Thoroughly enjoyed XCOM

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I finished my third (successful) playthru yesterday of Enemy Within on Classic, having played Enemy Unknown on Normal and Classic previously. I don't know why I put myself through Classic difficulty again, it's pretty brutal and makes the stuff that happens in the base crucial where on Normal it was much less so.

Managing the panic levels was a mental juggling act on Classic and I really had to pick missions carefully and spend more early resources on satellites and uplinks to try and get more coverage and income. As it was, new weapons/armours were ages in coming since research was all geared toward getting the Nexus/Firestorm and building workshops and uplinks. I was stuck in regular armour/weapons for the first three months at least and no OTS either. On normal I could pimp out my squad before turning to the base stuff and it makes such a difference.

One thing I enjoyed about my latest playthru was having the "Training Roulette" modifier from the "Second Wave" options (along with Not Created Equal and Hidden Potential) which made all soldiers unique. The downside was that not one of my characters had Bullet Swarm. But the upside meant I had one heavy for example, with Lightning Reflexes and Will to Survive which made getting him right into the fray much easier and more rewarding. Another heavy had Deep pockets and with tactical rigging meant he entered missions with 4 grenades and 2 (mayhem!) rockets.

I had an assault soldier with field medic, revive and sprinter, coupled with Rapid Shot, Close and Personal and Deep Pockets. Gene Modded with the jumping and mimetic skin meant I had a supremely mobile healer with an alloy cannon, 2 grenades and 4 medpacks who could fire (up to) three times a round. I also had a sniper called "Ashley 'Ash' Williams" (since realising that voice 2 was the same VA from ME) who had sprinter, heat ammo, sentinel and covering fire. On Overwatch she annihilated aliens (at least once she had plasma and a SCOPE) and In the Zone meant she occasionally killed three or more things per round, including one-shotting Cyberdiscs. Highest recorded critical hit of 28!

I had one annoying bug though in EW which somehow locked my Covert mission at 6 days and it never counted down. As a result I didn't get any more EXALT missions or storyline and lost a lieutenant/captain soldier.

I'm tempted to try Impossible Ironman but I think it will only make me cry. Has anyone tried either or both together? What was your experience and any tips? If classic's first three months were that tough I don't want to imagine impossible, let alone with ironman on. I still need the Army of Four achievement too and I think trying that with Im/IM also would spell disaster.

Overall, a brilliant game which is both immensely satisfying and mentally exhausting. The challenge in the first few months is quite high, particularly if I do the Zhang/Slingshot missions (which introduce mutons and chrysallids much earlier than in the main story) but I've only had one complete loss of the game. Can't believe it took me so long to try this game out since it was in my Steam library for months. Wildstar Beta weekend is here now tho so a good time for a break I think.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

What I would like to understand tho, if anyone knows, is whether the aliens progression is strictly tied to the storyline missions I complete, or by time passed? eg. If I put off development of the Arc Thrower and building Alien Containment for example, can I continue for the first couple of months fighting only Sectoids/Thin Men, or will floaters and mutons appear regardless?

What I guess I'm asking is, is there a happy point in the story missions where I can stay a little longer without triggering the subsequent tiers of harder enemies. As such, it would allow finishing off the base stuff and moving onto the squad upgrades prior to getting the tougher enemies. I know the Base Assault is a major turning point but last two playthrus I've all but rushed to that point, but saved it for when I needed the worldwide panic reduction.

Even though all my playthrus have tended to finish around the ~190 days area, I feel like the early game is a lot longer than the late game, particularly since Psi powers and Ghost armour come so late (in Classic) that there's not much time to enjoy them before I'm building the Gollop Chamber. Saying that, it does mean fewer mentions with Sectopods...

Also, is it worth bothering with Beam Weapons? So far I've always just gone directly to plasma. Mostly because I feel the time spent researching it and the cost/resources to build them IMO are better spent on plasma which I'll just end up with anyway (not to mention that plasma weapons can be gotten "free" from stunned captives.

