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3.2

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1310 Ratings

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  1. Nov 17, 2013
    0
    This game is poor. Horrible FPS on lowest settings on a decent computer. But ignoring the performance issues.

    The game is confusing, restrictive, and boring. There are countless bugs, and there is very little to actually do in game. To be blunt, the game isn't very fun.
  2. Nov 17, 2013
    10
    I am pretty happy with the game.
    Didnt have any major problems with playing exept some small fps drops.
    I really really like the ideas they have put into the game. Somewhat these ideas make the game so awesome and different from all the other space games. Also i am pretty sure that the small company Egosoft is really trying hard to fix all the bugs as fast as they can. I dont think
    I am pretty happy with the game.
    Didnt have any major problems with playing exept some small fps drops.
    I really really like the ideas they have put into the game. Somewhat these
    ideas make the game so awesome and different from all the other space
    games. Also i am pretty sure that the small company Egosoft is really trying
    hard to fix all the bugs as fast as they can. I dont think this game is a failure.
    Its a newborn beauty with some genetically diseases. This is onbe of those smaller
    games that you shouldn´t about...
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  3. Nov 17, 2013
    1
    I haven't even played the game for more than 30 minutes but I give a ZERO score because it is unplayable. I have an i7 with a 2 year old gfx card and my pc can handle even the latest games in medium detail with 50+ fps. X-rebirth plays around 10-15 fps which is unplayable. I am not sure if it is the game engine that is defective or if they are gonna fix it with an update but the fact isI haven't even played the game for more than 30 minutes but I give a ZERO score because it is unplayable. I have an i7 with a 2 year old gfx card and my pc can handle even the latest games in medium detail with 50+ fps. X-rebirth plays around 10-15 fps which is unplayable. I am not sure if it is the game engine that is defective or if they are gonna fix it with an update but the fact is that they should not release this game at this state. Will ask for a refund. Expand
  4. Nov 17, 2013
    0
    this game is only alpha- buggy stuff. DO NOT BUY! Spend your money on Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. Do not believe the nice-video-lies! This game has nothing to do with the old nice x-universe.
  5. Nov 17, 2013
    0
    As a fan of previous X series I AM disappointed. This game had huge potential. Some spectacular features were added, but a lot of other important and fundamental features removed/changed. This release reminds me of rome 2 total war. I very much like new station complexes, they are huge and look amazing, I like ambient traffic and activity, which is very cool and makes a living world, IAs a fan of previous X series I AM disappointed. This game had huge potential. Some spectacular features were added, but a lot of other important and fundamental features removed/changed. This release reminds me of rome 2 total war. I very much like new station complexes, they are huge and look amazing, I like ambient traffic and activity, which is very cool and makes a living world, I like theoretical concept of free space and more playable areas, except predefined sectors (like it was in previous X's), I like expanded crew idea, a lot of different professions and ability to assign subordinates for commanders (in previous X's almost with anything you had to micro-manage and it was very time consuming if you had big empire) to make something work autonomous, but everything else is such a shame:

    1. No basic stuff like radar (and/or minimap), hotkeys for example to select nearest target
    2. UI is very uncomfortable to use, your only ONE ship is not interactive at all and blocks a lot of view, not possible to rotate your head
    3. Repeated dialogs and phrases of NPCs, which you start to hate after several hours of gameplay
    4. Almost entirely identical station interiors, which you already hate
    5. Impossible to talk with NPCs remotely and you are forced to dock each time and you're not really sure you will find the one you're looking for, sometimes you get direction for the one, who is red (low reputation and he won't speak to you)
    6. Impossible to give any basic commands to you subordinate ships (only to form up squad)
    7. Map is almost useless and navigation is hard, you sometimes can't figure out where your ships are at all
    8. Game crashes very often, like at least one time in an hour, but really, this would not be a problem, if gameplay was fine
    9. mini-games everyone... crate/locker hunter simulator REALLY? That's the most idea ever, it feels like this one came from some 10years old child. Unlimited personal inventory... enough...

    I really don't understand. Are developers not playing the game itself? Are they blind? How at least mentioned basic stuff is missing? It's enough to play a few hours to understand all problems. On the other side, they probably seen all this, but couldn't change anything and simply released crappy game for everyone to choke on.

