Lastest update 1.25 patch makes this game very playable. The X-Series games are sandbox after the storyline campaign. The campaign is huge and everything works, of course there are tips on the forums for some parts. I stopped using all the mods and really enjoy the vanilla game now. Once you have your first station running you will see how much depth in trading you have to manage. Assign some ships to your station and they will take over some of it for you.
Space is beautiful and the universe is much larger than even X3 Albion Prelude. It is divided differently, but not smaller. I have a fleet of ships patrolling sectors and many transports running wares all over trying to keep my business profits up. Every transport destroyed has an impact on the market due to the products it would have carried.
There are many ways to edit your 'save files' but I've learned that it spoils the game. The fun of winning, for me, is gained by figuring out how to earn the credits and build your empire and not just giving yourself 100 million credits. When you play this game just be prepared to spend many hours/days/weeks learning about the markets and the universe. Egosoft does make it easy to start playing, but the depth of their previous games is still here in X-Rebirth.
I don't mind that there have been bugs to fix. Microsoft has never made any software without bugs. We get a patch every Tuesday that fixes something more and that's been going on for years. I am okay with it because I can see the small things fixed each week. I play other space games, and they have frequent fixes too. I expect to beplaying this game for a long time.
If you got this game months ago and had problems, try it again now but be aware, you need 64bit Windows to play it and be prepared to not have your graphics on the highest settings. I have an 8 core cpu with 16GB RAM and two HD7850's. I can't run it maxed out. Likely when Egosoft upgrades the EXE to 64bit (yes, it is 32bit now) this will resolve the bottleneck and I'm hopeful to have CrossFire support later this year too. It's a beautiful game now however, it could be breathtaking once the graphics can be maxed.