X4: Foundations

 PC
  • Publisher: Egosoft
  • Release Date: Nov 30, 2018
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 155 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 155
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 155
  3. Negative: 52 out of 155

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. GroXWaR
    Dec 2, 2018
    4
    Let the beta test begin. I bought a collector's edition in steam. I'm disappointed. This is better than Xrebirth, but it's a **** beta test, though called a release.
  2. iHover
    Nov 30, 2018
    1
    Another buggy mess from ego. This game is not in a release state, beta at best. One would think that the company would have learned something from rebirths launch but I guess not. If your looking at this game save your self some frustration and come back in a year when they have it in a playable state.
  3. Hersir
    Nov 30, 2018
    3
    TL;DR: Don't bother and forget this game for a couple of years, because only after such a long time this crappy MESS of a game may probably become worthwile (same as with X Rebirth).

    For those that want details why it's bad: 1) Optimization and performance are unacceptable. I run the game on overclocked Ryzen 1700X, overclocked GTX 1080 Ti, fast DDR4 RAM and from an M.2 SSD. FPS    TL;DR: Don't bother and forget this game for a couple of years, because only after such a long time this crappy MESS of a game may probably become worthwile (same as with X Rebirth).

    For those that want details why it's bad:

    1) Optimization and performance are unacceptable. I run the game on overclocked Ryzen 1700X, overclocked GTX 1080 Ti, fast DDR4 RAM and from an M.2 SSD. FPS drops around busy hubs are MASSIVE - sometimes it drops to 20 FPS while the CPU and GPU aren't even loaded beyond 50% mark. Vsync is broken no matter what options I choose in the game or Nvidia control panel - I often become capped at 60 FPS while my display refresh rate is actually 100 Hz.

    2) The game may crash if you're simply changing gfx settings or saving your progress! In a brief two hours of testing the game I've already encountered some bugs: when jumping through superhighway I got carried thousands of kilometers away from the exit point into empty space. Or I've seen AI ships, especially medium-sized like freighters, ramming stations without any damage and then slowly clipping through them. Or you can't load your savegames from menu after the game has crashed, you actually have to start a new game first and then your savegames show up. I'm pretty sure the game has much more bugs.

    3) The anti-aliasing options in the game are inadequate. SSAA in 2019, seriously? The devs were high on pot? Nowadays something like TXAA + post-process AA options are an industry standard. The FXAA has terrible quality and SSAA/MSAA have unacceptable performance impact which worsenses the already bad performance of the game. As a result X4 looks like an ugly pixelated jagged edges mess on my 27'' 1440p display.

    4) This game mechanics-wise is much closer to the stillborn X Rebirth rather than kosher/halal X3 series. Why spend so much time for developing all those station hangars, landing pads and decks which you can traverse on foot and interact with computer panels or randomized NPCs? It's still generic as hell, it's a waste of playtime, disk space, RAM and computing power that contributes to performance drops around those hangars. The X3 was amazing without this stupid attempt to be a Star Citizen jack of all trades game. A freaking station menu with animated backgrounds for hangar, bar, station administration and etc. like in Freelancer or Galaxy On Fire 2 would have been a much better solution from the standpoint of development time, performance and gameplay! We want a space game, not a "Space Hangar Simulator 2018" yet another crazy German sim. The highways and superhighways have returned and I also think they're a pretty questionable mechanic. The "mass traffic" around certain big stations is also back and says hello to lags and useless screen clutter. Speaking about screen clutter, the interface is on the same level of confusion as X Rebirth.

    5) So far there is no campaign. Like at all. So it seems because we get no cutscenes establishing any plotline set-ups and missions. Pretty much like it was in X-Tension (the first X game I ever played). That makes matters even worse because campaign is needed for two things: to ground and immerse us into the universe through characters and their interactions (X2 - The Threat, X3 - Reunion and X Rebirth tried to do that with varying success); and to gradually guide players through core mechanics of the game by giving them corresponding tasks and teaching how to do them, preferably in the immersive fashion without breaking the fourth wall. Now let's remember that sometimes games tell us thrilling stories that touch our hearts and/or minds (I'm pretty sure that Helge T. Kautz who writes the X books and seems to have created most of the X lore could have written some amazing plot stuff for this game). But no, there's zero, nada, nothing of that here, just a pure messy sandbox you're being thrown into. Which logically brings us to the next problem.

    6) Tutorials in this game are simple text messages. This is literally the most lazy and unconvenient way to make a tutorial for such a complex game.

