X Rebirth

 PC
User Score
3.2

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1310 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 275 out of 1310
  2. Mixed: 111 out of 1310
  3. Negative: 924 out of 1310
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  1. Nasher
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    The game is just lacking compared to the older ones. Theres also a lot of bugs, some gamebreaking (e.g. unable to progress with missions). The FPS content just seems pointless and cheaply done (theres about 3-4 different areas and character types that are re-used everywhere) theres only 1 flyable ship, the map makes no sense and the UI is awful, capships sometimes clip right throughThe game is just lacking compared to the older ones. Theres also a lot of bugs, some gamebreaking (e.g. unable to progress with missions). The FPS content just seems pointless and cheaply done (theres about 3-4 different areas and character types that are re-used everywhere) theres only 1 flyable ship, the map makes no sense and the UI is awful, capships sometimes clip right through stations instead of flying around, You don't seem to have much control over your fleet of NPC ships.

    If you want a good X game buy of of the previous ones. Even if this one gets fixed it's not great.    … Expand
  2. acroyer
    Nov 18, 2013
    4
    Good grief Egosoft! You definitely made a beautiful game but it's like looking at a nice toilet from the distance. Once you get up close you see the S*** stains and smell something really bad!

    We can only hope the modding community can make this game good!
  3. BBHill
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    This game suffers from three things primarily: 1) Terrible Optimization, Performance, and general bugs 2) A staggering number of poor design decisions 3) Awful NPC modeling, interaction, and dialog/voice overs. Honestly if you had me play this and told me it was an alpha release I wouldn't argue with you.

    So let's start with number 1. This game appears to have never been tested to work    This game suffers from three things primarily: 1) Terrible Optimization, Performance, and general bugs 2) A staggering number of poor design decisions 3) Awful NPC modeling, interaction, and dialog/voice overs. Honestly if you had me play this and told me it was an alpha release I wouldn't argue with you.

    So let's start with number 1. This game appears to have never been tested to work by anyone. If the devs tested it they would have probably caught the fact that FPS drops don't just happen once in a while, they happen constantly to everyone. Doesn't matter if you have a $3000 state of the art PC or a six year old Dell you aren't going to have good FPS unless you get really lucky. One of the devs has admitted they never bothered to optimize for high end PCs on the Steam Game Forums. That tells you something right there about the state of this release. How do you not optimize a game before putting it out? That's like selling a brand new car where the engine has never been tuned to run properly, no one in their right mind does that. Add a mess of bugs that not only break the storyline but literally fling you millions of KM away from your destination or get your ship stuck inside of parts of the stations to that and you have the recipe right there for a massive failure of a game. That isn't all though.

    So number 2 is design. What do I mean by poor design decisions? I mean things like the fact that to interact with the game's NPCs and your own ship's systems and such you have to use a radial menu akin to the conversation wheel from Mass Effect. Yes a system designed entirely for a controller's ease of use on a modern day PC "exclusive." Which brings us to the fact that the mouse and keyboard are seemingly tacked on as an afterthought. Where most games use hotkeys for the keyboard this game basically gives you a handful, mostly for accessing maps and the radial menu and that is it. You can't just get to your inventory with I, no, you have to go through the radial menu. The mouse of course is hard to use due to the fact that all the icons are tiny and have to be double clicked if you intend to use it. Good luck. You can click at them several times before the game actually registers the double click.

    Now if you've finally managed to double click and get into dock you get to experience what might be the biggest failing of this game by far. The "Walking in Stations" feature. Coupled with the NPCs I will discuss in a second, you have roughly three layouts possible for interiors. Three. In 2013. In these stations you will find the vendors that let you sell the random crap you find in capsules that drop from popped ships and in the crates that are scattered throughout the station that no one seems to mind you stealing and also let you buy more random crap or upgrade your ship. You'll also find all your crew members in these stations. Mind you, you'll have to really hunt for them since each platform doesn't have each person and some of those people are not even available to hire despite being listed in the platform's little info window, who even knows why. Once you finally do hire one they go to your ship where you have to fly them to the ship you want them in, dock up, and go through the radial menu to tell them they work there now. Yes for every crew member and for every ship. Thank god you don't have to completely staff a cap ship will all the thousands of personnel it would probably require right?

    So one last design flaw before I move on to NPCs. Station outsides. They are big, they are beautiful, and they seem to be thriving with life from the outside. Yet their size combines with what has to be the most awful design idea ever to make them the most tedious part of the game. Seriously to dock up you have to find a platform designated by a symbol of what that platform supposedly is like a bar or something and get super close to it to even be able to interact with it to choose to dock. Same goes with scanning the station to get information, you have to get close to the little "i" bubbles or mission/trade icons to scan. This leads me to believe this system was designed solely to show off the pretty artwork and nothing else and makes using the stations take forever.

    So NPCs are downright just garbage. If you've played Everquest those NPCs are actually better than these and those things barely interacted at all and looked nothing like a human or whatever but at least they could move. These ones just stand still all the time and repeat the same terrible dialog over and over with what has to be the worst voice acting I've heard since the PS1. You'll hear your copilot repeat the same docking line every time you dock and your character will repeat "Show me your wares, please" every time you talk to a vendor. Yeah downright quality there.

