Huge, freeform sandbox
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Never have I seen a game that does so many different things, and connects them together so well.”
Steam review · 70.5 h played ↗
X4: Foundations
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mostly Positive · 79%Mostly Positive · 79%Egosoft2018Space Sim · Sandbox · Simulation
$49.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 6 h ago
The verdict
A vast, deeply simulated space sandbox mixing piloting, trading, station building and fleet command. Skip it if you want a guided, polished game: the UI, onboarding and ship AI frustrate many.
Great for
Patient sandbox and empire-builder fans who enjoy economy sims, fleet management and modding
Main risk
Impenetrable UI and weak tutorials make the early hours miserable, so you bounce off before it clicks
What changed in the last 30 days
119 recent reviews
Recent negative reviews mostly come from newcomers stuck on tutorials and the UI, plus complaints about AI voice lines and flight changes. Likely but not firmly certain.
119 recent reviews
What players love
Living, fully simulated economy
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“No matter what you yourself are doing the Simulation goes on and it feels very alive”
Steam review · 238.4 h played ↗
Growing from one ship to an empire
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“From you all alone in your little starter ship, to taking over the galaxy.”
Steam review · 1415.1 h played ↗
Rewarding once the learning curve clicks
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“The menus take some getting used to, but once you get familiar with them this game is absolutely amazing.”
Steam review · 826 h played ↗
Excellent mod support (Star Wars Interworlds)
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“with total conversion mods like "X4 Star Wars Interworlds/SWI 0.91" (the best Star Wars mod for any game, ever) and "Star Trek: Starfleet Command IV version 0.3" there is so much content.”
Steam review · 159.3 h played ↗
Continued free updates from Egosoft
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“If you buy an X game you get many many years of updates and support for it without cashgrab dlcs.”
Steam review · 206.7 h played ↗
What players complain about
Poor tutorials and new-player experience
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews
“It's criminal how bad the tutorials are, and how little the game explains anything outside of the most basic of functions.”
Steam review · 2.6 h played ↗
Terrible UI and controls
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews
“a UI and UX straight from hell. Simple tasks require 2-3 times the amount of clicks compared to a normal game.”
Steam review · 1000.9 h played ↗
Dumb, suicidal ship AI
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“insanely bad AI which will fly your Destroyers/Carriers INTO enemy defense platform for no reason.”
Steam review · 339.6 h played ↗
Bugs, broken missions and save issues
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Save file corruption. I've done all the searching.”
Steam review · 1211.1 h played ↗
Poor optimization, crashes and memory leaks
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“You can play it for 30 min than it crashes again and again duo to memory leaks.”
Steam review · 6.5 h played ↗
Weak endgame and repetitive missions
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“the late game has always been the point where the universe stops feeling alive and starts feeling like a very large spreadsheet with spaceships.”
Steam review · 1390.7 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support35 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 10 (64-bit) or higher
ProcessorIntel i5-4590 3.3GHz or AMD equivalent
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GTX 1060 or AMD RX 5300 or equivalent (Vulkan 1.4 support required)
Storage35 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 10 (64-bit) or higher
ProcessorIntel Core i7-6700 or AMD equivalent
Memory16 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD RX 6700 or equivalent (Vulkan 1.4 support required)
Storage50 GB available space
OSWindows 10 (64-bit) or higher
ProcessorIntel i5-4590 3.3GHz or AMD equivalent
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GTX 1060 or AMD RX 5300 or equivalent (Vulkan 1.4 support required)
Storage35 GB available space
More games to check
Other games we’ve read the reviews for
EarthX 2
Very Positive · 81%Early verdict
+ Big improvement over the first game
− Too clunky and unpolished
analyzed 3 d ago
SpaceEngine
Overwhelmingly Positive
+ Immense, seamless, realistic universe
− Crashes, bugs and failure to launch
analyzed 4 d ago
−80%
Rebel Galaxy
Very Positive · 85%
+ Great blues-rock soundtrack
− Repetitive grind
analyzed 4 d ago
PULSAR: Lost Colony
Very Positive · 90%
+ Superb co-op with friends
− Empty worlds and thin content
analyzed 4 d ago
Weekly digest
Fresh games worth a look, in your inbox
The most interesting games we’ve just analyzed, once a week.Once a week we send the most interesting games we’ve just analyzed: the verdict, top pros and cons, and what changed. No spam.
One email a week · unsubscribe in one click