    So far I would give it a 3/10 but the score may improve after patching.    … Expand
  4. iYiaz
    Aug 30, 2020
    0
    This game is unfinished and instead of fixing it, or making it at least decent, Egosoft releases paid DLCs.
  5. jeffkren
    Feb 22, 2023
    0
    Still closer to a real game than Elite, still just as unfinished but these production values are so much worse... voice's, sound's and animations are totally pre-2000 era, first time playing is version 3.30 only had one bug while doing the main story's and it was fixed by a reload of save. AI sucks at everything and turrets are completely retarded, most of the problems can be solved withStill closer to a real game than Elite, still just as unfinished but these production values are so much worse... voice's, sound's and animations are totally pre-2000 era, first time playing is version 3.30 only had one bug while doing the main story's and it was fixed by a reload of save. AI sucks at everything and turrets are completely retarded, most of the problems can be solved with mods and manually turning FF rate way down so you can let your turrets be themselves and not rage quit after pissing off a whole system over 1 enemy fighter. Station building tool gets a 0/10.

    After trying another playthrough I give them -2, AI only knows the logic you give it and you didnt give it any. Attacking with groups of ships has forced me to stop, there isnt enough gold stars in the world to save these idiots. 20 ships to attack 2 fly in and get destroyed while the others fly the opposite direction then break apart while trying to actually fly to the target like the first 2. Its gets worse, trying to command a fleet is even more pointless they just idle off and wander around then come flying in and do it all over again.. That's just combat, doing any other task they manage to **** up just as bad most times. Don't listen to any of the bootlickers this game is completely lacking logic.

    5.1 trial, don't waste your time pure vanilla or fully modded its still a broken pathetic joke, the way 6.0 ran you should be ashamed of yourself if you think this game isn't in dire need of major fixing. It's so messed up the base code in the engine has to be wrong or something, up 10m on plane from your enemy? you may as well be in another galaxy, same goes when trying to use even 5 star AI pilots to attack anything, just order them to kill themselves and save yourself the trouble.    … Expand
  6. gcDog
    Mar 26, 2021
    1
    X4 Foundations is basically a whopping, time-sucking piece of crap. But dang if it ain't the prettiest turd in the bowl of bad games out there... Harsh you say? Yeah Its called being honest and I do it to protect other consumers from having their money swindled from themselves. Don't waste your money on this one...Not yet, anyway. Here's my breakdown:

    1) Poor functional / AI    X4 Foundations is basically a whopping, time-sucking piece of crap. But dang if it ain't the prettiest turd in the bowl of bad games out there... Harsh you say? Yeah Its called being honest and I do it to protect other consumers from having their money swindled from themselves. Don't waste your money on this one...Not yet, anyway. Here's my breakdown:

    1) Poor functional / AI design.
    While the concept and the eye-candy scenarios of space sim is appealing, Egosoft's team of amateur developers has fallen short in the common sense department dept. I suspect that they don't understand the tools they are working with. Object clipping seems to be a prevalent issue. Good Gawd! Don't even get me started on their idea of AI. (The word: 'retarded' stands at the forefront)

    Example 1: Expect your new pilots (on S ships) to get stuck inside the hulls and skins of your capital
    (L, XL) ships...and even some stations. This is definitely a way to kill the momentum of the game play. As of this writing, Egosoft has NOT provided an answer to this problem yet.

    Example 2: Pilot ranking is useless... 5 star pilots (the highest available rank) on capitol ships are still incredibly stupid; During attacks on larger targets, they will lead their entire squadron into eminent death. Egosoft will never admit their own design flaw surrounding this. Simply put; they don't know how to make the AI "stupid-proof" yet.

    Example 3: During heavy ship traffic or environmental obstacle fields (i.e. asteroids, jump-gate bottlenecks) Player ship's Auto-Pilot Fails so epically, that during such events, Egosoft actually added an onboard voice, citing : "auto-pilot epically failed". (Total BS... to excuse the fact that the developers haven't actually been able to correct the AI's mis-manipulation of player's ship object in the game level.

    Example 4: Unexplained loss of reputation. This is by far the most retarded aspect of the game. Out of nowhere, the player gets dinged points, for " unauthorised attacks" on an ally. WTF! The does not provide any way to identify the cause, or location on the map. (BTW, the logs also suck)

    2) Poor game balance.
    - As stated before, Pilot Rankings are useless. Rank comes by way of gifting seminars to pilots. But, why offer seminar-gifting as a reward for mission success/ performance, if such awards are ultimately useless? (And yes, they are useless) . BTW - Still cant figure out how to train Marines efficiently.

    - Economy... Markets are ridiculous... Too many wares NOT available through station traders . Joining Factions gives you access to that faction's ship and station technologies . Nothing offered with any distinct edge or extraordinary advantage . Joining a faction just ensures trade opportunities... Until they become your enemy through "unauthorised attacks" on them.

    - Crafting: Boring and Pointless! Does not add any value, whatsoever to the game... save for a very few missions which stipulate the tedious process. Way to kill the spirit of adventure in the game... Fish & Chips anyone?

