Game is finished, all bugs are gone, game is cool and graphic are nice !
Then do not look the bad reviews on steam and skip the metacritic score, game need a revaluation.

I didnt played alot X3 but i think that Xr should be not compare to X3 because it's other game.
More in 2013 X3 had 5 years old and was finished and optimised when Xr started.
Now it's the case with X Rebirth , game is finished devs put alot of patch in and if you check the reviews X4 u will see that some prefere Xr because X4 have some bug too as Xr did.

X games are complex and egosoft is not a big box as some are, so they go out their games to collect money to be able to work on it again.
Which is understandable...
People have been severe, for example in Xr u drive a single ship, some was relentless on forums and steam to say that it was a shame and that it was not up to the standards X games but it is indicated in the description of the game that it is a new start and that it will be playable with a single ship.

"X Rebirth represents a spectacular new start for the adventurous X series, accompanied by a surprising sidekick, traveling in an old ship with a glorious past: two alone against the galaxy, who will play a key role in the upcoming events. ".

Actually its a bridge between X3AP and X4
AP is the title were the Gate Shutdown begun.

Which does not mean that we can not control a fleet.
So do not trust the evaluation of its beginnings, the players x3 were disappointed but then they should stay on x3, this is my point of view.

There were other things, at first you had to dock at each station to buy something and I admit that in 2013/2014 it was very annoying but since the devs have added remote transport, delivery by drones so we go in the menu we call the desired person on the station and we are delivered.

The devs was really active seriously to improve the game and the mods are very useful.
Still at the moment when I say that it would be nice to have something 9 time on 10 I find my happiness in the workshop or on the official forum of the game.

For example I just built a station and put a destroyer with escort to protect it, but patrolling the area my destro was destroyed by an enemy station then give the order to my attack fleet to attack this station but it remains with 5% life, I do not know how to destroy more than 95%, I thought it was because I was playing on very hard but by contacting a modder friend I learned that the stations were not 100% destructible and that only X4 was offering it.
But this one advised me to contact another modder, who made him a mod to capture the stations.
So I can now capture enemy stations, keep it or resell to my allies :).

Community is great and you can make good friends !
Have serveral mods and all problem can be solved.
But you have to know that you must be patient if you want to play a X game, it's not a game that will take ur hands to teach you how it work.
Once you learn correclty you will see how X game are great.

I run with 30 or 40 mods at the moment, some affect the backups or are not compatible between them then It must be tested and added one by one but it's worth it.

I see that some was complaining about the range to scan new station,
have some mod to up it !
Was reading also that one was complaining because only 2 stations in a zone, I have 7 stations in the same zone and not need mod for that !
As I said do not trust negative review, most of them are outdated I tested the game by my self and I'm happy in it.

So a finished game without bug with lots of mods can not have a negative evaluation.
The only thing I can fault is that game it is finished and that devs closed the chapter Xr ^^, even if the universe is big I would have liked others DLCs.
But in the current state of things it is possible to play thousands of hours and from there on out I will surely spend on an optimized X4.