kane_magus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kane_magus) wrote2011-07-19 01:36 pm
kane_magus) wrote2011-07-19 01:36 pm
Entry tags:
The X series.
I downloaded the X series from Steam the other day, since the whole thing was on sale for a total of around $11 or so. (Normally, that same package is $39.99.)
So far, I've only been playing the first game in the series, and I'm "only" about 40 hours in or so,* though it kind of feels like I've still only barely begun. When reading about this series on various websites and forums, I've often seen the recommendation to just go straight to the (currently) last game in the series and not even bother with the earlier ones, since that one is apparently the best of the bunch. I'll just say this much: if that one is as good as everyone says it is, and given the fact that I'm enjoying the first game as much as I am, well... when I get to that one I just may never play another game again (figuratively speaking, of course).
So, "What is the X series?" you might be asking. (Or, perhaps, you may be berating me for not having played these games at all until now, given that the first game came out in 1999, and if so all I can say is, yes, I totally agree. I was completely missing out until now.) I'll just describe the first game, based on what I've played, and then what I know of the sequels based on what I've read on the Internet.
The X games are what I guess would best be called "space simulators." In the first game, during the small tutorial at the beginning, you are testing an experimental ship that has a warp drive on it. After doing the preliminary tests (the actual tutorial to learn basic controls and such), the warp test commences... and fails spectacularly. You and your ship wind up in a completely different and unknown sector of space, where you are confronted by a Teladi (one of the several races in the game) battleship. They tell you that they don't know where you came from, they've never heard of Earth, and that, based on their scans of your ship, you're pretty much screwed unless they help you. They loan you a shield (the shields and weapons you had during the tutorial were destroyed by the failed test) and 100 credits, and then tell you that you'll need to pay them back.
This is where the game opens up. With your 100 credits, you can start trading. In the sector of space in which you start (and you shouldn't even think of leaving that sector until you're reasonably well equipped again) are several different space stations. You fly to one of these and pick up some cargo (I'd recommend Energy Cells to start with) and then fly somewhere else and sell them. And... that's pretty much it. That's the game. You're a space trader. Yeah, sure, there is a story to uncover and all, and I'll probably get back to that eventually. And yeah, you can also buy weapons (or you can do what I did and just buy a factory that makes the weapons, at least for the stronger, more expensive ones) and go around killing Xenon and pirates (the only good reason for which is to build up relations with the various races, as the pay itself [assuming you even bother to buy the license to get bounties] is pretty crap), but I'm personally having too much fun just flying back and forth trading. Well, more accurately at this point, I'm having too much fun flying around collecting the money from my own various space factories that I've bought with the money I made from the initial trading, and then buying more factories. The mechanics of it all is deeper than I make it sound with that description there, but still... that's pretty much all there is to it. It's a very chill game. Well, at least when you aren't accidentally ramming into space stations when you forget to lower your speed to dock, or when you're fighting the often suicidal/kamikaze enemies. But beyond that, it's pretty low intensity, which is sometimes exactly what I want, you know? I know it doesn't sound like much, and I'm sure many people would try it and just be all "What the crap is this crap? This is the most slow-assed, tedious game I've ever played." And that would be fine. I am most definitely not one of those people, obviously.
Also, the music is really rather nice. (Had to use the X3 version for that last one, since apparently nobody uploaded the XBtF version, but they're nearly identical so it doesn't really matter.)
One of the main things I didn't like, but have long since moved beyond, is the fact that the documentation provided with the first game is very sparse, so I had to look up a lot of the controls online. The H key in game provides a list of a lot of the controls, but not all of them. I'll just go ahead and give the main controls here (that I've used so far, anyway):
- Basic movement is controlled with the mouse or the arrow keys. (Or you can use a joystick if you have one, but I don't, so I won't be discussing that.)
- Throttle: "A" to speed up, and "Z" or "Y" to slow down. "Backspace" sets the speed to zero (although there is a deceleration time, so don't expect to instantly stop). "Tab" or mouse right-click activates the Turbo (which is only marginally useful because it drains your shields to use it).
- Weapons: Left-mouse button fires the lasers. "L" fires the missiles, if you have them. "M" switches missile types, if you have more than one type.
- Camera controls: "F2" activates external camera view of your own ship. "F3" activates remote camera, which is for other objects that you have targeted. "F4" goes to a rear view. "F1" returns to the normal cockpit view. Numeric keypad buttons will swivel your head view around while in cockpit view. I hardly ever use these, since I usually just stay in normal, front-facing cockpit view.