 

[Legion]

What I would like to understand tho, if anyone knows, is whether the aliens progression is strictly tied to the storyline missions I complete, or by time passed? eg. If I put off development of the Arc Thrower and building Alien Containment for example, can I continue for the first couple of months fighting only Sectoids/Thin Men, or will floaters and mutons appear regardless?

What I guess I'm asking is, is there a happy point in the story missions where I can stay a little longer without triggering the subsequent tiers of harder enemies. As such, it would allow finishing off the base stuff and moving onto the squad upgrades prior to getting the tougher enemies. I know the Base Assault is a major turning point but last two playthrus I've all but rushed to that point, but saved it for when I needed the worldwide panic reduction.

Even though all my playthrus have tended to finish around the ~190 days area, I feel like the early game is a lot longer than the late game, particularly since Psi powers and Ghost armour come so late (in Classic) that there's not much time to enjoy them before I'm building the Gollop Chamber. Saying that, it does mean fewer mentions with Sectopods...

Also, is it worth bothering with Beam Weapons? So far I've always just gone directly to plasma. Mostly because I feel the time spent researching it and the cost/resources to build them IMO are better spent on plasma which I'll just end up with anyway (not to mention that plasma weapons can be gotten "free" from stunned captives.

With the exception of certain types that are linked to the story directly, enemies will begin to get more difficult as time progresses, regardless of how far you advance. Otherwise you could simply coast along getting your stuff to the maximum before coming across the harder stuff.

As for beam weapons, it depends on how efficient you are at research. If you do it at optimum speed you get lasers pretty early on before you can really manage to get plasma available. My first time around I skipped them entirely, as well as a lot of the armours, but in later tries I've done everything in order as I needed more powerful weapons really early on due to playing on a harder difficulty mode.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

id dare say any strategy fan has, its a modern masterpiece


one of the few truthly great games in the last god forsaken generation

 

[Evonisia]

The enemies spawn as time goes by, which is what makes Classic difficulty so hard (since base management is so annoying). However some appear during campaign missions. The Chryssalid will not appear until your first terror mission (or, well, THE first terror mission). The Ethereal will not appear until the Psi Power device UFO mission, neither will the Muton Elite.

http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Mechtoid

This little beauty here appears in the fourth month, or the sixth if you're on Marathon mode.

Still, I also enjoyed XCOM: EU (with Enemy Within more so), it's easily one of my favourite games. Couldn't get into it the first time but now I'm hooked, in fact I was playing it on Ironman mode just before coming onto my PC to write this comment

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

My second playthru was Classic Marathon before I realised what Marathon entailed. I lost 8 countries in short order before I restarted and realised I had to rethink base strategy. I dearly regret Marathon as it even more brutal than just classic. By "make the game longer" it does it by doubling the time everything takes to build and research. When I saw that my nexus was gonna take something like 42 days to make I felt gut-punched.

The only benefit to the player is that because the missions come at the same rate as normal, levelling up (surviving) soldiers happened very quickly and I was fielding some high rank soldiers before the aliens got tougher. I don't think I'll play with the marathon modifier again as I think it made the jump to classic difficulty even more difficult. Of course, yeah, Evonisia said the alien progression was slower too. But the panic goes up at the same rate and with satellite and facility building times increased it is super tough. I started in Asia thinking the bonus would be great for mid-late game and got sats over S. America as soon as panic/money/capacity allowed. Maybe Africa would've been a better choice for the early game benefit?

id dare say any strategy fan has, its a modern masterpiece

Absolutely agree. Turned based strategy games are not normally my thing, but XCOM is something special. It says something that right now I'm debating whether I'm burned out on it or will put myself back through the relentless challenge of a new game. I want to see the EXALT stuff I missed and want the achievements for ironman and/or impossible. Doing both at once might be pushing my ability. I can't imagine anyone playing impossible with marathon AND ironman.

Couldn't get into it the first time but now I'm hooked, in fact I was playing it on Ironman mode just before coming onto my PC to write this comment

How are you finding it? What difficulty are playing at? Has your playstyle changed?

