Some scientists think our reality may be a computer simulation programmed by aliens. After you watch X Rebirth—a beautiful universe simulator set in a faraway future in which interstellar travel is possible—you'll think the theory may not be that crazy. This is so ridiculously amazing that it may end up being as addictive as crack.


Just look at the image above. It's not just a pretty backdrop full of empty shells. Every little thing you can see is a real thing. You can walk into the corridors of those buildings and look through each of those windows. You can pilot each of those spaceships. You can live inside here. And it's just an infinitesimal fraction of this universe.

The scope of this "game" really seems to dwarf everything before it. The outstanding engineering and architecture of everything, the structures' impossibly detailed interiors, and the space ship design are so stylish and gorgeous that it feels like you are inside the classic illustrations by British sci-fi master Chris Foss, Ridley Scott's Alien and Blade Runner, and Ralph McQuarrie's Star Wars designs all mixed together and rendered in the vibrant and crisp 3D style of James Cameron's Avatar.


The massive scale of the universe itself is overwhelming: every element, person, ship, station, moon-sized factory and planet is interconnected in a real ecosystem. Everything can be affected by creation and destruction, trade and battles, harvesting and manufacturing processes.

And unlike previous space universes like EVE Online, the sense of intimacy is overwhelming too. The game works at an interstellar, planetary and personal scale. Your ship can travel from one distant planet in a solar system to a moon-sized factory harvesting entire planets orbiting another star. Then you can dock into that factory and walk through its corridors, interact with other people there, and even crawl into service ducts.

Basically, this thing seems like a portal that will transport you to faraway worlds in an extremely distant universe where beings and factions mine, produce, trade, and wage war. Imagine playing it with the Oculus Rift—the virtual reality headset that can actually make you believe you're in a different reality. There's a real risk of getting lost into a parallel sci-fi universe. Actually, you don't have to imagine it. X Rebirth's developers have already said that it will happen.

If it works like they demonstrate in the videos below, escaping to this dimension is going to be as addictive as crack.