    3) Crappy or non existent support. Egosoft Forum Moderators would like us to believe that part of the gist and adventure of the game is to 'figure it out for yourselves'. Could there be a lamer insult to the intelligence of players? The real reason the support lacks so patently is because Egosoft hasn't bothered to compile a proper game manual. The reason they wont compile the manual is because they haven't quite defined the game. I suspect they have nary a real direction to take the game. Thus, This game can be likened to that of spaghetti... ( Throw some against the wall to see if it sticks... If it does...then release it ) …

    Speaking of Egosoft forum Moderators... Some are total and unequivocal jerks. (They cant take criticism, never been in charge of anything in their lives and gratuitously indulge themselves on censoring negative opinions about the game... )

    Conclusion:
    The game 'could be great' but for the lack of direction in its efficacy. As such I feel the game was / is not ready for release... Maybe in 2024 ... I'll check back then...    … Expand
  7. ua_svs
    Apr 19, 2021
    1
    After 3 years and 2 DLCs the game is still broken and it looks like nobody try to fix it...
  8. rayman2200
    Jun 14, 2020
    0
    Excuse me for the wording, but this game is just a peace of sh**.

    I'm playing it since the release and the quality that egosoft deliver with the x2 and x3 universe is gone since X Rebirth. Don't know what's going wrong with egosoft, but this is another garbage they delivered. I'm doing the second run with the game since split vendeta and choose the split campagne. It starts instantly    Excuse me for the wording, but this game is just a peace of sh**.

    I'm playing it since the release and the quality that egosoft deliver with the x2 and x3 universe is gone since X Rebirth. Don't know what's going wrong with egosoft, but this is another garbage they delivered.

    I'm doing the second run with the game since split vendeta and choose the split campagne. It starts instantly with a war between the Argon and Zyarth Patriarchy. It was brisk, because my last run was a peaceful one. Now i start the first time using mechanics like boarding ships, make large scale fights, commanding fleets and most time just defending the other factions, because the xenon are so aggressive and strong and killing one sector by another.

    The first thing I need to handle is, that I need at least 5 Behemoth to kill a Xenon Branch K without losing a ship in a OoS (out of sector) fight. For people that does not know the game. The Xenon are a AI Faction that is the main threat in the X Universe. And the Behemoth and the Branch K are both Destroyer, One of the larger ships. Normaly looking at the stats 2-3 Behemoth would kill easy a nearly equal Branch K ship. But hey we are playing X4 Foundations, where the AI of the Xenon is so good, that my stupic Behemoths can't handle it. I also discovered on Youtube that most of the let's players have luck and they game is bugged, so the xenon does not shot back.

    Another big problem is the complicated UI. Most parts aren't self explained and mostly unlogic. The logistic overview of the own factories are a pain. Build factories are a pain. All the game mechanic. I can't understand why this game is getting a good score.

    I have played 400 h and the games just getting on my nerves. There is not an hour of gameplay without rage quieting.

    Look at the technical support forum (google: x4 foundations technical support) . Each bigger update break the game more and more. The big era of egosoft has finally end. Please can someone make a similar and just working game?    … Expand
  9. HuffingJenkem
    Jun 11, 2022
    1
    TL;DR - still feels like a shoddy, unfinished beta 4 years after release, and the devs are more interested in selling DLC than fixing it.

    I've been playing this series since X2, and apart from X:Rebirth this is by far the most disappointing of them, and probably the iteration in the worst state after a few years. Unfortunately Egosoft have repeatedly shown that they're more interested    TL;DR - still feels like a shoddy, unfinished beta 4 years after release, and the devs are more interested in selling DLC than fixing it.

    I've been playing this series since X2, and apart from X:Rebirth this is by far the most disappointing of them, and probably the iteration in the worst state after a few years. Unfortunately Egosoft have repeatedly shown that they're more interested in churning out DLC after DLC in a cash grab rather than fixing basic, fundamental issues with the game.

    Performance is terrible, and hasn't seen much if any of an improvement since the initial release. There's no real multithreading optimisation to take advantage of modern CPUs and simply rendering a ship in the custom start menus pushes my 3070 Ti to the point where it's a viable replacement for central heating in winter.

    User experience is just as bad, it's as if they sat down and had long, involved meetings about how they could make the worst, most needlessly frustrating interface and user experience possible. It's a micromanagement clickfest hell, not helped by AI that's still substandard years and several major patches after launch. Mods can help ameliorate this but they shouldn't be needed for such a basic thing. As with performance, Egosoft seem to be more interested in developing new content than fixing.

    Station design now has it's own interface, but it's clunky, frustrating and filled with baffling interface decisions so bad that they again make you wonder if they actually made a deliberate effort to create the worst user experience possible.

    Where they have spent significant time and effort is on the utterly pointless gimmick of allowing players to walk around stations and large ships. There's no actual gameplay or risk involved in the walkarounds, it's incredibly janky, the models and animations are terrible and there's nothing that couldn't be done via menus with less player time wasted. It's a pointless indulgence that seems to have consumed far too much of the budget, as well as requiring the removal of an entire species because they couldn't manage the water effects necessary for an aquatic race. To re-emphasise, this "feature" adds absolutely no gameplay at all, forces the player to waste time walking about poorly designed interiors that wouldn't be out of place in a 2010 FPS and has actually resulted in the removal of content from previous games.    … Expand
  10. tztguziuoipp
    Dec 2, 2018
    2
    The more you play, the worse it gets.