 

[Johnson McGee]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

I loved the original but having soldiers still in the skyranger with no possible line of sight get mind controlled 2-3 turns in was annoying as hell (especially when the reason they're there is because they have blaster bombs or are psi troops themselves).

I think EW helped a lot with injecting some strategy. Things like the mimic beacons and gene mods opened a lot of strategic avenues past just trying to max the aim stat. Tactical rigging is such a simple change that opens up the game a lot as well.

At the same time I wish they had fleshed out the covert ops a bit more, playing the same two missions over and over gets dull after a while (especially on marathon). Having an Apocalypse style influence percentage with governments or capturing EXALT agents to get info would have been more interesting.

The last minor complaint I had was that the first Portent mission happens too early, making it supremely difficult if you haven't gotten MECs or high level soldiers yet, while the second mission is delayed until you unlock psi powers. Meaning that the EXALT operative you capture has been getting interrogated for about 6 months straight or more.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

Agreed. But the shooting feels more screwed in the new game than the original.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

As for beam weapons, it depends on how efficient you are at research. If you do it at optimum speed you get lasers pretty early on before you can really manage to get plasma available. My first time around I skipped them entirely, as well as a lot of the armours, but in later tries I've done everything in order as I needed more powerful weapons really early on due to playing on a harder difficulty mode.

When did you do all the research then? I found the start occupied by all the base stuff and basics. I saved the interrogations/autopsies for when I had the S. America continental bonus and got the early armours done. In the rush to get the firestorm and nexus research out of the way there wasn't time to do beam weapons before plasma started appearing.

I'm wondering if that might be an advantage actually to doing the slingshot missions. When the mutons appear at the train station, it's maybe a month or so before they appear in game, but capturing one would make plasma rifle research available quite early...month 2 maybe?

 

[Evonisia]

Couldn't get into it the first time but now I'm hooked, in fact I was playing it on Ironman mode just before coming onto my PC to write this comment

How are you finding it? What difficulty are playing at? Has your playstyle changed?

Ironman Mode on Normal. Before I started this playthrough I would save scum a lot, to the point where if a soldier who had the name of somebody I liked died I'd reload. Ironman's reminding me to send out a single soldier to get the enemy soldiers to spawn before retreating. Typically I used to use two snipers, two support and it varied on the other two.

Now I use two snipers (one with the walking buff, the other with the friendly sight buff) and I tend to avoid using Assault unless I need to use the Arc Thrower. I also always start on South America now, because autopsies and interrogations can really get in the way of your progress otherwise.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

Agreed. But the shooting feels more screwed in the new game than the original.

i disagree


dont get me wrong, i like the old X-COM, id say its one of the best strategy game ever, and i can safely say im not blinded by nostalgia, since i played it AFTER the new XCOM, since i had enjoyed it so much, amazing how well this 20 year old game holds up


i still think the new game is better than the old game, but some things the old game does better, for starters the destructible terrain plays a much bigger role, since you can manually aim at obstacles and different materials can sustain different levels of damage, unlike the new XCOM where if i recall correctly, grenades can destroy UFO walls

also i think all the parts stick together much better in the old game, it kind of feels like a simulation, in the new game, a lot of things feel arbitrary, aliens begin abductions now because the game says so, alien activity stops in countries with satellite coverage because the game says so, i cant shoot mind controlled aliens because the game says so, etc

in the old game you can detect UFOs doing abduction missions, terror missions, alien base construction missions, XCOM base attack missions, etc. you can intercept alien ships on their way to their objectives, and the mission terrain changes depending on where the ship landed, a day and night cycle that actually affects how battles are fought, plus you cant recover any alien wreckage if you shoot the UFO down over water

in the old game, even towards the end, it wasnt that rare to lose soldiers, while in XCOM, your soldiers become kind of OP by the end and there isnt that much of a risk of losing them

also the entire geoscape aspect of the game is a million times better in the original game, no questions about it


that being said there are many things in which the old game falls short and some stuff the new game does right:

