X2: The Threat

My first experience and impressions of X2: The Threat were not good. I found learning the ropes difficult initially and got lost in the sandbox almost instantly although combat was easy enough to get to grips with; I had to find the right upgrades to fully understand what works and what doesn't. However after browsing the Egosoft forums I 'got it' and what appeared complex and frustrating became rather simple. I ended up cheating a load of cash in my first game so I could mess around with factories and expensive capital ships without consequence. I only stopped my second X2 game after nearly 18 ingame days when my friend gave me his old computer which could run the X3 games. Two things to remember if you buy the game. The more you fight and raise your combat rank, the more risk you'll face from tougher enemies and more reward you'll get if you are successful. The more you trade and raise your trade rank the more you will earn from none cambat missions. This is true for all the X games In many ways X2: the threat is better than it's sequels despite it's age. Combat is faster paced and X2 is more immersive than it's sequels. I personally find the sandbox better looking in X2 as well. All the X games can be modded so you can change anything you don't like too. For me at least X2 is neither better or worse than it's sequels - it's different enough to warrant a playthrough as long as you have the free time. NB. I never played through the plot or used a mouse while playing at all.

tl;dr if you haven't played the X series before and are thinking about X2, skip it, get X3 (make sure it's the Full 'Terran war pack" version) Having recently replayed X2 it's still a fun game and generally representative of the classic X experience. Slow to start, menu heavy, steep learning curve. and X2 does have a certain 'feel', certain character that X3 does not. That said there's almost nothing X2 does that X3 didn't improve on. Additionally X3 while old itself still has better and active modding resources. finding non-dead links to mod files for X2 is a challenge and I had to get a few resources from the wayback machine. Overall the only area I can praise 2 over 3 is they did try a lot harder to build a compelling story and do some worldbuilding. There's scenes on planets and some lengthy scenes with characters. does it succeed? not really , the story is ok but nothing to write home about. and while the voice acting is passable the NPC models are pretty cringy. but I can praise them for trying to build a more involved and compelling world. X3 really just goes for sandbox, the story missions feel more like an afterthought than anything.

When I first loaded up X2, I found it very confusing and "difficult". Struggling to understand how it was meant to be played and what it needed to thrive. It took a number of starts to get into it completely, but once I had a good grasp on everything, it was awesome. I learnt how to capture ships and built an empire through many hours of game-play.

the atmosphere, the feel of the game and UI just feels better to play to me than x3 series that i also have. it just feels more involved. the graphics still look nice considering the game is 18 years old. it plays maxed out smoothly even on athlon 5350's R3 igpu running at 1080p. play the story first it is worth it, slighly cheesy lol but worth it for rewards, fun, and to learn. then find what you have fun doing as thats the whole point in a game. *station building and magement *trading & hauling *mining *enemy hunting and ship capture *missions from BBS bulletin boards, these are combat, hauling, trading, taxi jobs etc. *BBS mission scale with your ranks, so will get harder. *build fleets or be a pirate and so much more can play fine with keyboard and mouse but it is nice on a joystick too.