    This all combines to make a game that is unimaginably horrid for 2013 or really even 2003. It is clearly meant for console porting and is nothing like the previous X games. Stay away.    … Expand
  4. Hardcard
    Nov 18, 2013
    4
    This is for Revolve, who has insulted all those who rated the game below 5 (as is my case).

    I'll start by describing the status of my last X3:TC saved game: 200 million credits (2 million credit profit every 5 minutes) Over a hundred factory complexes (over a thousand factories) Over 600 ships. Most plots finished. Maximum rank for all races. So no, dear Revolve, I'm not stupid    This is for Revolve, who has insulted all those who rated the game below 5 (as is my case).

    I'll start by describing the status of my last X3:TC saved game:
    200 million credits (2 million credit profit every 5 minutes)
    Over a hundred factory complexes (over a thousand factories)
    Over 600 ships.
    Most plots finished.
    Maximum rank for all races.

    So no, dear Revolve, I'm not stupid or a noob, and the savegame above proves I have patience and know my X3:TC pretty well.

    I find it funny that you delude yourself by thinking that peolple like me are posting biased reviews...
    I guess your statement "so please take these idiotic nerdrage reviews as the useless spur of the moment rage induced rubbish that they are, and read the 5 to 9 reviews for a more balanced viewpoint."
    isn't biased at all, right? You basically said this: If you fail X:Rebirth here, you are some nerdy idiot full of childish rage.
    LOL, I'm amazed that your review is still posted here...
    Do you know what I don't do? I don't usually reply to comments like yours, but I will make an exception this time, same as you seem to have done.

    I won't insult you just because you rated this a 9, you are entitled to your opinion, that's the point of this space. I could start trolling you about how could you rate a broken game that high, and so on, but I won't.
    I had to restart the campaign 3 times because, at some point, X:Rebirth decides to get stuck and not to activate the scripts that, theoretically, make the campaign advance, plus, savegames become corrupted pretty easily. I don't discard another campaign restart, by the way, because I think it got stuck again.
    But that's just me and thousands of others, don't worry, we are just idiots, right?
    So X:Rebirth runs fine in your rig? Congrats, there are plenty of people who aren't so lucky, it's not that they are what you called them, it's that X:Rebirth has many bugs and it crashes regularly, more easily than it should.
    Are you willing to rate this broken game a 9? Go for it, but don't insult me just because I'm not willing to pass a game that I can't play properly because it crashes and gets stuck at some point.
    I can't use my joystick, by the way...oh,but of course, as long as I can use keyboard+mouse, the game is absolutely great, right? The ship panel doesn't respond/disappears too often, the interface is limited, uncomfortable and it hides commands instead of presenting them in a clear way. Have you tried to trade? I've tried over 20 times during campaign play. When I do, the game gets stuck or crashes 80% of the times.
    An X game that doesn't allow you to trade and you expect me to pass it? Who the hell do you think you are? I really expect extensions will greatly improve UI, remote ship/factory management, etc. that's my hope, otherwise I'll be demanding a refund.
    Now let's talk about graphics. Exterior graphics are acceptable, but not great (most textures are average to low res and polygon count is too low in too many models). Environment models and textures are the best of the game from a visual standpoint, and yes, Egosoft made this one thing right.
    Interior and character textures/models, however, are a crime considering it's 2013...they were good in 2004, but that was long ago.
    What about performance? Do you even know what's my rig?
    Here you go:
    i7 2600k overclocked to 4.4Ghz
    gigabyte z68xp-ud4
    OCZ vector SSD 128gb (aligned,optimized, AHCI enabled)
    16gb ram
    gtx560ti 1gb

    I don't know about your rig, but mine runs pretty much any demanding game without incidents, it freaking flies.
    Well, X:Rebirth runs a little bit below par most of the time, but in hazy areas it starts lagging too much and, sometimes, it suddenly starts lagging for real (around 10 fps or even less) then it's time to relaunch the game. This is, clearly, some bug within X:Rebirth, for I've never experienced this kind of lag with any other demanding game...my rig has seen a lot of those and it always makes me proud.

    Is everything wrong in X:Rebirth? Thankfully no.
    -Ambience is, in my opinion, its top feature. Sector visuals are astonishing.
    -There is a high level of traffic in almost every sector and you have plenty of stations (station sections) to scan and explore also in 1st person (although interior graphics are bad and interaction is limited). I'm not sure it comes close to X3:TC/AP scale, though.
    -You can dock with your cap ships. You can watch the cap ship travel/fight from the dock while it gives you a ride to the desired sector. Also, now you can target/destroy/hack specific systems of cap ships, the same way you could do in the X-Wing sim saga.
    -While this is not necessarily a good thing, SETA has been replaced by powerful boost engines with limited duration. Now it takes much less time to cross a sector. Roads/highways have replaced jumgates, in case you like them.