the old game had a fucking terrible UI everyone knows this

the old game also had a ton of dice rolls, the damage in particular in infuriating, you can get your very best soldier clad in the very best armor killed in one single shot, is fucking ridiculous, the amount of resources and time you put in that guy, gone in one shot. also when you shot down an UFO theres a 75% change the elirium stored in it explodes, killing your enthusiasm for finishing the mission because you will not get any elirium for completing the mission (i must say tough it kind of looks cool how he game models all this, i once found an UFO wreckage that was nothing but the floor of the ship and a wall)

some pretty pointless mechanics, such as the excessive inventory tetris and all the hassle of using a simple med kit

like i mentioned, psy powers in the old game


as for the stuff the new XCOM has going for it:

i love the RPG elements, soldiers leveling up and learning new abilities make them more useful and unique than in the original game

im sorry but the shooting feels right, the animations, the phrases, the sound, it all feels so satisfying, "X-ray neutralized!"

a better firearm selection, rifles, shotguns, machineguns and snipers, all working different from one another

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I loved it as well, though I still need to purchase Enemy Within.
Adored the difficulty of it all, even on Impossible mode where you sometimes need to use cheap tricks to win (like slowly moving your soldiers in a line around the map to avoid being noticed).

You can also employ a lot of different strategies to challenge yourself. Like focusing more on assaults instead of snipers, going full on support etc. I also love focusing on the capture of aliens early on. It's difficult at first, but the game becomes progressively easier once you have some light plasma rifles and pistols on your soldiers, it's a big victory if you manage to stun a couple of floaters or mutons and complete a mission early on.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

Agreed. But the shooting feels more screwed in the new game than the original.

i disagree


dont get me wrong, i like the old X-COM, id say its one of the best strategy game ever, and i can safely say im not blinded by nostalgia, since i played it AFTER the new XCOM, since i had enjoyed it so much, amazing how well this 20 year old game holds up


i still think the new game is better than the old game, but some things the old game does better, for starters the destructible terrain plays a much bigger role, since you can manually aim at obstacles and different materials can sustain different levels of damage, unlike the new XCOM where if i recall correctly, grenades can destroy UFO walls

also i think all the parts stick together much better in the old game, it kind of feels like a simulation, in the new game, a lot of things feel arbitrary, aliens begin abductions now because the game says so, alien activity stops in countries with satellite coverage because the game says so, i cant shoot mind controlled aliens because the game says so, etc

in the old game you can detect UFOs doing abduction missions, terror missions, alien base construction missions, XCOM base attack missions, etc. you can intercept alien ships on their way to their objectives, and the mission terrain changes depending on where the ship landed, a day and night cycle that actually affects how battles are fought, plus you cant recover any alien wreckage if you shoot the UFO down over water

in the old game, even towards the end, it wasnt that rare to lose soldiers, while in XCOM, your soldiers become kind of OP by the end and there isnt that much of a risk of losing them

also the entire geoscape aspect of the game is a million times better in the original game, no questions about it


that being said there are many things in which the old game falls short and some stuff the new game does right:

the old game had a fucking terrible UI everyone knows this

the old game also had a ton of dice rolls, the damage in particular in infuriating, you can get your very best soldier clad in the very best armor killed in one single shot, is fucking ridiculous, the amount of resources and time you put in that guy, gone in one shot. also when you shot down an UFO theres a 75% change the elirium stored in it explodes, killing your enthusiasm for finishing the mission because you will not get any elirium for completing the mission (i must say tough it kind of looks cool how he game models all this, i once found an UFO wreckage that was nothing but the floor of the ship and a wall)

some pretty pointless mechanics, such as the excessive inventory tetris and all the hassle of using a simple med kit

like i mentioned, psy powers in the old game


as for the stuff the new XCOM has going for it:

i love the RPG elements, soldiers leveling up and learning new abilities make them more useful and unique than in the original game

im sorry but the shooting feels right, the animations, the phrases, the sound, it all feels so satisfying, "X-ray neutralized!"

a better firearm selection, rifles, shotguns, machineguns and snipers, all working different from one another

Its not about nostalgia. I still play the original XCOM and its sequel way more than the new one. The new game is way linear and you have less control. Also the original, for me, plays better even now an ive played them both atleast 200+ hours. Just to many bullshit misses on the new game when shooting an enemy close range. Just got stupid when you miss more than you hit even when 2 squares away. Leveling up didnt matter when enemies can still one hit kill you. I think if they added the ability to find the enemy and attack them, like the original, then it would be better. The whole you surprise the enemy and they just run to cover was bullshit in my opinion, ok it made it harder, but it also made it impossible to gain an advantage or use strategy to trap them. Its great you enjoy the new game, and it is a good game, just prefer the older games.

