X-COM Enemy Unknown Difficulty Curve

[tendaji]

I've noticed a significant curve on the new game. (Of course I never played an X-COM game before) But it seems to have a very significant curve, where if you don't seem to advance enough, you'll just get decimated an hour into the game (especailly with the arrival of Chyraslids, those terrible terrible things that I hate the most). I'll admit, the game has already made me rage from 3 different campaigns due to arrival of very difficult units as well as just how the dice end up rolling.

How do you guys feel about it? I know there are probably a few of you who end up getting off to the difficulty curves like this game.

 

[Rawne1980]

I won't find out until Friday.

Curse you UK release date.

 

[The Madman]

Chryssalid have always been a bane in the X-Com games, and although they're a fair bit different in this version that remains the same. The trick to dealing with them however is fairly simple; just use basic cover and advance tactics to ensure you've always got a proper line of sight and if you spot one try to take it out from a distance asap, especially if there are civilians in the area. Even just one Chryssalid loose with a bunch of civies is bad, bad news.

But you get used to it. I've been playing the campaign on normal difficulty with the 'hardcore' mode or whatever it's called enabled and it's been a blast. Honestly having the hardcore thing enabled should be by default, it makes every encounter all the more intense knowing the consequences are permanent.

So no problems with difficulty here, but then I'm also a huge fan of these sorts of games plus the original X-Com so it's fair to say I'm a bit of a veteran in these things.

 

[Terminal Blue]

If I remember right, the original X-Com games were pretty punishing. In fact, I'm pleased to hear there is actually a difficulty curve in this one, as opposed to the "untrained squad of green recruits runs out of the transport ship and gets mown down by sectoids with plasma pistols" effect of the original.

I think I completed Terror from the Deep once, and I've come pretty close to completing Apocalypse (despite it having a much better difficulty curve, the end is still kind of ludicrous) but yeah.. they were always hard.

Another thing which they might have carried over is that some of the earlier games (most notably apocalypse, but maybe the others) adjusted the difficulty depending on how you were doing, so if you earned a very low score in a given month the alien progression would slow down to give you a chance to catch up. Likewise, bombing through the game and getting amazing scores could sometimes result in the enemy difficulty ramping up pretty quickly.

 

[Erttheking]

Everything was going nice and smooth for me...then I hit the first alien base...entire squad went down. I kinda reloaded that save. Is that cheating in a game like XCOM? Maybe...but I don't care.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I think I completed Terror from the Deep once, and I've come pretty close to completing Apocalypse (despite it having a much better difficulty curve, the end is still kind of ludicrous) but yeah.. they were always hard.

The end of Apocalypse is utterly trivialized by:
1) Toxiguns with B-Toxin or better
2) Dimension Missile Launcher

Though do need a fuckton of dudes for a couple of the last missions.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Ask me in the weekend for a more detailed opinion.

Let me leave you with this:

Classic mode is a throwback to the 1994 original game, ie actually being difficult rather than holding your hand every step of the way.

 

[Product Placement]

One of my biggest "Oh fuck!" moments in my gaming history happened while playing UFO - Enemy unknown (the original X-com). It was when my last surviving soldier walked inside a building, only to find it was occupied by a Chyraslid and five zombies.

Fear the Chyraslids, tendaji. Never underestimate them and you'll get far in this crazy, cruel world.

 

[lacktheknack]

Put it this way: I've STILL never made any significant advance in the original without save-scumming.

This all sounds very par for the course.

 

[lacktheknack]

Everything was going nice and smooth for me...then I hit the first alien base...entire squad went down. I kinda reloaded that save. Is that cheating in a game like XCOM? Maybe...but I don't care.

Yeah, it's cheating. I also don't care. I die out entirely in the first three missions without save-scumming.

 

[DustyDrB]

Everything was going nice and smooth for me...then I hit the first alien base...entire squad went down. I kinda reloaded that save. Is that cheating in a game like XCOM? Maybe...but I don't care.

Yeah, it's cheating. I also don't care. I die out entirely in the first three missions without save-scumming.

This is your creepiest avatar yet, and maybe the creepiest avatar I've ever seen. I plan to drown myself in bourbon just to push the image out of my mind.

Now...onto...OT things...

Hold on, I just need to *gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp*...
OK, I'm ready.

OT: The beginning of the game is super easy. It's so easy, in fact, that I think it teaches you to be tactically lazy. So when the difficulty actually arrives, you might as well be playing a different game. Rethink how you've been doing things and start over. So yeah, I don't think the problem with the difficulty curve is that it gets too hard, but that it starts way too easy.

 

[teh_v]

I've noticed the same thing. I just finished clearing out the first alien base and now the difficult level has shot through the roof. FYI I'm playing on classic difficult level. I'm frustrated but also loving the fact that I'm frustrated. Fraxis did a great job with this game.

 

[Bertylicious]

*Reads comments*

OMG OMG OMG WANT SO HARD OMG

I loved those game changing moments when the computer says to you "so you're doing pretty good yeah? Got things sorted out with your team and your gear and your base but have you thought about THIS!?"

"That's right ************! That's right! Whose yo' daddy now? Does a ************ want to bite the kerb? I THINK HE WANTS TO BITE THE MOTHERFUCKING KERB!"

Then you adapt and have to spend the rest of the day not wearing any trousers and thumping your chest.

 

[PiCroft]

I actually won a few missions because my soldier panicked. I swear to god, I shot down at least a dozen or so aliens across the first 4-5 missions just from my soldiers panicking and taking a wild potshot at an alien. I also frequently defied the odds and got kills with 30%-50% odds repeatedly.