    I could list all the errors, bugs, unfinished, not thought-through and tedious things this game has to offer but why repeat a buglist. This game is full of placeholders and unfinished, hastily half-assed implemented features. At first you are in awe of the beatiful galaxy, the nice ships and how alive it all is (it really is!). But the more you    The more you play, the worse it gets.

    I could list all the errors, bugs, unfinished, not thought-through and tedious things this game has to offer but why repeat a buglist.
    This game is full of placeholders and unfinished, hastily half-assed implemented features. At first you are in awe of the beatiful galaxy, the nice ships and how alive it all is (it really is!).
    But the more you play the more tedious it gets to manage stuff, to control stuff, to get things done. The more you notice how almost all of the features are either barebones or just placeholders.
    - The main plot ends abruptly and it ~2h "long".
    - The research function.
    - Encyclopedia is almost empty with things having "No Description" placeholders.
    - A lot of ship/station
    -functions dont work. They just dont work.
    - It all boils down to:
    - No manual.
    - No documentation regarding ship/station/crew/weapons/... functions. You have to guess what stats do, how one weapon is better than the other etc. .
    - No explanation, no reference to look up to what icons mean, what they do. Example: turret settings. You can click 5 different settings, it states nowhere what they do, how they affect behavior.

    I could go on and on but I guess you see the general direction.
    This game is no where near finished. In fact it is so rushed that there is no ressource to tell players how to play this game. And btw. , I have ~800h in X3 TC/AP and about 40h in Rebirth, so I am very familiar with the X-Games.    … Expand
  11. gdog
    Dec 3, 2018
    4
    I remember in a previous century when I played the first X game. I thought wouldn't it be great if the game interface could be integrated into the cockpit. A big ask back in 1999 but today it is implemented for the most part in Elite, while games like DCS have fully integrated information systems. So I had high hopes for X4. Alas in this area X4 has barley evolved at all. Whilst theI remember in a previous century when I played the first X game. I thought wouldn't it be great if the game interface could be integrated into the cockpit. A big ask back in 1999 but today it is implemented for the most part in Elite, while games like DCS have fully integrated information systems. So I had high hopes for X4. Alas in this area X4 has barley evolved at all. Whilst the cockpit is full 3d with big monitors, those monitors just show gibberish. Information is presented to the player as floating screens, and it is the minimum of information. For anything more detailed it's use the mouse to access menus at the top of the screen. These menus require constant use so you are forever having to stop flying to access them. It is only one aspect of the game but shows either a severe limitation of the dated game engine or a series of poor design choices.
    Another thing I like to see in space games is a touch of reality. I want to feel I am flying an actual ship. Unfortunately there is no organic feeling to flight, it feels like a poor simulation, roll in particular has no acceleration. As soon as you press the key to roll, the ship is rolling at its maximum rate and stops just as abruptly. The controls add to this artificial feel. HOTAS is almost a no go, requiring lengthy setting up that in my case ended in failure. I can map everything but some axes are reversed, with no option to correct them. Except for the throttle, but reversing it just cause it to stop working altogether. It is clear ego are tied to the mouse/keyboard method and are finding it hard to properly implement a control method the game so badly needs.
    Graphically the game looks quite good. There are areas that I hope will change and knowing the unoptimized buggy mess ego likes to release its games in maybe they will. After all they clearly stick with a game long term. For this reason I wont bother mentioning the bugs, stutters and crashes I have experienced, because they were not a disaster. I wont praise ego for it either like some fanboys seem to think is appropriate. There is a bare minimum quality a game should have for full release that ego clearly struggles with. If only there was a system of beta testing or early access they could make use of.
    When at a station I have to travel very slowly so as to avoid a collision and to play their silly landing mini game. So it is annoying to see ships moving around, landing and taking off at high speed. Just slow things down to a sedate and realistic pace. Yes I said I like realism, so why is it I can only boost for a short period before I am out of energy, but in travel mode I can travel even faster indefinitely? What's the deal with the scan modes? Why do I need to be within a few 10s of meters of a station to scan it when I can scan many km of space? Why do I have to play the silly scan mini game and then have to use the awkward menu system to access the map to see what the scan turned up? Why not just let me scan from the map screen?
    I could go on complaining about all the things that annoyed me, but I know many of them are things that many wont care about. Like the asteroids that are stationary in space in defiance of the gravitational forces they must be under. As too are the mysterious clouds that pop up. I am sure there is something about a vacuum in space, and don't talk to me about nebula. Those are large scale gravitationally bound objects.
