This is the third time I am returning to this game. This is one of those rare games where no one is leading you anywhere. There is a story line, but you can ignore it or return to it at will. You can play without it at all. What to do and how, it all just depends on your desire. If you want to deal only with the economy, the game has calm galaxies where you can build a trading empire and not fight with anyone. If you want wars, you can build a fleet and fly to distant worlds where you will find enemies for every taste. If you want to become a pirate, go ahead.
What I always liked about this game is that when playing it you do not feel like you are being imperceptibly led to some goal, as often happens in other games. And it seems like you are in a free world, but still the developers have created some kind of plan according to which you are led and imperceptibly led to some decision.
Here, you set your own goals in the game and no one knows what will come of it. You get a small ship without control instructions, it is not clear at first how to fly, you even want to quit and not suffer, but if you do not quit on the first day, then you learn more and more and it begins to drag you in. The on-board computer becomes easy to operate, if at first you did not know what to press, then you play it like a piano. You stop paying attention to the graphics of the game, which of course by modern standards seems unsightly, because Napoleonic plans appear, in which the graphics no longer play any role. In general, in my opinion, this is one of those freelance games in which you just live in space and do what you want.

X2: The Threat was my entry into the X Universe and Egosoft.

This game kept me sane on a long business trip 20 years ago.

Thank you.