An odd, new-age space-trading game in which very little happens - at all. Having played it all the way through I can appreciate the feeling of place, whilst deploring the fairly poor voice acting and lack of much to do. Apart  from the business of trading, which is made dull by the immense distances  you must cross, the 'plot' involves ferrying things backwards and forwards  from one of the galaxy to the other, and quickly becomes boring.
Still,  on the other hand, it's hugely atmospheric - whilst the 'plot' is a big  cliche, the feeling of flying through an alien universe is conveyed  effectively with absolutely gorgeous, state-of-the-art graphics and some  enjoyably 'epic', Jean Michel Jarre-esque synth music. The vastness of  space sets it apart from the jump-point riddled likes of the 'Star Wars'  games. You really do have to fly manually from place to place, and it takes  a long time. Despite the hushed tones with which 'Elite' is still  mentioned, 'X - Beyond the Frontier' (a transparent reference to the  'Elite' sequel, 'Frontier') is one of a handful of modern children. In  fact, if you like this kind of game, there's the old, fun 'Privateer 2',  and the older, less fun 'Battlecruiser 3000AD', and that's about it.
The  pace is refreshing, too - for a few days the glacial slowness of the game  is a nice change from the hectic blasting of 'Quake 3'. This kills it,  though - after a short while you realise that there isn't really much more  to the game than just flying from X with cargo Y and back again, and if  you're into combat, forget it - you can't even afford a gun until several  days of play, and you won't be able to use it until much later. This would  be forgivable if the rest of the game was gripping, but it isn't, so it's  not. Nice try, though.
An odd, new-age space-trading game in which very little happens - at all. Having played it all the way through I can appreciate the feeling of place, whilst deploring the fairly poor voice acting and lack of much to do. Apart  from the business of trading, which is made dull by the immense distances  you must cross, the 'plot' involves ferrying things backwards and forwards  from one of the galaxy to the other, and quickly becomes boring. Still,  on the other hand, it's hugely atmospheric - whilst the 'plot' is a big  cliche, the feeling of flying through an alien universe is conveyed  effectively with absolutely gorgeous, state-of-the-art graphics and some  enjoyably 'epic', Jean Michel Jarre-esque synth music. The vastness of  space sets it apart from the jump-point riddled likes of the 'Star Wars'  games. You really do have to fly manually from place to place, and it takes  a long time. Despite the hushed tones with which 'Elite' is still  mentioned, 'X - Beyond the Frontier' (a transparent reference to the  'Elite' sequel, 'Frontier') is one of a handful of modern children. In  fact, if you like this kind of game, there's the old, fun 'Privateer 2',  and the older, less fun 'Battlecruiser 3000AD', and that's about it. The  pace is refreshing, too - for a few days the glacial slowness of the game  is a nice change from the hectic blasting of 'Quake 3'. This kills it,  though - after a short while you realise that there isn't really much more  to the game than just flying from X with cargo Y and back again, and if  you're into combat, forget it - you can't even afford a gun until several  days of play, and you won't be able to use it until much later. This would  be forgivable if the rest of the game was gripping, but it isn't, so it's  not. Nice try, though.