    Probably I can continue this list, if I would make additional notes while playing to remember every damn negative bit of this game, but what's the point... Like with rome 2 total war, the most important thing money collected. I don't like how this is going and I'm almost sure nothing will change, except if they will make another "NOT X" game and name it as "X".
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  6. Nov 17, 2013
    1
    I've been playing the X franchise since early 2005 (essentially X3 Reunion on through to present). I'm trying to figure out just where to begin this review because I have so many issues with what this game represents.

    First, the marquee feature of 1st Person navigation through stations and your ship falls well short of what it should have been given the 7+ year development cycle. The
    I've been playing the X franchise since early 2005 (essentially X3 Reunion on through to present). I'm trying to figure out just where to begin this review because I have so many issues with what this game represents.

    First, the marquee feature of 1st Person navigation through stations and your ship falls well short of what it should have been given the 7+ year development cycle. The stations are copy and paste, and essentially nothing more than a series of circular corridors. A feature that should have been left on the cutting room floor as it doesn't add to the immersion, it detracts from it by having jerky movement, poor framerate, and terrible NPC interactions. Oh, and Morrowind called, they want their NPC models back. Yes they are that bad, and yes they do detract from gameplay immersion because every time I look at them I am repulsed.

    Second, I tried to be OK with the idea of only ever piloting a single ship, and it might have been acceptable, but the way the is laid out, the lack of a 3rd person perspective, and the intrusion of the UI into the field of view makes this prospect simply unacceptable. Half the time I'm flying around stations I'm bumping into other ships and objects because I can't determine where the corners of my ship are (it's a really big ship compared to your view).

    Third, the interface with the game has been completely "revamped" from the X3 days. I held the X3 user interface as nearly the worst UI in gaming second only to EVE ONLINE. Yet somehow Egosoft managed to spend 7 years screwing it up even further. There is a small, slow, convoluted contextual radial menu for every interaction in the game. You end up 3-7 layers deep in radial menu decisions by the time you reach the action you want only to hear from an NPC "What do you think I am, a portable map vendor?" Thanks.

    Also, essentially every shortcut key for every interaction in the game that actually did carry over from X3 has been removed. There's no "target nearest enemy", no "target target's target", no "view enemy camera". For those keeping score at home, X-Wing on MS-DOS had that functionality in the early 90s.

    The map system for navigating your way around the galaxy has also been replaced. It went from a handy tile-based map in X3 to a strange "heat map" of information that isn't really legible.

    I could go on about how docking with stations requires you to fly right up to the doc port and double click on them, or how firing missiles is now the "R" key instead of space or a mouse button, or how there's no autopilot, but I think you've got the drift by now.

    Because the quality standard is so incredibly low from Egosoft on this product, I cannot bring myself to give it anything higher than a "1" for a score. I see there are some people out there that like the game, and I can only surmise they are fooling themselves, or they played a different game. Or they thing 10 is the worst possible score.

    I'm an active fan and player of the prior X games (over 480 hours played on X3 and it's add-ons). But this game I'll be requesting a refund on. It's not done and the plan I see from Egosoft on what comes next should have been part of the initial release (read the first post on their forums on the website to get a good idea of what's wrong with the game in their own words).

    Unfortunately most of the items I have cited are design decisions, and they probably won't reverse themselves, so I don't see a place for me in this game at this time, which really saddens me.

    I hope you learn a lot from this process Egosoft, and I really mean that, no smugness here. I really wanted to sink another 500 hours into this game, but at this time, I don't think I'll spend another 5 minutes in it.

