by Zac - March 23, 2005

Though unpolished and ultimately flawed in some very big ways, there�s a good game on the X2: The Threat CD, it just takes a few hours to find it.

In some ways, X2: The Threat plays a lot like Morrowind in space. There�s an enormous amount of freedom, enough to really get lost in. With over 100 space systems, dozens of weapons and ships, a number of rival empires, and multiple career options, (which can be mixed and matched at your leisure), be they bounty hunter, pirate, smuggler, transporter, law enforcement, or miner, you�re given the liberty to do pretty much anything you want anywhere you want. And depending on how successful you are, you may gather the funds to build your own empire, issuing orders to your trade, mining, or mercenary fleet from afar. You�ll even get your own space stations; whether you build them or buy existing ones. In fact, you can buy pretty much any station or ship you see. Additionally, as you grow in experience, you�ll be awarded with new titles and ranks, which give you access to additional missions, be they special bounties, special transportation requests, or just showing some VIPs a good time.

But should you become too powerful, should you cut in on the profits of others, some organizations will come to resent you. You�ll be attacked by bounty hunters hired by rival factions, or rival factions themselves. Large scale war can break out, and thus not only your tactical, but your strategic skill may be tested. This is the great game you�ll find, an almost RTS-space sim combo, should you decide to stick through the trouble spots, but there are unfortunately quite a few trouble spots.

The first problems you�ll notice involve the absolutely dreadful cutscenes. For one, the camera direction is often bad, using weird angles and awkward zooms. Sometimes, your view of a scene will even be obstructed by a pole or some other structure. In all cases, the lip-syncing will be completely unrelated to the dialogue being spoken, with awkward and poorly timed animations.

The next issues you�ll notice involve the gameplay. The various in-game menus are easy to master, but they could use some streamlining as they�re slow to navigate. Additionally, using a mouse to play can be problematic, as the mouse controls are too floaty (the joystick handles fairly well, however). The mouse problems are fortunately not severe enough to hamper general flight control, but trying to hit a dodging enemy can be problematic. The enemy�s AI is also a bit strange, as often enemy ships seem intent on flying into yours. The kamikaze tactics would be interesting if there was any rhyme or reason to them, but in many cases there isn�t. There is no reason for a lone scout ship to ram into a fighter, destroying itself to take out perhaps 30% of the fighter�s shields, when it could simply outrun the fighter and escape unscathed.

X2 also starts out a bit slow. Unless you abuse the game early on (there�s an exploit which allows you to sell things you shouldn�t be able to sell), money is a bit hard to come by. The initial missions available at space stations are low paying and good ships can be quite expensive. The first hurdle is getting either a good fighter or a good freighter, both of which can cost hundreds of thousands of credits. Once you buy one or the other, you can capture ships with your fighter and sell them for cash, or you can make some good money off trading and mining (though it�s fairly boring) with your freighter, but unless you abuse the early glitch, it takes an unfortunately lengthy and boring period of time to get that first foot in the door.

Lastly, the story is just plain bad. Initially I had planned on giving the game a rather scathing review, because, when you stick to the storyline, all you�re exposed to are bad cutscenes, mediocre voice acting, and a poorly developed plot, which is neither interesting nor remotely engaging. Though ultimately, I think the most perplexing thing about the storyline is your superior�s name. The game isn�t supposed to be funny, it�s not full of Power Rangers-esque puns and goofy word games, so why exactly am I taking orders from a guy named Ban Danna (who doesn�t even wear a bandana)?

Sights of the Galaxy

In space, X2: The Threat looks quite good. While it takes quite a rig to run the game with every graphical option turned on, be it bump mapping, shadowing, or anti-aliasing, the game will still look respectable on a mid-range computer with a lot of the bells and whistles disabled. Most of the systems have vibrant colors and are crammed full of ships and stations. The ships and stations themselves are quite varied, as there are some radically different factions with radically different styles, and a number of ship classes (Carriers, Destroyers, Corvettes, various Fighter classes, Scouts, and a number of Transport classes).

Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the cutscenes, which generally take place indoors, look pretty bad. Aside from the poor lip-syncing and odd camera angles, the character models look incredibly dated and move awkwardly. It is here where the lack of polish really shows up, as frankly, the movie scenes look embarrassingly amateurish. Fortunately you can avoid most graphical problems by simply avoiding the story.

Sounds in the Vacuum

As far as the audio goes, there is nothing particularly memorable. The voice-acting is often below-average, and the game could use some more variation as far as insults go (and perhaps some slightly more explicit ones, there aren�t going to be a lot of younger kids playing this game). The music is aptly themed and often pleasant, though it won�t win any awards. X2 has all the requisite sound effects, which are like the music, good, but not incredibly so.

The Verdict

Ultimately, X2: The Threat is an unpolished, but still enjoyable space-sim that will reward those willing to ignore the flaws and those patient enough to get past the slow start. That said, if you prefer a more story-driven or structured experience, you may find yourself overwhelmed with the depth and breadth of the game.