coordinates and freely navigate the immensity of the galaxy, please. But I assumed they were a necessary and not too intrusive limitation. The "highways" take intrusive to the next level. They're like glowing green tubes snaking all over the place. And what's with the whole slipstream mini-game when you're inside? It's silly. I want to feel like I'm navigating a ship, dammit. And why is travel inside these "highways" so slow? "Leave highway in 200 kilometers"? And then it takes ten seconds to go 200 kilometers? I guess it has to be slow to make the "game" of using the w-a-s-d keys to jump into a faster "slipstream" meaningful.

I second what CottonRabbit said about the cockpit. But I think it is also the environmental design. All the initial locations were extremely cluttered with asteroids, ships, stations, highways, and you're viewing the whole thing through this fairly narrow strip of windscreen. It feels very closed in. I didn't get even the least impression of the vastness of space. Actually felt more like I was underwater. I guess it wouldn't be bad if the cockpit was somewhat functional, but basically all that view real estate is occupied by static images that a) don't look all that good; and b) don't do anything.

The environment must be gorgeous, but how do I look around it? Stop my ship and pivot? I couldn't find an external view camera. You can't even look around the cockpit itself while flying, as far as I can see. Maybe I'm missing something here. They can't have failed to give you some way to look around, can they?

Pretty damn meh for me so far. I will give it more time later. I don't want to write off the first new space title we've had in years too quickly. But initial impressions are not positive.

 

[JimmiG]

So far I think it's a huge improvement over the old X3 games. I was always fascinated with the ideas and concepts of the old games but the implementation was just not very good. The removal of SETA is great. Flying around in the transport ship with SETA, and all the AI ships buzzing around like drunken bees wasn't ideal from a gameplay perspective. Having to leave the game running overnight in order to make any real money was just stupid. Playing the game at a normal rate just feels more realistic and immersive, even if this means all the distances in the universe had to be scaled down.

Haven't played Rebirth long enough to really get an idea of the pacing or balancing, but I like it so far. Some things are pretty bad though. The user interface is still horrible. Discoverability is a huge problem. Once you've figured out how something works, it's OK. The map looks like something from an early 1990's game, though. The old one in X3 was a million times more useful and easier to navigate.

 

[Anteaus]

I really like it. The game definitely needs work and I think the highway system is a bit cheesy, but for me the game is far more immersive. I enjoy that they gave my ship "character", sort of like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. Having to hire crew members on an as needed basis and ships not acting like computer driven automatons is nice also. It just feels more satisfying.

That said, some of the new additions came at the cost of scope. Sectors don't feel near as large as those in X3. I think the intention was to keep players in the action more often, but the downside is that the game space feels smaller and by extension a false sense of less to do. I haven't put a lot of hours into the game yet so my mood might change as I get deeper.

I'm in agreement with those above though. The game needs patches and perhaps some gameplay adjustments. Not being able to change my point of view in the cockpit is weird. Also, it seems the game doesn't recognize my double clicking often and I need to resort to the enter key, such as in the main menu. Perhaps it's a setting thing I'll look into it.

I don't mind only having access to one ship in story mode, but for sandbox they really need to offer other options. We don't need many, but I think a few ship types based on the types of missions we prefer to fly would be cool (i.e. Privateer). My guess is this will come later via DLC. It's just an obvious addon for a game like this.

 

[HeXen]

Normally it's hard for me to enjoy space sims, I think I just like the idea of them. The one thing about them that bothered me the most was the distance which felt like you weren't moving, so you're forced to warp all the time, that and the complicated UI's. But I am going to give this one a go cause it appears they kept it tighter. Hopefully I can try to exercise a little more patience when it takes me 10 minutes to approach a vessel. So far I've played Hegamony, Eve online and X3, so I'm going to just try harder this time cause I've always felt compelled to get into them but I lack patience.

 

[Nintendesert]

I haven't had the chance to play the game near enough as I want, but one of the great things about the X series is the very devoted mod community. So those little niggling problems will probably have a mod to change. I need to find time to play today, along with the 2000 things I need to get done as well. Sigh.

 

[brandonb]

I figured out where to get the Trojan drone and did some hacks on stations. I finally figured out what police vessels are used for. ;(

I'm to the point where you have to find 8 marines and capture a prison ship. However, everybody on the egosoft website is complaining about this mission, saying if you don't do it perfectly you cannot continue in the campaign. So I'm going to avoid doing it, and just fly around and try to make some credits. See if I can get a trader and/or create a station at this point until patches come out.

 

[flexy]

This would be one of those games I'd really, really want to look at...probably one of the best game genres out there....but this genre seems to be cursed, in the same was as MMORPGs seem to be cursed.
(Reviews I read so far are really mediocre/bad).

 

[Markbnj]

This would be one of those games I'd really, really want to look at...probably one of the best game genres out there....but this genre seems to be cursed, in the same was as MMORPGs seem to be cursed.
(Reviews I read so far are really mediocre/bad).

I put it back on the shelf. I'll wait and see if mods/patches improve it. Right now I would class it as pretty horrible.

 

[CottonRabbit]

After playing some more, I don't think this game will be fixed any time soon if ever. Everything besides the graphics are a big step backwards from the previous games. The AI can't do anything independently, like trade, patrol or explore. There's no way to track or even target your ships that aren't flying next to you. Having to "turn" in game to get information is extremely annoying. I'm constantly lost because there isn't even a minimap. Dozens of small things like removal of the M# ship designations add to the confusion.