Then I needed to capture stuff and Floaters made an appearance and I lost 4 squaddies in a single turn in 1 mission.

Ah, XCOM, I missed you so.

 

[Zhukov]

I won't find out until Friday.

Curse you UK release date.

We feel your pain, down here in the prisoner colonies.

...

OT:
Personally, I'm happy to hear that the difficulty ramps up. I'm gonna try some classic difficulty on "iron man mode". Then I'm probably going to get my arse kicked and quietly slink back to normal difficulty.

 

[Ninjat_126]

It's actually difficult? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chrysalids, man. Those bastards killed me more than anything else. I would flee a mission at the first sight of one.

 

[YingDerpington]

I won't find out until Friday.

Curse you UK release date.

We feel your pain, down here in the prisoner colonies.

...

OT:
Personally, I'm happy to hear that the difficulty ramps up. I'm gonna try some classic difficulty on "iron man mode". Then I'm probably going to get my arse kicked and quietly slink back to normal difficulty.

What? 'Straya? It's not so bad waiting for games down here, what is bad is that they are always ridiculously overpriced at release... And for a few years down the line (Seriously, I saw CoD4 in most shops still going for $70-80 AU last year!!!)

 

[tendaji]

One of my biggest "Oh fuck!" moments in my gaming history happened while playing UFO - Enemy unknown (the original X-com). It was when my last surviving soldier walked inside a building, only to find it was occupied by a Chyraslid and five zombies.

Fear the Chyraslids, tendaji. Never underestimate them and you'll get far in this crazy, cruel world.

Yeah I'm dreading every Terror Mission, seeing how I know those Chyraslids will be there, and there will be a ton of civilians there too....Although rockets are very effective at killing them, and the zombies before they actually rise up again.

I know I had my really experienced squad doing a mission and Mutons popped out of nowhere and where beating down on my sqaud, then floaters came and were hovering over my position. Well I focused on the Floaters, yet my squad was so talented they could miss a 91% chance to hit >.> I lost my best sniper, and support guy that round because they ended up bleeding out since I had run out of medkits.

The game is really addictive, it's also really frustrating to play with some of the moves the AI pulls, or how your characters are controlled.

 

[toomuchnothing]

One of my biggest "Oh fuck!" moments in my gaming history happened while playing UFO - Enemy unknown (the original X-com). It was when my last surviving soldier walked inside a building, only to find it was occupied by a Chyraslid and five zombies.

Fear the Chyraslids, tendaji. Never underestimate them and you'll get far in this crazy, cruel world.

Yeah I'm dreading every Terror Mission, seeing how I know those Chyraslids will be there, and there will be a ton of civilians there too....Although rockets are very effective at killing them, and the zombies before they actually rise up again.

I know I had my really experienced squad doing a mission and Mutons popped out of nowhere and where beating down on my sqaud, then floaters came and were hovering over my position. Well I focused on the Floaters, yet my squad was so talented they could miss a 91% chance to hit >.> I lost my best sniper, and support guy that round because they ended up bleeding out since I had run out of medkits.

The game is really addictive, it's also really frustrating to play with some of the moves the AI pulls, or how your characters are controlled.

I think I bombed my first attempt at the first Terror mission which was composed of floaters, chyraslids and 18 people in danger. After that first attempt I rethought my strategy and completed it with 14/18 saved, zero units lost and I'm pretty sure I tazed a floater. For my 5 man squad composition it was easier to set up a perimeter outside the building and have my support, with the bonus 3 tiles move per turn perk, do all the saving inside the building and then haul ass outside where a firing squad waiting for the train on enemies to poor out of. While that was happening my sniper with the squad sight perk was able to pick off quite a few enemies since the support was acting as a spotter even at such a far range.

With that said I totally agree that this game will not have mercy on you but it will make you reconsider your approach and that is something I really enjoy. Also fuck Mutons, that is all.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

OT: The beginning of the game is super easy. It's so easy, in fact, that I think it teaches you to be tactically lazy. So when the difficulty actually arrives, you might as well be playing a different game. Rethink how you've been doing things and start over. So yeah, I don't think the problem with the difficulty curve is that it gets too hard, but that it starts way too easy.

Are we talking about just EU? Wasn't UFO Defense the same way? Sectoid scout ships and Floater terror missions for the first few months don't do much to harden X-COM commanders. Then out of nowhere, fucking Chryssalids. If you haven't kicked your ass into gear before the first Snakeman terror mission, you are seriously fucked.

I was doing a generally shit job managing my R&D during one of my first playthroughs and arrived on my first Snakeman terror mission still using rifles. (They were doing okay killing Sectoids and Floaters so far, hadn't even encountered cyberdisks yet...) Then the Snakemen show up with their Chryssalids, and suddenly, my entire armament is useless. A few turns later, the exterior of my Skyranger is surrounded by chryssalids and zombies. All because I didn't have adequate weapons. I just didn't know. I DIDN'T KNOW.

OT: Chryssalids are still as scary as ever to fight. I only encountered them a few times so far, but the old firing squad approach seemed to put them down well enough. If I know they are around, I keep my squad together and try to draw the bastard out so my entire team can blast it to pieces. I try to make sure I have the heavy hitters ready to use their strongest attacks against it and kill it as soon as possible. I haven't ran into a scenario where chryssalids zombified the entire civilian population yet, this is the scenario I'm truly dreading.

Man this game is addicting. I decided to put some time into it last night to get a good impression, and I ended up sinking the entire evening into the game without noticing. I am seriously loving the game so far. And I'm getting lots of remembrances back my experience with X-COM. You know, my entire squad being absolutely terrible shots, aliens landing insanely lucky shots from impossible angles/distances. I guess that's XCOM for ya.