    Regarless of these positive elements, I give it a 4. X:Rebirth has serious bugs that break the game and, for now, it doesn't deliver as promised.    … Expand
  5. Koreenium
    Nov 23, 2013
    4
    What can I say.... I am really disappointed in this game. :(
    Graphics are bad, the animations are bad, textures are made in a hurry or something because any beginner photoshop user could make textures like those or even better and the saddest part is that I am not kidding.
    Performance at the moment is terrible. I got like average 30 fps on med-high end PC. The story seems to be garbage.    What can I say.... I am really disappointed in this game. :(
    Graphics are bad, the animations are bad, textures are made in a hurry or something because any beginner photoshop user could make textures like those or even better and the saddest part is that I am not kidding.
    Performance at the moment is terrible. I got like average 30 fps on med-high end PC.
    The story seems to be garbage. Voice acting is not that great.
    I have not found anything positive worth mentioning     … Expand
  6. ProfessionalGuy
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    kinda shocking how unfinished the game seems
    i got stuck twice in a station
    German voice act is for ****
    terrible interface
    no clue how to open the map with the game pad
    being locked to the one ship is a annoying
  7. DreadnoughtShan
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    Very poor graphics, with high system requirements. Awkward control. Often crashes. No exploration. And it just boring.
    If you like X3 as i am you will be very disappointed.
  8. Zhorick
    Dec 9, 2013
    4
    I'm not an X series fan. I like it, played almost every game, but I don't have much time to dive deep in the universe. But I liked them. X series was a solid space sim. I think best in the genre. Until X Rebirth.
    I've waited it. They released it full of bugs. Ok, I can wait. I never blame any game for launch-time bugs. It happens, no big deal. So they fixed the majority of game-killing    I'm not an X series fan. I like it, played almost every game, but I don't have much time to dive deep in the universe. But I liked them. X series was a solid space sim. I think best in the genre. Until X Rebirth.
    I've waited it. They released it full of bugs. Ok, I can wait. I never blame any game for launch-time bugs. It happens, no big deal. So they fixed the majority of game-killing bugs and I started to play.
    And I got to say it's rather enjoyable. Beautiful space. Very detailed, nice graphics. Everything ends up in the first station. All interiors are awful. Very low detail, poor textures, character models from early 2000s. Why did they do that? Why they add this piece of ugliness in such a beautiful game? For what reason? And it would be ok if station walks were optional. But you have to dock to station to find job applicant or items trader. I guess in X Rebirth universe they forgot what internet is. Station walks is number one that makes this game bad. Looting the lockers? Is it a bad joke? I have my own spaceship and I need to run the station and crawl the vents to steal some credits or a space suit? Talking with people? Hmm, that makes sense. Until they repeat the same dialogue ten times.
    The second thing that kills the game is it's console origin. Every second you will realize that it's a badly ported console game. Controls, menus, interface, everything is for gamepad, not keyboard. I have more than a hundred keys and I still need to go to menu to switch HUD mode. And no free look. Of course, how can you implement free look on a gamepad? So you sit in your chair with lots of controls and screens in your spaceship and you can only look in front of you.
    Anyways, the game is fun if you will never visit stations. But you can't.
    I still think they can improve the game. If they only make station walks optional and make separate interface for console and PC versions the game will become playable and rather fun. Even with other minor issues like primitive combat or lack of interaction options with NPCs. I hope they make station walks optional and remake the interface. But I doubt they will. But until then it's a waste of money. Don't buy it.    … Expand
  9. T-1001
    Nov 25, 2013
    4
    Originally, I was going to write a lengthy review, but the best I can do without rambling is to give you 2 bullet-points and then summarize.

    1. Controls are too limited to make any sense. They seem to be designed for a console experience, but the game requires much more than what the control settings suggest, and besides, this is a PC exclusive. Why is this even a problem? 2. The UI    Originally, I was going to write a lengthy review, but the best I can do without rambling is to give you 2 bullet-points and then summarize.

    1. Controls are too limited to make any sense. They seem to be designed for a console experience, but the game requires much more than what the control settings suggest, and besides, this is a PC exclusive. Why is this even a problem?

    2. The UI is non-existent. None of the monitors have any necessary UI. How are you supposed to have a detailed space game without a comprehensive and intuitive UI? Well, Egosoft don't seem to know the answer either.

    So to summarize those 2 bullet-points: design.
    I'm guessing they wanted to make the game a bit friendlier to newcomers, which is a novel concept.
    In fact, I hate how un-friendly space games usually are, so this could have been my favorite of the whole genre.
    Of course, they f***ed up.

