X3: Reunion Review

9.2

Format PC

Developer Egosoft

Publisher Deep Silver

Genre Action, Sim / Strategy

There was a scene in the popular science fiction television series Babylon 5 in which the pilot of a small fighter craft flew his tiny spaceship along the hull of the fictional five-mile long space station, weaving in and out of the various turrets, towers and other spiky, sticky-outy bits, spinning around its z-axis while maintaining its forward momentum and generally having a hell of a time of it. It was the coolest thing ever and since that moment, I have been waiting for a space-based game to come along and let me recreate it.

Many have stepped up to the plate, promising huge ships and epic interstellar objects and all have failed to realise the dream, leaving me shattered and disillusioned like a once bright-eyed young games journalist having finally been broken after one industry shindig too many. X2: The Threat hinted at greatness, but much like two children standing on each other's heads, hidden inside a large comedy overcoat, the reality proved to be less gigantic than one hoped. For a time, it seemed as though no game could save the day.

LIVE THE DREAM
Until now! Yes, leaving aside my clumsy multiple simile stacking, I have finally played out my Babylonian (5) fantasy within the realms of computer gamedom, thanks to the joyous beast that is X3: Reunion. The very moment I started my first game in my tiny little fighter I immediately spied to my left a gigantic, elongated, knobble-filled space station of somewhat epic proportions and, with the encouragement and goodwill of the onlookers who had gathered to witness the spectacle (indicating that my personal televisual-inspired dream was even more populist than I had imagined), I set attitude thrusters to maximum, pointed my nose towards the station's rear end and commenced my run.

Reader, I tell you, it was every bit as good as I could have hoped. In and out I weaved, a fancy loop around a rotating gravitational strut here, a sideways thrust around a protruding gantry there, and on and on and on it went for what felt like an absolute age - thrilling, delighting and amazing as it went. The dream made flesh. Then, with joy virtually unconfined, I targeted the station, hit the docking computer and discovered they've ruined it.

NOT GOING IN
Well, perhaps 'ruined' is a bit strong. You see, other than the 'fly along the hull' dream, the X series (in the previous chapter) was responsible for fulfilling one of my other space-game desires - that of flying inside the space stations. You'd fly alongside, request to land, guide your ship along the navigational lights towards the opening hanger door, then while most games would leave it there and bring up the station menus, X2 went that one step further and had you fly through the docking corridors and slowly nudge your ship into its parking bay. Then you'd get the menus (although you could also pop out of the cockpit in your spacesuit and fly around inspecting the other visitors if you liked, or even find the odd piece of stray cargo - a nice touch in a game chock full of them).

In X3, Egosoft has - for reasons that I understand, but cannot allow myself to support - done away with such internal activities. Instead, almost all docking (barring one or two basic stations) is external, via extending docking clamps. Which makes sense from a practical programming point of view given the horrendous size and complexity of these new stations (they really are astoundingly impressive), modelling all the interiors as well would have been asking a bit much. Plus, external docking removes any spatial problems when flying in with the larger ships on offer, I guess.

In fact, there's nothing actually wrong with the new docking other than my own personal predilections for recreating that Star Trek III moment of flying in and out of great big space doors at half impulse, when the Starfleet manual clearly states that all docking manoeuvres should be done at quarter impulse or less only.

JUST LET IT GO...
So, personal predilections about docking aside, has Egosoft managed to pull off the unthinkable and produce a game that's actually better than X2: The Threat? Simple answer? In spades. Everything that has made the X series so superb has been recreated, then added to, then given the kind of extreme makeover that the likes of UK Living can only dream about.

For newcomers to our happy band of galactic wanderers, this means flying spaceships of all sizes through a massive universe, trading your way to fun and profit in a manner befitting the age-old classic Elite. Or shooting pirates for fun and profit. Or being a pirate for fun and profit. Or starting an intergalactic conglomerate for fun and profit - although that one will take a while as space stations are expensive beasts and require a vast investment of time, money and resources. But you can do it, that's the thing. You've got this universe here, you see, and just about nothing is off limits.

PIGS IN SPACE
And then there's the story. The much hyped, much profiled story. Written by a proper writer and all that. The original X told of an Earth pilot being zapped across the universe due to a faulty 'jumpdrive', only to discover aliens, high adventure and no real way home again. A bit like Farscape, for TV sci-fi fans. The sequel told of the pilot's son discovering his roots, searching for his now missing father while fending off a growing alien menace to the universe and the discovery that Earth colonists provided the seed for the major alien race's history in the first place.

X3 continues the son's tale, picking up at the end of the alien war and with a new threat to contend with. Plus, with X3 having the word 'reunion' in the title, you can possibly guess where the tale will go, although I will say it works as a name on many levels.

Is it any good, though? Actually, yes, it is. X2's biggest problem was its story - Egosoft handled the job itself and, frankly, made a pig's ear of it. By admitting this and drafting in help (from an ex-Emmerdale writer, believe it or not - wonder if Sefton knows him?), X3 has been made a richer place. As before, you'll find enough freedom to dip in and out of the story at will, meaning you can spend as much time exploring, trading, fighting and upgrading your status as you want, without disrupting the flow of the backstory. Then, when you do dip in, there's enough structure and pacing to it to give all your other actions meaning. I should also declare an interest - I've provided one or two of the voiceovers for the game and while it hasn't influenced my opinion one whit, I will say that X3 has some of the best vocal acting ever heard in a game. Ahem.

DRONING ON
The other side of X2 that most people thought was lacking was combat. As much as the game wanted to give you freedom to do what you wanted, combat was cumbersome, hard to get to grips with and in the main, best avoided (or left to the autopilots). Like a precocious child genius ransacking your box of messed-up Rubik's Cubes and half-finished Sudoku, Egosoft has solved that problem before your very eyes without you ever quite being able to put your finger on how.

Fighting feels quicker, more accessible, more dynamic and more controllable than ever before. Death feels more like a result of your own carelessness rather than the game mechanics' inability to cope with the demands placed on it. It feels significantly different when controlling nippy little fighters to piloting huge destroyers, bristling with turrets, missiles and drones, all automated, all able to be issued with individual commands, all able to be manually controlled if you wish.

It still isn't quite up to Freelancer's levels of speedy, action space combat, but it isn't really trying to be. X3 is all about creating as realistic an experience as possible within the limitations of its internal logic and as such, combat still requires a lot of skill to master fully. But it is much improved without drifting into stupid arcade territory, and the game is all the better for it.

FIRST STAR ON THE LEFT
X3 has fixed what few problems X2 had, and by fixed I mean rewritten from scratch rather than patched up. Then it's had its fundamental mechanics recrafted without betraying the very core values that made it the success it was. Then it's been plastered in fancy make-up and dolled up in such finery as to make your eyes boggle. ("It looks better than most sci-fi films," said an editor of these parts, looking over my shoulder.)

X3: Reunion - one of the few games that has the power to engage your imagination with pretty pictures, then actually live up to your imaginings when you get your hands on it. Bring back the bloody internal docking next time and it'll probably be the first game in ZONE history to get 100 per cent.

PC Zone Staff