![x beyond the frontier x beyond the frontier](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1Iag8+AJaL._SL1500_.jpg)
Mostly Harmlessįrom the outset, the game is a voyage of discovery, thanks to the fact that the manual gives nothing away. Later on, when you have about 30 grand, you can even build factories of your own - perhaps an illicit Bliss Place, procure a few defence fighters to look after them and indulge in some exploring, piracy or bounty hunting while the credits roll in. Unlike Elite, however, instead of having hundreds of systems selling the same commodities, each race produces a number of specific products, many of which are unobtainable (and sometimes illegal) in other systems. From then on, the game follows the legendary Elite formula of trading and fighting to build up your bank balance. Unfortunately, as with all computer game prototypes, something goes wrong and you are propelled into a distant galaxy from which you must find your way home.įound drifting in Teladi space by a passing cruiser, you are given the most basic of information, a much-needed MOT and a loan of 100 credits. TransportingĪfter a wonderfully atmospheric introduction that seems to go on for hours (even the credits are worth a watch), you start the game at the helm of the X-Prototype, an X-perimental and no doubt X-pensive spacecraft that's been developed to take mankind to the stars. Quite how it does this is difficult to explain, but shamelessly efficient German developers Egosoft seem to have arranged all their 1s and Os in almost all the right places. And just like Ultima Online, whenever you leave the X universe, you get the feeling that you're missing out, as if you not being there means some computer-controlled player will build a solar power plant or weapons forge right where you wanted to. Instead of building up skills and buying poleaxes, you build up your ship with better engines, strange time compression devices and more lethal lasers. You see, X-BTFis, in a sense, an RPG in space.
![x beyond the frontier x beyond the frontier](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9LUAAOSw6zBalRnA/s-l400.jpg)
You may not think Ultima Online or X have much in common, one being an online fantasy RPG, the other a singleplayer space combat game, but both immerse you to much the same degree and in strikingly similar ways. Maybe someone should have told him about X - Beyond The Frontier. Essentially, you feel like you're missing out if you're not there - hence the reason our editor, Chris, has a phone bill the size of Nebraska. The thing with online games like Everquest and Ultima Online is that apart from the human interaction, you become part of a world where if you log off at any point, it carries on regardless.