Been a while since you found yourself alone in space? The likes of EVE Online too daunting? Perhaps a single-player offering with a similar scope can get you into spaceshipshape and ready for sci-fi action. Something like X3: Reunion.
The X series has been taking players to space since 1999, and despite continually seeing releases as recently as 2018, I know absolutely nothing about it. I've never come across it, mostly because it doesn't dare venture over to consoles, but in various PC magazines or videos or whatever, I can't even recall it being referenced in passing.
It's lost in space, except to those devoted fans who keep exploring the stars. How soon will I find myself lost in space?
Frustrations
Quite soon, as you will no doubt have guessed. X3 opens with a news report on a recent attack of some description by someone or something that sounds suspiciously like 'Cock' but I know for sure that won't be the spelling. This guy up there is important, and also currently in intensive care, but his son, a former pirate (compared to his father's military leadership or something), is willing to bring the fight to these cocks.
The news closes with a speech from this woman. I don't know her name. I don't know what she's speaking about. In fact, I can't even hear her voice over the sound of the music, and, abruptly, she's cut off midsentence as the video fades out and is replaced by the main menu.
There are no tutorials to speak of in X3, but there is a 100-page manual that you can skim read. You know I didn't. I'm sure it'll make sense. A new game can begin in several ways, and wanting an easy time of following along with a story, the 'Quickstart' option seemed my best bet, starring as the pirate son himself, Julian Brennan.
And here we are, in space, above an Earth-like planet, piloting a ship capable of who-knows-what, in a setting full of Lord-knows-what. Where to go? What to do? Good job we elected to follow a story because it's about to prompt us.
Not sure who this chap is, and I'd love some subtitles to find out what he's saying, but the briefing screen that follows is clear, even if it's technically a pre-rendered compressed video-looking thing.
Not reading the manuals does mean that I need to fumble with all the keys in an attempt to find the 'Go' button. QWEASD moves your ship around, but not your view. The mouse is inverted but you can at least use it to point your ship. The elusive 'Go' button is the X key to increase your speed, and we've been tasked to fly through a warp gate. Thankfully, it's right in front of us.
On the other side, waiting for us, are a bunch of fighter ships about to patrol the area. We'll be accompanying them to show them the ropes. I think it'll be the other way around, but whatever. Various little windows keep track of your target, and the right mouse button pulls you out of your ship control and allows you to navigate the menus instead, checking up stats, looking over messages, and so on.
I couldn't get too comfortable navigating the menus, though, as I needed to navigate space to meet up with these guys. As it happens, my foray into the menus slowed me down from their flightpath and inadvertently put me closer to the first fight with the Kha'ak.
As far as my systems go, my weaponry, shields, power consumption... no idea. But shooting is as easy as clicking the left mouse button, and even with inverted mouse controls (I'm sure you can change that, but do you think I'd try if I couldn't even be bothered to read the manual?), shooting these pyramidy Kha'ak ships feels quite good.
They didn't offer any resistance, and I felt no peril in anything I did, though I'm sure I was flying more like a pilate instructor than a pirate. The skirmish was brief and my mission could slowly continue.
And I mean slow. Space is big. Really quite big. Even at 'top' speed (I bet I can go faster somehow), it takes a while to get moving, even over 'short' distances of 15km. We're going to be hopping between warp gates, mopping up any enemy forces - a great way to introduce players to new sights, glowing nebulas, looming planets and the like while getting them into the action early on.
Fun Times
While I was practically floored by the sights in EVE Online, I don't know how it looked back at launch compared to now. Did it look a little closer to what I'm seeing here in X3? Because while it doesn't look absolutely spectacular, it does look pretty damn spiffy.
You get a sense of scale, and, importantly, the sense of feeling small amongst it all. There were odd moments where starlight appeared out of nowhere and disappeared again, but I can forgive that having emulated enough PS2 games, with their lights often shining through the walls.
I had to wait around for a little bit, marvelling at the view, fiddling with the menus, while the rest of my squad got through the warp gate. And then, out of nowhere, a cutscene of Kha'ak intruders.
Aggressive Kha'ak intruders this time, armed with evil purple lasers and everything. We're in for a fight!
Well, my squad are. I've drifted just a little way away from where I was meant to be...
At least I was able to practice leading my shots and could mop up those that tried to escape. It looked like quite a cool battle from a distance. Nothing Earth-shattering, but I guess in some sense, it was a little unexpected.
I said I knew nothing going into X3, which is true. But I had often seen the X series for sale on GOG, for example, and had always assumed it was a cheap or budget space game, not worth much attention from casual onlookers.
Now that I've fired it up, yeah, it's a little cumbersome if you refuse to read the manual, but there could well be something here for the single-player who just wants to roam space as they see fit. This is an Elite alternative if we ignore that Elite came out in the mid-'80s. I honestly can't remember one space epic from the next. I know this very 1001 list has taken me on space adventures since, but I could not tell you what they were called for love nor money.
Anyway, we've had a few skirmishes in X3 now, I'm a little more comfortable with my ship, and we've another long run to a warp gate to see what's buried in the menus. My, that's an awful lot of ships to keep track of.
