Easilly Misunderstood.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this history, X3: Terran Conflict, essentially, took all the late and greatest User mods, and expanded upon the game engine of X3: Reunion, and released the stand-alone game, X3: Terran Conflict.
The User Interface that we take for granted in TC, for example, was something made by the fans, and Egosoft liked it so much more then what they had, they put User-made Interface, streamlined, and spiffed it up abit, adding there own tweaks to it, and packaged it in with X3: Terran Conflict.
They have done pretty much the same thing with X3: Albion Prelude.
Now, many will criticize the shortness of this game, and state that it should have just been another patch to X3: Terran Conflict; And again, for those who aren't Familiar with X3: Terran Conflict (Or those who only played briefly, or within the first year of its release) Egosoft, Unlike most Single-player game developers, actually Patched the game, not only with bug fixes, But with new Content. For a game I bought, several years ago, Its a gift that has just kept on giving.
Sure, they could have tacked X3: Albion Prelude in a new patch for X3: Terran Conflict, however from both a gameplay point of view, And a Lore Point of View, the Events of X3: Albion Prelude, Happen AFTER all the other new content they have added to X3: Terran Conflict, and while some wouldn't mind just loading up a save and getting right to the new content, your talking easilly 150+ hours of gameing JUST to access the 12? Hours or so to 'beat' the plot in X3: Albion Prelude. From an Ease of use, and gameplay prospective, Being able to actually Get to the new content on the day I 'get it' instead of 3 weeks later, even if I don't pay for it, Is always pleasing.
That said, Is X3: Albion Prelude Perfect? No.
Is it worth $10? I think so, I've already put in over 100 hours into X3: Albion Prelude, and thats more than I can say about 90% of the games released this past fall. The Missions the Game offers, maybe short and simple, and almost ends to abruptly, That doesn't mean the game has to End after you beat the last 'mission',There are litteraly, Houndreds if not thousands of hours of gameplay left for you.
That is unless of course, you've already logged in around 3000 hours into X3: Terran Conflict already, Then you'll probably only want to fool around with the War Missions, The Plot, and the Stock Market a little before leaning back and waiting for X: Rebirth.
For those that have bought X3: Albion Prelude; heres some additional information for you.
There are supposedly 2 'plot' lines in X3: Albion Prelude. (If you've played X3: Terran Conflict, with the patched in new content, you'll understand what I mean by New Plots..
The Main Plot involves alot of gathering of resources, including probably the hardest part of Finding an L ship. (another reviewer here, didn't realize, an L isn't a ship type, but a Ship Name that belongs to the race, Xenon, that name there shapes by size in alphabetical order.) After that, its pretty much easy mode (Depending on your Fight Rank) into Finishing the Main Plot.
The Secondary Plot; Is the War Missions, however these are your normal 'Plots' Or 'Missions', Theres two aspects to these, The War Updates, And actual War Missions. Its possible these Are actually Bugged atm, for some people, but in the sectors the War Updates tell you to visit, various Stations and Ships are supposed to offer you 'missions' to help aid the War Effort.
However, These aren't like your normal Plot Missions, with a linear route, these are simply requests other NPCs make of you, that aren't interlinked between each other.
Is the Main Plot Worthy of praise and best story of the year?
Definately not, way to short, and very little content in that area; however it does set the stage, and...
Egosoft has Released the Bonus-Pack for X3: Albion Prelude, which includes several community mods that don't give you the dreaded *Modified* tag (and thus no steam achievements)
Egosoft has made mention already, that they will be releaseing updated content for X3: Albion Prelude, much the sameway they have for X3: Terran Conflict. So your $10 purchase? Your going to keep on getting new content as time goes on. Perhaps you'll beat it just in time for X: Rebirth... perhaps not. However, PHQ Mission is said to be making a return in X3: Albion Prelude, and hopefully more missions to the Main Plot, and something that actually progresses the War Plot beyond a War that Never Ends and blows up all your Ships that wander to close!
On an Aside on top of all of this, we have to give Egosoft props on there story, even if it wasn't all actually part of the Plot of the Actual game, but the underlying currents, and lore of the game itself.
Not only is the earth being Sieged by Aliens; After what could only be described a Terror Attack on a global scale (The Torus Blowing up), a massive AGI Invasion of Earth (AGI being Artificial Inteligence, The Precurser to the Xenon Race), you the Player, in order to play the 'plot' available to you; your only choice is to side with the Aliens, the Argon (Though they are Humans, a branch from several houndreds of years ago)
The common wealth itself, is seeking to essentially destroy Earth, or at least its Economy and War Engine simply because, they were more technologically advanced than the rest of the common wealth, And their sudden Appearance at the end of X3: Reunion, within the X-Universe, has threatened them with a Paradigm Shift, many of the inhabitants of that Universe, Quite simply would do Anything to stop.
I would Love to see Egosoft develop an Actual Terran Plot to this game, So you, the Player could actually experience Earth Losing in this war, Fighting Tooth and Nail and never actually gaining any ground, and doing almost anything to prevent your entire race, and your Home World from essentially ceasing to Exist.
And since they haven't done that, I'm giving this game an 8.5 out of 10. You can't really review a game, against all other games out there, But within the niche it falls in, and in this method, we would basically compare X3: Albion Prelude, with Terran Conflict, Reunion, X, X2, There expansions, and all the other Trade Fight Think Explore games out there. If TC was a 9.5, AP could just as easilly be a 8.5. And they won't get a 10, until they add the Terran side of the Plot and make it a heart wrenching experience where there Are No Winners.
If you liked X3: Terran Conflict, And you liked the Sandbox Available to you, X3: AP Only Extends upon the Sandbox, And offering methods of gaining credits, faster and easier than before, and making combat both Easier, and Harder at the same time. Easier may not apeal to everyone in the series, but the 'Easier' could just be a clever ruse to make you Complacent while the Khaak are scanning your wreckage for whats left of your meatsteak cahoonas.