    So yeah, It's a VERY confused game. BIG disappointment.
    But I still have faith. I think they can retaliate with a massive patch. Or at the very least, with mods.
    Thankfully, there are several indie projects going on that might do a better job.    … Expand
  10. Pannon
    Dec 20, 2013
    4
    I reserved my review, until a throrough play-through of the game, trying to understand all the underlying mechanics and trying to understand how to play this game. I have finished the campaign (with the aid of mods) as well as I free-played for over 40hours to see how far I can take it and waited for the patches to fix the most crucial game-breaking bugs, that crippled the entire game andI reserved my review, until a throrough play-through of the game, trying to understand all the underlying mechanics and trying to understand how to play this game. I have finished the campaign (with the aid of mods) as well as I free-played for over 40hours to see how far I can take it and waited for the patches to fix the most crucial game-breaking bugs, that crippled the entire game and the plot.
    Unfortunately, even with my hardest of trying, I still can't give more than 4 out of 10, because it's not just the bugs. It's the design and features. I don't have to mention the taking up 1/3 of the entire screen with no display of useful info, beside my little HUD in the right corner, 80% of the time saying "no signal".
    There is no useful map of any sort, just sometimes the little HUD shows the zone map for a few seconds, when I click on a highway symbol or space station. Probably another feature, but bugged still. I'm no version 1.21, and while the performance improved and a bunch of bugs killed, the game is still a chore to play as well as the economy of the game dies off and ships will get stuck doing nothing if you let the game run for several hours. The core feature of the game supposed to be the economy, and yet it's dysfunctional to a point, that you soon will realize, that all the empire and space building you were planning all along (after the campaign or free play) may not going to work and you won't be able to pull it off, unless you constantly cheat with a save game editor. Regardless which sector or faction you are dealing with, you will run into a problem of the producing space stations starving of resources and refuse to sell their products, or perhaps their freighters will be stuck with a full load of products, that cannot be sold and they will be idling in space.
    Other times you come back to a favorite station to buy a product, only to realize, that the loading dock or whatever attached to the space station is halfway destroyed. Not by enemy vessels, but possibly just a ship getting stuck inside the station model and it desperately keeps ramming the station from the inside (of the 3D model) and the game registers the bumps as weapon hits. Another major crippling "design feature" is, when you visit stations and scan the space factory, the information regarding this factory and prices disappear after a few hours, while you are in another system. How am I supposed to play a trading game, if my contacts and product locations keep disappearing?
    See, I'm not even gonna get into the bugs and the performance problems and the highway nuisances. I'm just mentioning the "design choices", how they are alone making the game unplayable.
    I just can't play this like that. It's like playing a first person shooter game, where your allies shoot you dead before you begin the campaign. Or your gun fires backwards or you stuck in crouch mode in a place, where you supposed to be running. Or your top-view strategy game won't let you use a mouse.
    Whoever designed this game should really quit designing anything. His or her vision of what a playable game is just not sustainable and not desired by 99% of the people.    … Expand
  11. Wolverinemetacr
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    Are these companies all going nuts. Sim City, Rome now this I swear after this year no one will preorder again. Before you release a game to us the consumer finish it. Ok review it is buggy the graphics are poor and I just cant get into it. Maybe down the road when they clean all this up. Nothing game breakingly bad just chill and wait till they get this squared away.
  12. Synd
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    In short, if you are a true fan of the X series, don't bother with this game.

    To the developers: if you want to rely on the modders to fix your game, you should give them the tools quickly.

    Unoptimized
    No Joystick support (seriously, on a space sim)
    Hand-holding everywhere

    I hope I will revise my judgement in the next few months.
  13. StartRunning
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    This is a beautiful game, filled to the brim with exploration and possibilities. It's a total shame, however, that a huge number of bugs are preventing me from enjoying it. It's clear that there's a game in there somewhere, and I realize people have been saying that the developers are good at patching and stuff, but it's really hard to recommend this game in this state.
    I am hopeful that    This is a beautiful game, filled to the brim with exploration and possibilities. It's a total shame, however, that a huge number of bugs are preventing me from enjoying it. It's clear that there's a game in there somewhere, and I realize people have been saying that the developers are good at patching and stuff, but it's really hard to recommend this game in this state.
    I am hopeful that with the right number of tweaks from the devs and modding community, I will get enjoyment out of this sapcesim, but now is not the time to try it. Very sorry.    … Expand
  14. Xuro
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    I have higher FPS on Valley ultra HD and X Rebirth that alone says enough. this is like Black Prophecy release only this game isn't supposed to have server lag, this is not like any other X game at all.
  15. Nestea
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    I love the X games. But X Rebirth is a huge step backwards compared to the previous titles. It has great potential but is very poorly executed. I hope the developers fix those bug and improve the performance or this was the last X game I ever bought.
  16. knitetemplar
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    I thought the game would be more polished on launch for the amount of media hype associated with the game.

    1) Poor FPS and resource optimization compared to other more recent titles (albeit there appears to be more objects in view at any given time than most games) 2) UI is simple, but simply tedious. 3) Voice acting and dialogue is an embarrassment. Dialogue often seems more    I thought the game would be more polished on launch for the amount of media hype associated with the game.

    1) Poor FPS and resource optimization compared to other more recent titles (albeit there appears to be more objects in view at any given time than most games)

    2) UI is simple, but simply tedious.
    3) Voice acting and dialogue is an embarrassment. Dialogue often seems more like filler between the rare occasions when what the NPC's have to say actually matters. Ironically, my co-pilot telling the computer to shut-up is more grating than the ships computer speaking in the first place, a failed attempt at self-deprecating humor on the part of Egosoft, who seem to be acknowledging the short comings of past title's dialogue.

    4) Game systems like trading may be simpler in theory, but turns out to be more cumbersome in practice. This is probably exasperated by the "NPC" menu system which isn't any less confusing than previous title's menu systems, andisn't made any easier by the built in short-cuts and nested menu's.

    5) No targeting keyboard controls? Really? (I was really surprised by this one) Target foe, target friend, squad-mates, etc? Seems basic for a space sim.
    6) Game crashes. This, believe it or not is less of an issue for me, since it is purely a technical issue to overcome, rather than an issue of misaligned vision or foresight.

