Overall this game in its current state is worth every cent. There are problems stemming from insufficient quality control and play testing but you can still get many hours of joy out of this game despite the problems.
However, if you are a X2 or X3 fan, then be warned that this is not X4 rather its a continuation of the game style in the original X game, 'Beyond the Frontier'. Notably you can only fly a single ship although it is a very capable ship.

Pro:

• Good space combat: Not Excellent like 'Freespace' but you get to target surface components of capital ships while dodging turret fire and thinking tactically about avoiding the turrets field of fire, flying faster than its tracking speed and avoiding head on conflicts with some deadly turrets that are near impossible to dodge.
  
• Economy: Empire building is generally enjoyable in this game, just be smart about location. Space station building is much more complex in this X game compared to previous X game, now you have to worry about hiring the right people to work on your station and building extensions.
  
• Story: I found the story to be enjoyable, you get to explore (within the campaign) and help the underdogs survive and grow.
  
• Space Terrain: Space is no longer a big empty void, plenty of asteroids, derelicts, space clouds and highways to give you a tactical advantage (if you know how)
  
• Good music

Con:

• Steep learning curve, lack of cue's, sadistic mission design occasionally: Sometimes you find that the game drops you in the deep-end or leaves you hanging from a cliff and you have to start googling to figure out how to proceed. For example, the campaign requires you to build a space station but it turns out that you cannot buy some of the prerequisite items. After some googling you find out that you have to become a pirate and steal said item but then you find out that you have to do a borderline sadistic amount of grinding to get enough of said item to proceed.
  Another example is that the campaign gives you a powerful war ship but doesnt tell you how to repair or move it, even after some googling you may still have trouble moving it.
  Another example is how larger ships move, the game gives you a capital ship but doesnt teach you about the jump fuel and capital ship booster dynamics, leaving you with some unnecessary confusion.
  Another example is the way station building works, you have to buy a construction ship which builds the station. You might think that the construction ship can then build another station once its done, but no, the construction ship becomes a permanent part of the station that can only upgrade said station, the game doesnt explain this mechanic.
  
• Cumbersome interface: They made some improvements with the updates but it is still unpleasant to use.
  
• Questionable script quality: Sometimes you find that things dont work as expected, often there is a good but obscure reason for it (are your ships lacking some drones? drone bay destroyed? drifted too far from station? etc) other times you find that it appears to be a bug, cancel the previous order and remake same order then it works.
  
• Some incomplete aspects: For example first person mode is quite limited and should be further expanded. Exploration also very limited, although the game does not claim to have a strong exploration element, it would still be an enjoyable addition, currently it is limited to finding some containers in space which are rarely useful and never interesting. Fighters cannot dock on capital ships, not even on carriers, only combat drones can dock. This makes me think that carriers are incomplete.
  
• Your stations can get damaged by trading: The exhaust fumes from a capital ship can damage ships and stations. In practice capital ships trading with stations accidently hurt your stations in this way. Then repairing your own stations is troublesome because you need to physically move the repair wares onto your station attached construction ships, they cannot put buy orders for these items on the market.
  
• Enemy stations cannot be completely destroyed, they will eventually rebuild.
  
• Most characters lack hair geometry. Also there are a lot of grannies in the game but that may not bother everyone :)

I've tried through out the years, its not like it hasn't gotten better:

Great visuals,
Added several desired features to the x universe as to complexity of combat and captial ships,
"coherent" story

but not matter what, it has one of the most horrid and frustrating control interfaces in a space game (especially an x game) that I've ever seen. (<--- is that ♥♥♥♥ed up or is my monitor tweaking out?)
Also, 'story', good luck. I can't even tell whats bugged and what's not.

I tried again, and it still is just frustrating mess. Albeit a pretty and ambitious one.

to me i like it very much
-it has very nice graphic very many systems and places to visit
-different factions which have reputation system
-many options to do easy flying system
-free play mode and + different options to select
-much action and battles between different factions as far i seen
-finaly (missing in all other X games in the serie) they added engine sounds too :)
-many mods aviable too if one is unhappy on gameplay can find alot to improve
-nice sounds and nice music on my oppinion too

the general proberty management can be a bit easier in future developing but the nice campaign which in same time is a great tutorial to the free play mode does teach us the most we need know :)

aside the fact only one playable ship i honestly not understand all the bad reviews hm there i decided i put one on my oppinion giving a positive rating

this game definitv deserves more rating up :)

sorry bad english

Game at release was unplayable. After teladi it was decent. Now with Home of Light it is what it was meant to be all along. Time for everyone to move on from X3 and join us in the future that is X Rebirth ;)

A great game if you don't mind the lack of fast travel. The highway system (space roads) extends the game length by an enormous amount because there is no fast travel between the different areas you have to use the space roads/highways. I played around 100 hours, at least 30 hours of that was wasted traveling from sector to sector.