    So can I say anything positive? I liked the mostly seamless transitions. This too was something I fantasised about all those years ago, and blow me away ego only gone and did it. It is not perfect but pretty good all the same. I said almost seamless as going from ship to space and back in suit is not. I loved that aspect too. Its a little to difficult to control the guy in space but inching your way along the hull of an abandoned ship to access the airlock was a joy for me. If it was not for the silly method of floating toward a glowing hissing signal that instantly allows you to take control of the ship, via the awful menu system of course. Why not have the ability to hack the ship from yours or even via a terminal you plug into the derelict as I once saw on Firefly.
    From the little combat I have done it appears to be just point your mouse at the opponent and press fire. Not great but passable. Trade I have done none, every station I went to had prices above the average and I feel I would need to explore extensively before I could know where to buy and sell. I expect the economy to be as robust as in previous titles.
    Overall I feel the game is average. Its UI is pathetic, its controls barely acceptable, its graphics are good but not elite level good, good too are many new features. Unfortunately there is a problem with egos design team, silly mini games and immersion breaking design choices hamper this title. And whoever is responsible for the feel of the ships as they respond to your inputs needs his p45.
    I cant wait for X5 though.    … Expand
  12. EL_CEPHY
    Dec 7, 2018
    3
    So i put exactly 1.2 hours into the game...first 20 minutes i spent remapping all the controls because they were garbage. Then first time trying to dock i missed the landing platform subsequently hitting the side of the station which i then got stuck inside, after 20 minutes of struggle I restarted the game. Second run managed to dock except i now got stuck in the elevator, meaning i amSo i put exactly 1.2 hours into the game...first 20 minutes i spent remapping all the controls because they were garbage. Then first time trying to dock i missed the landing platform subsequently hitting the side of the station which i then got stuck inside, after 20 minutes of struggle I restarted the game. Second run managed to dock except i now got stuck in the elevator, meaning i am knee deep into the floor and cant get out. After 5 minutes of struggle in the elevator I restarted the game. For my third run at the game i decided to jump to another system after flying around for a bit, shooting things and just looking at the really nice graphics and STAYING AWAY FROM OBJECTS. I took another jump, except this time the game launched me thousands of kilometers away from everything, i could not steer my ship, what sorcery is this??!!! At this point I realized i had made a grave mistake, thankfully steam has a great refund policy. :)… Expand
  13. Zayetto
    Dec 6, 2018
    4
    sadly, it is in the state of an early access game, not a finished release. See with the future updates but for now is not worth the money and the time
  14. l3anyan
    Dec 8, 2018
    4
    X4: Foundations??? I think if we're honest here we'll admit that if this is a foundation for anything it's mediocrity. I want to love the game... But, Egosoft really needs to hire some more people to smooth the many really rough edges in their games. X4 feels, to me, like a half-assed, possibly rushed, and scantily realized game that would have had the potential of so much more. All inX4: Foundations??? I think if we're honest here we'll admit that if this is a foundation for anything it's mediocrity. I want to love the game... But, Egosoft really needs to hire some more people to smooth the many really rough edges in their games. X4 feels, to me, like a half-assed, possibly rushed, and scantily realized game that would have had the potential of so much more. All in all, the game has its good points that are plagued with horrendous design. I haven't run into many crashes - mostly glitches and a God awful AI. Additionally there is zero information on items, ships, missions (I took one that said nothing and ended up facing a destroyer in a frigate that wasn't set up to kill larger ships). I'm coming at 60 hours in now, and while I know it can be considered early, this game feels empty and lifeless coupled with a design that feels like a rushed title in 2005. I was wondering why Egosoft consistently releases games in a very handicapped state, and why is it that fans don't lambast them for it? Why is it normal to release an unrealized product? Star Citizen shows that their is a base for this game, or a potential base, and at this point Egosoft are going to have to decide if they want to step up or remain as is pushing out content like this. Bottom line; when I'm hungry I don't pop the bread out of the oven early for instant gratification and often it takes money to make money. Here's to hoping Egosoft one day hires contemporary staff from outside their little bubble in the future. If your game is glitchy, buggy, really rough around the edges, and has a UI that is hardly intuitive keep it in the damn oven until it's done. See, if developers can't coax you to preorder all they need to do now is release an unfinished, unpolished product, and in this case we are paying for an alpha. After all is said and done, if we click our heels enough, we'll have a better functioning lazily developed game.… Expand
  15. toaster389
    Jul 24, 2019
    0
    This game contains less than half the ships, less than a third the factories, 2 less alien races, and about one tenth the number of missions that previous editions had to offer. X3: Albion Prelude came out nearly a decade ago and is more than twice the game that X4: Foundation could ever be.

    It's pathetic that Egosoft released this broken, diminutive game at all. I'm by no means a    This game contains less than half the ships, less than a third the factories, 2 less alien races, and about one tenth the number of missions that previous editions had to offer. X3: Albion Prelude came out nearly a decade ago and is more than twice the game that X4: Foundation could ever be.

