Interface

Youch!

All games come down to gameplay eventually. The graphics and sound can make a game far more immersive and hence add to the gameplay in a small way, but a game can't be great if it has a clunky interface. Only RTS games require a more seamless interface than a space trader does. In an Elite-style game, you'll be fighting, communicating, docking, trading, checking your status as well as that of nearby ships. A player will want as much information as possible on his screen for quick access, without cluttering it. He'll also want quick and easy access to more detailed menus at any given moment. The user interface (UI) must be clean and polished.

Another strafe run

He whines about getting shot

How Does It Stack Up In X?

X doesn't have a great interface. Fortunately, its failings are in the front-end (options menu, setup, etc.), rather than the game. This makes its quirks much more bearable since they don't take away from the game directly, although they will still grate on your senses after a while. Examples of annoying quirks:

• There is no mouse support in the start menu nor in trade/communication screens.
• When going into the graphic options, even if you change nothing (and/or cancel out of the menu) the game has to reload the current scene.
• The key remapping appears broken, since I could not get any letter/number keys remapped, only being able to pick from shift, alt, ctrl etc. Luckily this won't be too much of a factor since the standard keys are easy to learn and feel natural. The controls can be accessed from within the game by pressing 'k' or 'h', and a list of commands appears, with the corresponding key(s) by each.

Take that!

Ladda-dee wait for the shots to hit

Game Interface

Ah… onto the good! X has a very good in-game UI. The HUD is bright enough to be visible on all but the brighest nebulas, while at the same time not throwing itself in the player's face. It contains all the necessary information like shield and weapon status, thrust setting, target ID screen, and the best radar I have seen in a space game yet.

The X radar is a bit more complicated than the ones you might find in FreeSpace 2, X-Wing or Wing Commander. The player's ship is, of course, in the center. There are two layers of little dots circling the ship, indicating its plane. Other craft can appear anywhere in the 3D space in the radar. In addition to rear, left, right and forward areas, there is the vertical to deal with. This is where the radar gets a bit different. It has lines going down or up to the ship's plane (depending on whether it's easier to steer the ship down or up to view the target craft), indicating the vertical difference in your view and the target craft's position. It sounds very complicated, but it's not.

See the rapid sequence of explosions

The blasts are starting to wisp away

The radar will also adjust its range automatically, depending on the proximity of the closest craft. If something is very close to you, the radar will narrow the range down to provide more detail. If there is nothing nearby, the radar will zoom out.

More Good

One of the most annoying things a player can encounter in a game is repeat sequences. Whether it's a repeat CGI for every landing, communication, or kill, it gets old fast! X is kind enough to let the player skip sequences with a stroke of a button. Whether you've seen the cool interlaced-camera view docking scene one too many times or accidentally initiated a chat, you can easily get out of it, except the final part of docking. That is, while you wait impatiently for the menu to come up. Oh well.