After we played X3: Terran Conflict, we knew why the developing studio was called “Egosoft”. This ambitious title is very distinguished, and yet has enough elements for fans to dig deeper and deeper once they get hooked.
But before going into this review, we’re going to warn you first.
Even with the deep story-telling and enormous scale of concept, this game might not be for you unless you have a serious fantasy about space-colony types of worlds, and enjoy the complexities of space traveling. But then again, owning a joystick and/or a side-stick is a perfectly good excuse to get into this title as well.
As I stated before, the story of this game is set in space, and as soon as you play the game you’ll immediately feel like you’re lost in space. There are many icons scattered around with layered menus all over the monitor, and the tutorial that barely scratches the different control schemes doesn’t help you much either. If you’re a fan of the X series, you’d probably have no problems with it. And I can also assure you that even if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll have to invest some time to get used to the environment. We tried this game through Steam so we didn’t have any hard copy materials, but we found out that the game manual is over 100 pages thick. Yup over one-hundred.
But to be fair, the game controls aren’t that much more complicated than other grand-sized strategy games. It’s just not a common game style that many people are used to these days. We just wished for a more thorough tutorial. The control schemes aren’t too bad; we got used to the mouse+keyboard maneuver in no time. It’s the gameplay that might be a bit harder for you to swallow.
Flying in space in X3: Terran Conflict feels real. I for one, have never piloted a flying object in space (well, I’m not a pilot in the first place), but from what I can only imagine, it feels real. The keyword here is “real”. Though this opinion is based on my experience, and many X series fans might disagree with me, flying from point A to point B, or station to station feels like it takes forever. Sometimes it took me about 5 minutes just to fly, and at rare occasions it took me about 10+ minutes just to reach a destination. But that probably wouldn’t stop you from enjoying this game if you love that kind of realism. After all, it is a simulation game.
An auto-pilot feature seems like it could have been a godsend, but unfortunately, it often doesn’t work as you’d expect it to . I’ve had more success flying with the manual control and about 2~3 minutes of trial and error.
There are various mission objectives, some simple and others complicated, and choosing different characters will lead you to different paths in the story. For the first few minutes (or hours even) you’ll find yourself struggling just to dock at the space stations, but soon enough you”ll be engaging in epic battles, trading goods from station to station and enjoying the expansive scale change rather quickly. The presentation of the storyline can be a hit and miss for some, but overall it’s high quality stuff.
The graphics of X3: Terran Conflict is well balanced. It won’t blow you away but you’ll have a hard time finding low-quality textures unless you really look for it. The design looks and feels balanced. Even though the audio was a bit repetitive, it was above average. We just wished that some of the robotic voices were more machine-like.
If you’re looking for a space-economy simulation, and if you have time to endure a not-so-easy learning curve, X3: Terran Conflict can satisfy you for a long time. But if you’re looking for a quick fly-and-shoot space battle, this title is not at the top of my recommendation list. Watch the videos, study the screenshots, and search around the forum to get to know the title first before you jump into this one. Then you shall be rewarded with an advanced space-sim game that might turn out to be an all time favorite.
Our Score: 8.5 / 10
Space-Sim fans will enjoy this title for sure.