    It's pathetic that Egosoft released this broken, diminutive game at all. I'm by no means a long-term fan of Egosoft. I bought all the X3, X2, and X1 games on sale about 3 years ago and pretty much only played X3: Albion prelude the entire time. About one year ago, I decided I'd pay a little more than I'd normally pay for a new game and buy both Rebirth and X4: Foundations. That was the single worst mistake I've ever made since I first made an account on Steam nearly 10 years ago.

    Rebirth wasn't worth so much as $1. X4 foundations wasn't worth so much as a single cent. It's shameful that a developer with such an epic legacy as Egosoft would even release these games, let alone allow them to fester in their unfinished and unplayable state for so long.

    I still haven't figured out how to create a profitable factory in the X4 universe and I've already logged nearly 100 hours into that game. As far as I'm concerned it's nearly 100 hours wasted and I don't plan to log so much as another 10 seconds into that game. I wish I could get a refund and if I had it my way, I'd also get paid $20 an hour for every moment I spent wasting my time trying to justify my purchase of X4 foundations and Rebirth.

    I hope that Egosoft goes under soon and I have to wonder, seriously, whether whoever thought these two games up has suffered a recent traumatic brain injury. That's about the only valid justification I can think of for creating such a horrendous piece of crap when, as a developer, Egosoft has a pretty much flawless legacy of excellence and gameplay of epic proportions.

    It makes me truly sad to post such a withering review of a developer I once held in higher regard than bioware or Square Enix, but I am extremely disappointed by this game and nothing could ever change my mind about that. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was a recent Masterpiece by Square Enix, and that won't ever change. Fallout 4 was equally incredible and that was the work of Ubisoft.

    Unfortunately, it seems like the days of the noble Alternative Developer has come and gone. I hope I'm wrong, I hope that Egosoft pulls through, and I hope that, above all else, X4: foundations rises to the same level as the previous labels of the same series have. But I have very little faith in Egosoft at this point and I highly doubt such a lofty ambition will come to pass.

    If it does, then I apologize for this scathing review. But if I am right, then I'm sorry to say that Egosoft has failed us all. And if we have even the smallest scrap of integrity and hope left for another game so epic as X3: Albion Prelude, then let us pray that Square Enix or Ubisoft will deliver on that and create a game like the X series we know and love, as Egosoft lays dying. Let's hope that some other developer will take up the torch knowing that there is a profit to be made from us fans of old.

    I hope I'm wrong and I hope Egosoft will rise again. But if they don't, please: Square Enix, Ubisoft, and BioWare: Please come up with a game as epic as these other games of old. You won't be disappointed.

    Sincerely: Cameron D. Rothschild, a lifelong fan of Egosoft and the epic games they've managed to develop thus far.

    Even if you can only match the legacy of Fallout: New Vegas with a subtle Egosoft Spin, you'll still outdo Rebirth and Foundations by a dozen lightyears.

    Thanks - Mr. Cameron D. Rothschild    … Expand
  16. AesopMatt
    Dec 6, 2018
    2
    It's too buggy for a 'hardcore' run but you can muddle through restarting and saving. Crashes Constantly.

    Mining drones are necessary for large mining ships. They are fun to watch, but the game doesn't tell you that they're needed to avoid having a 4m credit doorstop.
  17. sixsixfive
    Jun 10, 2019
    1
    Trade - Fight - Build - Think, That's the slogan of the X-Series!

    * Trade, in this game you can't trade because everything is everywhere available. * Fighting is pointless because the stations are nearly indestructible. * Build is another lie since there are not many goods and it doesn't matter where you produce them there are no bonuses in sectors so why should you build 10 stations    Trade - Fight - Build - Think, That's the slogan of the X-Series!

    * Trade, in this game you can't trade because everything is everywhere available.
    * Fighting is pointless because the stations are nearly indestructible.
    * Build is another lie since there are not many goods and it doesn't matter where you produce them there are no bonuses in sectors so why should you build 10 stations if you can build one that produces everything.
    * Think is a good point - I should have done this before I bought the game.    … Expand
  18. Dumdidum
    Dec 1, 2018
    0
    Egosoft should be ashamed of releasing yet another unplayable title. I'm a huge fan of the X series and sunk several thousand hours of gameplay in the previous titles, but I feel utterly disrespected to be treated like a beta-game tester when I purchase a release.

    4 hours into the game I've had 7 crashed to desktop and I have to relog approximately 25 times. Twice because I was stuck    Egosoft should be ashamed of releasing yet another unplayable title. I'm a huge fan of the X series and sunk several thousand hours of gameplay in the previous titles, but I feel utterly disrespected to be treated like a beta-game tester when I purchase a release.

    4 hours into the game I've had 7 crashed to desktop and I have to relog approximately 25 times. Twice because I was stuck and the rest for my UI text keeps disappearing (the game is unplayable when you can't see the names of wares and stats on ships).

