Recent reviews by Snipes

I got a nice racing wheel and was looking for some games to play with my wheel and stumbled across this game. I bought it solely to use my racing wheel with and wasn't expecting much. What I've found is an incredible game to pass time with and relax to. It offers plenty of challenge with navigating city streets and parking trailers in specific spots. But is also friendly to newcomers(You can skip precision parking and instead opt for just completing the job, or parking the trailer in an easier position, automatic/manual transmissions, and many other gameplay options to increase/decrease the challenge).

The game has detailed scenery that changes based on where you are at, and the time/distance scale means that most of the jobs you take are in 'bite' size routes, meaning even really long jobs, like going over all of europe only take a couple hours max, while shorter hauls can be done in 20-30 minutes.

You can purchase and customize your truck and trailer, expand your headquarters and hire drivers to make money on the side. Eventually, you can own multiple garages, all with their own trucks, drivers and/or trailers. The progression is good, you start with low paying easy loads and 'weak' trucks that can't haul much weight. As you complete jobs and level your character up, you unlock truck mods that increase your range, hauling capacity, and accessories, both cosmetic and functional(side view mirrors and the like).

I recently came back to the game after learning that VR was an option. This game doesn't officially support it in steam, and does require some special setup to work in VR, but it is amazing and has revitalized the game for me. Being able to freely look around is a game changer for this game. You can check your mirrors without pressing extra buttons, and is quite enjoyable. VR has made even more enjoyable to take in the countryside as you are going job to job and is exciting when you are exploring a new area.

The only downsides for me are some areas are frustrating to go through due to speed changes. Since both time and distance are compressed, sometimes you won't be able to get up to full speed before you have to start slowing down. Fortunately this only really happens in areas where there are a lot of towns near each other, or on smaller roads off the highway, so it is manageable.
Also, a lot of towns will have a very similar feel and/or layout, You will see certain buildings and street layouts copied over multiple areas. This isn't a deal breaker, but some immersion is lost when you are navigating the same layout regardless of what country you are in. This doesn't happen too much and some of the later map packs seem to address this and change things up a bit.

DLC:
Map packs
I started with no DLC's and added as I went, The ones I feel give you the most bang for your buck are the map packs, they add large sections to your map and some even add new cargo to haul
Hauling packs
These ones are good for new trailer types and/or new cargo to encounter on your journey. They also add some challenge, especially with the oversize or heavy weight loads, good to add some variety, but I wouldn't say they are necessary.
Tuning/cosmetic
If you see a design you must have, then by all means, these packs are mostly cosmetic and don't really change much other than providing new designs to personalize your vehicle and/or trailer. I have purchased a few of them and I like them, all the additions are detailed well and can be fun for adding to your game.

I have already spent a lot of time in this game in the past, and looking forward to many more. This game is still being worked on and added to by the developers and community(workshop) So I don't see myself stopping my trucking adventure for a while!

First.... This game has a steep learning curve.... it took me about 10-12 hours just to figure out basic game play... it is not an easy game. but if you stick out the few first few failed attempts(honestly, with tutorials, and outside help(youtube) it took me about 10 tries to get the basics of the game down to the point where I wasn't ill equipped to have a semi successful play through.

But.... if you stick it out, you are rewarded with an incredibly complex, unique experience(each playthrough, different events will occur) RTS on steroids.... it is an excellent game with a campaign that can easily take days of playtime to play through with near limitless re-playability.

Each playthrough, different events can spawn, the empires will mature differently, you will have different galaxy setups.... And I haven't even gotten into customizing your race/species or DLC yet. By the way... the DLC is worth it. Each provides new species options, random events in games, and options for play.

Overall, it is an excellent game. BUT you have to be willing to learn the game itself, and it can take a while, a few failed starts, or some research to get going.

**Update with DLC at bottom**

I do recommend this game, but only for certain gamer types. The primary thing you need to know is that this game does not hold your hand at all in how to play the game. You will have to figure a lot out on your own. In the beginning this was particularly difficult as there wasn't many guides out when the game was released. There are more out there now so you should be able to find direction from other players now.

For reference, my introduction to the series was X Rebirth. I have since picked up all the X games.