The single player ship is completely wasted potential. Instead of making an expandable and personalized ship for the player, you get a limited set of linear upgrades (there are a total of 4 different weapons + mining laser to choose from) that are just stat boosts. They couldn't even make the entire ship (all 20 square feet of it) interactive. The cockpit is a separate, static instance. Yisha the companion NPC is a disgusting to look at joke. Her favorite line, which she quips every 5 minutes, "Now shutup betty", must have been a troll by a disgruntled Egosoft employee.

Between the complete lack of AI and terrible interface, it's impossible to build a sandbox empire like in X3. I stopped playing once I realized this.

 

[BrightCandle]

Well I tried to play it today but I really didn't get very far. The game just crashes in the middle of the initial cutscene, before I can even save the darn thing. So its so broken I am actually sending it back, its the first game in a long time I would say is genuinely unplayable and there have been some really broke ass games played in the last year.

 

[Markbnj]

Well I tried to play it today but I really didn't get very far. The game just crashes in the middle of the initial cutscene, before I can even save the darn thing. So its so broken I am actually sending it back, its the first game in a long time I would say is genuinely unplayable and there have been some really broke ass games played in the last year.

First time in a long time I felt dumb for jumping on a game at near-sticker, because this thing is going to be in the bargain bin pretty quickly.

 

[CottonRabbit]

First time in a long time I felt dumb for jumping on a game at near-sticker, because this thing is going to be in the bargain bin pretty quickly.

I wouldn't be surprised if Egosoft closes within 6 months. They've supposedly been working on this for 7 years. Next week they will get slammed in official reviews.

 

[Nintendesert]

Pretty universal disappointment from the X community on this one. It's really too bad, at least we'll have Star Citizen. Back to AP and XRM for my space fix for now.

 

[Anteaus]

I really like it. The game definitely needs work and I think the highway system is a bit cheesy, but for me the game is far more immersive. I enjoy that they gave my ship "character", sort of like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. Having to hire crew members on an as needed basis and ships not acting like computer driven automatons is nice also. It just feels more satisfying.

That said, some of the new additions came at the cost of scope. Sectors don't feel near as large as those in X3. I think the intention was to keep players in the action more often, but the downside is that the game space feels smaller and by extension a false sense of less to do. I haven't put a lot of hours into the game yet so my mood might change as I get deeper.

I'm in agreement with those above though. The game needs patches and perhaps some gameplay adjustments. Not being able to change my point of view in the cockpit is weird. Also, it seems the game doesn't recognize my double clicking often and I need to resort to the enter key, such as in the main menu. Perhaps it's a setting thing I'll look into it.

I don't mind only having access to one ship in story mode, but for sandbox they really need to offer other options. We don't need many, but I think a few ship types based on the types of missions we prefer to fly would be cool (i.e. Privateer). My guess is this will come later via DLC. It's just an obvious addon for a game like this.

I'm going to quote myself in order to contradict myself. I will say that I still think there is a ton of potential in the direction X Rebirth is going, but what we have right now is an unrealized vision. I won't subscribe to the console theory of X that seems to be going around because other than controller support (which existed in TC and AP), there is no evidence of that. Simply pointing out console friendly controls is not evidence.

They had great ideas and completely screwed up the execution. I still think there are changes that were made since X3 that are good ideas. The sad part is that no patch can fix what makes this game bad, which is how we interact with stations in general and how we interact with our ships. Combat is actually really good, but it gets lost in all the BS. Every station looks the same and the voice acting is atrocious. I didn't think the interface could possibly get worse than what X3 Reunion had, but here it is. It's definitely slicker than X3, but that's only because they are giving us a fraction of the information.

Anyways, I'm thinking that they will eventually fix everything as they always do and at that point we'll get a new standalone expansion that will end up being the game Rebirth should have been. Maybe they'll call it Re-Rebirth.

The bottom line is that Egosoft really screwed up on this one, and not in their normal "oops we released a buggy game give us a few months to clean it up" kind of screw up. They screwed up in the "we had better seriously regroup or this will be the last release of X that people lined up to buy" way.

 

[bguile]

I'm still not sure what to make of it.

Likes
Kinda like the highways? Not sure yet because of the maps.
Like the drones
Like the graphics/station animations though performance is dismal for me.

Nuetral
Bad voice acting/animations - figured it would be like that going in, so no suprises.

Lots of errors and glitches - Things like joysticks not working, mission bugs, etc also expected it.

Story - I don't mind the story so far, despite the terrible delivery

Combat - is ok. I never liked it in the previous x games, there was too much of a jump from the m4 to m3's. However I miss being able to get pirates/freighters to bail and steal their ships.

Station interiors - Landing and having to find people on them doesn't bother me as much as I though it would.

Dislikes:
Interface - They actually made it worse.

Maps/minimaps - I can't even use them they are so bad. I don't even know what I am looking at most of the time.

Trading - I have no idea how to do trades, and I can't believe they screwed up this part. I can't even name my own ships, or haven't figured out how to.

Side missions: Its still the same old generic take me here, or get me that, or patrol here, etc. I thought they would have improved on it.

 

[HeXen]

I don't care for the gamepad controls, kinda funky and limited to how you can map them and the analogue is way too sensitive when walking around in first person mode. What is the jump for? I have yet to find a need to jump over anything?
The stations feel lifeless, only a few NPC's and I don't totally get some of the commands. Maybe they should have copied Mass Effect a little in this regard.
I have no clue how to trade, even buying took me a minute but with a mouse would probably been more intuitive.
No clue how to mine or get drones
Not sure about a lot of things actually. I don't see myself playing it for much longer.

 

[Markbnj]

Well, one side-effect of my disappointment with X: Rebirth is that I dug out my old retail copy of X3:TC, activated the code on Steam, and installed the X-Tended mod. I never tried X-Tended my last time through TC, so it will almost be like a new game (I hope).