    I have more concerns, but those are my primary issues.

    Why did I give it a 4 instead of lower score? Because I believe in the heart of the game, which at its core, captures the imagination of those who want a living, breathing world, where your imagination is the limitation of your game experience. Perhaps as some of these issues get addressed, I would give X Rebirth a higher score.

    I really like this series, I am hoping future patches and improvements improve the game play. I think Egosoft fell victim to the whining of the casual player who's needs and interests are very different than those willing to dig into the nitty-gritty details of a simulation. Unfortunately there are more of the former than the latter...    … Expand
  17. Zworykin
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    Game has a huge technical issues. Main one being low frame rates. You can spend an hour adjusting settings but most people will not go above 15 FPS when flying close to stations even with pretty decent PCs. It is like the developers did not take time to install to game to a test computer and checked how it would be running.
  18. Glamredhel
    Nov 15, 2013
    4
    This game is broken and is an insult to the simulation genre.

    It's an arcade game posing as a simulator. Your ship has 0 functions. You just fly through space and shoot stuff if it appears in front of you. You have no radar, no ability to lock onto anything without manually clicking on it, no cycling targets, etc. You have no way to know if an enemy ship in combat is coming up behind    This game is broken and is an insult to the simulation genre.

    It's an arcade game posing as a simulator. Your ship has 0 functions. You just fly through space and shoot stuff if it appears in front of you. You have no radar, no ability to lock onto anything without manually clicking on it, no cycling targets, etc. You have no way to know if an enemy ship in combat is coming up behind you unless it starts shooting at you. There is zero situational awareness.

    And on top of that there was obviously no quality control because half the missions in the game are broken and require reloading and trying over and over again to get them to luckily continue. The first hour of the game took me about 3 hours to get past due to constantly relaoding upon hitting mission breaking bugs.

    Don't waste your money.    … Expand
  19. Altrue
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    After three hours of gameplay, including a crash that made me loose the first hour (yes, 60 minutes lost) by making me start the campaign again, I can certainly say that the game doesn't lack potential but was released in an unfinished state. It's buggy, missions and tutoriels are sometimes unintuitive, the AI flying the other ships of your squad is 80% of the time not working...

    Apart    After three hours of gameplay, including a crash that made me loose the first hour (yes, 60 minutes lost) by making me start the campaign again, I can certainly say that the game doesn't lack potential but was released in an unfinished state. It's buggy, missions and tutoriels are sometimes unintuitive, the AI flying the other ships of your squad is 80% of the time not working...

    Apart from all the things that might have been fixed with more development time, I have to say that the game currently also have poor game design decisions. The whole 1st person thing, the inability to be able to fly other ships, poor overall ergonomy of the interface, poor overall usability of trade interfaces.

    Also, in my opinions the graphics haven't progressed from the previous iteration of the X series, they are dull, they lack colors and overall they are just not pretty. Poor FX, poor backgrounds...

    The game is still "fun" to discover when its not bugging, but only because good space operas are lacking currently, and it certainly does not deserve more than a 4/10. Not at this price.    … Expand
  20. Edstalker
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    I love space sim games, I was really waiting for this game but its a disappointment. Performance issues for me considering I have gtx770 and i74770k, game runs badly, dog fights are hard bc the whole vision just somehow blurs when maneuvering the ship, hard to keep track of whats going on. Didnt like the whole fast travel thingy, just jump gate over jump gate, they over done it, comparedI love space sim games, I was really waiting for this game but its a disappointment. Performance issues for me considering I have gtx770 and i74770k, game runs badly, dog fights are hard bc the whole vision just somehow blurs when maneuvering the ship, hard to keep track of whats going on. Didnt like the whole fast travel thingy, just jump gate over jump gate, they over done it, compared to X3, that encouraged exploration, I loved the long distance flying, it added to the game.
    Game feels like a mess, clunky tutorial easy to miss lots of important tips and parts, horrible NPC's look like bad voice acting, waste of time walking the ships, pointless really, it takes time I dont wanna lose doing useless stuff, Traveling the station "stealing" loot and crawling vents didnt make sense to me, stupid AI, the UI is behh, the side screen where u check information and such gives me a headache, each time u want to check something, the players checks it on the side screen, should have left it on the main front screen in my opinion. So ofc there are bugs and its reasonable but all those things together just ruin the experience I wanted to get, Ill be wating for updates, as for now Im not interested in the game, played for 2 hours and Im disappointed. I did tried to enjoy it, but so far Im not impressed.    … Expand
  21. X3R1
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    I played for about 3 hours, got through two combat scenarios as well as fiddled with the maps, the trade interface, and pretty much every feature I could get my hands on in the first section of the game.

    Graphics are quite bad. The backdrops and some of the artistic aspects are done nicely, however poor lighting effects and textures that came out of someone's rear end really dampen the    I played for about 3 hours, got through two combat scenarios as well as fiddled with the maps, the trade interface, and pretty much every feature I could get my hands on in the first section of the game.

    Graphics are quite bad. The backdrops and some of the artistic aspects are done nicely, however poor lighting effects and textures that came out of someone's rear end really dampen the experience. The graphics while docked in station or large ship are simply unacceptable.

