X2: The Threat preview

There’s absolutely no way you can hope to write about X2 without resigning yourself to the fact that at some point you’re going to have to mention Elite. So here goes: X is an Elite clone. Which is no surprise really considering that so to was its well regarded predecessor X: Beyond the Frontier. For any of you whippersnappers too young to remember Elite was the original space trading game created for the BBC Micro, and subsequently converted to every format under the sun, in the early eighties. Despite the technological limitations of the time it was in full (wire-frame) 3D and allowed you to roam a huge galaxy fighting pirates, trading goods and generally doing the whole freeform RPG thing years before people even knew what that meant.

The problem with Elite is that it’s never had an even halfway satisfactory sequel or clone, with the official Frontier: Elite II disappointing in 1993 and tributes like Privateer and FreeLancer never managing to replicate that seemingly effortless mix of user-friendliness and depth. X2 could be the game to change all that. I was recently invited to Koch Media’s UK headquarters where (after a brief bout of teasing on how exactly the company’s name should be pronounced) I got to meet with PR manager David Blundell and a couple of the guys from developer Egosoft and get a grand tour of all that is planned for this keenly awaited sequel.

Never tell me the odds

Things started off with the rolling demo that you should all by now have seen (if you haven’t you can download it here: X2: The Threat rolling demo) and jolly impressive it is too. As I gasp and raise my eyebrows at the succession of huge starships, asteroid fields and spacestations the game contains I’m suddenly bombarded with a series of statistics to prove just how big the game world really is. Apparently there are over 130 different star systems – 49 from the original game with another 92 on top; 53 different nebula, portrayed using a particularly nice volumetric shading effect; and 70 different types of ship of which at least 53 will be playable.

The next statistic though goes to the heart of just what makes X2 so interesting: as the game starts there are over 16,000 objects (ships, planets, spacestations, etc.) in the universe all of which are happily going about their own purposeful business – nothing is there purely for the eye candy or the benefits of the player. Each freighter is going somewhere specific to deliver a pre-determined cargo and every pirate has a base of operations and, usually, a chain of command with a superior. What’s more that total of 16,000 will start to change the second you begin the game as ships are destroyed and built, cargo delivered and lost and the whole game world ticks by without you.

They're coming in too fast

Of course when you start the game you own only the lowliest of the low space fighters but unlike the first game you’re not left entirely without direction as you begin. There is much more of an ongoing storyline in The Threat and although you can choose to ignore it entirely or just dip in and out it does mean that you are given a clear set of objectives from the start and aren’t left sitting there in the cockpit wandering what you’re supposed to be doing. (Blundell wouldn’t reveal too much about the actual details of the storyline except that it er... involves an alien threat of some kind.)

What he was very keen on talking about though was the huge number of different spaceships you can own yourself. Unlike Elite et al. you aren’t just stuck with the ship you’re piloting but can own an entire fleet of 400 to 500 ships, from fighters to freighters and corvettes to enormous mile long capital ships. As soon as you get possession of a ship that has more than one seat the game’s AI takes over control of the ship’s turrets (or the cockpit if you want to man the guns Millennium Falcon style) and you can control everything via a relative straight forward menu command system. For some reason the developers seemed to be very proud of the fact that you can’t pause the game in any way when issuing commands, which may prove a little frustrating when you’ve got lots of orders going out, but the system did seem easy enough to use, if a little text heavy.

We can't repel firepower of that magnitude

Since even relatively small ships can carry their own fighters you can very quickly gain a fleet of spacecraft to make Admiral Ackbar weep in jealously. It’s at this point that any thought of honourable trading is probably going to go straight out the window – especially when you realise you can not only hijack enemy craft and take them for your own but also factories and spacestations. Of course you can buy and deploy factories as you attempt to move up the pyramid from refining raw materials all the way up to creating highly expensive technical and processed goods.

The depth of possibilities in X2 is truly impressive and although there is still a question of how accessible this is all going to be to the more casual gamer hardcore fans of the series are already getting involved. Apparently a few of the ships are actually fan designed and all can be customised with your own logo. Particularly dedicated enthusiasts have even been busy working away on updates for the in-game BBS and, since all the music is stored and access as MP3s, even a GTA style radio station!

Good shooting commander

The other question is just how the space combat handles, which obviously could not be gleaned from a rolling demo and a few vague assurances that it was “excellent”. Elite and X-wing managed to get the feel right, even though they were simulating something that doesn’t actually exist but Frontier and Freelancer got it badly wrong with unresponsive, dull combat that irritated rather than enthralled. Of course here you could just let the A.I. do it all for you, but that’s not really the point.

What is the point though is that the answers to these questions are really worth knowing because the rest of the game looks excellent and there seems to be a genuine excitement and expectation around this product, that this could really be the Elite sequel everyone had been waiting for, for so long.