X2: The Threat 20th anniversary

[Sorkvild]

A great and coherent game, the entire essence of the X series in one title. Nothing more nothing less.

X2 is on the shelf with my other favorite games. Back in spring 2004 X2 captivated me with its charm and atmosphere for good so once X, always X. Everything what X2 has to offer is coherent, well put together and complimented with great and nowadays nostalgic soundtrack, for a 2003 game X2 has aged well.

Regards and all the best to X2 fans and many forum veterans, refresh the good old X once again, there is no better game for long winter evenings And honestly X2 has the best main plot in the entire series, it doesn't' take long to complete it, GUI may be a bit clunky from today's perspective, but once this rusty key starts working everything goes like clockwork

Classic trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OnpSyFjme4

[X2-Illuminatus]

20 years already, what a nice day to celebrate! Thank you for the reminder, Sorkvild.

I think I shared my personal story with X2 before:

Q: Please briefly introduce yourself to the readers and tell us when, and how, you first came into contact with an X-game?
Earth year 2005. In the computer games department of a German department store I see a copy of X2: The Threat Limited Edition on the bottom shelf. I was asking myself whether to buy it or not, as the packaging was actually slightly damaged. Yet, being a sci-fi fan, and the game only costing 10 €, I figured there’s not much that could go wrong. The RAM I bought a few months later, in order to properly play the game, was more expensive though.

In 2006 I registered on the Egosoft forum under the name of X2-Illuminatus, and from 2008 onwards I became an active forum member. As a moderator, DevNet member, scripter and also simply a player, I participated in different ways in the development of the X series games over the years.

[...]

Whenever entering Argon Prime or visiting Getsu Fune, and the typical sector music starts playing, I feel reminded of my first start in X2: The Threat or of my first explorations of the X Universe.

I doubt I play X2 again, but whenever I start up the game for whatever reason, I get this nostalgic feeling of starting the first time. Good memories.

[Tranxalive]

X2 was the first X game I played, and is what caused me to become a fan of the X-Series. I don’t think I’ll ever stop coming back for more, which is slightly problematic because then I won’t play the other games, which are also great.

I can’t believe I’ve been playing X for about 12 or 13 years now, and I’m only a little bit older than X2, which funny enough released the same year I was born.

X games might be a buggy mess from time to time, or be a little strange, (*cough* *cough* X3: Reunion) but I will always try to play them. Even when the game has an atrocious release. I was there for day one of Rebirth. That was… something I’ll never forget… but I tried to play it anyways, and kept restarting over and over because the construction ship in DeVries would keep glitching or something, and wouldn’t buy any wares, despite having money, plus I think a few wares were impossible to get. Thankfully at least the music (All hail Alexei Zakharov! ) was spot-on. Say what you will about X-Games, but you can’t deny that the music is amazing. And I’m of course including the ones made by Thomas Egeskov (did I spell that right?) Peterson, Daniel Finney, and… uh. I think there was one more person, but them too!

Anyways, happy Anniversary to X2! …Now if only we could get a remastered version, that hopefully also fixes the Kha’ak pronunciation. (Oh boy. That caused me some horrible moments I wish I could erase from my head.)

[chew-ie]

I found X² when I was looking for graphical improvements for X:Btf - in a time when internet access wasn't a daily thing [in Germany], let alone at home ..

Was awesome whe I finally had the CE in hands (grabbed it at Ebay in good condition =)) - flying cautiosly attacks on pirate bases, playing the awesome story and finally being able to fly my beloved Zentaur through the nebulas of the Ore Belt, listening to my mass driver picking off Kha'ak who came out of nowhere. Wonderful times. Happy anniversary X²

[jlehtone]

I bought a graphics card in 2005. It had a bundle of two games, one of them X2. I had never heard of the game (series) before.

I did install and start X2. The game and story does start with the cutscene. Based on that I did interpret that the game is something that I don't like, did quit ASAP and uninstalled. (The other bundled game was worse.) However, some months later I was bored enough to check the X2 again, now reaching the actual gameplay. Boy, had I been wrong the first time.

"Assumption is ..." and all that, which we do also encounter in X Universe every so often.

[sMull]

Best of the series in my view. Spent so many hours playing it.
Loved the real time shadows as well, too bad they removed from the X3 series.
Also loved the second monitor support, where you can use a separate monitor to display various views. Very few games use a second monitor like that. Another example is Supreme Commander where you can use it for the map.
Just a perfect game. Brought so many cool new features to the series.

[EyMann_MachHin]

Unfortunately X2 was actually the game I left out.

I got X:BtF and while I was playing it also X:T. Unfortunately I didn't really see the advantage of factories then and was trying to earn the money only by trading with the X-Prototype. And I had the nasty habit of NOT saving every time I landed on a station (hey saving cut into my profits at the time!) I lost several hours worth of gameplay, several times so I somehow finally gave up.
It wasn't until some years later, I found myself being single again after a longterm relationship and found X3: Reunion in a shop and though: "hey, that was fun, time consuming, but fun. Let's try again." And made the same mistakes, losing hours of gameplay, because I couldn't make a habit out of saving regularly.
I bought the X Superbox on Steam in between and gave it another try, still making the same mistake. Do I ever learn?
Well I did. Finding myself with some time on my hands and half a leg less I started again with the X Universe again about 2 years ago and finally "finished" X:BtF and X:T and moved to X2 beginning 2023 and now I can't leave, although I'm through with the plot. But my imperium isn't fully optimized, yet. I am like that. If there is a game series, I need to play it in order. My damn inner Monk is terrifying sometimes.

Wait..what? X2 supports multi monitor setup? How? I am playing X2 in a window on Win 10, because on my 4K monitor that gives me the highest resolution, while being 4:3 aspect ratio. The highest "fullscreen" resolutions in 4:3 are less than what is possible in windowed mode. And I find the 16:9 fullscreen resolutions awkward to watch. But I guess I have to play fullscreen to make use of the "monitors" being on the second display? I really wish you could hack some custom resolutions in there, like a 16:9 mode that vertically shows the same as the 4:3 mode and extends the view to the sides.

[sMull]

Well im playing it on a WinXP computer and playing it at 4:3 with two monitors connected. The game automatically knows there are two and i tell it to you use the second screen for the various views. Works great, although it does decrease your FPS a little.

Go into your options menus from within the game, and see if you find the option to use your second screen even if you're playing windowed. Not sure if it will work though.

But yes X2 is one of the only few games that actually have proper support for two screens and which use the second screen as an actual secondary screen and not just to stretch your game out.