    In terms of your actual ship control it is quite enjoyable. The ship reacts well to joystick inputs and shooting is similar fun to previous titles.

    Targets... oh boy. You can no longer cycle through targets, select only enemy targets, or shoot at other ships while keeping target elsewhere. In it's current state you feel quite lost in space and navigating or fighting a swarm of enemies does not feel as immersive as a result. You would have to have played previous X games to realize just how important target management is. We'll see in time how it plays out, as of now I do suspect it will be a major problem.

    The interface is perhaps what could become the ultimate gamebreaker here. They have basically reduced functionality by a large margin all while making the interface more clunky and bonky than before. Where as before we had grid-like interfaces with many options available, what we are left with now is a very dumbed-down, overly flashy, unintuitive mess. The maps are borderline unusable, providing a fraction of the function the previous maps did. Ship commands, fleet commands, trading, bartering and such used to be a simple matter of a few clicks or a hotkey, but now involve pointless waiting and navigating through tedious menu options.
    The real kicker: They've stripped away the vast majority of the hotkeys from previous titles and removed the ability to assign more than 1 key to a function.

    Ability to progress time has been removed it seems. I did enjoy simply progressing time quicker for game environment purposes. Stargates have been changed with a super highway. It's a nice way to travel between zones, you can slipstream and even shoot ships on the highway.

    I have not checked out much about the trading mechanics so can't speak too much to that. However having to walk around pathetically textured, identical stations and interact with poorly voiced, HL2-esque NPC models does not seem like something enjoyable in the long run no matter how fascinating the trade mechanics may be. Leaving my ship honestly makes me want to pluck my eyes out; interacting with the NPCs makes me want to pull out a gun and end it all.

    Inability to use more than the one ship you start with is a big let down, I prefer the slower boats that handle more poorly and for a game that is primarily, for many players, about enjoying the engine in combat, a true sandbox game in 2013 would offer the ability to use different ship types as X2/X3 did.

    Overall it feels like many of the core features particularly in how they present themselves via the interface have been dumbed-down with functionality reduced or removed entirely.
    I do believe there is a solid underlying game here. Whether or not the ridiculously awful interface, targeting system, and other setbacks can/will be fixed will likely decide how playable the game is in the long run. I will be giving it another chance tomorrow and we'll see how it goes!    … Expand
  22. StraightsJacket
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    At their core X games have always been rather difficult games to learn and to master. X Rebirth is EGOSOFTS attempt to create a more friendly experience for new players. While they meet that expectation in some areas, they sacrifice much of the immersion from their previous games.
    For one EGOSOFT did a big space/flight game no-no by focusing more on control-pad based interactions.    At their core X games have always been rather difficult games to learn and to master. X Rebirth is EGOSOFTS attempt to create a more friendly experience for new players. While they meet that expectation in some areas, they sacrifice much of the immersion from their previous games.
    For one EGOSOFT did a big space/flight game no-no by focusing more on control-pad based interactions. Navigating the UI feels rather slow and clunky using a keyboard/mouse and joystick setup. Many of the game choices and menus are navigable through XBOX like circular menus. Their settings->controls menu is very unintuitive making it rather difficult to map hot keys.
    In previous games a simple hot key could get you to any screen you wanted to get to quite easily. In X Rebirth, however, you must navigate through their circular menus multiple times to get to many of the options.
    Gone are the days of setting up a ship course and auto piloting to your destination while you keep a sector map up to look out for hostiles. Any menu actions you take from navigating to trading causes your character to swivel in his seat and focus on a small panel to the right.
    Graphics are a huge improvement over the other games, a lot more detail was placed in creating the over world. However when you actually dock at a couple stations you'll find they are just cookie-cutters of each other. Item placement, NPCS, consoles are all often in the exact same places. NPCs themselves are static, they stand in one place like a mannequin. Their dialog is awkward, short and choppy, and asking them questions will often net you an insult. I would say this is an improvement over other NPCs interactions in the previous games, however it is just so.
    The plot itself is rather uninteresting and your side character is a rather cliche female companion. If you choose the campaign option, you are locked into the plot so don't expect to go empire building just yet.

    Overall the X Rebirth should have just stayed in the womb.
    Luckily EGOSOFT has a good reputation in continually supporting their games so hopefully we will see some changes. The X modding community is second to none and I expect a lot of improvements to the whole game to come from that community. But as a base game I can only give X-R a 4.    … Expand
  23. metnavman
    Nov 16, 2013
    4
    In a space simulation series where the best parts have been how awe-inspiring and powerful you can make your ships and your empire, X Rebirth leaves you simply feeling like a mediocre cog in a machine that's been hacked together using spare parts. Beautiful backdrops and a strong soundtrack will not save this watered-down attempt at a console game, which appears to have been back-pedaledIn a space simulation series where the best parts have been how awe-inspiring and powerful you can make your ships and your empire, X Rebirth leaves you simply feeling like a mediocre cog in a machine that's been hacked together using spare parts. Beautiful backdrops and a strong soundtrack will not save this watered-down attempt at a console game, which appears to have been back-pedaled into a PC game over a 7+ year development cycle.… Expand
  24. runtime13
    Nov 17, 2013
    4
    After i played this title, I have some questions: Why I bought this game? Why EGOSOFT has created a game so outrageous? This software is not up to other space games. X3AP is better than this game. Even Evochron is better than this title. My only regret is the fact that the game is on STEAM, otherwise it would sell right away. DON'T BUY. For italian player: NON COMPRATELO!!! NON VALE IAfter i played this title, I have some questions: Why I bought this game? Why EGOSOFT has created a game so outrageous? This software is not up to other space games. X3AP is better than this game. Even Evochron is better than this title. My only regret is the fact that the game is on STEAM, otherwise it would sell right away. DON'T BUY. For italian player: NON COMPRATELO!!! NON VALE I SOLDI CHE COSTA!… Expand
  25. SjadoHawk
    Nov 17, 2013
    4
    There are a lot of mixed emotions about this game. Based entirely on it's own, this is a nice looking game with many problems that will be addressed in patches over the 3 to 6 months I would expect.