X3 also keeps track of your pilot stats and your allegiances to the various groups. Can you really just set the Kha'ak to be 'Friendly'? Does that just put them on my radar as blue, not red? Surely they're still the main threat to the story, no matter what I call them in my menus, right?
Speaking of story, let's progress it.
A guy called Noah wants to meet with me at Goner Temple. Sounds ominous. After looking it up in the space phone book, I piloted my way towards the station, knowing I'd probably have to dock with it, but not knowing how.
I managed to get chatting with the station staff who gave me permission to dock, but it was awkward as I had to fly out into space again and dig through the menus looking for the autopilot to do it all for me. There are keyboard shortcuts to navigate these commands, but I'd forget them as soon as I'd pressed them. Something that'd change in time, I'm sure.
I docked, and once more wasn't entirely sure what to do, so called up my new best mate at the station to request a chat with someone, and he just happened to know who to put me through to. What is it you want, Noah? Oh, how I wish I had subtitles on these screenshots to remind me...
Either Noah introduces me to Sara, or she butts into our conversation. Whatever happened, I got transferred into the gunners' seat of a new ship, tasked with defending it from pirates. I wouldn't have to worry about flying, just about shooting, and making sure I didn't shoot too much and overheat my weaponry. Simple.
Too simple, in fact. These guys got nowhere near our ship. They're pathetic pirates. Every now and then they spoke over the radio, which only resulted in Sara delivering a witty one-liner back to them (by which I mean embarrassing, it'd be better to not speak, honestly).
The fight was so repetitive that this petty chatter repeated itself at least three times, all the while I'm sat back, shooting everything and ranking up some stat quite a lot. Then it came to an end, we jumped through space somehow to a green solar system, and did it all over again.
More waves of useless pirates, more terrible quips from Sara. This unexpected change of scenery was promising, but already it's gotten a bit stale. I want to do something else, and X3 seems to sense it too.
We descend to a planet, drop off some stuff, get attacked on the landing pad and are forced to escape through the city, firing wildly at pirates chasing us down. What is X3 trying to be? I didn't expect this at all. It's not the greatest looking chase through a sci-fi city, but it's one I never thought I'd see.
It's important to note, however, that at no point since being transferred into this gunners' seat do I know what's going on, other than pirates are attacking. I don't know what cargo we have, I don't know who these pirates are, I don't know who Noah or Sara are, I am very simply along for the ride, and that's it. I don't know where it's going, I don't know when it'll stop, but until it does, I'm here, shooting my way out of danger.
It turns out we've taken quite a beating from these pirates to the point where our ship explodes and I'm sent drifting in my spacesuit.
Further Frustrations
What's going on? What on Earth, or in space, is going on? Someone chirped into the radio as I was drifting towards the nearest ship. The captain? A pirate gloating at my predicament? Friend or foe, I had no idea, but I got on board and received medical attention. For how long? Twenty minutes? Two weeks?
I have so little idea what's going on at this point that the next briefing catches me off guard, and then it all goes wrong.
I got told to meet Sara at Farnhams Legend, which I couldn't find. My ship is now equipped with a laser that does something, don't know what. Somewhere in the menus I find my message logs and read a sentence that says I should have something or other in my cargo hold in case something happens. I have a cargo hold? How do I put things in that? What do I need now?
At the same time as receiving all of this, I was distracted by external factors beyond my control, but even under perfect playing conditions, I think I'd still have problems here - and this time, it's not even the controls that are getting in my way.
I just had to end X3: Reunion then and there. What else was I supposed to do? Literally, what was I supposed to do?
Final Word
I played X3: Reunion for about an hour, where it surprised me with its depth, confused me with its menus and caught me well and truly off guard with its varied gameplay, but I knew nothing of what was going on with the story, and that's the only reason I'd be sticking around to play it more.
It continues on from that of X2, so I read, but you don't have to follow it at all, from what I gather. You can set up and play X3 however you like. Want to be a trader? Go get some trade routes. Automate some ships to trade on your behalf, even. Want to fight? Go fight. Pirate? Vigilante? It's your call.
The promise of space, your way, is a promise I can imagine X3 delivering. It may not be as flashy as EVE, but it's not full of real people that can screw your over in seconds, either. It really is a game for people who want to scratch that lonely soul travelling through space itch.
Today, you've got so much choice for that kind of gameplay, with more on the space horizon. I've got Elite Dangerous. Can't work out how to lift off, but I've got Elite Dangerous. I've got No Man's Sky. Don't want to play Minecraft in it, but I've got No Man's Sky. Both games that offer vast universes of stuff to get up to, each in their own way.
Obviously, I can't compare 2005s X3: Reunion with these two. Maybe I should look into X4: Foundations. Or maybe I should keep the exploration of space as a dream I can never fulfil. I'm not cut out for these kinds of games. You can't give me a universe to explore and expect me to know where to begin. I need to be lead by a story I can follow and get behind, even if I'm allowed to abandon it after two missions.
There's too much space in these space games, but if that's what you want, a well-supported X3: Reunion might be worth a look - even if only to confirm it's not quite for you.
Fun Facts
Speaking of too much space, X3 was too big not only for an expansion to X2 but to the engine that game was built upon. It needed to be its own thing, and Reunion on the X3 engine was born.
X3: Reunion, developed by Egosoft, first released in 2005.
Version played: PC, 2005.