All in all it is a beautiful game, with a lot of great qualities going for it. However, its hard for me to replay it a second time because of all the grinding needed traveling from area to area. If they had just allowed the player ship to install a jump drive this would have solved so much frustration. However, its clear the Devs want you to "walk" from area to area over and over and over and over again. Becomes very tedious after a while.

Still I did play around 70 hours of non traveling content so I'd say its a good game. If its on sale and you're into space sims this is a good game to pick up. However, be aware you'll be forced to do a TON of traveling between area to area because there is no fast travel system.

Here is my first review on steam - of X Rebirth.

I review X Rebirth apart from the other games in the X-series and this review reflects my experience with the game as of its state in 2016 with the 4.0 patch and Home of light expansion.

I have hesitated, like many of you, as the game saw quite horrendous reviews at launch. Even though I was deterred, I came back years later to find a game that had been patched up, expanded and closer to expectation. Props to the developers for sticking to it.

After nearly 200 hours in this game I have explored, built a humble trade fleet, a few stations and seen a bit of combat through missions and mishaps. I have earned millions of credits - and I have lost millions too.

Here is what I have found so far:

The good:

- Stations: Great variety in faction stations and modules - and stations the player can build and expand.
- Galaxy: Good variety in atmosphere across systems, many sectors and zones to explore, hundreds.
- Many ways to make a living - trade, missions, combat, boarding, piracy, scavenge, mine.
- The game feels alive with ships around stations and from different factions - living economy and trade.
- Truly build an empire and feel the work you have put into it from your armchair - mourn each ship lost at the hand of your
enemies.
- Organize your fleet as you wish. Assign transporters to station managers, assign carriers to tradeships. assign
100 small fighters to yourself and this part is fairly managable with the broadcast feature.
- Many types of NPCs, wares, ships, stations, drones, missiles, materials for mining etc.
- Play as you wish. Relax and manage your trade fleet in a zen-pace until the alarm sounds - or attack everything and live
dangerously in the outskirts.
- Enhance the game with mods

Things to improve:

- Stations feel similar and repetitive on the inside and small in comparison to their outside dimensions (several km). It would be
nice to see a lot of life and interior.
- NPCs stand in the same place in stations and seem a bit dull to interact with as much of the dialogue repeats itself (Good: You
can do a lot of the interaction from your ship without docking)
- Weapons are good and have modifications, but It would be nice to see a bit more variety in the hardpoints and effects.
- Trading takes a few clicks if you have 20+ ships and upgraded trade software.
- I have experienced some clipping with capital ships where you end up inside them and capital ships flying through station
modules. Drones and smaller fighters often fly into capital ships during fights.

This is a great game with many aspects and it will take a few hours to get to know all of them. Don't buy this game to play it for 2 hours - buy it to play it 50, 100 or 1000 hours for full benefit.

Lastly I suggest watching tutorials by the developers and others to learn more about all aspects of the game.

I really like this game. I only played X2 very briefly. I understand that fans of the series were disappointed with Rebirth on release. Also, I waited to play the game until the 3.0 update. I think the game has gotten much better since it was released. The latest version, 4.0, has some nice additions. I like that you now aren't required to get out of your ship very often (I tihnk the only thing I can't do from my ship is upgrade weapons, engines and shields). I started playing this game again recently and I've once again been immersed in the universe.

(Don't sweat the time on record - I have the no-Steam .exe)

I must have come to X: Rebirth at just the right time, because for the life of me I can't understand the issues previous posters had (except the ones who are die-hard X Series fans who were expecting more of the same - this ain't your grandaddy's X!)

PROS:

* Huge sandboxy universe
* Everything's much much much MUCH prettier than in any previous X installment
* New DLC added more to explore
* Same robust modding community the game has always enjoyed
* YOU CAN GET OUT OF YOUR DAMNED SHIP NOW WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
* Interface requires a certain intelligence level to properly and fully use (yes, I count this as a perk)

CONS:

* Capital ships are not directly controllable in this installment
* Someone airbrushed a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ furry on my ride (bet I can mod it off though)
* Bring the latest CPU AND GPU - you're gonna need both

I've been a fan of Egosoft's space entries since X2. So, I guess I know ahead of time to wait about a year or two after the game is released to actually buy in. I decided to take the same wait-to-buy approach with this game, and I feel it's paid off after reading previous reviews from individuals who either didn't know this or knew this but for some odd reason thought things would be different this time around.

