Ive just started to test X Rebirth, the latest game of the X Series.
You can find many reviews on the net about this game which are very negative. These reviews are not wrong but also not right.
The game got released in 2013 so some time passed by meanwhile. Most of the reviews are from back then and that explains the negative feedback.
X Rebirth was released totally rushed and in a terrible condition back then. Missing features, broken storyline, bugs everywhere and the high expectations from hardcore fans of the X Universe.
I think starting to play the game 3 years after its release was not the worst decision. Meanwhile dozens of patches were released and two DLCs with new content were added.
Version 4.0 (latest version) seems to be ALOT better than what was released to the players three years ago.
Is it a good game?
Let me answer it this way: I like it for many reasons and dislike it for some other reasons. Generally I think its a nice game that you can enjoy if you are willing to invest alot of time.
Many hardcore X3 players of course still prefer the good old X3: The Threat, X3:Terran Conflicht or X3: Albion Prelude.
Main reasons for that might be the inability to switch ships in X Rebirth or the limitation on only a hand full of star systems to visit.
In X3 you were free to fly every ship in the game. X Rebirth only allows you to fly the Albion Skunk (terrible name) which some idiot renamed to that prior the player got hands on the ship. The original name was Albions Pride (or something like that -> I am playing the german version).
Reason for having only one ship can be explained by the way how this game actually works. In X Rebirth you need a ship that has crew quarters and most of the X3 ships were fighters without such luxury. But more about that later.
Another main difference I have already mentioned is the number of systems.
X3 had well over 200 system that the player could visit. These systems had different sizes and were populated by different factions. Ususally the systems were connected with Jumpgates in North, South, East and West direction.
The systems were relative small and relative empty (until the player starts building mega station complexes).
With X Rebirth the developers decided to try something new.
X Rebirth limits the player to just a few systems but these systems now have massive size and are filled with lots of content.
Story wise it is explained that these systems were cut off from the other areas of the X Universe and the people there are on their own now.
There is a different structure of the whole game environment.
On top of everything are the systems. These systems consist of multiple sectors (up to 4 sectors per system) which are connected by super highways. Inside these Sectors there are different zones connected by normal highways. The zones have about the size of an average X3 system.
I cant tell for sure but I assume that X-Rebirth has about the same size as X3 due to this structure. With DLCs it might be even a bit bigger.
The number of systems might appear low compared to previous X games but effectively they are packed full of content.
And thats also very noticable in X Rebirth... the focus on rendering content rich environments. Large Asteroid fields, giant station complexes and everywhere you have NPC traffic.
X3 was liveless compared to that.
X Rebirth also allows you to see if stations are doing their work or not. Factories which produce stuff are animated. You can see how the resources are processed and turned into commodities. Stations which run out of resources will stop their production animations.
That adds very well to the immersion this game tries to create.
Everything written above was written 3 weeks ago before a heavy cold struck me down. I took a break and continued to play again a few days ago.
Just like in all games of the X series you need alot of time because of the size of the game. Even now I can't tell I am rich nor that I have a large fleet of ships behind me.
But I made enough progress to get a deeper insight into the more advanced features of the game.
Story wise X-Rebirth is different from the previous X games.
No matter which of these games you look at you always had a large sandbox game and a very thin story string guiding you through the game.
Not that these stories have not been interesting... there just wasnt enough story content to make the game feel like a traditional space sim.
I am not sure if I started to play X-Rebirth in a different way... but I had the feeling that especially at the beginning of the game the storyline had alot of importance. Until a certain point I had the feeling that the story aimed to show you how to play the game.
This started with simple navigation tasks... went on with doing missions... showing you how to use the highways... introducing the player to "piracy" and how to board capital ships.... until the point where you are told to build your first space station.
All these aspects were part of the storyline. That was great since this forced you to try something new and learn how the game works.
However, the speed at which this happened was insane. There was practically no time where I have been able to use what I just learned. There always was a next task which appeared important enough to not break away from the story path. For me that actually went on this way till half of the NPCs in the starting faction wanted to see me dead and I had to escape to a new system where I was told to construct my first space station.
That was pretty much the first moment where I started to explore the system(s) on my own and tried to use what I previously have learned.
The story of X Rebirth feels important enough to be played... but especially in the beginning appears too fast. You also throughout the entire story cant really get a good feeling for the next steps. Are you ready to move forward with the story or is it better to prepare more? Thats really hard to tell.
If you push through the story too fast you might face a large battle without being prepared for it (I had that feeling twice)... but if you dont push forward you might limit your progress since you cant access other star systems.
Decisions to continue with the storyline might also grant you some additional benefits.
Unlike previous X games, X-Rebirth rewards you for story progress.
Very early in the game you get a large freighter for free when you reach a specific point in the story, later on the story allows you to capture a large battleship (which gets added to your "fleet") and shortly after reaching the 2nd star system during the storyline you get a construction ship for free.
The incentive to move on with the story is very strong.
I previously mentioned that the other X games always felt a bit short on story. Actually they are not. The problem is that the story is not really packed in story missions... or only a few story missions.
The X Universe is a very story rich one. Thats something you will discover if you read item description, the desciptions of locations, the handbooks and the novels (which are great btw.).
The X universe belongs to the most interesting scifi environments where the 6 main races of the galactic union try to influence the galaxy. Just alone the diversity of the cultures is impressive.
I think that X-Rebirth fits more into the X Universe than any other game before.
The grade of detail and immersion is pretty nice and the cultural differences between the races get a nice focus in the game.
One thing that is new is the ability to freely move on stations and ship docks. You can land your ship pretty much on every station and every large captical ship. And then you can explore the station, talk with the NPCs, discover secrets and collect items on these station interiors.