Cant wait for a sequel.

 

[tippy2k2]

I've played through it a couple of times with my poor Escapist soldiers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play] here getting repeatedly melted/zombified/brutally murdered (and the crazy sum'bitches just keeping coming back for more )

I've played through the game with the "Let's Play" (see link) format once on Normal, which was successful. Unfortunately all three of my attempts at Classic failed miserably with many brave soldiers paying the ultimate price for my stupidity/bad luck (once in Enemy Within). However, the thing that I think makes XCOM so great is that I never felt like those losses were not my fault. Sometimes I didn't upgrade quite correctly. Other times I pushed too hard when retreating would have been the better option. And of course sometimes I just did something really really really really stupid and got everyone murdered Individual battles sometimes gives you the bullshit beat down with unlucky RNG shots but I also found miracles in missions that should have been lost via the RNG; Overall, the RNG's blessings and curses seemed consistent through the entire game.

What an awesome game. I should consider conscripting the men for one more charge into the fight...

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I think if they added the ability to find the enemy and attack them, like the original, then it would be better. The whole you surprise the enemy and they just run to cover was bullshit in my opinion, ok it made it harder, but it also made it impossible to gain an advantage or use strategy to trap them.

You can actually mod that into the new game using XCOM ToolBoks [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/79/?] (check "Revealed Aliens Move After XCOM Turn").

 

[Guy from the 80's]

id dare say any strategy fan has, its a modern masterpiece


one of the few truthly great games in the last god forsaken generation

Sorry to be a cynic. I liked the game in the beginning but the fact that aliens were "triggered" as soon as you came within visual distance reveals the shortcomings of the game. In the originals you can ambush aliens if they hadn't spotted you, but that would be impossible here as it would make the game just too difficult if the AI did it to you. Imagine kids today dying as often as in the originals, the game would not sell any copies. So instead they dumb it down and the result became a very repetitive gameplay.

I think if they added the ability to find the enemy and attack them, like the original, then it would be better. The whole you surprise the enemy and they just run to cover was bullshit in my opinion, ok it made it harder, but it also made it impossible to gain an advantage or use strategy to trap them.

You can actually mod that into the new game using XCOM ToolBoks [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/79/?] (check "Revealed Aliens Move After XCOM Turn").

Woa! Thanks for that. God bless PC gaming.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

Preferred the original. Thing about the new game is the dice were against you and you could never surprise attack the enemies. A lot of it was luck of the dice than strategy and i hate when 4 guys cant hit an alien 3 squares away. Its a fun game, but the difficulty is fighting the crappy dice, not the aliens.

same thing happened in the original, plus some other bullshit, do i even have to mention psy powers and how the AI blatantly cheated with them?

Agreed. But the shooting feels more screwed in the new game than the original.

i disagree


dont get me wrong, i like the old X-COM, id say its one of the best strategy game ever, and i can safely say im not blinded by nostalgia, since i played it AFTER the new XCOM, since i had enjoyed it so much, amazing how well this 20 year old game holds up


i still think the new game is better than the old game, but some things the old game does better, for starters the destructible terrain plays a much bigger role, since you can manually aim at obstacles and different materials can sustain different levels of damage, unlike the new XCOM where if i recall correctly, grenades can destroy UFO walls

also i think all the parts stick together much better in the old game, it kind of feels like a simulation, in the new game, a lot of things feel arbitrary, aliens begin abductions now because the game says so, alien activity stops in countries with satellite coverage because the game says so, i cant shoot mind controlled aliens because the game says so, etc