    However a lot of the frustration that is showing comes from the fact that most of these gamers have waited years for a game that EgoSoft kept delaying stating that they wanted to make sure    There are a lot of mixed emotions about this game. Based entirely on it's own, this is a nice looking game with many problems that will be addressed in patches over the 3 to 6 months I would expect.

    However a lot of the frustration that is showing comes from the fact that most of these gamers have waited years for a game that EgoSoft kept delaying stating that they wanted to make sure they released a polished product. For those gamers, this product fell well below the standards they were expecting from EgoSoft after playing other X series games.

    I won't give it a 0 but 4 is fairly accurate in it's current state in my opinion of course.    … Expand
  26. krikkeljan
    Nov 18, 2013
    4
    It would've been better if they stuck to some of the old and trusted ways of doing things, but they're trying something new and are obviously a smaller team of developers and thus things don't always work out. They decided to listen to feedback from the previous games, and a lot of that feedback has found its way into this game.

    The things that bother me the most at the moment after 5    It would've been better if they stuck to some of the old and trusted ways of doing things, but they're trying something new and are obviously a smaller team of developers and thus things don't always work out. They decided to listen to feedback from the previous games, and a lot of that feedback has found its way into this game.

    The things that bother me the most at the moment after 5 hours of playing are the UI and walking around on stations. The latter is a nice feature that a lot of people wanted, but it's not implemented well. Plus the interactions only get better the more you drink... beverages of an alcoholic nature .
    And returning to your ship, I don't understand the constant need of your co-pilot to show off her cleavage.

    The UI is just disgraceful, but again a lot of feedback regarding the earlier complexity moved the developers towards a silly console like approach. This is sad... as well as the already mentioned lack of keyboard shortcuts and what not. Getting around in the game at the moment is still very frustrating.

    As of yet I don't have the X feeling with this game. I find it to be a different game. It's not horrible but it certainly isn't good.... yet. The developers will fix things with time, but as the team is small it will take a bit of time.    … Expand
  27. TheMeph
    Nov 18, 2013
    4
    12 hours in and most of that was spent trying to get the ship AI to do their jobs. Miners wont mine, traders won't trade, nobody will do anything unless you find some complicated workaround. Completely broken and unplayable. There is no way to proceed unless all you want to do is shoot your 1 gun.
  28. Vanadyel
    Nov 20, 2013
    4
    Never played any X games, did not check the news and I like the genre (loved Freelancer) so there is no "fanboy" factor in my opinion.
    Graphics are unoptimised, my rather good computer has constant 10fps near busy space stations no matter if I set the graphics to minimum. Ther UI is one of the worst I've ever used: slow, messy, counter-intuitive. Crashes regularly, even after the hotfix.    Never played any X games, did not check the news and I like the genre (loved Freelancer) so there is no "fanboy" factor in my opinion.
    Graphics are unoptimised, my rather good computer has constant 10fps near busy space stations no matter if I set the graphics to minimum. Ther UI is one of the worst I've ever used: slow, messy, counter-intuitive. Crashes regularly, even after the hotfix.
    It is very sad since this game has a great potential: a very immersive universe and a rather good soundtrack. You can visit your ship that has 1 room. You can talk to and hire a lot of different characters... but a lot of them have the same voice and lines (oh jeez I wanna kill the copilot who says always the same thing when you're docking).

    Welcome to X Rebarf.    … Expand
  29. fullmetaltojo
    Nov 20, 2013
    4
    Where to start with this game. Is it broken? Yes. Does it feel unfinished? Mostly certainly. Does it have problems? Without a doubt. Is it worth buying in it's current state? No. But that's not to say that it doesn't have it's good points. It doesn't currently have many, the one's it does are buried under layers of poor design choices and if not game-breaking bugs,Where to start with this game. Is it broken? Yes. Does it feel unfinished? Mostly certainly. Does it have problems? Without a doubt. Is it worth buying in it's current state? No. But that's not to say that it doesn't have it's good points. It doesn't currently have many, the one's it does are buried under layers of poor design choices and if not game-breaking bugs, having-to-find-a-way-to-make-this-work ones.