This game feels a lot more like the Pre- X Rebirth games. The universe is huge, and from what I can tell, different in subtle ways on different playthroughs. There is a lot to do and you can decide what you feel like doing for the most part in this sandbox of a game. There is plenty to explore, I don't think I have fully explored any map on a given playthrough. I currently have multiple saves going, 1 strictly trade and exploration, and another for a more combat oriented playthrough.

Subordinate AI is actually pretty good. In vanilla X-Rebirth, most of your other ships were useless unless you were in sight of them, a capital ship would commonly die to a small raiding party if you were not in the area, but would instantly kill them if you were near. This is not a problem in X4. The AI is able to handle itself within reason(A trading ship won't last long on its own, but a well equiped combat ship can hold its own just fine). Also there are a lot of options for instructing your other ships what to do. Setting up auto trading/mining is easy with lots of options. You can also setup ships to explore sectors for you and report any major finds to you. You can set what formation a group of ships flies in. The list goes on and on.

Also, whatever ship you can purchase, you can fly. Each ship has it's own cockpit look, and handles differently. After certain events in a game(not going to spoil it) you will also have a quick way to switch between ships. This allows for easy management of your empire and a way to switch up playstyles. Want to explore, hop into one of your scout ships and see what secrets you can find. Just want to travel around and enjoy the sights? take over one of your cargo ships and execute some trades. Want to get into a brawl? Go over to Xenon space and harass some ships, or start a war with a faction. The game truly offers a wide range of playstyles.

The economy is dynamic, this is both a pro and a con. Sometimes getting ships built can take a long time as some stations will run out of the necessary materials, and it can take a while for NPC trade ships to remedy the stations problems. So it is a good idea to at least have some trade ability regardless of how you are playing, if nothing else to speed up station supply recovery when you need it.

Since X-Rebirth was known for a rocky, buggy start, I'll just say this. X4 did not have any serious game breaking bugs since I started playing it from the day it was released. The game wasn't perfect and there were bugs, but nothing that ruined the game for me. Just occasionally had to restart the game to clear a bug(most common was every now and then I couldn't dock at a station, but saving, and restarting the game fixed it). The developers are active and fixing lots of bugs in a timely manner as well as adding quality of life additions.

Overall I am impressed with the game, and the developers efforts in fixing whatever issues do come up.

If you are looking for a game where you can choose your own adventures, whether it being a market tycoon, station builder, or ace combat pilot, and don't mind figuring out/learning stuff on your own. Look no further than X4.

**DLC Update**
I have continued playing the game and have all the DLC (current DLC owned Split Vendetta, Cradle of Humanity, and Avarice)

Split Vendetta offers a new factions, ships, and new pirates and a fun storyline with multiple path endings which will shape the politics of the new factions. This also adds some of the hardest, in my opinion, game starts(one literally starts you in you space suit, running out of oxygen in a battlefield). The ships added are some of the most 'glass cannon' ships in the game, incredible speed/maneuverability and weapon power at the cost of survivability, great ships for dog fighting.

Cradle of Humanity Lots of new systems, factions, ships, and multiple storylines to do. And you can see Earth. The advanced original earth humans with advanced ships to boot. and the storylines will affect not just the new systems, you can sway the politics that will affect the core systems as well as the new systems. Multiple ways to end the storylines so worth a few playthroughs to see how each choice affects the universe.

Tides of Avarice- New systems(not as many as the other factions, but beautifully crafted systems) new factions and storylines. There are a few new ships, but not as many as other expansions. Added with this update to the base game is the ability to salvage ship wrecks, so now you can profit off of destroyed ships. Expansion adds the ability to salvage capital and station wrecks. Storylines in this expansion do a great job of teaching mechanics that aren't covered much in base game or other DLC(piracy actions like attacking trade ships to steal their cargo, boarding, smuggling etc)

Overall the game has been getting better and better with each DLC and the Modding community is very active so you can mod the game to your liking and really customize your game to various styles of play.

Even in early access this game is a blast. There are still the occasional bug and missing animations, but the core gameplay mechanics are there. This game is fairly stable for early access. I've only had a few crashes when i first installed it. and the occasional message that an error occured while playing. but nothing that has been a deal stopper.

*Warning* Check out some tutorials. At this time all you will get in game are brief popup messages about what is needed and they dissapear quickly.

Once you have the core mechanics down, it is incredibly fun to explore and build stuff. As of this review you have one solar system with 4 planetary bodies. I can't wait to see what comes next!