X2: The Threat

Perhaps the finest game to strap on its space-trading boots since the seminal "Elite." It's better than "Freelancer," better than "EVE Online," better than the original "X: Beyond The Frontier," better than any number of Privateers, Battlecruisers, Freespaces and Frontiers. Best, best, best. Am I making this clear enough? [PC Zone]

Tremendously realistic graphics and audio bring the world of space travel to brilliant life. While the story serves as a driving force for the single player campaign, it never fully develops into anything worthwhile.

Loaded with enough features to keep a serious space simulation nut busy for a long time, however, its steep learning curve and surface dust can cause many a casual gamer to shy away from it, opting out for something along the lines of Freelancer instead.

X2 does offer some highly satisfying gameplay--if you're willing to stick with it. It's not a game that has any reasonable prospect of revitalizing the space sim genre, since it's from a small developer and isn't particularly accessible, but it's a game that highlights why the genre was once much more popular.

With the depth of everything and overall graphical sophistication in X2, it could have been a much better title. [Feb 2004, p.112]

You're probably looking at a good thirty to forty hours of gameplay before you start to touch on the high-level possibilities of X2.

There are so many details packed into this game that the learning curve is not so much a curve as it is a cliff and more than a little persistence will be required to get anywhere in this game.