X: Beyond the Frontier
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X: Beyond the Frontier is a videogame created by German software company Egosoft for the PC. Released in 1999 by SouthPeak Interactive, it is sometimes abbreviated to X: BtF.
It is a space simulation game with open-ended gameplay, whereby the player can choose whether to concentrate on trading or fighting or a balance of both strategies. In some ways it is similar to Elite.
An expansion game, X-Tension, was released in 2000. Both were published by THQ. A true sequel, X²: The Threat was released in 2003 and its sequel X³: Reunion was released in 2005.
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[edit] Background
Set approximately a thousand years into the future, the player takes the role of Kyle Brennan, a test pilot for the X-Shuttle, which has the ability to jump from one part of space to another via a wormhole.
Something goes wrong, however, and Brennan ends up in a strange part of space, many light-years from Earth. He soon encounters some aliens, the Teladi, who are fanatical capitalists who are interested in nothing except making a profit. Seeing the helpless Kyle as a potential investment, they offer him a loan of some money and give him some hints on trading in the X Universe and amongst its various alien races (although it is referred to as the "X Universe", it is actually the same Universe in which the Earth is set, albeit hundreds of light-years from the Solar System.)
Although the player has a great deal of freedom in where to go or what to do, there is a background story involving descendents of humans who were lost hundreds of years ago in a war with rogue terra formers.
[edit] Gameplay
There are fifty different star systems in the X Universe, and within each one there are a number of installations. There is at least one space station in each system, along with various factories, shipyards and power-plants, and trading between them can earn the player profit as well as upgrade the X-Shuttle with weapons, cargo space and such things.
It is possible to trade within a single system, cruising between the various installations, but greater profits can be found by exploring further systems by means of jump gates. Eventually the player can actually buy factories for even greater profit potential.
Although each system has at least one planet, it is not possible to land on them, with the factories, space stations, etc, situated far from the planets and stars themselves.
X: BtF was praised for its open-ended gameplay and the large amount of systems to explore. The economy in the X Universe is dynamic, with the price of goods varying with supply and demand. For example, selling a large amount of one particular product to a single place will result in the price they are willing to pay for further consignments dropping in proportion to their demand The atmospheric musical score of the game was also praised, as was the varied dialogue it is possible to have with many different aliens.
However, it did receive some criticism for giving the player very little equipment to start of with. The X Craft has no weapons, for example, and these cannot be purchased until the player has spent sometime trading, during which time they are helpless if attacked. The ship is very slow as well, and flying between installations even in the same system can take up to fifteen-minutes. A time-accelerator can decrease this amount of time travelling between locations, but this also needs to be purchased, resulting in slow and time-consuming journeys for the first few hours of the game until enough money has been acquired to buy the time-accelerator.
[edit] X-Tension
In 2000, Egosoft released X-Tension. Although referred to as an expansion pack, it is, to all intents and purposes, a sequel. It takes place after the story in X: BtF has been concluded and Kyle Brennan, who the player once again takes control of, decides that, if he is stuck in the X Universe with no ability to get back to Earth, he might as well make the most of things and become an adventurer.
There is no back story in X-Tension, it is purely open-ended, with the same mix of trading, fighting and building factories.
As well as updating the graphics and adding a new musical score, X-Tension addressed many of the criticisms of the original. The player's craft was pre-equipped with weapons and a time-accelerator, and furthermore it is possible to fly different spaceships and even go for a space walk in spacesuit. The X Universe was expanded, with a total of ninety systems to explore, and even the ones that appeared in the original game look significantly different thanks to the new graphics.
One criticism shared by both games were the very basic manuals, and though some players no doubt enjoyed having to figure out to progress through the game by themselves, many gamers and reviewers did find it frustrating that they were left largely in the dark at the outset.
Both games were released in 2000 together as X Gold.