    Egosoft Forum user: Classic Style
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  7. Nov 16, 2013
    2
    Buggy and filled with performance issues upon release, but that's not really the worst part. While I do appreciate the revamping of caps and trying to add further immersion, the base concept is flawed. For one, if you're going to make stations, least do them proper, create decent models for npcs and actually give them useful dialogue otherwise you're just creating a terrible feature thatBuggy and filled with performance issues upon release, but that's not really the worst part. While I do appreciate the revamping of caps and trying to add further immersion, the base concept is flawed. For one, if you're going to make stations, least do them proper, create decent models for npcs and actually give them useful dialogue otherwise you're just creating a terrible feature that does nothing but waste time that could be spent actually playing the game. Two, here's a biggy, if you're going to give people capital ships, DON'T FORCE THEM TO WATCH IT FROM A FREAKING LITTLE RING IN THE DOCKING BAY. If you're really can't handle making a generic capital ship bridge interior where we can actually get readouts on what's going on and be able to look out from the bridge instead of a little window with a 45 degree FOV, least give us 3rd person view. Sitting in a tiny little ring in the docking bay with a 45 FOV window with no information on what's going on is pointless.

    -That being said, you can't really use directly control anything else other than the skunk, which wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for the aforementioned.
    -Gone is the intricate single menu where you could control the entire world, in it's place are even worse menus that require you to take a 6 sec animation to actually get any useful reading plus founding through even worse menus.
    -Did I mention for a space sim generally about getting new ships, you're stuck in a single ship?

    Fundamentally, the game's broken, even asides from the bugs and the performance issues, the base game's broken. Less they actually bother changing that or some mod does, the game's essentially unenjoyable if you plan doing more than fly around the galaxy in first person in a single ship. Only reason you're even getting a 2 is because yes the game does look decent and battles in theory should be enjoyable if it weren't for the fact that they're not.
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  8. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    This is an unfinished product no matter how you slice it. Unoptimized game, not ready for release, character models are awful, sound and character dialogs make my ear bleed. Good try from egosoft, has potential, but sucks really bad at the moment. Don't buy.
  9. 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.
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  10. Nov 16, 2013
    1
    I am so disappointed in this game that I actually decided to write a review. That says a lot all on it's own. I've been playing games my entire life and have been a professional game developer for almost a decade. In all that time I have never felt compelled to go to the trouble of actually writing a negative review. I pre-ordered this game the moment it was available. It sounded likeI am so disappointed in this game that I actually decided to write a review. That says a lot all on it's own. I've been playing games my entire life and have been a professional game developer for almost a decade. In all that time I have never felt compelled to go to the trouble of actually writing a negative review. I pre-ordered this game the moment it was available. It sounded like everything I've ever wanted in a game. Alas, it was not to be. Playing this game hurts me. I've spent about 8 hours playing it so far because I desperately want it to be good somehow. I've turned the voice volume all the way down so I can't hear the awful dialog. I've given up caring about how awkward the controls and menus are. I pretend all the NPCs just don't exist. Despite all this, the game is still hard to play, and I'm not referring to the difficulty level. There are so many small things wrong with this game that they overwhelm almost constantly. So many simple things that are, best case, bad design choices, but generally feel like the developers working on them did not have enough time to finish. It is inevitable in any game production that some corners will be cut, but this game feels almost spherical. I am at a loss. I'm holding out hope that they will turn this ship around, but I just don't know if they can. Expand
  11. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    Unfinished game. Unplayable. Only enjoyable for the first ~hour. Cannot play for more than 30 min without encountering a gamebreaking bug that either requires save file editing to fix or simply cannot be fixed.

    Game has massive potential, but it is simply not a a finished product. The game is broken on so many levels that it would be impossible not to notice. This either means the
    Unfinished game. Unplayable. Only enjoyable for the first ~hour. Cannot play for more than 30 min without encountering a gamebreaking bug that either requires save file editing to fix or simply cannot be fixed.

    Game has massive potential, but it is simply not a a finished product. The game is broken on so many levels that it would be impossible not to notice. This either means the developers know the game is broken and decided to release it anyway or they never played the game before they released it.

    Selling this as a "game" is simply deceiving consumers and should be prosecuted by law. It is seriously so broken.
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  12. Nov 16, 2013
    1
    First, my background, very briefly, so you know where I'm coming from: I have about 300 hours in X3: Terran Conflict, and probably that many in X2: The Threat, before that. X2 to X3 was magnificent; more beautiful, bigger, everything you could want.

    X Rebirth is absolutely beautiful, on the surface- not counting the character models. Ships and stations are intricately detailed (from the
    First, my background, very briefly, so you know where I'm coming from: I have about 300 hours in X3: Terran Conflict, and probably that many in X2: The Threat, before that. X2 to X3 was magnificent; more beautiful, bigger, everything you could want.

