X3 - Reunion

Nearly a decade after the cult smash X2 hit PCs, the long-awaited sequel, X3 - Reunion, is finally gearing up for release this fall. The game is poised to take players back to the familiar “X” universe, giving them unprecedented freedom of choice for wherever or whatever they choose to do. Exploration has always played a huge role in the X franchise, and X3 shouldn’t disappoint. X3 - Reunion represents a huge leap for the series, and should be a standout in a sadly waning genre.

A huge addition to the X series comes in the form of a more cohesive and compelling story. Whereas previous entries pretty much allowed you to simply jack in and have at it, X3 puts you in control of a specific character, a young man named Julian Brenner. Fans of the series should recognize the surname, as Julian is the son of Kyle Brenner, the hero from the original X: Beyond the Frontier. The game will feature varying story arcs and will react dynamically to how you play the game, and the non-linear fashion will make it so you don’t have to adhere to the set main story, but rather break off whenever you feel like it.

The X series has always been more about resource management and trade and less about twitchy, arcade-style gameplay, and X3 - Reunion shouldn’t be any different. The experience should be among the most engrossing yet in the deep-space exploration genre, giving you tons of opportunities to either be a legit space trader or a cutthroat intergalactic pirate. Given the dynamic feel of the game’s universe, your actions will have an effect on the overall economy system and global relations between different colonies and races. Therefore, depending on what you do, you’ll impact the economy in your favor, changing trade values as well as your standing amongst other races. Unfortunately, the build that we had wasn’t that fleshed out, so we could only experience mere hints of what the game should offer.

While the preview build didn’t really give us as much of a look at the strong, non-linear single-player aspects as we would’ve liked, what we did see did show some great promise. The flight mechanics sport solid physics, not too meticulously realistic, but not too arcadey either. The keyboard/mouse arrangement felt surprisingly comfortable, although enterprising players are definitely going to want to invest in a nice joystick.

Graphically, the game looks amazing. Full DX9 support gives the game fantastic lighting effects and extremely detailed textures. While there is still a lot of work to be done graphically (the framerate stuttered quite a bit, even on a system that should’ve been more than capable of handling it), X3 shows nice promise and should be a stunner when it releases.

Although the preview build of the game merely hinted at some of the deep features, the game should be an incredibly deep experience much in the vein of such classics as Freelancer, and should build well on its predecessors in the X series. Look for it later this month.