- Other miscellaneous controls: "S" brings up ship statistics. "P" brings up pilot statistics. "Shift+P" pauses the game. "N" activates the navigation map, once you buy one (get one ASAP). "J" activates the SETA (see footnote below), if you have it (get one ASAP). "Shift+J" activates SETA boost (SETA + Turbo), if you have it (not very useful). "F5" activates the Elliptical Projection, if you have it, which overlays the navigation grid onto the field of view (rather useful, but not vital). "O" opens the cargo bay, so that you can pick up random loot from pirates (or others) that you've killed (lowers your shields leaving you vulnerable, and also picking up random loot just isn't worth the time, honestly). "F" selects whatever you have in your cargo bay, which will then be jettisoned if you open the cargo bay ("O" again).I know that "D" and "U" do stuff as well, but I don't yet have the required equipment to use it, so don't know what it does. "D" activates auto-docking, once you have the docking computer, which basically means instantaneously docking, though you don't hear the cool docking music anymore. "U" activates auto-tracking of any ship you have targeted, meaning the your ship will start following them automatically, adjusting speed and such (useful, but since you need to fire in front of a moving enemy to hit them, it's better to disengage it when you're ready to fire, unless they are directly in front of you and moving perfectly away from you). There are most likely others that I'm missing, as well.
As for the next games in the series, they apparently take the first game and add/improve many features. For instance, in the later games (starting with the expansion/sequel to the first game) you are able to switch ships from the one you start with, and even own more than one ship in the later games. The expansions (X-Tension and X³: Terran Conflict) seem to be purely sandbox games, with no over-arching plot at all, outside of maybe some incidental side missions, whereas the core games (X: Beyond the Frontier, X²: The Threat, and X³: Reunion) have their overarching stories, but are still very much open-ended sandbox-style games, since the story can be completely ignored altogether, if desired.
So yeah, while the series probably isn't for everyone, if you are looking for a slow-ish paced game in which you fly a space ship around, docking with various space stations and trading stuff, then you can't really go wrong with the X series.
Also, there is apparently a new game in the works. Whether or not I'll have made it through the previous games by the time that one comes out, I'm still quite interested in that now.
* - According to my Steam account, anyway. The game clock, associated with the save games, says I'm over 100 hours in, but I think this has to do with the "Singularity Engine Time Accelerator" or "SETA" device, which increases the game speed by up to a factor of 10, which is useful for when you're flying a long distance from station to station or system to system. Apparently, this also affects the save game timestamps as well.
So far, I've only been playing the first game in the series, and I'm "only" about 40 hours in or so,* though it kind of feels like I've still only barely begun. When reading about this series on various websites and forums, I've often seen the recommendation to just go straight to the (currently) last game in the series and not even bother with the earlier ones, since that one is apparently the best of the bunch. I'll just say this much: if that one is as good as everyone says it is, and given the fact that I'm enjoying the first game as much as I am, well... when I get to that one I just may never play another game again (figuratively speaking, of course).
So, "What is the X series?" you might be asking. (Or, perhaps, you may be berating me for not having played these games at all until now, given that the first game came out in 1999, and if so all I can say is, yes, I totally agree. I was completely missing out until now.) I'll just describe the first game, based on what I've played, and then what I know of the sequels based on what I've read on the Internet.
The X games are what I guess would best be called "space simulators." In the first game, during the small tutorial at the beginning, you are testing an experimental ship that has a warp drive on it. After doing the preliminary tests (the actual tutorial to learn basic controls and such), the warp test commences... and fails spectacularly. You and your ship wind up in a completely different and unknown sector of space, where you are confronted by a Teladi (one of the several races in the game) battleship. They tell you that they don't know where you came from, they've never heard of Earth, and that, based on their scans of your ship, you're pretty much screwed unless they help you. They loan you a shield (the shields and weapons you had during the tutorial were destroyed by the failed test) and 100 credits, and then tell you that you'll need to pay them back.
