![]() If you can see it, somewhere down the line, you can probably have it for your own. ![]() There's so much to do, so many ways to interact with the universe, so many toys to experiment with. In fact, this is a lot of the appeal of X2. Become the admiral of your own fearsome battle fleet if going solo isn't your style. You can build fighter drones and load up carriers. You see all those big capital ships floating? You can have those, too. Each race sells a police license that lets you hunt illegal ships for bounty. You can even force some pilots to abandon their ships, which you can then steal and sell. If that's not for you, you can become a pirate, attacking other ships to steal their cargo. But be warned that it's a drawn-out process since you have to let the game run in real-time and keep yourself otherwise engaged while your pokey transports ply the lanes of commerce. It's like playing Railroad Tycoon in space through the cockpit of a ship. There's a living universe with a dynamic economy at work here. Buy space stations, supply them with transports to bring in raw materials, and sell the processed goods. As you sink deeper into the game, you'll be able to build up your own industry in the universe's dynamic economy. You can trade, chauffeur, hunt, pirate, mine, hijack, police, or any combination thereof. What's most remarkable about X2 is how well the developers have left it open to so many different approaches, each with its own unique feeling. Instead, you'll get the most out of X2 by approaching it as a sandbox game. There's a universe out there waiting for you to jump in and the short stilted storyline is one of the least interesting parts of it. The sooner you break out of this awkwardly told story (with some of the most truly wretched cutscenes you'll ever suffer through), the better. ![]() It speaks volumes that your boss is named Ban Danna and the menacing aliens are called "Khaaks," which have to be two of the worst transatlantic nomenclatures since Brazil's Varghina Incident (Egosoft, in case you're wondering, is a German company). If you plod dutifully though the storyline, you'll not only miss the game's main appeal, but you'll be plunged into a mess of tedious hokum about a mysterious stranger's destiny in an intergalactic war. X2 opens with a long silly cutscene that you should just skip. The result isn't just one of the most ambitious space sims it is also one of the most successful space games for how well it lives up to its ambition. But with X2, they've tied it all together, upgraded it, and smoothed it out considerably. After getting patched up and then expanded with the X-Tension pack, Egosoft presented something very close to X2. X2 isn't so much a full-blown sequel as an iterative part of the development of Egosoft's X: Beyond the Frontier, initially released in 2000. There are also visual effects that players can take advantage of, such as hiding within gas clouds. X2: The Threat features a universe with thousands of objects to see and interact with: space stations, ships, weapons, commodities to trade, and races, each with their own agendas and technologies. Offensive abilities include a variety of missiles, and lasers with different damage properties, rates of fire, and ship placement. Some of the defensive systems that can be altered include the hull strength, shield system, warning system, and enemy radar tracking. Players also have a ship that can be upgraded throughout their travels. Now they must help prevent the X Universe from being taken over by a new alien race known as the Khaak.Īs players progress through the game they can build their skills in one or a combination of professions: Trader, Bounty Hunter, Pirate, and Miner. First given a job as a miner, the player soon learns new details about their father as well as their own true identity. Players take control of a pilot being given a second chance at life after being arrested while attempting to steal a ship. A sequel to X: Beyond the Frontier, X2: The Threat returns players to the distant area of space known as X Universe.
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