You can hire your crew there, you can do smalltalk (which unlocks discounts, information or updates your trading data) and you can buy stuff or use service offers. Thats pretty cool... but also very time consuming.
To unlock the trade data and discounts of all stations in the game would take you multiple days of gameplay. But its worth it, as you get realtime market information this way.
The only thing I dislike here is the very limited amount of smalltalk options. It doesnt take long until you discovered everything that you can say and also every response of the NPCs. So the smalltalk idea is great but gets boring very soon. With better dialogue options and better voice overs this feature would be alot better.
Also could the game need a larget set of station interiors to make station look more different. But generally I like the whole concept of station visits.
Interesting is also that you can dock your own capital ships. So in case you need some extra fire power you can dock at your battleship and give it the command to attack a specific target. You can watch the following battle from the dock area from which you can observe whats going on outside.
Generally I like the balancing of the game and also the dimensions of everything in it.
Large trading ships are huge compared to the player ships. In previous X games the ships were alot smaller because they had to directly dock with the stations. In X Rebirth these large ships fly close to the station and launch drones in order to exchange the commodities.
Everything in this game looks massive and somehow important. Especially the stations which consists of many different modules which all have a function.
There are production modules, storage modules (which you can btw. hack in order to steal from them), weapon modules, communication modules, etc. Everything has its purpose and everything offers gameplay options.
That makes this game extremely complex.
Your gameplay options are also pretty complex. You are free to explore, trade, build station, build large fleets, do piracy, manipulate economy by hacking stations or destroying station modules.
I personally decided to build up a large fleet. In order to get that done I need alot of money. So I have started to construct stations which hopefully allow me to have a steady income while my freighter fleet is trading in all the systems.
I have roundabout 25 large freighters, 3 mining ships, 2 medium freighters, 2 battleships and about 15 fighters.
During the story missions I got one of the battleships and one large freighter. Later on I bought the 2 medium freighters and 2 mining ships. Thats it.
The rest of my fleet consists of captured fighters and boarded capital ships. I see little reason to buy expensive ships when enemy factions carelessly let them float through space unprotected. 
Space is dangerous and I also have lost a good bunch of ships while they were doing their job far away.
X Rebirth in version 4.0 (including the two DLCs) has alot to offer.
It is a very detail rich game with many features.
It has improved ALOT since its release in 2013.
It still has some minor problems (I had crashes a few times and a bunch of bugs that I was able to resolve somehow).
The graphics look good eventhough its not up to the current standards.
Weak points of the game are the very limited smalltalk options and the voice overs which in some cases really sound ridiculous.
The by far biggest problem this game has is the user interface.
The developers tried to improve it since version 1.0 but really its a mess in my eyes.
Everything is so complicated and spread that it is hard to find the information you are looking for.
Menus lead to diologue options, which lead to more menus, which lead to submenus, which lead to maps, which lead to even more submenus, which lead back to already open submenus... ... ... its a mess.
The whole UI is extremely complicated and inconsistent.
Important options are hidden in places where you wouldnt expect them. It very often is hard to tell if an interface element is just showing information or if it is probably a button that you can use. You only find out about it if you pretty much click on everything just to see if it has a function or not.
Many menus are a waste of space. Other menus are a complete waste of everything.
e.g. When you want to upgrade a ship with drones then you have to open the ship dealer, then you have to select "modify ship" then you have to select your ship from a long list, which then opens a menu showing you which upgrades are available, then you have to click on that upgrade and have to confirm that you want to change the amount of building drones, which brings you to the next menu where you now have a slider to select the amount of drones. Once you have selected that amount you have to confirm it and get back to the previous menu (where you have the overview of available upgrades). If you want to add additional drones you have to repeat this step for every kind of drone. Now when you finally managed to select all the different amounts of drones you can make a final confirmation which leads you to another menu where you finally can see the construction costs. Before that point you couldnt see the costs. If you cant afford these costs you have to go back to the previous menu and do all selections again (and hope that then the costs will be low enough).
You have to do thousands of unneccessary steps and clicks to get stuff done.
If I were the UI designer I would have created ONE UI Menu for upgrades: a list shows the available upgrade options, right to that list would be the slider for each option and right below that the costs would be displayed. Everything on one UI page. Thats no witchcraft.
The developers could reduce the complexity of the UI by at least 50% without loosing features if they think a moment about how intuitive UI should work.
X3 players also will miss a few features, like the automatic trade of ships when you have purchased a specific ship upgrade.
Something like that does not exist in X-Rebirth. The only way to let ships automatically trade is when you assign them to station managers. So trading in X-Rebirth isnt as comfortable as in X3.
How effective your ships and station work in X-Rebirth depends on their crew.
Unlike other X games there is a new focus on crew members. I remember that in X3 such a focus didnt exist.
Crew members have different skills... which you also can train. The quality of skill (1-5 stars) has an impact on the AI of the ships and stations that the crew member is assinged to.
On a station you of course want a good station manager that is able to give orders to assigned ships.
On your ships you want to have good captains, good defence officers and of course good engineer which can repair the ships after they got damaged.
The most obvious difference in skill quality can be observed with the engineer. If they dont have 5 stars they are not able to fully repair the ships. The hull remains damaged to a degree and some ship systems cant be repaired if the engineer has not 5 stars in engineering.
So you spent alot of time with finding good crew members in X-Rebirth.
Personally I like that but well... its really time consuming and slows down your progress significantly.
And it really hurts if you notice that you just have lost a ship with a good crew in combat.
Overall I would said that X-Rebirth is meanwhile a solid game that is fun to play.
If some improvements could be done to the UI and a few features it would be a really awesome game that you can spent alot time with, without getting bored.
The old reviews on the internet which state that this isnt a good game in my eyes are no longer valid.