This is where the game opens up. With your 100 credits, you can start trading. In the sector of space in which you start (and you shouldn't even think of leaving that sector until you're reasonably well equipped again) are several different space stations. You fly to one of these and pick up some cargo (I'd recommend Energy Cells to start with) and then fly somewhere else and sell them. And... that's pretty much it. That's the game. You're a space trader. Yeah, sure, there is a story to uncover and all, and I'll probably get back to that eventually. And yeah, you can also buy weapons (or you can do what I did and just buy a factory that makes the weapons, at least for the stronger, more expensive ones) and go around killing Xenon and pirates (the only good reason for which is to build up relations with the various races, as the pay itself [assuming you even bother to buy the license to get bounties] is pretty crap), but I'm personally having too much fun just flying back and forth trading. Well, more accurately at this point, I'm having too much fun flying around collecting the money from my own various space factories that I've bought with the money I made from the initial trading, and then buying more factories. The mechanics of it all is deeper than I make it sound with that description there, but still... that's pretty much all there is to it. It's a very chill game. Well, at least when you aren't accidentally ramming into space stations when you forget to lower your speed to dock, or when you're fighting the often suicidal/kamikaze enemies. But beyond that, it's pretty low intensity, which is sometimes exactly what I want, you know? I know it doesn't sound like much, and I'm sure many people would try it and just be all "What the crap is this crap? This is the most slow-assed, tedious game I've ever played." And that would be fine. I am most definitely not one of those people, obviously.
Also, the music is really rather nice. (Had to use the X3 version for that last one, since apparently nobody uploaded the XBtF version, but they're nearly identical so it doesn't really matter.)
One of the main things I didn't like, but have long since moved beyond, is the fact that the documentation provided with the first game is very sparse, so I had to look up a lot of the controls online. The H key in game provides a list of a lot of the controls, but not all of them. I'll just go ahead and give the main controls here (that I've used so far, anyway):
- Basic movement is controlled with the mouse or the arrow keys. (Or you can use a joystick if you have one, but I don't, so I won't be discussing that.)
- Throttle: "A" to speed up, and "Z" or "Y" to slow down. "Backspace" sets the speed to zero (although there is a deceleration time, so don't expect to instantly stop). "Tab" or mouse right-click activates the Turbo (which is only marginally useful because it drains your shields to use it).
- Weapons: Left-mouse button fires the lasers. "L" fires the missiles, if you have them. "M" switches missile types, if you have more than one type.
- Camera controls: "F2" activates external camera view of your own ship. "F3" activates remote camera, which is for other objects that you have targeted. "F4" goes to a rear view. "F1" returns to the normal cockpit view. Numeric keypad buttons will swivel your head view around while in cockpit view. I hardly ever use these, since I usually just stay in normal, front-facing cockpit view.
- Other miscellaneous controls: "S" brings up ship statistics. "P" brings up pilot statistics. "Shift+P" pauses the game. "N" activates the navigation map, once you buy one (get one ASAP). "J" activates the SETA (see footnote below), if you have it (get one ASAP). "Shift+J" activates SETA boost (SETA + Turbo), if you have it (not very useful). "F5" activates the Elliptical Projection, if you have it, which overlays the navigation grid onto the field of view (rather useful, but not vital). "O" opens the cargo bay, so that you can pick up random loot from pirates (or others) that you've killed (lowers your shields leaving you vulnerable, and also picking up random loot just isn't worth the time, honestly). "F" selects whatever you have in your cargo bay, which will then be jettisoned if you open the cargo bay ("O" again).
As for the next games in the series, they apparently take the first game and add/improve many features. For instance, in the later games (starting with the expansion/sequel to the first game) you are able to switch ships from the one you start with, and even own more than one ship in the later games. The expansions (X-Tension and X³: Terran Conflict) seem to be purely sandbox games, with no over-arching plot at all, outside of maybe some incidental side missions, whereas the core games (X: Beyond the Frontier, X²: The Threat, and X³: Reunion) have their overarching stories, but are still very much open-ended sandbox-style games, since the story can be completely ignored altogether, if desired.
So yeah, while the series probably isn't for everyone, if you are looking for a slow-ish paced game in which you fly a space ship around, docking with various space stations and trading stuff, then you can't really go wrong with the X series.
Also, there is apparently a new game in the works. Whether or not I'll have made it through the previous games by the time that one comes out, I'm still quite interested in that now.
* - According to my Steam account, anyway. The game clock, associated with the save games, says I'm over 100 hours in, but I think this has to do with the "Singularity Engine Time Accelerator" or "SETA" device, which increases the game speed by up to a factor of 10, which is useful for when you're flying a long distance from station to station or system to system. Apparently, this also affects the save game timestamps as well.