X3 – Reunion – PC – Preview

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.