Poll: Should Xcom have a lower difficulty setting?

[Not Lord Atkin]

So I've been playing lots of Xcom: Enemy Unknown lately. It's a great game, unique in the fact that it's a strategy game that I like (which doesn't happen often with me). There's this quality about Xcom compared to most strategy games out there in that it's accessible to newcomers.

I like to compare the relationship that most strategy games have with the player to a father teaching their offspring how to ride a bike. While your typical strategy game will hand you a disassembled bike, briefly outline how to put it back together and how to ride it then sit back and watch, Xcom gives you a bike with training wheels attached, gives you a push and just when you start getting the hang of it, it rips the training wheels off and kicks you in the face.

The game is brutally difficult even on easy setting, repeatedly making me its little ***** and showing just how much it hates me. The game almost feels like a horror game at times, with a new player like myself dreading every single encounter for fear of new monsters showing up. And while I enjoy the challenge, sometimes I just wish to kick back and relax with a game - and Xcom has the perfect formula for relaxing gameplay.

So here's the question: do you think the next Xcom game should have a very easy difficulty setting for players new to the genre as well as those, like me, who find the gameplay satysfying and relaxing but somewhat thwarted by the difficulty in this respect? Or should Xcom just stay the way it is, mercilessly beating the shit out of players?

 

[Redingold]

I don't think it needs to be made much easier. I'd never played anything even remotely like X-Com before I picked it up, and I managed to complete it on Easy on my first time through, and more recently on Normal. Eventually, I might go for a run on Classic, though I don't think I'm gonna get anywhere close to Impossible. Really, the key is to be careful and cautious, and never try to rely on the RNG. I'm no expert, but here's some general advice that worked for me.

1. Seriously, take it slow. Nobody ever died by being too cautious (does not apply to bomb missions or terror missions).
2. A Sniper with Squad Sight is your most lethal weapon. Get one of these asap, and plan your attack around the offensive capabilities of the sniper.
3. If you encounter a group of enemies, don't go charging forwards to meet them, because you run the risk of triggering even more enemies.
4. Half cover is essentially no cover at all. Avoid if possible. If you have to get into half cover, consider hunkering down rather than shooting.
5. Satellites. Always be making satellites. You will not win if you fail to make enough satellites.
6. Engineers are more important than scientists. Engineers make it easier to build satellites and improvements to your aircraft.
7. Don't just put all your best soldiers in one team and always use them. Be sure to train up some rookies, so you have reserves in case of failure.
8. Pay attention during the enemy turn. If an enemy hasn't fired or moved twice, they're almost certainly on Overwatch.
9. Flanking is massively superior to not flanking, and is an excellent way to tip the RNG in your favour.
10. Always think about what your enemy might do on their turn. Don't put people in positions where an alien could get into a flanking position.
11. When moving your squad, make the furthest moves first, so that if aliens are discovered the rest of your squad has a chance to react, instead of already having moved and giving the aliens free rein too assult you.
12. Don't dash on your first turn. Move partway, so that if you discover aliens, you can use the rest of your turn to retreat. If you go dashing blindly into a group of aliens, then you've made a serious error in judgement.
13. Consider what could happen if your plans go wrong. What are you going to do if you miss that 75% shot? Grenades and rockets are useful for this, because they can deliver damage much more consistently. Try first getting into a position where you can use a grenade or rocket, then try using the rest of your troops. If they all fail, use the explosive as a last resort.

Some of these might sound obvious, but I found that unless I payed close attention, I would break these rules, and more often than not it would end badly.

If a more experienced player wants to offer me some better strategies, I would welcome them.

 

[XzarTheMad]

I don't see anything wrong with another, easier difficulty level. Personally I had no problem on normal beating it on the first go, but I played a lot of the original UFO, and it may have helped me. Still, I don't consider extra options a bad thing - if some people want it, by all means! No skin off my back. As long as they keep it optional, of course. I found XCom to be fine, difficulty-wise, so keep the baseline intact and just add a difficulty which boosts your percentages or your production or something, yeah, sure, go for it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'm all for allowing for as many difficulty gradients as possible, but in all honestly the game is already too easy on Normal/Classic, and too hard/irritating on Impossible. If it needs anything, it needs a new difficulty level between Classic and Impossible. And MAYBE another one between Normal and Classic, some have complained there's quite a jump there.

 

[LAGG]

It's very easy on normal already, I didn't check the easy difficult but I can't imagine how a even easier setting would be. Only if it where something you don't even have to take cover at all and just run and gun the aliens.

 

[Iwata]

I don't think so. Part of the game's balancing problems seems to be that Classic is too hard, but Normal is too easy.

Besides, the recent patch allows you to customize difficulty to pretty much make the game your ***** anyway.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

There already is a "Very Easy" mode. It's called Save Crawling. Make a move, save the game, make a move, save the game. If it's really giving you a lot of trouble, do that for a while. Then you can reload after any big mistakes. Not the ideal way to experience X-com of course. But if you are really having that much trouble with it, at the very least this method will keep you from getting too frustrated.

That said, I highly suggest you don't do it. Part of the fun of X-com comes from the heartbreak of losing a character you've invested heavily in. Or everything just going horribly wrong at the absolute worst moment and how you get yourself out of those messes.

Emergent storytelling. EMBRACE IT!

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

just to clarify, I absolutely love the challenge and the way Xcom punishes every mistake. I also play on Iron Man, because I find it more engaging like that.

That said, as a newcomer to strategy games, I find even Easy difficulty quite punishing. There's a lot of tension involved and difficult choices to be made, it's almost hard to enjoy the sheer fun of the individual encounters because of the stakes involved. Sometimes I think maybe it would be nice to be able to just breeze through the game and enjoy yourself.

 

[Requia]

I've not played Xcom, but isn't it turned based and totally devoid of twitch gaming? If some (rather than most, like FTL) people are having a hard time with a non twitch game that's going to come about from the game doing a poor job explaining its mechanics, not from being too hard.

 

[Pulse]

Only rely on full cover, don't dash into fog, keep at least a couple on overwatch, don't move your last one or two further than any other squad members, never rest your plan on one shot and assume 70% chance to hit is a miss.

Get a squadsight sniper, scopes and beamweapons as soon as possible. Keep a couple of satellites in reserve. Always do the highest panic missions.

Normal is the tutorial: Here you learn what works, what doesn't, what's worth your money, what isn't (aka shivs).

Classic is the game: Mistakes are punished

Impossible is infuriating: Yeah....

 

[Rack]

I just think it just needs to be better balanced. There are a ton of things in Xcom that are flat out The Right Thing To Do. If they made it so there were more viable options than engineer + satellite spam and moving incredibly slowly in the tactical maps then it would be a lot easier on the easy modes because there wouldn't be a ton of dumb "gotchas"and more interesting and challenging as the game scales up.

 

[Requia]

I've not played Xcom, but isn't it turned based and totally devoid of twitch gaming? If some (rather than most, like FTL) people are having a hard time with a non twitch game that's going to come about from the game doing a poor job explaining its mechanics, not from being too hard.

Please play Xcom. Impossible difficulty has nothing to do with the games mechanics. It's just pure, unadulterated evil. The other difficulties in the game are very doable and border on easy.

Topic of thread is the easiest setting, not the hardest.

 

[Another]

Easy seemed really easy to me. So I'm playing on classic Ironman, Impossible is truly impossible though.