With my 10+ freight and 15+ combat ships, I should be having all the fun in the world, but I really want to love this game.
Having a decent 2012 PC, the graphics are so smooth and great, music great, open ended, huge universe, endless side-tasks, fun battles, and a trading system - so far, what's not to like - but niggles that begin early on become more apparent after 80+ hours of play. Unless attention to detail, micromanagement and a passion for space trading games, rule your life, then leave this one on the shelf. For example, most of the menu screens are lacking mouse buttons, forcing the player to bounce between to many intermediary screens using the keyboard. Also the developers have seemingly avoided numerous shortcuts and simplifications that would make the life of the player easier. The interface is difficult to use, and doesn't appear to have matured in the ten years since the first game's release. This forces the player to attempt to remember huge amounts of information, or to ferret around in a variety of menus searching for it.
The interface is difficult to use, and doesn't appear to have matured in the ten years since the first The learning curve on this game is far too great, with a manual that barely does the game justice and almost no ingame assistance to speak of. The learning curve on this game is far too great, with a manual that barely does the game justice and almost no ingame assistance to speak of. You'l find yourself playing a clone-copy of Reunion with Xtended.
However, if you have Reunion and you have the Xtended mod to boot, and your not too pushed about finding out what happens in the next chapter, then don't bother. If your very much interested in finding out the next chapter in TC, get this game! It has the same pro's and same con's as Reunion with Xtended, with exception to a few minor details. They didn't have to do much when it came to content, Xtended did that, but storywise and yet the still very un-appealing poor voice-actors, could've been much improved beyond Reunions standards. X3-TC gives off a rather rushed appeal, like it was rushed.
Only reason why you should get this is due to the story and we all want the story to end at some point, but I truly believe this is where Egosoft got it wrong. If you got the patience for it, and the motive to keep at it then your going to enjoy Terran. The game itself is rather much the same when it comes to complexity, and thats not a bad thing. It comes to no suprise that alot of the team that worked on Xtended was brought over by Egosoft to work on Terran Conflict. For those of us, well some of us, who have played X3:Reunion with the Xtended Mod, the only main difference your ever going to notice in Terran Conflict is the story. The game itself is rather much the same when it comes to complexity, Don't believe the hype.