X4: Foundations

Fun for me in a similar kind of way to Mount and Blade; you start as one guy and slowly (or quickly if experienced) build an empire. The music is very well done. Voice lines can range from terrible to ok; although terrible in an endearing kind of way. Best if picked up on sale with DLCs like Cradle of Humanity that add more sectors and factions. Gameplay typically takes place in the cockpit, with some clunky foot travel on stations and ships. Fight, explore, trade, or steal your way to the top. Assemble a fleet, build stations, and turn into a spacefaring Scrooge. Late game can put you in an awkward position of spending more time managing war fleets and logistic chains from your map screen while you hitch a ride on one of your ships. In my current playthrough my character is parked at my local faction representative so I can buy blueprints, while my stations and ships do all the hard work for me. The "world" consists of sectors, all connected by jump gates (or other things) that basically act as portals. AI stations populate these sectors, and from what I know is mostly randomized seed to seed where they are. As far as ships go, you can operate anything from your personal space suit to fleet carriers, and most ships are good at something. For newer players, I highly recommend grabbing the Cradle of Humanity DLC and starting with the Terrans. They have a guided start for new players and everything from ship design, weapons, to geopolitical positioning is perfect for new players. The "push" for players outside of making money are the Xenon, the primary antagonist machine empire that pose a threat to every faction, and typically, if left unchecked will decimate the universe. If you enjoy games like Mount and Blade, EVE Online, Elite: Dangerous, or No Man's Sky you may enjoy this. Save often! Hope this helps.

It's been awhile since I've attempted to play X, and I want to say the introduction has become much better, and the graphics, the player, the NPC's have all been updated. It's is absolutely fascinating. Just amazed. I'll be getting back on soon. I want to take this for a ride!

Love the game, just wish the main quests were longer. Theyre already good in my opnion but i wish there would be more of those quests for a faction.

So far it's hard to recommend X4 Foundations. I bought the pack with all the main DLC to experience the complete game. Did all the basic tutorials as recommended, and started with Timelines terran as recommended as a way to get into this game as it has a steep learning curve. I've now been stuck for hours on an impossible task to build a dock on a station with zero guidance or way to do so. Materials I don't have, no satellites to deploy to increase range and nobody available to actually build this. In a hostile sector where I'm killed the moment I fly away from the station and no jump gates to get back. This is just a boring, miserable fight to try and figure out mechanics to play this game. The fact this game has been around so long, but singularly fails to guide players properly on basics like adding a dock to a space station is pathetic. I've begged for some help now on the discord as my last resort. But have wasted a couple of hours on this crap and honestly don't recommend this torture to anybody. If I get past this I may revise my rating, but at this rate I'll be packing this in and it will be $27 wasted.

I have played the X-games for 27 years now as "X: Beyond the Frontier" was released in 1999. After spending a couple of thousand hours in this game both on GOG and on Steam I can easily say that this is truly the best sandbox space game out there. It's one of a kind and there is nothing like it out there. It's a "Kenshi in Space", a "Mount & Blade in Space" or a "FPS Stellaris". And with total conversion mods like "X4 Star Wars Interworlds/SWI 0.91" (the best Star Wars mod for any game, ever) and "Star Trek: Starfleet Command IV version 0.3" there is so much content. The thousands of mods also improve the game and the total conversion mods a lot. Buy the Planets Collector's Edition bundle minimum and wait for a sale as it is on sale quite often. "It's full of stars."

Worst experience of any space game i've ever had. Flying around for 12 hours to do the first 3 quests - The navigation took me on a detour through the universe instead of reaching neptune in 2 jumps, it took 12 (for a new player overwhelming); - The construction of the research base has zero ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ explaination for anything; - Im flying around for a literal hour to find a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ construction ship. ♥♥♥♥ this.

Very steep learning curve, but amazing space game once it clicks. This game delivers a lot of what star citizen promised, with a tiny budget...

Travel around in a small ship and let the universe evolve around you or build a great galactic empire. It’s perfect!