    X Rebirth is absolutely beautiful, on the surface- not counting the character models. Ships and stations are intricately detailed (from the outside) and beautifully (if pointlessly) animated. A first for X games, your own ship has a detailed interior, and you can even "stand up" to walk around in the rear compartment. (Though not around the and nothing in the ship is interactive in the slightest.)

    That's about everything positive about this game. The actual user interface is awful; there's no hotkey support, and there isn't even a key to target enemies- you have to do it all with the mouse (and how you'd manage with a gamepad or joystick, I have no idea.)

    You're forced to land on stations and walk around the station interface (where graphics performance is much worse than out in space, surprisingly given how small these and sparse these interiors are) and "talk" to people, which involves engaging in a mini-game to perform "smalltalk" (the mini-game, at least at the beginning of the game, is laughably easy). In X3, this was handled invisibly; you had the impression of being at the helm of a major trading corporation, as you grew more powerful, dealing personally only with things like having a new station built, rather than hiring individuals to crew the ships in your fleet.

    Speaking of mini-games, there are other ones, as well- travel between sectors is a mini-game of switching "lanes" to increase your speed; using your ship's long range sensors is a mini-game of holding down 'R' just until a sound reaches a certain point; even interacting with stations involves a mini-game of (a) literally searching it for somewhere to land before awkwardly trying to double-click on an icon, and then click again to land; and (b) searching for "info nodes" that somehow add up to you getting a station discount (which involves flying circles and circles around the station looking for modules.)

    The minigames add nothing other than annoyance to a game that already started as a disappointment; advertised as though it were X4, when in reality is' beautiful but unpleasant knockoff on the franchise.

    By and large, the issues aren't bugs (although there are tons of those); they're conscious design decisions. The developers don't like autopilot, so there's no autopilot present, unlike previous games; the developers decided a detailed walkable interior was more important than being able to directly command a variety of ships, so you only ever get to fly the one ship.

    Overall, don't buy. If you're a fan of previous X games, you'll just be frustrated and disappointed. If you're a fan of hardcore space sims, you're looking in way the wrong place. If you're a fan of economy sims, this doesn't have what you want.
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  13. Nov 16, 2013
    9
    21 hours played so far, Great game. It's a bit different, yes but i knew that when i bought it, and after a while it really is starting to feel like an X game. Many bugs (also expected) but nothing that i couldn't work around, or fix with an old save. Game runs fine on max, core i5-2500k 3.3Ghz, nvidia Geforce GTX650 ti Boost, 8gb ram.
  14. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    This game has awesome potential. There's so much you can do, the possibilities are endless. The game is beautiful and I can really get into the RP aspect. That being said, the campaigns bugs are GAME RUINING. So bad...

    Orders don't get followed, orders CAN'T be cancelled, so if one of your trade ships is bugged, you can cancel the bugged order. I played for 2 unhindered hours, spend the
    This game has awesome potential. There's so much you can do, the possibilities are endless. The game is beautiful and I can really get into the RP aspect. That being said, the campaigns bugs are GAME RUINING. So bad...

    Orders don't get followed, orders CAN'T be cancelled, so if one of your trade ships is bugged, you can cancel the bugged order. I played for 2 unhindered hours, spend the next 3 trying to work around bugs. It's horrible. I've found fixes to some online that involve editing saved games and stuff, but that's not acceptable. To bad in this day and age you can't get your money back from these companies for releasing unfinished games.
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  15. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    Bugs Rebirth

    I like previous X-Games, but X Rebirth is just bad. Low fps, crashes, you cannot command your ships as in X-Game, maps are terrible, many of low-polygons models, its really understanding for beginners. May be in some months you can play it.
  16. Nov 16, 2013
    2
    I finally registered for Metacritic today just so that I could weigh in on this atrocious launch. I've been a huge fan of the X series for years. I've logged over 320 hours in X3TC alone. I'm running a solid rig i7 quad core, 16 GB ram, Nvidia GTX 780.

