Well, much like how the NPC ships defy the game's laws of physics, the graphics engine defies the law of logic. Initially upon release, the game suffered a massive problem where the save game file size would grow exponentially, indirectly causing framerates to become crippled the longer a person played the game (beta testers? Hello?). A patch was quickly released to resolve the issue (forcing the user to endure the annoying process of digging up the CD key from his jewel case and registering their game on Egosoft's site just to try to get the patch from their abused servers), but surprisingly enough, the game still runs like poopies. Yes, granted, it's nice now to be able to casually fly through a sector with a framerate consisting of two digits instead of one, but, for some reason I absolutely cannot identify, engaging in combat voids my precious second digit again. Thinking hard, I cannot possibly comprehend why a few projectiles flying around would destroy my framerates so, but I have to add "terrible framerates" to my list as another reason why massive fleet engagements are completely and utterly useless to try and pull off in this game - again making me wonder what the point is of bothering to spend money on a large number of combat-capable ships. At least I never ran into any lockup/crash problems, though reportedly there are several who still have those issues, even post-patch. The special effects aren't even really all that astonishing… projectiles seemed to be of the generic "red/blue/green blob" variety, and explosions, while decent, are still surpassed by ancient titles (yes, groan again as I bring up another Freespace 2 reference).

Annoyingly enough, I think audio is the only aspect to this game that's going to rank decently - and even that falters in places. Best news first - the music is great. Whilst relying on popular tunes from its predecessors (which were good in their own regard, but still), X2 also introduces several new themes into various sectors, as well as one or two remixes. Some very fine stuff that I definitely wasn't disappointed with - even the combat themes are decent, if a little repetitive. Unfortunately, there isn't too much else going for this. Sound effects are workable, but no more (there isn't even any engine noise), and the voice acting certainly wasn't anything to dance about (again, workable, but only that much). The "ship computer" voice everyone loves and knows from the previous two games has been overhauled, sounding a little slower (and kinda depressing, actually). The game still uses the "piece together phrases" system to form sentences for most of the computer's dialogue, but some of the stuff it says just doesn't make sense - like when a locked target is destroyed without the player's doing, the computer will say "No Aim!", which, to be honest, still confuses the hell out of me. One possible theory is that the game is insulting me for not aiming well enough to destroy the given target before an NPC steals my kill, but with the low framerates during combat and crappy flight control physics, what am I to do?

X2: The Threat turned into a huge letdown for me. I had many complaints and problems from the original two games that I was hoping would have long been resolved in a practical, simple manner during the extensive development involved in this new title, but the only major improvements I noticed was a new paintjob, a new plot, and a bunch of new toys to play with. I really don't understand why the development team was so resistant to working out the obvious problems with their game engine before churning out a final, working product. Uproars from the community shoot down any attack on the game with "they fixed it all before!" or "wait a few months for the patches to come!" or, my personal favorite, "you're playing the game wrong and should try something else". Frankly, at this point, trying something else is at the foremost of my priority list. I can definitely see what this game is trying to be - an open-ended, freeform space trading title where players are free to do their own thing, interact with the NPC community, and just explore - but the sound theory on paper falls incredibly short on execution due to numerous flaws, both directly and indirectly related to the project vision. Fix the damn game up, give me an actual living universe, and a combat system that makes sense, then we'll talk. Until that point, I'm going to blast through Freespace 2 again and look forward to the online-only rendition of the game series (due out in the distant future) with hesitant anticipation.