I got a game that's freakin' huge in scope (even with a jump drive installed - and yes, you can have a jump drive on the Skunk despite what lesser-informed individuals might have to say on the subject; if you don't believe me you can look it up for yourself), but is a manageable challenge. Whereas other games like Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky just throw up an impossible amount of procedurally-generated cookie-cutter content and call it gameplay, X: Rebirth does a much better job of the three of making its universe seem ALIVE. There is still no better economic simulator in the space sim genre.

Another key factor that sets this game apart from its newer challengers is the modding community. Go on. Try modding either one of those two games. See how fast you lose access to the game you purchased. But with X:R? Fuggetaboutit. Mod this thing six ways to Sunday if you like. If it's good enough, your mod may very well make it into the game. It's happened before.

Control scheme is highly customizable, at least for space sim fans. X Series has never been an entry-level game and I'm glad Egosoft didn't dumb it down like so many games (SWTOR, WoW, pretty much any MMO really) are doing to make their product appeal to stupid people. Dummies need not apply.

I was a little bummed that capital ships can't be directly controlled anymore, since my favored ride in X3TC was a Kyoto. But then I installed the Capital Ship Bridge (4.0+) mod, and lemme tell ya - it's hard to keep myself from thinking I'm not on the bridge of a Galaxy-class starship exploring strange new worlds. I would prefer the option to directly control my superboat in the sequel... because I will definitely be purchasing the sequel.

...after waiting for the launch bugs to be smoothed, of course. ;-)

With the release of X Rebirth 3.0 the game finally reached the state it should have been in at its initial release in 2013. There are still a few rough edges and design decisions that some might find mind-boggling, but overall it is a great space game that can be polished with the use of a number of mods, some of which bring back 'classic' X features such as automated galaxy traders and miners. (as of the 14th of March 2015 some mod makers are still updating their work for the new moddable UI, some mods are temporarily out of action).

When considering buying X Rebirth is important to keep in mind that Rebirth is a fairly ambitious game for a smaller studio, as such there are always going to be the QA problems relating to small teams that have the ambition to make big games, like bugs working their way in, and lacks of resources meaning change doesn't happen as fast as gamers would like. To give Egosoft credit, they have adopted extensive community beta testing for each patch so the game is tested on as many different rigs as possible. On my most current playthough started at 3.2 I haven't found a single plot stopping bug, in more general freeplay I rarely find a bug, let alone one that blocks me doing what I want to do.

There are still some annoyances in the game such as expected bread and butter features missing from the vanilla game (a lack of FOV adjustment is a pertinent example). But these things, as illustrated by the addition of a great new gravidar, new menu system, and external camera system, seem to have been identified, working their way back into the game as Egosoft move from bug squashing to remedying design oversights. You can now do things like transfer freight and drones between ships, and build stations in empty space, creating a new zone with 7 build points that you can rename. Now, many modders seem to be finding their feet. As the engine is tweaked for performance, and bugs are squashed, it looks like X Rebirth might be headed towards a golden age of modding (if current offerings are anything to go by). The Teladi Outpost DLC brings back more classic exploration, kind of like exploring some of the rim sectors in Freelancer which is a welcomed addition to the X Series. Also the new music in Teladi Outpost is awesome, 1980's inspired synth-pop goodness, perfect for a space game.

The AI can still be a bit flakey at times, but is improving with every regular patch. Commands for capital ships are still a bit limited: You either set them off on an automated task, or give general orders such as "attack this", "fly to zone", "fly to my position", "patrol" etc. The closest I can think of is it operates a bit like Nexus: The Jupiter Incident (without the GUI)—you give the commands to an NPC captain through comms, or if you use the Co-pilot conversation mod, through keyboard shortcuts. There are a number of significant mods in alpha state at the moment that look to improve AI behaviour (in addition to Egosoft's on going work in this area).

The economy is running well. New trade software means you can lock in more trades, and a mod like Yorrick's YAT (yet another trader), adds the option of automated galaxy, system, and cluster traders and miners. These all seem to run fairly well with a miniumum need for any micro. The economy is simulated but not 100% real, so the AI still makes use of a number of crutches, but this really doesn't affect the game much, at most it means the player can no longer make obscene profits for doing not much at all. That said, I still make plenty of credits in my most recent game start to keep expansion running smoothly, and the economy is flowing along well. However, if the AI using a crutch is a big deal to you there is a mod that removes the wares from ships spawned by the AI.


One part of Rebirth that I enjoy is the set up: slowly building an empire, amassing stations and capital ships, setting patrols, essentially minmaxing an empire. If anyone remembers playing with lego as a kid, it's kind of comparable to that: you set up a cool base, build lots of vehicles, get a crew together, then muck around - it is a similar kind of ethos involved in the X series but with the level of interactivity we expect from PC games.