    While I haven't encountered the frame rate issues many have, I have run into a myriad of others. Corrupt save games, getting stuck
    I finally registered for Metacritic today just so that I could weigh in on this atrocious launch. I've been a huge fan of the X series for years. I've logged over 320 hours in X3TC alone. I'm running a solid rig i7 quad core, 16 GB ram, Nvidia GTX 780.

    While I haven't encountered the frame rate issues many have, I have run into a myriad of others. Corrupt save games, getting stuck in the clipping when on stations(which is easily the least enjoyable part of the gameplay experience), and buggy missions. Most recently my ship UI just randomly decided to disappear preventing any further progress on that save as I could not use it to issue commands to my trade ship. How a game does not have an autosave feature in 2013 continues to baffle me.

    As many have stated, the character animations are atrocious. Conversation options are drab and feel forced. Egosoft's attempt to add immersion only serves to break immersion for me. The copilot(who you're stuck with) drones on with repeated comments that seem to loop every few minutes. I wish I could seal off my half of the cabin and jettison her out the airlock.

    The only redeeming factor is that space is gorgeous and flying itself is a joy once you get used to the keyboard commands(which are very similar to the default key commands from x3tc). Unfortunately the keyboard commands are not mapable(whuuuuut?!)

    Lack of proper joystick support is also inconceivable to me, considering this is a space sim.

    In it's current state, I can only caution potential buyers to keep their wallets put away for now. With a few months of patches and hopefully a release of the modding tools, we may have another great game from Egosoft. As it stands right now, X Rebirth is a steaming pile of dung.
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  17. Nov 16, 2013
    5
    I was hoping for X Rebirth to tide me over until Star Citizen gets released...

    It looks like this game will be fixed by the time Star Citizen is released in its current state, so I just wasted time and money.

    No external view, crowded view, UI and horrible performance issues piece of game
  18. Nov 16, 2013
    1
    Played for only 4 Hours, Cannot do anything else because of the amount of bugs in this game. At first I really enjoyed it, now I hate it and ask myself why I wasted $50.00 on this unfinished game.

    Lets start with everything being copy and pasted, every space station is the same, you go into your ships and you can't walk through them you can only stay in the hangar this was one feature
    Played for only 4 Hours, Cannot do anything else because of the amount of bugs in this game. At first I really enjoyed it, now I hate it and ask myself why I wasted $50.00 on this unfinished game.

    Lets start with everything being copy and pasted, every space station is the same, you go into your ships and you can't walk through them you can only stay in the hangar this was one feature I was really excited for) The squad system doesn't work, my main cargo ship will not leave the stupid space station and has now broken the game as I can no longer progress.

    The AI is retarded, I'd have a better conversation with a wall, hell the wall would have a better personality, these AI are stupid as hell. And why the hell is every single human, a bald old grandma??

    7 years in the making my ass, this is a terrible game, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I also want a refund but doubt that will happen. This game had so much promise, and unless the devs update the out of it, I wont be playing again.
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  19. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    Worst game ever.. 40 spent for nothing.. I hope it will be better with graphics enhancements, now it goes very slow even with a powerful computer videocard.
    I've never bought a X series game, i've only tried this and for me is all. Finish.
  20. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    Has the joke "X rebirth defect" been taken?

    constant crashing!

    i should have waited for the reviews first, but got drawn in by developer BS

    10 out of 10 difficulty to learn!

    Sloppy controls!

    cannot roam about the ship as promised!

    cant dock with ship!

    sloppy animation, people are wooden!

    $50 down the crapper!

    BOTTOM LINE, THIS GAME IS NOT READY!
  21. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    I have too many negative things to say about this game to be honest. Lets start with the actual concepts and mechanics in the game(the ones that atleast work). So a few years back i wrote plenty of suggestions in the Rebirth forum about this game. One suggestion I made was even featured in an interview with Bernd. This was essentially what I had asked about. "Will there be anyI have too many negative things to say about this game to be honest. Lets start with the actual concepts and mechanics in the game(the ones that atleast work). So a few years back i wrote plenty of suggestions in the Rebirth forum about this game. One suggestion I made was even featured in an interview with Bernd. This was essentially what I had asked about. "Will there be any functionality or ways to have the player build his/her own empire like fleets/ stations and essentially almost have a player controlled faction?" Bernd had replied yes that there will be large fleets the player can create and he can also customize each ship and station.

