X Rebirth 2.0 Relaunches With Bug Fixes and New Content

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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X Rebirth 2.0 Relaunches With Bug Fixes and New Content

X Rebirth 2.0: Secret Service Missions is a "massive overhaul" of Egosoft's sprawling, troubled space simulator.

Last year's launch of X Rebirth, the latest entry in Egosoft's long-running series of open-ended space sims, was an unqualified mess. Our sister site GameFront Metacritic [http://www.gamefront.com/x-rebirth-bugs-in-spaaaaaace/]. Bugs were the big issue but content and design elements earned their fair share of complaints, too. For long-time fans of the X Universe, it was a major disappointment.

But Egosoft isn't giving up, as today it unveiled X Rebirth 2.0: Secret Service Missions, an update that adds a new "plot chain" to the game allowing players to join the Argon Federation Secret Service. The important part, though, is that "2.0" designator at the end of the title, indicating that this is "a major update for a wide variety of gameplay mechanics" - essentially a second shot at getting it right.

The list of issues addressed by X Rebirth 2.0 is extensive, but foremost among them are a massive overhaul of the game's balancing and the introduction of three difficulty levels; several new commands for ships in your squad, permitting much finer control over their actions; UI and menu improvements; redesigned highway gameplay; the ability to deal remotely with lots of NPCs without the need to land on stations; and better support for joysticks. There are also multiple new starting points tailored for trading, building or fighting, customizable cockpit configurations, a new set of capital ships and "an overhauled visual look and feel resulting from improved shaders and soft shadows."

[gallery=2517]

There is also, as befits a relaunch, a new trailer and a pile of screens. It's all very pretty, as you'd expect from an X game, but whether or not it's any good remains to be seen. I'm hopeful - I've spent a lot of hours cruising the X space lanes and I was really looking forward to more in Rebirth - but also very cautious. After all, any game that's bad enough to make its developer apologize [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129753-X-Rebirth-Studio-Boss-Apologizes-For-Buggy-Launch] should probably be approached with a wary eye.

X Rebirth 2.0: Secret Service Missions is available now [http://store.steampowered.com/app/2870/] and will be given as a free update to anyone who already owns the original version of the game.


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Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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I've been a fan of the series for years, but it's too little, too late. There is no way this fixed it, the game was broken at its core and would require a full conversion to fix to the point of being just rebuilding everything short of the game's engine (and given how bad that was, may as well fix that as well). This game killed my favorite franchise, from that there is no coming back.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
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Ive actually played Rebirth with its update, and i can say the three most significant changes are the new highway system, a funcioning radar dispay and being able to order capital ships to attack.

As for the new missions, i learned from the games official forums that theyre the same as the generic missions, but harder. I didnt get to play any of those, because the NPC that gives the missions was not where it was supposed to be, if its there at all.
 

mirage202

New member
Mar 13, 2012
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Still isn't an X game, still a 'polished' turd.

Give it up Ego and just give us the damned X4 we're waiting for.
 

Karadalis

New member
Apr 26, 2011
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Still only able to fly the skunk with its shooter like weapon selection "1 weapon at a time limit"?

No deal Egosoft. Also showing off nothing but pretty graphics in a game series thats known to have pretty graphics (if viewed from the right angle, wich trailers usually do) is not exactly confidence boosting that this thing is actually going to work.

And what good do different starting options do if in the end your player ship will end up like every other persons player ship? Theres no real customisation for it.. once you have all upgrades... you have all upgrades.

Atleast in the real X games you could differentiate your loadouts to your liking... and had more then one gun that wasnt a version of "shooter space machine gun" "shooter space shotgun"... you get the idea.

But i guess that happens if you take a broken wanna be xbox 360 game and do a half assed job porting it to PC after you realized that it would never make it onto consoles.

Captcha says "main chance"

Oh captcha youre such an optimist
 

aPod

New member
Jan 14, 2010
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I fought to get a refund for this game from steam, they refused (dicks). I'll never pre-order a game ever again because of rebirth and i'll never trust steam as a consumer friendly service either.

F you Steam, and F you Eggosoft.

(still a bit bitter)
 

Candidus

New member
Dec 17, 2009
1,095
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Still can't leave the Skunk. Interiors are still uglier than League of fucking Legends. Sorry Ego, 2.0 isn't going to cut it.

Let me know when X: Rebirth: A Realm Reborn is ready.
 

Arakasi

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Jun 14, 2011
1,252
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I got given a credit refund because I preordered this game, and it came out a broken un-optimised, ugly, limited mess. I'd really love to see what it looks and plays like fixed up, but I'm afraid to touch it again for fear of being burned.