Zero Punctuation: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[otakon17]

Oh God this review made me happy. Also, I'm glad I'm not the ONLY ONE that thought the original's interface was absolutely horrible. Seriously I bought the original's in a collection quite a while ago and I could not for the life of me get into them because of the damn near alien interface. I already got it though and I think I will make a Ban "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Now I wonder if I have a Brit in my roster already...

 

[Barciad]

He likes the new X-Com game??!!!???
Well that does it for me. I have to get this.
And this is speaking as a hardened veteran of the originals.

 

[bificommander]

While I agree with Yahtzee that it's pretty silly to have a dozen slightly different American voices, 10 seconds of listening to their attempt at giving your head of science a German accent makes me a bit relieved that they didn't try different national accents for the troops.

And on normal, I found the Ironman mode that prevents safe scumming highly satisfying. It certainly gave me some of my best moments with that game knowing I had to salvage two team mates mind controled by aliens surrounded by heavy floaters and mutons. But then, I came prepared and made sure to train up more than 6 teammembers, so even if I loose one I still have some mid-level replacements.

Though it's bitten me on the ass when, during a mission inside an alien battleship, the game bugged out and decided I couldn't move through an open door after my robot tank had already gone through. I've found no way to fix this (explosives don't work on that particular wall), so that mission is fucked.

 

[Edit_Reality]

I can't believe that reference to Octodad almost slipped by me.

 

[tehroc]

Maybe if were lucky, based on xcom sales, SquareEnix might put out another FF Tactics.

 

[theultimateend]

...ok, didn't call that. Thought that he wasn't going to like it. Aw well, I really should give it another playthrough. I kinda lost patience with it and kept save scumming individual turns, but maybe I was going about it the wrong way.

It's mostly the curve, the original xcom doesn't ramp quite as fast or as inevitably as this does. I've played through the original more times than I've inhaled air and still find myself overwhelmed by the new game.

I like it, I want to love it, but it keeps killing me and refusing my advances.

It is the best "reboot" that I can think of though, so kudos to them for getting as close as possible in todays terribly shitty large publisher world . [Personal feelings, anyone reading this is allowed to love big budget games, I personally feel left out often these days. 60 dollars for boredom is a shame most times)

Edit: Also disliking the old UI is a bit odd, its a simple picture system. Literally a child could figure it out, I know from experience >.>

It's no more complicated than that block game where you try to fit them with the holes.

 

[Duffeknol]

Anyone else finish the game without losing a single country?

 

[6SteW6]

God I love this game, but no Ironman Yahtzee?! That's the only way to play! some of the most memorable moments so far has been when my team got wiped.

My very first terror mission I took a six man squad. It was the first time meeting Chrysallids so three of my men were infected right away and my other three guys ended up holed up in a building taking potshots at their zombified comrades and then trying to creep to the extraction zone while dodging the chrysallids. There was an ambush right at the extraction zone upon which one of my men (Ivan Drago) sacrificed himself with a grenade so the other two (Dutch and Thomas Anderson) could escape. I can't remember the last time I was so absorbed in a game it was intense!

 

[ImBigBob]

Loved the credits animation. I've ran into that happening so many times while playing Fire Emblem (my own personal favorite turn-based-strategy series).

 

[ResonanceSD]

Plasma rifles are bloody amazing. Just saying. Although I was playing on easy. =\

I HOPE NOTHING INTERRUPTS THIS PICNIC!!

 

[Gremlin-Stenning]

Christ a reboot of UFO i was only 6 when i played that game on my brothers PC and christ this is the shortest comment i've ever written.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

The little animation during the credits made me laugh.

My biggest bugbear with the game is the line of sight issue that I've seen crop up a few times. Sometimes a soldier could be right in front of an alien and still only get a 50% chance to hit (and then obviously miss) when I sat there thinking, I could have taken that shot myself and got the alien perfectly. Then other times characters can shoot through or around walls and still manage to hit, it kills immersion.

Plus I wouldn't have much time for it anyway.

 

[deadish]

I'm intrigued. I have never played this type of game before.

Should I give this a try? Hmmm ...

 

[PinkiePyro]

ROFL the last 30 sec. was the best part

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Maybe after shogun.

 

[DolorousEdd]

Hah, I actually used a similar analogy to describe the intuitiveness of the original X-Com interface, only I used a fighter jet instead of a submarine. But like with most things that aren't among the collective acceptable standard phrases to think about something, people just *look* at noticing such heresy that's neither a blind acceptance of the complexity nor a peacful resignation... And when they're done looking, they come out with another standard phrase to make it seem normal again to blindly accept such "complexity".

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Tried the first couple of levels and I agree with Yahtzee. It was very hard to stop playing.

 

[Diegolomac]

I thought Yahtzee had said over and over again in the past years that he didn't like strategy games. So if he likes this, it must be the videogame equivalent of Christ.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

The one real complaint I have is that nations won't rejoin you again if you are doing well. It makes it pointless to keep playing after a couple of nations have left already, plus it's always possible to make a spectacular comeback. It would be great if countries leaving the project can get conquered and you can reconquer them. Might make the game more like Civilization though, which some don't want.

 

[icychill21]

Yahtzee should review Kingdom hearts 3D after Assassin's Creed, I'm interested to see what his view on the series is.
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