X4: Foundations

This one is hard for me to review, because I played a lot of X3 with Xtended. On one hand, X4 really is the spiritual successor to that combo. On the other hand, the presentation feels weirdly lacking, especially 15 years later. Is it a good space game? Yes, absolutely. Is it as good as it should have been? Definitely not. The best way I can describe X4 is that it is almost the opposite of Star Citizen. There is a huge amount of content, systems, mechanics, ships, stations, factions, economy, wars, and most of it actually works. But at the same time, everything feels strangely repetitive, both visually and in terms of gameplay. You can land your small ship inside stations and capital ships without loading screens, which is still amazing. There is nothing quite like landing on a space station, walking around, and looking outside at a battle or a pulsing star. But then you look at the station itself and it feels like an indie game made out of the same LEGO pieces over and over again. The same few rooms. The same corridors. The same lifeless NPCs who look like they escaped from Oblivion and have almost nothing useful to say. The mission system has the same problem. On paper, there are tons of missions, from small local errands to large dynamic campaign objectives. At first it feels impressive. But after a while, you realize that most of them are just variations of the same 10 or 20 base missions, repeated in different contexts. Even worse, some missions can solve themselves with almost no reality check. You can accept a mission, ignore it completely, fly around doing something else, and suddenly receive a big thank you and a pile of credits because you happened to be in the right sector while the game considered the patrol complete. I hate that kind of thing. It makes the universe feel mechanical instead of alive. The main quests are also great on paper, but often ridiculous in execution. The game casually gives you powerful ships or even a headquarters for almost nothing. “Hey, random person passing by, please take this prototype fighter and kill a few weak pirates. Thanks, you can keep the 20 million credit ship.” Or, “I like your face, here is a powerful HQ station, please take care of it.” I really dislike when games give me huge rewards without making me earn them. I want blood, sweat, and effort before getting something valuable. That is probably my biggest frustration with X4. There are so many excellent ideas, but a lot of them are spoiled by rewards that feel completely disproportionate compared to what you actually did. With several DLCs installed, I spent around five hours simply exploring the universe, enjoying the excellent soundtrack, and somehow ended up with good fighters given to me for free. Not because I had built a reputation. Not because I had done something spectacular. I was basically a nobody, sometimes barely neutral with factions, and the game still threw valuable ships at me. That said, the potential of X4 is enormous. You can trade, manage stations, build fleets, work for factions, influence dynamic wars, explore the universe, or become a small part of a much bigger economy. The scope is genuinely impressive. But for my taste, too much of it is served on a platter, instead of making you climb your way up naturally. Graphically, the game is adequate, but not amazing. Honestly, in some ways I do not find it that much more impressive than X3. The soundtrack, however, is excellent. It fits space flight perfectly, and the weapon and system sound effects are also very good. Should you buy it? If you are already an X fan, definitely, especially on sale with the DLCs, because they add a lot of content. If you are just looking for a space game, then watch some gameplay first. X4 is a great space game, but it is not for everyone. It pushes you toward management, stations, fleets, and economy. It is harder to enjoy for a long time if you only want to be a lone privateer flying a fighter. There are moments that show how great the game could be. Some starts are really original, like beginning in prison and having to escape. That kind of thing shows the potential of X4. I just wish the game had more budget and polish, especially for stations, NPCs, and mission design, instead of so many places feeling like the same ten modules rearranged in a different order. In the end, X4 is a very good space game with massive ambition, but also a frustrating one. It has more systems than almost anything else in the genre, but not always enough soul or presentation to make those systems feel as alive as they should.

Il faut absolument passer la courbe d'apprentissage qui prend entre 8 et 16 heures après c'est que du bonheur

Was watching Cohh play.. looked so much fun. But i dont have 10k ppl watching and guiding me. trying to ask anything in this forum and you get the most acoustic replies. Not so much fun alone and trying to watch videos taht make any sense on yt. over all it was a waste of money i dont thikn ill ever tough this again.

I like it

Best space sim

Did the basic tutorials without issue, but it won't stop crashing now that I've started a new game. I was finally checking it out from my backlog to see if I should grab the DLC during the sale... but if the game isn't playable, then there's absolutely no reason to buy MORE content for it. Do not recommend at this time. Maybe when they make it more stable.

Would not recommend for anyone not already familiar with the frustrating jankiness of the X series. The game can become playable with heavy reliance on external guides and tools but will always feel hostile to the player expierience. Abyssmal UI, obtuse systems and a shallow narrative make sure that any enjoyment found here is reliant entirely on the player being content play in the sandbox and finding their own fun. There's no living world here, no real factions or narratives. There's storylines that are cumbersome to play and matter little. Empire building has no point in a universe inhabited by ants moved only by basic imulse reaction. The game may trick you for a while, dazzling by how much stuff there's in here, but eventually you'll see that none of it matters, its just stuff, tons of stuff haphazardly crammed into a box without ever really becoming an actualy, cohesive game.

Has got to be one of the worst experiences as a new player I have ever had in any game, including the previous iterations of X4. It's a buggy mess, some known bugs have lingered for years. Hell even the tutorial has game breaking bugs in it. Just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ horrible.

你买游戏是为了玩的，而不是被游戏玩

I would not recommend this game if you want to play this 60-200 hours it is way to slow in progress. You often fly around and are not finding the persons you need to talk to before. tried 3 of those, every time i had to ask an Ai or forums.. For instance one you need to talk to: Illisa Otani , before you can continue to pick someone up after, is no where to be found, sadly no help to be found, so mission might up ending buggy. Often you can't survive many incounter, as you have small ship, it is hard to figure out if you have a chance, and if you move into a group of pirate, its like watching zergling attack, they strik as one.. There is great grafic, alot of things to upgrade, trading and mining, but playing this for action, story mode, this is not it, you need to play this many hours to get your head around this game here. Shame there isnt a rating along with the recommendation, as it a no for me, but i would give it 4 ½ star :) Hope this review helps.