111–120 of 238 posts
Fans of XCOM should give Xenonauts a try. It's pretty close to the original, but the new penetration and building destruction mechanics make it really enjoyable in combat. If you are a big fan of the XCOM OST, I think you might enjoy the XCOM 2 Tactical Legacy Pack OST, which is a reimagining of the original's soundtrack. I played through XCOM 2: WotC with this and it was fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?l…
I don't know if the author reads HN comments, but the story I heard about "Terror from the Deep" being so hard was because people were complaining that X-Com was too easy, due to an unfixed bug: Any time you loaded a save, the game reset to the easiest difficulty level. Not only would people often not play in one sitting, but many strategy gamers aren't above save-scumming either. Result, a large fraction of game hou…
As far as I remember, the Amiga version did not have that bug. In fact some missions were quite hard at regular difficulty levels. That changed once you had access to psionics and the blaster as weapon. It became a large shoot 'em up afterwards (probably not at higher difficulties).
“ X-COM provides the merest glimpse of what it must feel like to be an actual commander in war: the overwhelming stress of having the lives of others hanging on your decisions, the guilty second-guessing that inevitably goes on when you lose someone. It has something that games all too often lack: a sense of consequences for your actions.”
All a consequence of getting to name your soldiers. Humans have so much affection for something they can name...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know what you mean. So many things are like that. =) But I'd really like to hear the case in favor of TFTD. I might go so far as to call it objectively worse!
Of course it's a matter of personal taste. But disclaimer, TFTD was indeed my first entry to the series. And yes, I hate the ship as well. The atmosphere is absolutely terrifying. It really made me clutch for the life of my soldiers as if it was mine. It was unfair, but not without reason, as even today our submarine warfare would pale against T'Leth. So close yet so powerless. The superb work on the graphics brings…
To a certain extent yes, but TFTD is objectively even buggier than the original. IIRC it is even possible to put the original game into an unwinnable state by simply researching things in an unintended order. Fortunately OpenXCom[0] fixed this.
One thing they miss, in the intro about "plug into the success formula", is that there was a single-level demo on a floppy that came with one of the gaming magazines.
The wacky thing about the demo was that you were given raw recruits with minimal weapons, and then put up against the most difficult aliens in the game! It was brutally difficult, even by X-COM standards.
The other cool thing about the original X-COM was the crazy stories that just came out of gameplay... a friend got the Blaster Bomb, and on his first use of it, had his entire squad get way back out of the way before he targeted the door of an alien ship. Turns out the squad wasn't far enough back, and it killed them all! Hurray for save games :-)
A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…
If you want to play the classic X-COM today, make sure to grab the latest community patches. I really liked the old X-COM games and had anticipated that I would not like the reboot very much. However, while I wouldn't want to miss the originals for the reboot, the reboots are done very solidly and in most instances I even find myself agreeing with the streamlining the new authors chose. If you want a tactical squad-l…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. If you want to have a quicker tactics game that's a tiny bit like some aspects of X-Com, then 'Into the Breach' is probably a better use of your time than Chimera Squad. Chimera Squad is an OK game, and good if you like the (rebooted) X-Com universe.
now that you mention it, into the breach is like the essence of x-com tactical phase squeezed out and prepared in a three-michelin-star restaurant.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you mean Xcom2 or Chimera Squad?
Xcom 2 is a disaster due to the arbitrary time (or turn, for the nitpickers) limits in all missions. If you don't rush via the shortest path or if you do the unthinkable and explore the map a bit you'll run out of time and die. And if you install a mod that removes the turn limits it becomes way too easy because it's balanced for rushing blindly ahead and it's like taking candy from a baby if you have time to scout a…
I only play through XCOM 2 once (my laptop's too potato to stomach another time at minimum graphics and slowdowns), but I felt that the timers weren't so bad, it pushed to move fast (agressive scouting) and not waste any time (no more overwatch crawl). Though there are missions with no timers or some where you can stop the timer partway through, so it's not always like that.
A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…
"Hey rookie, go look around that corner and see what's there!" was one of my main techniques for keeping the leveled-up guys safe... sorry new guy :-)
A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…
If you want to play the classic X-COM today, make sure to grab the latest community patches. I really liked the old X-COM games and had anticipated that I would not like the reboot very much. However, while I wouldn't want to miss the originals for the reboot, the reboots are done very solidly and in most instances I even find myself agreeing with the streamlining the new authors chose. If you want a tactical squad-l…