After thoroughly enjoying the Freelancer I am thinking of having another go at one of the "X" games. Back in the day I spent several weeks thoroughly engrossed in X2: The Threat while I still have an unopened copy of X3: Reunion sitting on my shelf.
Freelancer's main campaign is really good, a tightly scripted roller coaster ride of adventure in space. Once you have finished the game the limitations of the static universe quickly become apparent however and it begins to feel repetitive. My understanding of the X games is the very opposite. While the campaigns are not all that great the games give you a truly open world with a vast range of possibilities to explore. Indeed this is both a blessing and a curse.
I gave up on X2 back in 2003 after spending several weeks in the game.The thing is I am not all that gone on open world games. I like my games to have a clearly defined end point I can aim for and reach. I am very comfortable with the modern trend towards short single player campaigns that can be completed in a dozen hours or so. I don't remember too many details of my X2 experience but I do remember that one of the reasons I abandoned the game was the realisation that it would take me hundreds of hours to do anything more than scratch the surface of the game. I have put that sort of time into mmorpgs in the past but the social side of an mmorpgs makes it seem less a waste of time.
So I am still hesitant about X. The alternative is to go even further back in time to the legendary Freespace 2.
Freelancer's main campaign is really good, a tightly scripted roller coaster ride of adventure in space. Once you have finished the game the limitations of the static universe quickly become apparent however and it begins to feel repetitive. My understanding of the X games is the very opposite. While the campaigns are not all that great the games give you a truly open world with a vast range of possibilities to explore. Indeed this is both a blessing and a curse.
I gave up on X2 back in 2003 after spending several weeks in the game.The thing is I am not all that gone on open world games. I like my games to have a clearly defined end point I can aim for and reach. I am very comfortable with the modern trend towards short single player campaigns that can be completed in a dozen hours or so. I don't remember too many details of my X2 experience but I do remember that one of the reasons I abandoned the game was the realisation that it would take me hundreds of hours to do anything more than scratch the surface of the game. I have put that sort of time into mmorpgs in the past but the social side of an mmorpgs makes it seem less a waste of time.
So I am still hesitant about X. The alternative is to go even further back in time to the legendary Freespace 2.
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