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Fans of the space sim will soon have the opportunity to feast their eyes on the beauty that is X2: The Threat.

I never played X: Beyond the Frontier. Nor am I a particularly big fan of space flight sims. But, when I laid eyes on X2: The Threat the graphics alone piqued my interest. This game is beautiful. I mean, really nice to look at. More on that later.

X2: The Threat is the latest installment of EgoSoft’s X-Series, a space flight simulation, and a deep one, at that. With the tagline of, “Trade. Fight. Build. Think.” one would expect a fairly diverse game. EgoSoft looks to exceed that expectation by offering extremely open-ended gameplay in an expansive universe.

The story begins just after the end of the previous installment. You play a prisoner on a security ship en-route to a penal colony after a botched ship jacking attempt. On the way the ship is stopped by a giant battle cruiser under the command of a famous captain named Ban Danna (yes, you read correctly) who offers you a job hauling freight.

You take the job to avoid jail time, of course, and you are freed. Fortunately, the job becomes more than just that of delivery boy as you are sucked into a tale of war and intrigue, and a new threat emerges.

While there is a storyline to follow, the player does not necessarily have to follow it to enjoy the game. With a dynamic economy (availability of resources affects price, demand determines availability, and so on…) and much combat to be had, the player determines how the game is played.

The ship roster is huge, with over 70 ships ranging from small freighters to 2 kilometer long battle cruisers, and all can be piloted by the player. Upgrades are available for the various craft, including weapons and shields as well as many other accessories.

The playable demo was enjoyable, but definitely lent itself more to joystick/keyboard play than mouse/keyboard play. Combat was fairly easy to take part in, and control was comfortable. Where the demo really blew me away was in the visuals. The ships are beautifully detailed. The lighting is remarkable, even in an unfinished stage, with dynamic shadows and gorgeous weapon effects.

All surfaces are bump mapped and high polygon, and the particle effects are unbelievable. Seriously, these are some of the most impressive visuals I’ve seen in a while. One place where the demo did fall a little short in the visual department was in the area of character models.

While the ships are highly detailed and fluid in movement, the character models are ugly and move with the grace of a constipated and nervous tin man. Hopefully these issues can be ironed out by release, but even if they aren’t the majority of the game is space flight anyway, so the appearance of people is hardly of importance.

Enlight will be publishing the game throughout North America, with a shipping date set for mid-November. Fans of the space sim will soon have the opportunity to feast their eyes on the beauty that is X2: The Threat. Stay tuned for a full review of the game as soon as it is available.


Preview by Zack Stromberg.