Poll: Poll: The Original X-Com Games

[YingDerpington]

So, after playing the new Xcom Enemy Unknown, I thought to myself "Gee that game was fun, great and had a good amount of challenge to boot. I think I should play the predecessors of this game just to see how good they are". Indeed I heard and still do hear many say the Original UFO defense game was brilliant and above all else: HARD

So I thought to myself, it can't be THAT hard...

Fuck me sideways and call me a nerd with no girlfriend because I paid for that game and it fucked me raw. At some points in time this game is nearly un-freaking-playable it's that hard! I now understand what the true meaning of save scumming is. Despite all this I am greatly enjoying the game. So to top this all of.

What is your opinion on the earlier Xcom titles and how they played? Were they more fun, were they harder?

Tips on how to not get absolutely floored when attacking bases or doing terror missions would be great as well. I already have heavy plasma but I think the game may have glitched because I can't do elerium-115 research as UFO missions are not granting me any of it despite everything being intact.

 

[Erttheking]

Gonna have to vote the new one because it's the only one that I've played. Also I think you might want to fix your title. It says poll twice.

 

[lRookiel]

I've played the old and new Enemy Unknown games.

Of course the new one is better in my eyes, it's more streamlined and more graphically appealing.

HOWEVER some aspects of the old one are a lot more awesome, like being able to bring up to 36 soldiers onto a battlefield (instead of up to 6!), that shit is awesome.

36 power armour wearing, plasma toting, violence junkies on the battlefield and you will stomp even the hardest enemies :3

 

[YingDerpington]

terror from the deep was designed from the ground up to be harder as the general response from players was the first game was too easy.

so not only is the dificulty higher but as most of the game is set underwater the missions you do have on shore you will find some of your best gear wont work like waypoint torpedos, etc.

but still to this day one of my proudest gaming achievements is finishing terror from the deep

I was under the impression that terror from the deep was harder because they didn't realise that one of the versions of the original (Either the EU or NA version) glitched and always set itself to easy.

 

[tippy2k2]

36 power armour wearing, plasma toting, violence junkies on the battlefield and you will stomp even the hardest enemies :3

Holy overkill batman! 36 guys on the field at once! Is that necessary at times? I've yet to play the original...

I have the new one and I am having an absolute blast with it. Due to me hating myself, I am playing on Iron Man mode even though this is my first time through a XCOM game. Even with four guys just getting killed in my squad (we will never forget you firelightning1, shrekfan246, Kaleion, and janjotat) in this last battle

Once I have played through this, I do intend to check out the original just to see what happens.

 

[lRookiel]

36 power armour wearing, plasma toting, violence junkies on the battlefield and you will stomp even the hardest enemies :3

Holy overkill batman! 36 guys on the field at once! Is that necessary at times? I've yet to play the original...

I have the new one and I am having an absolute blast with it. Due to me hating myself, I am playing on Iron Man mode even though this is my first time through a XCOM game. Even with four guys just getting killed in my squad (we will never forget you firelightning1, shrekfan246, Kaleion, and janjotat) in this last battle

Once I have played through this, I do intend to check out the original just to see what happens.

Okay so it balances out the difficulty since your troops are INCREDIBLY temperamental.

Say you have 36 guys, and half of them are rookies and the other half is your good set of troops you have had for a while.

You HAVE TO spread out your guys or shit is gonna go wrong REALLY fast (I can't stress it enough). If ONE of your good guys goes down or get's shot too much your rookies will freak the fuck out and start a chain reaction, shooting half of your squad to bits in the process. That is the most sound advice I can offer. The tech tree is bigger than the new XCOM game(by a fair portion to be honest) and the chrysallids are ALOT more difficult, tanky motherfuckers, you will be screaming "JUST DIE!" to your monitor. If you see one, DO NOT let him get to civilians or you are in for a zombie apocalypse. I literally backed 10 of my guys into a corner, they ran out of ammo and got chomped to pieces. Some of the most terrifying and not to mention AWESOME gameplay ever experienced.

Oh and one last piece of advice that I learnt the hard way. Keep one of your guys onboard the skyranger. If you don't have anyone onboard and you have to abort the mission (or if everyone dies) You lose your ship!

Any other questions? ^^

Oh and can you put me in your squad? I wanna be in someone else s squad. (I know weird right) :3

 

[tippy2k2]

Oh and can you put me in your squad? I wanna be in someone else s squad. (I know weird right) :3

I have no other questions for now. Once I start playing, you get to be my "Go to" guy for help

Also: Of course you can die for my entertainment join the squad! Hope on into the user group and put something in the chat expressing your interest and I will get on it. Keep in mind, there is currently a bit of a waiting list since I just got A LOT of people killed

If that didn't make you run for your life, here's the group:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army

Everyone is welcome! I always need more meat to throw into the grinder.