    It will probably get better over the next 3 months when Egosoft has fixed the bugs, but right now I feel like I need to bring money to the table to have to right to be a game tester instead of the feeling I should have as a customer.    … Expand
  19. Rudal
    Dec 8, 2018
    4
    I really wanted X4 to be a better game than Rebirth was unfortunately it is not.
    The amount of bugs makes it an early beta game and not a full price release.
    Avoid for now. Maybe in a couple of years and at some discount it will be worth picking up.
  20. guizo666
    Dec 13, 2018
    0
    this is a foocking early access title in disguise. i refunded this crap, maybe i'll buy it again when/if its done and cheaper. such a shame, except the graphics, everything else seems to be a downgrade from albion prelude and i chalenge you to play for one hour and find less than 10 bugs. If you can, i sugest you also REFUND this.
    I remember when beta-testing was a job, i'm not paying to    this is a foocking early access title in disguise. i refunded this crap, maybe i'll buy it again when/if its done and cheaper. such a shame, except the graphics, everything else seems to be a downgrade from albion prelude and i chalenge you to play for one hour and find less than 10 bugs. If you can, i sugest you also REFUND this.
    I remember when beta-testing was a job, i'm not paying to do that for them.    … Expand
  21. MacGregorA
    Dec 4, 2018
    0
    Awful management. Awful NPC behavior. Empty and unnecessary huge stations. Egosoft does not learn from its mistakes
  22. RDR911
    Dec 5, 2018
    1
    There's definitely the core of a game here, but I feel like I paid $60 for a full game, not to be the beta tester of a game. I don't give a crap if they have a habit of releasing broken games, but I didn't really sign up to test a game for 6+ months, I paid for a product that I expect to work.

    The game is missing any form of storyline (unless you could the 20 minute story to get your    There's definitely the core of a game here, but I feel like I paid $60 for a full game, not to be the beta tester of a game. I don't give a crap if they have a habit of releasing broken games, but I didn't really sign up to test a game for 6+ months, I paid for a product that I expect to work.

    The game is missing any form of storyline (unless you could the 20 minute story to get your Player HQ), the AI is braindead, and the UI is basically greek, even with the tutorials. A new player would spend HOURS trying to figure out even the most basic things, as there's no guidance past basic ship control (which means you have no idea how to do mining, trading, or even proper combat. Hell, you have no idea how to UPGRADE ANYTHING)...    … Expand
  23. Dragon420
    Jan 20, 2019
    0
    I noticed a lot of people claiming it just "wasn't ready" to be released, but that's not the case at all. It is indeed a complete, functional game. It's just terrible. In almost every mission, there's absolutely no description of your goals, and if you do happen to figure it out on your own, it's a long, long, long way to where you gotta go. Nothing is straightforward. Nothing. If you haveI noticed a lot of people claiming it just "wasn't ready" to be released, but that's not the case at all. It is indeed a complete, functional game. It's just terrible. In almost every mission, there's absolutely no description of your goals, and if you do happen to figure it out on your own, it's a long, long, long way to where you gotta go. Nothing is straightforward. Nothing. If you have to claim a plot, provided you are gifted enough to figure that part out, you find out very quickly that you don't have everything you need. So, back to the station where you started the game, because that's the only one that has any supplies on it. Now, if you actually did get what you need, back to your plot. Every little thing in the game is like this. Very tedious and very annoying. This game is a whiny 3 year-old child that always starts screaming whenever you try to do something.… Expand
  24. marc5477
    Dec 16, 2018
    3
    This is 3 steps backs compared to x3. Graphics are actually worse, economy simulation is worse, combat is A LOT worse.

    Graphics: Cartoony and ship designs are generic and lack detail. X3 ships were significantly better looking and more varied. They also cut a lot of ships. Stations are also uninspiring. You can roam around interiors now but it adds nothing to the game since NPC's are    This is 3 steps backs compared to x3. Graphics are actually worse, economy simulation is worse, combat is A LOT worse.

    Graphics: Cartoony and ship designs are generic and lack detail. X3 ships were significantly better looking and more varied. They also cut a lot of ships. Stations are also uninspiring. You can roam around interiors now but it adds nothing to the game since NPC's are lifeless and stations look basically the same.

    Combat: Wow... boring compared to what we had in X3. They removed a lot of weapons and missiles making all ships behave almost the same. Ships have fewer weapon slots. Capital ship turrents currently dont work but even if they did, there is no point since capital ships are extremely weak. A single small fighter can take out a capital ship. A lot of stations cannot be destroyed (they just magically regenerate), it seems you cannot invade and clear Xenon territory (not sure about Khaak). No new enemies, just the same old stuff we had before. Plot remains horrible like the old games. Fleet management is currently a mess since AI combat is terrible. Finding enemies early game is a chore making the game somewhat boring. I am sure I missed a lot more but suffice it to say, this is much worse than X3. Some stuff can be fixed by balancing but its clear they didnt not play test this game much nor cared about balance.