    Well guess what? I cant even tell 1 ship to go buy something. The features that the dev had said himself would be in this game are non existent. Now thats fine, just give me an expanded version of Terran Conflict so I can make lemonade out of lemons.

    Too bad thats gone too, This is an entirely different game folks, Your stuck with a ship that has the most pathetic name of all time and you can pick 1 out of 4 weapons to fire away with. You also cant have a ship patrol an area, it can only follow you or go mine some rocks. As for stations, well now you have to work extra hard to find a trader or an officer or someone who sells a specific drone. I don't bother with looking at ship types, because they all look the same to me. The plot is boring, broken and hasn't remotely interested me since i saw the first databurst in the game explaining the setting and whats changed. Lets not forget the amount of bugs and performance issues i have on high end custom built PC. I had better performance playing Rome 2 maxxed out on release day than this game. This is not XRebirth, nor will it ever be. Its also not a rebirth, its the final nail in the coffin of this series.
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  22. Nov 16, 2013
    1
    Before I begin, permit me to clarify where I stand on X games: though I owned and played a small amount of X3 and its expansions, I have never really been an X series gamer, as I've never been able to really 'get into' the games due to their lack of new-player support, steep learning curves and sub-optimal UIs. I did, however, appreciate the great depth, level of control and complexity ofBefore I begin, permit me to clarify where I stand on X games: though I owned and played a small amount of X3 and its expansions, I have never really been an X series gamer, as I've never been able to really 'get into' the games due to their lack of new-player support, steep learning curves and sub-optimal UIs. I did, however, appreciate the great depth, level of control and complexity of X3's universe, surely the selling points of the X brand. I write with 8 hours of gameplay experience so far; I have been very patient with using the functions to see how their usage unfolds.

    X Rebirth set out with numerous objectives. First and foremost, to revitalise the X series with a new, modern version of the game that built on the existing success with new graphics, better accessibility and general additions and enhancements to the gameplay. Sadly, they have failed on all of these counts save two: the game is, indeed, beautiful, and it is more accessible. Alarm bells should no doubt have been ringing when the download size for this game was smaller than Albion Prelude's size alone, despite having newer, larger art resources for the better graphics...

    Sadly, the price that has apparently been paid for a marginally better campaign and tutorial (and I do mean marginally) is the actual flesh and bones of the X series.

    Let's start with the most obvious restriction in game functionality: ships and piloting. Its predecessor, X3, allowed you to pilot any ship from a small fighter up to a huge naval battlecarrier. In contrast X Rebirth has fallen to new lows you have one 'special' starter ship, and this is all you can and will ever be able to pilot, DLC plans notwithstanding. Every other ship you own is limited solely to being given orders over a clunky wheel-menu that seems almost like it was designed for a console controller. There is an 'order queuing' system, yes, but there is no menu for visualising and controlling the orders of your fleets, so it's your best guess from what you've assigned them with your wheel menu.

    Of course you have a 3D If only having 1 possible ship is the price that must be paid for a 3D then I don't personally think it was worth it particularly as you cannot even free-look around this (let alone walk around it) outside of the entering-ship animation... This is a double insult to the notion of having a 3D as not only does it mean it's largely a gimmick, but in space combat (and in general) you cannot look in a different direction without turning your entire ship. And you need to, because your art restricts your field of view.

    On the topic of the come the menus. Sadly, these have achieved something thought previously impossible: they are actually more clunky and harder to use than even X3's menus were. And even if the menus weren't painful to navigate due to the need to use console/gamepad-esque forward and back buttons to navigate, they're built into swinging your entire camera around to a pretty, but time-wasting 'centre console' in your 3D which means you cannot quickly check and close the menus or your map (as there is no minimap and no radar anymore...), but rather have to spend what seems like an eternity either way, as your ship auto-stops, to check your flashy centre console.