 

[YingDerpington]

Oh and can you put me in your squad? I wanna be in someone else s squad. (I know weird right) :3

I have no other questions for now. Once I start playing, you get to be my "Go to" guy for help

Also: Of course you can die for my entertainment join the squad! Hope on into the user group and put something in the chat expressing your interest and I will get on it. Keep in mind, there is currently a bit of a waiting list since I just got A LOT of people killed

If that didn't make you run for your life, here's the group:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army

Everyone is welcome! I always need more meat to throw into the grinder.

Sign me up bro! I think i'll name my squad after escapists as well (difference being that they have a 100% gaurantee of death due to hardness and those god damn blaster launchers)

 

[Windcaler]

So, after playing the new Xcom Enemy Unknown, I thought to myself "Gee that game was fun, great and had a good amount of challenge to boot. I think I should play the predecessors of this game just to see how good they are". Indeed I heard and still do hear many say the Original UFO defense game was brilliant and above all else: HARD

So I thought to myself, it can't be THAT hard...

Fuck me sideways and call me a nerd with no girlfriend because I paid for that game and it fucked me raw. At some points in time this game is nearly un-freaking-playable it's that hard! I now understand what the true meaning of save scumming is. Despite all this I am greatly enjoying the game. So to top this all of.

What is your opinion on the earlier Xcom titles and how they played? Were they more fun, were they harder?

Tips on how to not get absolutely floored when attacking bases or doing terror missions would be great as well. I already have heavy plasma but I think the game may have glitched because I can't do elerium-115 research as UFO missions are not granting me any of it despite everything being intact.

The original Xcom is my favorite game of all time. I still play it a couple times a week. Terror from the deep and apocolypse werent as good IMO but they werent horrible either.

The one issue I often hear from new players is they can be overwhelmed with the amount of freedom the game gives so try not to be scared off by it. You really do have to bea commader and micromanage everything down to ammo

 

[Dryk]

I have ONLY played the first X-COM, and I started around the time the new one came out. I find it very interesting that how deep some aspects of the old game for it's time, like the accuracy model.

For those of you who don't know, accuracy in the old X-COM worked by randomly changing the angle of the shot, with how wide it can go depending on the stated accuracy of the shot. Then it tracked the shot until it hit something, this leads to longer shots being harder without having to change the accuracy and the ability to accidentally hit aliens or allies you didn't intend to. It's MUCH better than the simple method Firaxis used.

 

[WoW Killer]

TFTD, the PSX version, was the only one I played. Apparently it was harder than the original; I dunno about that, but I never finished TFTD. That wasn't from sheer difficulty per say, as there were all sorts of unbeatable strategies if you got far enough, but the game was buggy as hell (at least the PSX version was), and would often delete your saves.

 

[Frankster]

Eugh its a tough draw between a fully modded and fixed original Xcom enemy unknown and Apocalypse for me.

On one side Apocalypse had a host of unique features and an interesting setting that saw you get really attached to the city you were tasked of defending (also liked how changing difficulty changed the city layout). The aliens in that game felt really alien and strange due to their biological nature and the story had some nice twists (finding reticulans of the first game being used as food by the new aliens, suggesting that the old alien empire we fought lost a war vs these new ones). My main gripe with the game though is turn based mode (so the classic xcom way of playing) is really painful to play with, so you're encouraged to play it in real time.

But then on the other hand you have the original xcom which is still far superior to the new remake (imo) due to being less contrived with silly artificial restraints and having more more possibilities and replayability (i do love the new xcoms cinematic flair though, it did some things right).
Now i said "modded" and "fixed" xcom which means bugs have been fixed and game balance tweaked+ui and controls are reconfigured to be more acceptable to modern audiences, and a few nifty features such as random ufo layouts and adding in TFTDs map generator in addition to the default one (resulting in tons of interesting maps appropriate in the zone the ufo crashed in).

Ok decided: Original modded xcom wins it out for me. Problem with Apocalypse is its less "pick up and play" and the pace is rather slow during initial sections of the game, original xcom doesnt have that problem as much.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Only one I have played is Apocalypse. Would love to play the new Enemy Unknown but alas, I don't have a powerfull pc.

 

[Azahul]

The original. I did really enjoy the new one, but none of the squad members ever reached the level of the mighty Vladimir Scharov. Seriously, that dude was amazing. He had enough action points to mind control three aliens a turn, and with a psychic strength of 98 and a ridiculously high psychic skill. This one Russian soldier single-handedly fought his way through alien strongholds, turning the enemies upon themselves with a flick of his wrist. The alien brain was slain by Ethereals under his control. No one in the new XCOM managed to come even close to that badassery. He was pretty good with a gun as well, now that I think about it, but it was usually easier to just have Mutons go hunting for enemies. Oh, and the ability to drop half a dozen other psychics and thirty-odd mooks into a fight to scout for them is something I missed in the original.