At the moment I have about 10 stations that all support each other while producing wares to keep the galactic economy running, I have top of the line freighters and miners assigned to each station, and defense fleets that patrol my territory protecting my assets. I have named each ship and station individually with all the most well crafted names I could think of (and some stolen from famous Sci-fi and fantasy), prefixed with Iain M. Banks designations of GSV, GOU etc with a few of my own new designations. The little things like setting up an empire in this detail are what makes games of the X series fun.

If this kind of empire building appeals to you then you will like Rebirth. While my empire is building, I do missions, capture ships, place trade agents on stations, increase my rep with factions, get achievements, role-play and so on. With Litauen's 'Capital Ship Bridges' mod I often sit on the bridge of a frigate ordering profitable trades as it escorts one of my galactic freighters. Then at other times it's just enjoyable to sit back, parked up in one of the zones occupied by my stations and watch the empire hum along. Personally I think if you are expecting a straight-up fighter combat space sim you will be a bit disappointed (there is still lots of fighter combat but it is not the primary focus), the wider aspects of Rebirth such as the empire building are where this game shines.

Even if you decide to not follow the plot the feeling of flying around in space just exploring, seeing new places, and observing the galaxy going along with its business around you is incredible. A number of mods can improve this experience such as 'Ency's mod'* (link at bottom of review) that modifies planets, and adds nebula to create breathtaking vistas and lighting.


Personally I get okay performance, my set up is:

Nvidia GTX 760
Intel 4670K
8 gig of ram
24" IPS @ 1920 x 1200

I run adaptive vsync at half refresh on max settings in game, including all the driver side bells and whistles from Nvidia control panel, it sticks at 30fps. Some people might like higher frames but as long as the framerate is consistent and the game looks pretty I'm fairly happy.


A good idea when approaching X Rebirth is to embrace modding. The support of Steam Workshop means you can easily pick and choose features, removing things you don't like about the game and picking up new features generated by modders. Check out my curated collection of mods below for a number of improvements that save time and improve the game by adding handy new features, immersive changes, and the removal of annoying ones. One mod I can't support enough is the capital ship bridges mod—simply brilliant.

Remember there is no such thing as a "modified" tag in Rebirth, modding doesn't ruin achievements and Egosoft intentionally made the game easy to mod and added Steam Workshop support, they almost expect us to mod our games and personalise our experience, this means Egosoft can realise their artistic vision of what Rebirth should be and the gamers can have ours—we all win.

* http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=362680&start=0
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=327527055

This game is a disaster, avoid at all costs.

X Rebirth is marketed in big bold letters as a trading game with a vibrant, reactive economy and NPC ships that go on trade runs simulating real economies. This is actually a load of tosh. More than 99% of ships (this is not an exaggeration) circle around stations in an endless loop, all caught up in a slow moving pointless traffic jam. They aren't going anywhere, have no goals and just keep doing this loop forever. The other ~1% seem to spawn next to stations then despawn when they are leaving them, never actually travelling to/from anywhere. It's all window dressing.

Not that it matters anyway, since trading doesn't even work. You'll have to do some really pointless trades (deliver 100 units of food when you can afford/store 100,000? What's the point?), and when you do you quickly find that the entire trading interface and ship control is totally buggy and doesn't work. Half the time player owned ships don't actually move when giving orders, and there's no way to view/delete the orders of ships in game. If your order bugs out you have to manually edit the xml files of your save game before trying again. If you eventually get them to move they frequently reach their destination then either get stuck staring at a station, or ram into it endlessly due to awful pathfinding.

Combat is really, really dull. You only ever get 1 ship, it can carry every type of weapon, but can only ever shoot one at a time and has no turrets or other hardpoints. EVERYTHING in this game is done manually. You can't automate anything.

Walking around stations is... rubbish. It's full of copy pasted stations - which you'll notice by station 3 - and NPCs that only have 4 sets of dialogue and just repeat them over and over again. You're going to get incredibly sick of talking to random people about why they're all a bunch of racists, or why VR holodancers are sexy but not real. It's incredibly unengaging content and somewhat alarming how so much of the development time and focus of the game is on a feature that is not fun from the start.

A lot of people have been saying this game 'has promise'. That 'it'll be fixed in patches'. It won't. This game is defective by design. You can't just fix core fundamental game mechanics with patches. Even if they manage to fix the bugs it won't change the fact that everything in the game is completely lifeless and window dressed, rather than engaging or purposeful.

If there's any one good thing to say about this game, it's that at least it's beautiful. The game is gorgeous, and that's really the only thing going for it.