    SETA is gone and we're told by a developer today that we don't need it, due to the built-in magical boost ability (that only your one pilotable ship has) and the new hyperspace highways. This is not the case, because guess what your one pilotable ship has *no cargo capacity*, and cannot be upgraded to have any. All trading is performed by separately owned freighters, which have to crawl to where you have just tried to directly by goods in order to process the transaction which means waits of 20 minutes and more, regardless of highways with no time compression. By the way, there's no autopilot, and the 'highways' function much like the old gates, connecting 'zones' which are practically small sectors, so you have to actually manually steer your ship changing highways by crossing zones for as many jumps as you need to make to get to your destination.

    It's quite hard to phrase just what has been lost in terms of ship variety and control, and the lack of proper in-game menus to control the potential complexity of the game. In return, we've got the ability to get out and 'walk around' in stations and ships which are, as it turns out, copy-and-paste clones of each other, with identical-looking NPCs sitting or standing in exactly the same room and positions on every station, abysmally voice-acted and with no real dialogue. The interior of every freighter and capital ship is equally an identical copy-paste SMALL 'cargo bay' no fancy corridors or bridges, guys.

    It has to be asked if they sacrificed so much control and detail to free up resources to make gimmicks like the and so-called 'interiors', why are these so poor?
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  23. Nov 16, 2013
    0
    needs more optimization Indoor spaceship looks horrible doesn't free look when you are in the pit wtf horrible controls Do not waste your money pls
  24. Nov 16, 2013
    2
    To start this is a title that was intended on bringing new life to the community for which I was a part of since 2003. X was a very hard game to play and took many months to master. X Rebirth was promised to fix this by creating a X for dummies which intended on adding features like first person on bases and an easier GUI for the player and easier control for your owned assets.
    instead
    To start this is a title that was intended on bringing new life to the community for which I was a part of since 2003. X was a very hard game to play and took many months to master. X Rebirth was promised to fix this by creating a X for dummies which intended on adding features like first person on bases and an easier GUI for the player and easier control for your owned assets.
    instead its a mixture of horrible bugs, unplayable storyline, and impossible sandbox mode. I bought this game on Steam based on the 10 years of great community history with the company and overall satisfaction with the previous version.
    I gave this game 20 hours of wanting to really like it. It has bugs from factions, to graphic issues to crashes with most of the video settings. Its far short of easy to play, even for the season players because they changed everything behind the mechanics of the game.
    If you like looting on bases and picking u crates and opening lockers then you might like this game.
    Today on the forums they are asking the community which bugs they should address first.
    sad fact is all the new players drawing to X by pre-purchasing Rebirth are left unhappy and asking for refunds (of which they will never see). I deleted my account on their forums and this puts an end to any support I ever had for this company in the 10 years of support they got from me.. including beta testing.
    I would not buy this product for least a year based on my experience with other X titles.
    Game over for me Ego.. Sorrry. You made me look like an idiot recommending this game to my friends and ripped me off 50 bucks for trusting you.
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  25. 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
  26. Nov 16, 2013
    2
    I have played all the X games, and love how deep they are. Building galactic empires, engaging in huge trades, dog fights, capital fleet fights. It is all wonderful (and the graphics were good for the time when they came out).

    I have a Gaming PC which plays BF4 without a hitch, but this game kills my system with graphics not on the same tier as BF. Now, I can't really say too much
    I have played all the X games, and love how deep they are. Building galactic empires, engaging in huge trades, dog fights, capital fleet fights. It is all wonderful (and the graphics were good for the time when they came out).

    I have a Gaming PC which plays BF4 without a hitch, but this game kills my system with graphics not on the same tier as BF.

    Now, I can't really say too much about the gameplay as I can't play for long with 20fps but here are my first thoughts:
    - cool I can walk in stations, but it seems more like a chore and it's not very alive. I was hoping for a mass effect atmosphere.
    - the stations do look awesome and are huge.
    - The UI stinks. But the UI typically does in all x games. I found it difficult to navigate the maps though, and that was one thing which was easy in x3.
    - Hiring crew is cool.
    - ONLY ONE SHIP?!?! X has always lured me in by allowing me to try all the different ships, have a bunch parked at my HQ and get to have completely different game experiences based on which ship I'm in.
    - The highway system is stupid. Ill take Seta and jumpdrive thanks.