    As mentioned in most other reviews, the ability to walk around space stations is a novel idea, it's just horribly implemented here. The NPCs are ugly, the corridors are repetitive, the general thievery allowed is baffling and the textures are low-res.

    Outside the stations the vista's are much improved, if not a bit cluttered. This is space where no-one allowed for the fact that space is HUGE by shoving everything into a tiny area and linking things by gaudy highways. Despite only using DX9 the environments can be strikingly beautiful, when the textures aren't tearing. And travelling between sectors is fun, the highway mini-game is a nice idea, again an idea that doesn't quite work because your beautiful view is taken up with a badly textures ship in front, sometimes that you are half-way clipped into.

    Combat is fun, if not extremely hampered by the massive restriction in POV, no way to lock onto nearest targets and lack of radar. Yes it's a space game. With no radar. Another baffling design choice. Also when being attacked outside of space stations your are punished for self defense as if you were the original aggressor. Frustrating!

    Trade is. Well I'll let you know if I can get it to work. Currently I'm hampered by the fact that my ships keep disappearing from my owned ships list. It's hard to trade when you are lacking a means to do so.

    Egosoft seem to be patching things up at a nice pace, even if the patches don't seem to be addressing, in my mind, the biggest flaws in the game. It's currently a 4 in my book, has the potential to improve. But it has a long, long gaudy yellow highway ahead of it.    … Expand
  30. steelgrey75
    Dec 16, 2013
    4
    Well I personally have been massively disappointed with this game. I can accept that they wanted to make the game a little more action orientated, and that they thought streamlining it would make the game playable to more users, but I can't accept the end product.
    I have played for 60 hours, free play, I stopped campaign after about 2 hours of play due to bugs and the storyline is boring    Well I personally have been massively disappointed with this game. I can accept that they wanted to make the game a little more action orientated, and that they thought streamlining it would make the game playable to more users, but I can't accept the end product.
    I have played for 60 hours, free play, I stopped campaign after about 2 hours of play due to bugs and the storyline is boring and uninspiring. In those 60 hours I tried to establish a trade empire, just as I used to in the other X games, and build up a fleet. The trading is tedious, having to constantly fly around looking for offers that expire after an hour or so and need to be done again. The money earned from trading is insignificant to boarding and selling captured ships, even long range scanning earns you more money than trading does, so whats the point in it?
    Fleets are useless, with no offensive commands or navigational orders. The ships just follow you along through enemy sectors getting blow up by fighters.
    Boarding has been made easier to the point that is no challenge. There is not an enemy in the game that makes me afraid, not one. Boarding used to be about careful planning and detail, gathering ships together, massing the ships at as et point and then executing your boarding. It was hard, it was dangerous, but it was fantastic when you pulled off a good one. I don't get any feeling of satisfaction from boarding in Rebirth, its mindlessly simplistic.
    The UI is horrific, even with a 360 pad, with multiple layers in radial menus. They said they made it this way because the old UI was bad, it was a hundred times better than what it is in this game, it couldnt have been done any worse.
    Station interiors. Well the idea sounds good, and done right it could be amazing. What we ended up with was a load of cut and paste nasty looking station interiors, populated by static NPC's that look like they come from the PS1. Conversation mini games, crawling through air ducts to open red boxes, pointlessly silly things that simply do not belong in a space sim.
    Space. Well its pretty enough, its not amazing but it is certainly good. The stations look good. Combat seems great at first, more like an ace combat style. Soon though it becomes apparent that your never going to have to face that many enemies at once, just small groups, mostly single fighters spaced far apart. They also are very easy and you kill them with no harm to yourself. Not having any control over targeting is bad too as you frequently lose the lock on the target you want and often then lose track of it completely. If you attacked from anywhere other than directly in front of you you'll never know its coming until you are hit.
    The skunk. One ship need not be that bad if done properly, with a large array of upgrades and weapons to choose from it can be very good actually. Yet we ended up with hardly none of that. The choice of upgrades and weapons is pathetic. The is welcome back, but in doing so all other views have been dumped and you can only look straight ahead which kills the immersion and makes awareness impossible, you dont even know whats behind you. Of course I have to mention the "copilot" whose only piloting abilities are to dock the ship. Mindless lines of drivel spouting out of her mouth, an irritating and pointless distraction.
    Exploration is made all that much harder with the new map that is very difficult to read and is not interactive, not even allowing you to select a target which in busy systems is sorely missed as finding some ships can be a nightmare.
    There are those that say in months to come it will be better, and a lot of bugs ironed out and improvements made. However I'm reviewing the game today, not in the future, and today I think its worth no more than 4/10.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
55
#55 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
33

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 24 out of 24
  1. IGN Italia
    Feb 18, 2014
    40
    Rebirth lacks inspiration, purpose, good ideas. It's riddled with bugs and, even when it seems to work, it manages to be dull. There isn't any true reason to play it.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Feb 10, 2014
    30
    Instead of giving the series a new life the developers buried it and the patches are a classic case of ‘too little, too late’. There’s a lot of things you can forgive this game but not the fact that it’s boring. [02/2014, p.58]
  3. PC Gamer
    Jan 31, 2014
    39
    X misses the spot. The occasional bit of spectacle can't save this boring, broken and charmless space simulation. [March 2014, p.60]
    Read full review
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