in the old game you can detect UFOs doing abduction missions, terror missions, alien base construction missions, XCOM base attack missions, etc. you can intercept alien ships on their way to their objectives, and the mission terrain changes depending on where the ship landed, a day and night cycle that actually affects how battles are fought, plus you cant recover any alien wreckage if you shoot the UFO down over water

in the old game, even towards the end, it wasnt that rare to lose soldiers, while in XCOM, your soldiers become kind of OP by the end and there isnt that much of a risk of losing them

also the entire geoscape aspect of the game is a million times better in the original game, no questions about it


that being said there are many things in which the old game falls short and some stuff the new game does right:

the old game had a fucking terrible UI everyone knows this

the old game also had a ton of dice rolls, the damage in particular in infuriating, you can get your very best soldier clad in the very best armor killed in one single shot, is fucking ridiculous, the amount of resources and time you put in that guy, gone in one shot. also when you shot down an UFO theres a 75% change the elirium stored in it explodes, killing your enthusiasm for finishing the mission because you will not get any elirium for completing the mission (i must say tough it kind of looks cool how he game models all this, i once found an UFO wreckage that was nothing but the floor of the ship and a wall)

some pretty pointless mechanics, such as the excessive inventory tetris and all the hassle of using a simple med kit

like i mentioned, psy powers in the old game


as for the stuff the new XCOM has going for it:

i love the RPG elements, soldiers leveling up and learning new abilities make them more useful and unique than in the original game

im sorry but the shooting feels right, the animations, the phrases, the sound, it all feels so satisfying, "X-ray neutralized!"

a better firearm selection, rifles, shotguns, machineguns and snipers, all working different from one another

Its not about nostalgia. I still play the original XCOM and its sequel way more than the new one. The new game is way linear and you have less control. Also the original, for me, plays better even now an ive played them both atleast 200+ hours. Just to many bullshit misses on the new game when shooting an enemy close range. Just got stupid when you miss more than you hit even when 2 squares away. Leveling up didnt matter when enemies can still one hit kill you. I think if they added the ability to find the enemy and attack them, like the original, then it would be better. The whole you surprise the enemy and they just run to cover was bullshit in my opinion, ok it made it harder, but it also made it impossible to gain an advantage or use strategy to trap them. Its great you enjoy the new game, and it is a good game, just prefer the older games.

Cant wait for a sequel.

yes i said its NOT nostalgia, the first X-COM is really a great game

anyways each on their own, for me, missing a 90% hit chance shot is nowhere near as bad as losing your best soldier in flying armor from a single plasma shot, or shooting down UFO after UFO and not getting any elerium from the crashes

and as much as i enjoyed the more open ended, procedurally generated maps of the original, it often turned into a game of "find the last ethereal on the map while he keeps controlling your soldiers and theres nothing you can do to prevent it"

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

id dare say any strategy fan has, its a modern masterpiece


one of the few truthly great games in the last god forsaken generation

Sorry to be a cynic. I liked the game in the beginning but the fact that aliens were "triggered" as soon as you came within visual distance reveals the shortcomings of the game. In the originals you can ambush aliens if they hadn't spotted you, but that would be impossible here as it would make the game just too difficult if the AI did it to you. Imagine kids today dying as often as in the originals, the game would not sell any copies. So instead they dumb it down and the result became a very repetitive gameplay.

I think if they added the ability to find the enemy and attack them, like the original, then it would be better. The whole you surprise the enemy and they just run to cover was bullshit in my opinion, ok it made it harder, but it also made it impossible to gain an advantage or use strategy to trap them.

You can actually mod that into the new game using XCOM ToolBoks [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/79/?] (check "Revealed Aliens Move After XCOM Turn").

Woa! Thanks for that. God bless PC gaming.

give me a break, as if the original game didnt have its fair share of bullshit


the original feels more organic, i accept it, i give you that, but the new one isnt bad at all, and its definitively not repetitive, it has more mission types than the original game

plus XCOM is HARD, it is not dumbed down in any way, simply streamlined, which is totally different, no more inventory tetris and no more absurd med kit