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X-COM

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Re: X-COM

#161

Post by the_af »

neilprosser wrote: post #102

Definitely one of my favourite games growing up (along with Colonization). I'm reminded of one of my best gaming facepalms which occurred playing X-COM. We'd been playing the game for ages and had found it very difficult to kill all the aliens during the ground missions. We'd go round the whole map attempting to find the last remaining aliens before having to give up. It was only when one of us accidentally clicked i…

Definitely agreed. Both XCOM and Colonization are some of my favorite games! I like Colonization so much I bought it from GOG recently, even though I'm under no illusion I'll have time to play it.

In my games it was usually the Dutch that ended up forming the... uh, United States of the Netherlands? :P

Re: X-COM

#162

Post by the_af »

madarco wrote: post #37
kiksy wrote: post #35

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…

Totally agree! I played it endless times when I was young, and I was able to complete it (by destroying the mars base) only recently playing on dosbox! The recent reboot is just a tactical console game. It was fun for a while but I get bored quickly. Also X-Com Apocalypse is not on par with the original, but still quite enjoyable with the realtime combat mode.

Apocalypse was the biggest disappointment in my (gaming) life :(

Horrible graphics, different (but not good) gameplay, and worst of all it didn't "feel" like it was the same world of XCOM. All of this is subjective, of course.

Re: X-COM

#164

Post by cfontes »

neilprosser wrote: post #102

Definitely one of my favourite games growing up (along with Colonization). I'm reminded of one of my best gaming facepalms which occurred playing X-COM. We'd been playing the game for ages and had found it very difficult to kill all the aliens during the ground missions. We'd go round the whole map attempting to find the last remaining aliens before having to give up. It was only when one of us accidentally clicked i…

Syndicate is the 3rd one on my list.

Those were some great games.

Re: X-COM

#165

Post by TheAlchemist »

tomalpha wrote: post #135
m12k wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what it is about Colonization, but the mood and atmosphere of it just hit the nail on the head for me, and kept me coming back again and again.

Completely agree. For me the upbeat music really made the atmosphere of the original Colonization, and the later remake (based on Civ 4?) with its more downbeat soundtrack was much less enjoyable.

Oh yes !

I've recently, by accident, found some of the tracks on Spotify:

Old Joe Clark - Fiddle Fiddle Fiddle: https://open.spotify.com/track/7HgGcA99K6wvF2nBwTY8nm?si=f-A...

Music for a found harmonium - Patrick Street: https://open.spotify.com/track/5vKaYFrSdHcFYsSz9gaDQg?si=pv-...

Here you go back to teenage years :D

Re: X-COM

#166

Post by sergiosgc »

gibsonhouse wrote: post #139
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #134

I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknown on your first playthrough. You didn't know what lies ahead, you didn't know what technologies to research, and how to do what. New aliens were catching you by surprise all the time, and Chrysalids, god, they were so so scary. When I got to flying armor my guy…

I would recommend looking into the game Xenonauts. it captures some of that flavour.

Xenonauts is good, but Firaxis' Xcom 2 is better. The original atmosphere is very well reproduced, with more recent graphics and a decent storyline.

Re: X-COM

#167

Post by baud147258 »

nottorp wrote: post #129
eru wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

War of the Chosen fleshed out the turn limit mechanics quite a bit and made them more palatable. I understand why they added the turn limits, but I think the execution could have been handled better. 'Invisible Inc.' did a much better job of getting you to hurry up. Another interesting take on the squad level tactical game is Into the Breach. They solve the design problem of getting you to hurry up, by inverting the…

Heh. There's a textbook example on how you put time pressure on the player without something as peasant as turn limits in the original x-com. Terror missions. Having to save your civilians (and trying to not get overwhelmed by chrysalids that spawn from the corpses) is excellent time pressure. Move or lose. But whoever designed the "new" x-coms didn't notice that. The days of subtlety are gone. Btw, the reason overwa…

Though the terror missions are still there in XCOM 2.

Regarding the overwatch turtling, another issue is the pod system, as the player will always meet a group of aliens, which, so activating a pod is more dangerous than just sighting an alien in the old game. But trying to play without the Overwatch crawl makes for an interesting challenge.

Re: X-COM

#168

Post by parksy »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #134

I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknown on your first playthrough. You didn't know what lies ahead, you didn't know what technologies to research, and how to do what. New aliens were catching you by surprise all the time, and Chrysalids, god, they were so so scary. When I got to flying armor my guy…

The sense of mystery and dread that you mentioned touches on the only part of the article I disagreed with - the critique of the "pointless" weapons, of the game giving you a sub-par base and sub-par craft to begin with, and basically no guidance is what made it such an adventure.

X-Com (the organisation) truly feels like a hastily slapped together ragtag bunch in the beginning. Governments have thrown money at a problem with no real plan or strategy and whipped up something ASAP. They want results and it's your job to deliver them. You're the expert, they're more than happy to pull out if you fail. You are probably unprepared, but no one had any idea how unprepared, something you very quickly learn after your first encounter. That elite squad you outfitted with all of mankind's best aircraft, armour and weapons? Just got owned in their first encounter. Medkits? Basically useless when you're being melted by a single plasma rifle charge.

The clutter and disarray really drives home just how vastly outgunned humans are in the beginning and the story driven by player experience would suffer greatly if all the "useless" stuff was pared back and the starting condition pre-optimised.

Otherwise a great article.

Re: X-COM

#170

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #134

I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknown on your first playthrough. You didn't know what lies ahead, you didn't know what technologies to research, and how to do what. New aliens were catching you by surprise all the time, and Chrysalids, god, they were so so scary. When I got to flying armor my guy…

I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but wish to add that one thing I really didn't care for about the newer X-Com games was that the reverse difficulty carve is significantly more pronounced than it was in the original. Ironman helps a little, but it still feels like the real game is all in the beginning and you're just going through the motions after that.
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