If you wanted to fly a shuttle,first you would need to learn it from the ground.
While it does not empathize on storyline that much,and little bugs sometimes appear,soon enough it gets under your skin.
From the beautifull sectors and deepspace exploration,the breathtaking battles and the fidelity to what the real thing would work and look like.X3 takes you on a breathtaking journey where the limits are only in the mind of the players and community scripters,but we'll get to that point later.
While difficult to take the hang of it,once you start understanding how it works,you will cherish every moment you spend on that rich universe.
Whether you are a "truck" driver delivering goods between sectors,a pirate,a smuggler a miner breaking out asteroid fields,or a mercenary trying to get a paid job under one of the several corporations the universe presents,one thing is certain.Soon enough,you'll see those beautifull fireworks on the horizon and get close up to see what's happening,you'll get your savings off your underwear from all those pilots bailouts on the rim worlds,or the reward from escort,protect,destroy,deliver missions,and improve in your future in that universe.If you get a transporter,well,why not equip it and have someone to deliver the goods for you?
You can train merchants to become full fledged universal traders,but don't forget to give them a few guns and fighting drones for protection as it is a dangerous universe.
Pilots you encounter often have their ships to sell,if you're in a lucky day maybe you'll get a sweet bargain,or get ripped off,as they often come unequiped,with hull damage and overpriced,no matter what you want to do,soon enough the power thirst will come over you,and once you hire a comander and it's transporter to move the brand new factory you purchased to a sector of your choosing,the expand notion comes to your mind.
By creating station Hub complexes,you begin to see the buildup of your economic,or military power.
One thing x3 is very good at,it's a first person RTS giving you the capability to comand huge fleets or wings into battle.
If in the middle of a huge fight you want to get up close to action and see those space gun flaks shaking your cockpit,while in a capital ship,why won't you check out your hangar and choose a fighter to go out into the blazing mighty fires of glory yourself?It can get messy.I warned you.
But despite of all the in game commands,and once you get to know them,"User friendly" multitude of orders and options,you will realize that you have full control of your game,and fleet.
The equipment and weapons diversity is huge,given your spaceship compatibility with the big list.Mostly this depends on which race designed the vessel you are equiping.
But no matter what,all of the equipment,ships,weapons,factories,stations have their "info card" on it.Making it a lot easier to know what you are doing.
Then,you have the story arcs,unlike the big corporations simple missions and rare rewards,story arcs give you a unique prespective of the X lore,placing you in breathtaking and nerve shattering battles,and giving out unique rewards from beautifull ships,access to unconnected sectors and a little marvel called unfocused jump drive.
This one is for the true space explorer,if you're lucky it can take you to a system beyond the current galaxy,cannot count the times my jaw hit the ground while playing with it.And of course,soon enough comes your Headquarters,where capturing ships becomes a must.Your headquarters engineers can reverse engineer a ship you captured to add it's blueprint to the factory,that way you can mass produce it.
So,train marines or mercs and board ships you desperatly want,explore the universe or go on the hunt of the famous and rare space critters called space flies,find derelict ships and claim them for your own,visit our solar system or cap it for yourself.
It doesn't matter what you want to do,X gives you that possibility,oh
and the best part of it.
It's always evolving,thankfully to the great friendship amongst game developers and comunity scripters.So expect big wars,and the famous conquer and claim sector option,fleet responce and race wars.
A game that has won my heart,don't forget to get out in your Eva suit and do a space walk.
So don't forget to check it out,watch some videos online,whatever you like to do.
Hope you enjoyed my review,and i hope i was up to the task.
Thank you and good exploring
Beam me up Scotieee!