    Economy: Trading is very buggy and creating simple loops is much harder than old games which were not exactly easy for newbies to begin with. Stations make insane profit. Simple missions like repairing a satellite pays enough to buy a good fighter... Ships are so cheap that buying them is trivial, even capital ships are about 20x cheaper than old games and can be had in a few hours of game play though again, they are terrible so there may be no point to it. There is simply no reason to play since you can be rich and field huge fleets in little time and there is no way to take out enemies in full since many stations are immortal.

    Clearly an unfinished game. X3 was also unfinished and unplayable on release but the removal of features is blatant in X4. X3 at least tried to keep the features from X2 and add to them in time, X4 cut a lot of features, and we can only hope they put them back. But it is markedly worse in almost every category compared to the older games and I assume the graphic downgrade is to attempt a console port. Get a copy of X3 Albion Prelude (the last X3 released) and ignore X4 for at least a year, maybe more if they never add back old features.    … Expand
  25. haunt3d
    Jan 17, 2019
    0
    This game released in a terrible state, and the developers have done absolutely nothing to fix game breaking bugs. This is totally broken software, and the company has obviously employed people to come online and fake news it.

    Core features like AI pathfinding do not work. The economy is broken. Wars do not happen. Look at the Steam forums for the incredibly long bug lists. Egosoft    This game released in a terrible state, and the developers have done absolutely nothing to fix game breaking bugs. This is totally broken software, and the company has obviously employed people to come online and fake news it.

    Core features like AI pathfinding do not work. The economy is broken. Wars do not happen. Look at the Steam forums for the incredibly long bug lists.

    Egosoft shipped a game right before Christmas that was totally unplayable, took everyone's money, then went AWOL for 2 months "on holiday", presumably on our dime.

    This is another Bethesda. This is another Hello Games.

    Please don't buy this company's software. Instead, punish them into bankruptcy. Let's use the market to get better space games by not supporting awful studios releasing garbage.    … Expand
  26. konvice
    Dec 6, 2018
    0
    Trash game, unfinished product, the game working only on blueprint, but reality is terrible 49.99 Euro is not equal to quality of final product. Hardware requirement is really high, but as a result game has really ugly graphic.
  27. Lightletter
    May 22, 2020
    0
    Found this game through Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia , disappointed in the quality, going to have to give this one a 0
  28. JackPlack
    Mar 16, 2022
    4
    I've played 3.0 and wonder if they fixed the game in 5.0.
    3.0 problems:
    - bugs, bugs, bugs... - very weak tutorial, steering and not intuitive missions. I hate situations when need to watch Youtube to know how to play and specially know how to complete the mission - should be future ships not old MIGs. Many boring moments (Eurotruck is more fun, more elements moving, more steering).    I've played 3.0 and wonder if they fixed the game in 5.0.
    3.0 problems:
    - bugs, bugs, bugs...
    - very weak tutorial, steering and not intuitive missions. I hate situations when need to watch Youtube to know how to play and specially know how to complete the mission
    - should be future ships not old MIGs. Many boring moments (Eurotruck is more fun, more elements moving, more steering). Many parts of flight should be spent in timelapse or some Sims like life or economy or fight, but not oldschool Star Wars/Star Trek style. Automation and searching is bad but much better than Elite Dangerous.

    Summary: could be best space game, but is worse state than No Mans Sky.    … Expand
  29. angry_pidgeon
    Sep 1, 2023
    0
    Egosoft are swindlers, they falsified Reddit content to censor my bug posting by account suspension under the cover-up of lies. Only criminals do this. All censorship is illegal in public space by tribunal ruling. Name of Reddit developer who falsified the censorship cover-up: linolafett

    I already demanded his dismissal if Egosoft want to delimitate itself from this, and notified by    Egosoft are swindlers, they falsified Reddit content to censor my bug posting by account suspension under the cover-up of lies. Only criminals do this. All censorship is illegal in public space by tribunal ruling. Name of Reddit developer who falsified the censorship cover-up: linolafett

    I already demanded his dismissal if Egosoft want to delimitate itself from this, and notified by email at info@egosoft.com

    Their product is literally a rotten tomato ridden with TENS upon TENS of bugs, and worse, by buying into Egosoft you are buying into FASCIST behavior of its developers.
    Do not feed the fascists

    https://www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/15351xu/more_implementation_incoherence_or_criticism_v2/    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 5, 2019
    50
    Just as its name says, this game is a great foundation for a really massive and great open world sandbox space adventure, where it's your choice to write your own destiny and play any way you want. But the massive and game breaking bugs simply stop players from delving more into it.
    Read full review
  2. GameGrin
    Feb 19, 2019
    70
    An ambitious, complex sandbox space game that allows you to do almost anything from spacewalking to commanding a carrier with a fleet of ships onboard. A steep learning curve and an inconsistent interface mar an excellent return for Egosoft’s flagship series.
    Read full review
  3. PC Games
    Jan 14, 2019
    60
    Miles better than the technical disaster X Rebirth, X4 is still far away from its clearly recognizable ideal state.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »