Albion Prelude feels less of a game and more of a temporary addon to give it a once over.
Yet don't let this fool you.
X3AP is standalone in the fact that you can't bring over your save games from Terran Conflict, meaning all that progress you made will count for nothing in AP. Sadly, this also means that the bonus content you got with TC doesn't apply in AP, as well as many of the bonus plots/elements including the HUB plot. Mods you may have enjoyed in TC may not work, with the majority needing further testing.
So what does Albion Prelude bring to the table?
Well, for starters, there's a new option now in the graphics settings. You can now set your visual distance from low all the way to very high. This is indeed a very welcome feature to have, giving you much more control over how far you see things than the rather obscure AQC (Automatic Quality Control) you had in the previous games. Essentially AQC is gone now, replaced by this graphic setting.
When you load up the game and select new game, you're presented with the option of 8 starting points. If you're familiar at all with the previous games, you'll know that these give you a different viewpoint on your starting, and in some cases have a different take on the plot.
The 8 starts are as follows:
Argon Peacekeeper (Features Plot)
Terran Commander
Argon Patriot
Humble Merchant (Features Plot)
Bankrupt Assassin
Anonymous Argon
Nostalgia Argon
Suicidal Squid (Dead is Dead Mode)
Unfortunately, as I soon found out, the game fails to tell you that the plot is only enabled via the Argon Peacekeeper start and the Humble Merchant start (only after ranking up with the Argon).
This is rather frustrating as you could be left wandering around space not having a clue what to do. The game starts also seem to be biased towards the Argons, and doesn't include the Split nor the Paranid, or even a normal Boron start for that matter unless you fancy the Dead Is Dead mode which is the Boron start...
After looking through all these options, and not having a clue which one might have the plot, but assuming that the Terrans will have their own main plot, I started up the Terran Commander game.
I found myself in Venus with 200k credits and a fairly decent M6. Before I could even get my bearings, I get a com message from a Terran military commander stating that their under attack in Circle of Labour, and I should make my way over there. Thinking that this was part of the plot, I slowly, but surely, in my rather big but slow ship, made my way towards the direction where I roughly guessed from memory that Circle of Labour was. I guessed wrong, and ended up in a dead-end system. Then I get another message, stating that their under attack in Heretics End, blah blah. It soon became apparent that these messages, after getting 2 more, were part of the so called war missions that you get.
This is where Albion Prelude starts showing its true colours, and not in a good way. The war missions if anything, seem random, and are hardly missions. You get a message that is in reality a general update message and not a message to you personally, stating to go to such and such a system to help out. If you go to the mentioned system, you'll find the enemies' fleets' make-up will be random each time. If you're the Terrans, it will be the Argons. If you're the Argons, it will be the Terrans.
Your input in these war missions is hardly noticeable or even recognised. You don't get a message or a pat on the back for doing what your told, instead you might get the 'The Terran Government thanks you for your assistance. You have been awarded 5000cr' message, which is as much as you can hope for. The war itself is very much static. When you start the game, the Terrans and the Argons are at each other's throats, literally, going to war with each other. The let down comes from the fact that the war is not dynamic at all, and instead seems almost glued to just a few sectors, and when I say few I mean a very small amount. The sectors also don't' seem to change ownership, at least not officially. I've heard reports of Argon stations in Terran systems but I've yet to see it.
While I can understand the reasoning for having the war contained within a small space of systems, it very much feels like a broken record. At this point, you come to the realization that you can't really affect the war that much, and as such you end up just completely ignoring it. Egosoft may have had the best of intentions when it came to this, but it was implemented poorly. Given enough time, the war missions could have been proper intense missions, instead, it feels like a static let down of epic proportions…
It wasn't long until I realized on my Terran Commander start that the main plot, or any plot for that matter, wasn't happening. Doing a quick Google and search on the Egosoft forums, I discovered that the plot is not enabled for the Terran start, but only for the Argon Humble Merchant and Peacekeeper start. So, feeling that I've just wasted an hour on the Terran start, I started up the Argon Peacekeeper one.
Soon as I jumped in, bang, plot starts. I won't spoil it for you, but I will summarise it. It's short…
Very short, possibly the shortest story I've played in any game. I was actually so bemused to how quick it was over, I did a search on the forums and of course was confirmed in my fears that I had just completed the main plot of Albion Prelude.
Well, that was money well spent…
Other than one frustratingly hard mission, the plot could be completed in less than an hour, if you blitz it, as in, don't do any side missions or bother to setup a trade empire. Even so, it's incredibly short compared to other plots that TC had and it doesn't exactly leave you with a feeling that it's a bridge for what happens in Rebirth, as Albion Prelude was marketed as. Instead, it leaves you with more questions than answers, and seemingly the plot ends in a rather pointless conclusion that makes little sense.
While this could be explained away as a result of XRebirth just being around the corner and Egosoft not having the time or resources to dedicate to the plot of AP, it did feel that the game was unnecessarily hyped up with its bulletin point features.
So what else does AP have to offer?
Well AP offers 30 additional ships. Some of these are taken from the Xtended mod for TC, others are unique, but most are just variations of already existing ships, some are bugged and shouldn't' be spawning at all. Frankly, you'll hardly notice the new ships unless you go looking.
There is however the addition of a stock market. The stock market also bears a striking resemblance to a brilliant mod/script that was released for TC. This one seems to have been optimised for AP however. Having played around with the stock market, I have mixed feelings about it.
While I enjoy the complexity of the market itself, it is rather simplistic in its implementation and allows easy manipulation with little risk.
As such, it feels less like a stock market and more like a cash-cow. It is incredibly easy to make money on the market, too easy, making it a near exploit, allowing you to earn well over millions upon millions within the first hour or so of trading. It feels it was just put in and not given enough time to testing for balance, as such, players may want to stay away from the stock market altogether if they want their money earned rather than practically given to them, seeing how easy the market can be played.
There's also the under the hood improvements that have been made. Capital ships' duking it out in a system seems to produce less lag than before, suggesting they have optimised the engine in some way. Combat also feels heavier as all the ships across the board are given tougher hulls, making combat lasting longer and tasting sweeter. However, this also has its drawbacks. Capital ships with huge hull amounts will cost an absolute fortune to pay in repairs, but shouldn't' be a problem if you try your hand at the stock market!
So, is AP really worth it?
Well, if you already own the X Superbox, give it a try since owners of the Superbox can download it for free. Those who have TC can get it for around a tenner, while those who don't' own TC can get the War package on steam for about 20/29 depending on your currency.
However, if you own a copy of TC, I would suggest to avoid spending that extra tenner unless you want to know the rather pointless 1 hour main plot that takes place in Albion Prelude.
The war missions are hardly war missions either. The war that wages across the universe feels less of a war and more of a skirmish. Once you complete the plot, the war continues, in a static feeling and restrained within a few systems, with repeating messages of 'updates to the war' that will end up as repeating over and over again. I can see a lot of players returning to TC simply due to the war that can't end… Yes, the war doesn't end, and it will affect your trading or access to Aldrin/Terran/Argon space.
As such, AP feels like a temporary measure to get into. Jump in, complete plot, jump out and back to TC or Xtended TC which I would highly recommend trying.
Summary:
Plot/Story – Very short 1 hour or less plot – Feels heavily disjointed from the series
Graphics – New graphical option allowing to change view distance is a plus!
Gameplay – Not much has changed, however the war system leaves much to be desired and actually negates the gameplay in a negative manner. Starting points leave much to be desired, especially the Terran Commander being a huge let down with no plot and little opportunity other than fighting the Argons.
Game Additions – 30 additional ships, some new, some old but different variations. A few new systems, not many but enough to warrant some exploration. Other than that, AP takes out more than what it puts in from the original TC game plus its bonus contents.
Score – 3.0/10 Sadly the game lacks in content to even warrant a price tag. Most of the content could have been added in as a patch (with exception to the annoying static war plots), a lot of it is user created content already in the form of scripts/mods. What you're paying for is essentially the plot, which does little to bridge the gap to Rebirth. While Egosoft have done a fantastic job with the X series, and I would say they deserve every penny they get, they didn't put as much effort into Prelude as they could have done to make it truly stand on its own feet, resulting in Albion Prelude actually being far inferior to the fully patched Terran Conflict game.