X²: The Threat is the sequel to X: Beyond the Frontier. The player takes the role of Julian Gardna, a space pirate in search of his missing father. A new mysterious and hostile alien race, the Khaak, emerge on the horizon, and Julian will have to learn about their origins, intentions, and a possible connection to his father's disappearance.

Like its predecessor, the game is an open-ended space trading and combat simulation. The player is generally free to go anywhere in the vast X-Universe, provided he has enough resources and credits. The game features a dynamic market economy: prices rise and fall depending on many factors, which the player should consider before making purchases. The player can acquire weapons, equipment, entire space ships, and eventually space stations of unlimited amount, as long as he has enough credits to afford them. It is also possible to build factories to produce goods such as weapons and shields.

Numerous alien races populate the X-Universe. The protagonist's reputation among the socially inclined races can be built up by undertaking missions on their behalf, defending their space, or though trade. The way these races treat the protagonist and the nature of the missions given to him depend on his reputation rating, which is divided into "Mercantile", "Combat", and "Notoriety" categories.

Some races are irreversibly hostile, and will leave the player no choice but defend himself in space ship combat. However, the player can also choose to be aggressive, piracy being an available option together with trading, mining, and bounty-hunting.

[edit description | view history]

Alternate Titles

"星域大反攻2：威胁" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
"X²: Угроза" -- Russian spelling
"X2: The Threat" -- Alternate spelling
"X2: The Khaak Threat" -- Working title
"X²: La minaccia" -- Italian title
"X²: Die Bedrohung" -- German title

[add alternate title]

Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title
	X²: The Threat
	X²: The Threat
Please select your country: Not an American user?

User Reviews

So much potential - but oh, so many bugs.

Windows

Dave Schenet (130)

[review game]

The Press Says

Worth Playing	Windows	Jan 10, 2004	8.4 out of 10	84
PC Action	Windows	Feb 13, 2004	81 out of 100	81
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Jan, 2004	79 out of 100	79
GamersHell.com	Windows	Dec 17, 2003	7.7 out of 10	77
Entertainment Depot, The	Windows	Feb 04, 2004	7.5 out of 10	75
Jeuxvideo.com	Windows	Jan 28, 2004	15 out of 20	75
GamePlasma	Windows	Mar 23, 2005	7.2 out of 10	72
Gamers Europe	Windows	Apr 06, 2004	7 out of 10	70
Jolt (UK)	Windows	Jan 19, 2004	70 out of 100	70
AppleLinks.Com	Macintosh	Sep 28, 2005		40

[see more rankings | add ranking]

Forums

There are currently no topics for this game.

[new thread]

Trivia

Copy Protection

The various geographical releases actually have different copy protection schemes. The earlier US release uses SecuROM 5, but the later European and Australian releases (both prepatched to v1.2) come with the much stronger StarForce 3 protection. The latter installs hidden drivers that won't be removed when uninstalled, and can cause conflicts with USB memory drives.

References

Argon Prime is the major city on the Argon planet in the X² universe. The Light Works provided models and data for the realtime in-game cutscene featuring Argon Prime.