    But alas, maybe if I could properly enjoy the game without the eyestrain I could understand the dramatic changes in design. I have been waiting years for this game, this is the most disappointed about a game release since Dragon Age 2.
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  27. Nov 16, 2013
    5
    There's alot of release bugs right now. I would seriously hold off buying until the majority of them are sorted out. Egosoft is notorious for fixing bugs, so wait a while and check on people's impressions then.
  28. Nov 16, 2013
    3
    It's not the perfect game i hoped, at least not right now, but it's good nevertheless.

    I know they will listen to their customers, and i also put faith in the modding community so i can accommodate this game to my personal taste, put so far it's "good". The thing that is bugging me a little is that they insisted very much in the "immersion" but that part, the crew management, walking
    It's not the perfect game i hoped, at least not right now, but it's good nevertheless.

    I know they will listen to their customers, and i also put faith in the modding community so i can accommodate this game to my personal taste, put so far it's "good".

    The thing that is bugging me a little is that they insisted very much in the "immersion" but that part, the crew management, walking in the stations, talking with pnj, that part was really poorly executed boring for me, way too repetitive, and the voice actor...

    The flying part is very enjoyable.

    I can't recommend to buy this game full price if you are not a "fan", but i don't feel robbed so far because after some hours, i know i have only scratched the surface.
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  29. Nov 16, 2013
    8
    Purchased the game on launch day and couldn't help but read the negative barrage on here and the Steam forums. Eager to form my own opinion I have put in about 6 hours so far.

    Are there bugs? Yep a few...while I haven't had a CTD I have had a case where game wouldn't accept any commands and I was stuck in between options and forced to restart the game. Frame rate was addressed in one
    Purchased the game on launch day and couldn't help but read the negative barrage on here and the Steam forums. Eager to form my own opinion I have put in about 6 hours so far.

    Are there bugs? Yep a few...while I haven't had a CTD I have had a case where game wouldn't accept any commands and I was stuck in between options and forced to restart the game.

    Frame rate was addressed in one of hte two patches as with both of my gaming rigs (i5 with 660TI SLI and i5 with 7970) I dont dip below 35 FPS with all options cranked.

    Game is definitely a departure from previous X Titles. So far I like it...are the NPC models as bad as people have made out? Yes...they are dire...outdone in levels of direness only by the horrible give your co workers a voice over gig voice overs :(

    HOWEVER, the sandbox feeling is intact...the graphics when in your and flying around which let's face it will be the majority of time are excellent. Controls are straightforward with my XBOX controller and I have been able to start without much trouble unlike in previous X entries.

    While it isn't likely much can be done about the voice overs (I just use subs and have voice volume off) I am confident they can address most of the other issues.

    Going to go back in game now...my personal experience scoring below:

    Gameplay 8/10
    Graphics 7/10
    Controls 9/10
    Sandbox rating 10/10
    Audio 5/10

    Overall rating 8/10
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  30. Nov 16, 2013
    8
    to the contrary of most players i do enjoy this game. 20 hours in now. Yes there is a few annoying bugs, but why did some games like say Skyrim which was released with many bugs too didn't get this treatment? Yes some features are rough like the NPC and walking around, it isn't perfect but it isn't broken either. Old X players seemed to enjoy playing menus and spreadsheets. I did not. Theto the contrary of most players i do enjoy this game. 20 hours in now. Yes there is a few annoying bugs, but why did some games like say Skyrim which was released with many bugs too didn't get this treatment? Yes some features are rough like the NPC and walking around, it isn't perfect but it isn't broken either. Old X players seemed to enjoy playing menus and spreadsheets. I did not. The only thing i really really miss is the map and gravidar/radar from AP. We could use the ability to remap keys, not that the default controls are not useable but without it it looks like a bad console port. The graphics are very nice if you got a good machine. Don't expect a good gameplay from a laptop. Get quad-core CPUs, 8gb ddr3 ram, nvidia 600 or higher video card and SSD drive. You can get all that for the price of a PS4!!!
    the story is fun and the game does a good job to get you in and teach you the basics. Do not listen to nay sayers, give it a try and see for yourself! Sorry for my bad english.
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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. 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.
  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. 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]