The game is great and entertaining, but the pace is completely off. You only get to intercept UFOs once in a blue moon (about one interception mission every couple of hours), and it takes forever to actually get weapon upgrades. The game just feels a lot less research driven than the original, because I was surviving on the ‘Classic’ difficulty with the starter weapons for about 6 hours…

caitsith01: I don’t rate TFTD as highly as the original – it is savagely difficult to the point of sadism early on,

That’s what made it so great. It had a sense of desperation not captured by the original. Coming up against Loberstermen when all you had against them were thermal tasers was quite a fight.

kinkykel: Ahhhh makes sense now.

I usually would never be that close to them in the first place ;p Most of the time I was using headshots or rockets.

Tim Colwill: Those are official screenshots released by 2K that I put into James’ article, they’re not ones he supplied :)

Ahhhh makes sense now.

fireslide: The tedium in TFTD came from having levels that were too large. You’d spend a long time exploring to even find a downed craft, then depending on what type it was, you’d have to clear multiple levels. The worst part was terror missions. Having to clear a multilevel cruise liner with lots of tiny rooms searching for the last alien that was hiding in the shower of some cabin was a huge waste of time. I agree the levels in XCOM:EU could stand to be a little bit larger sometimes, but it generally keeps the missions short.

I don’t rate TFTD as highly as the original – it is savagely difficult to the point of sadism early on, and I agree with your comments about its level design.

UFO had it about right – large levels, but no so large that you can’t exercise control over portions of the ground or figure out where a UFO is.

In XCOM, you can just look for the magical red “out of bounds lines”, work out which edges are where, and you immediately know exactly where the aliens/UFO are going to be.

kinkykel:
Also as an aside, looking at the pictures, what are you going fighting Mutons with friggen assault rifles?

Those are official screenshots released by 2K that I put into James’ article, they’re not ones he supplied :)

fireslide: The tedium in TFTD came from having levels that were too large. You’d spend a long time exploring to even find a downed craft, then depending on what type it was, you’d have to clear multiple levels. The worst part was terror missions. Having to clear a multilevel cruise liner with lots of tiny rooms searching for the last alien that was hiding in the shower of some cabin was a huge waste of time. I agree the levels in XCOM:EU could stand to be a little bit larger sometimes, but it generally keeps the missions short.

Have to agree with this – I am an XCOM tragic and I don’t miss the time investment in some of the horrendous micromanagement & level exploration at all. Obviously some people enjoy this kind of stuff but I don’t consider that fun or terribly entertaining.

I do like the fact that the aliens tend to be different if you reload a game and they often aren’t always in the same place. They also seem to use overwatch quite intelligently.

I haven’t had any get *free* shots at me from their moves but it can put them into a great position depending on when you encounter them. I guess that is the downside from having them move around rather than all be perfectly placed in cover etc.

caitsith01: it’s basically an action game.Most missions involve cramped levels and immediate action rather than the tense process of searching a large, darkened area for unknown horrors.

The tedium in TFTD came from having levels that were too large. You’d spend a long time exploring to even find a downed craft, then depending on what type it was, you’d have to clear multiple levels. The worst part was terror missions. Having to clear a multilevel cruise liner with lots of tiny rooms searching for the last alien that was hiding in the shower of some cabin was a huge waste of time. I agree the levels in XCOM:EU could stand to be a little bit larger sometimes, but it generally keeps the missions short.

That’s not entirely true either about the cover system. Many a time I’ve had sqaudmembers out in the open and the enemy has missed. It’s based on a lot of (obvious) factors like distance, type of gun etc. Running squad members out infront of Thin Men will generally get your dudes killed because they use the Light Plasma Rifle, with the +10 Accuracy.

It’s all about using your brains. A well positioned trooper can do quite a lot in the open, especially with the right gear.

fireslide:
Having played all the XCOM and UFO games. I have to say this is the best yet. TFTD was good, if not great for it’s time, however, a lot has changed since it’s come out andit’s incredibly dated. XCOM: EU fixes up a lot of the tedium of the earlier ones.

Personally, I strongly disagree. I was playing the original UFO only last week (with the excellent fan-made patch) and I sort of regret it, because it’s probably made me more frustrated with this new game. I disagree that there’s any “tedium” – it has plenty of suspense, but it also lets you think your way through things, which is something sorely lacking in the new game. I really dislike how in XCOM you are hustled along at a million miles an hour, both in missions and in the base view. There’s nothing scary/tense about the missions either – it’s basically an action game. Most missions involve cramped levels and immediate action rather than the tense process of searching a large, darkened area for unknown horrors.

I also think they got the balance fundamentally wrong with the cover system. While UFO arguably didn’t involve cover enough, this game is totally obsessed with it. Something like Jagged Alliance 2 strikes a better balance in that department – you can (rarely) get almost full protection from cover, but other factors (range, weapon, skill, light levels, smoke, altitude) are equally important. In this game it’s just cover = safe(ish), no cover = dead.

Marius:
Thanks for that Fireslide. Might give it a go. :)

The demo isn’t a spectacular example of the game, but its definitely worth installing to get a feel for how it plays.

That said, tactical combat can be a pain with interface issues not going to the right level. Still I prefer it’s combat compared to the options presented in UFO:Afterlight, which basically consisted of getting into a defensive formation and waiting for the enemy to walk into view, or baiting them.

In my view this game has been getting a pretty easy ride from reviewers because Firaxis have manged not to make it a total disaster despite huge expectations from the fans. IMHO the relief that it’s a decent game is translating into a lot of forgiving reviews – yours is one of the more critical, in fact.

I would say this is at best a 7 out of 10, but it’s getting treated like a 9-10 out of 10 by many reviewers which is crazy given its numerous problems.

The number of reviews I’ve read where reviewers twist themselves into knots about how they’re not going to compare it to the original is interesting. I assume that’s because it doesn’t really measure up to the original in most respects, so comparing it would be “unfair” somehow.

The reason I’ve not bought this is that the original XCom was incredibly simplistic compared to the sequel. TFTD was so ballsy in that if you made a few mistakes with the reasearch tree, you couldn’t even finish the game. There were also a lot more research discoveries to be made, and the alien design was a lot more unique.

After playing TFTD, I couldn’t go back and play XCOM without being bored out of my mind.

So every review I’ve read says something like “Stays faithful to the original”, but that is a huge negative when the original sucked to its sequel, and sadly, it doesn’t look like (from reading reviews) that this remake implemented any lessons learned from TFTD.

So it’s a no purchase for me.

In terms of inventory management you get to equip your guy with armour, weapons and items. Who actually ever ran out of ammo in X-COM and needed to micro manage that?

Agree about the UI, I’ve taken to just using the hotkeys like I was using a controller and the mouse to pan around the map. Also agree about the movement cursor behaving very strangely on the grid; this is especially evident when trying to move the bloody Cyberdisc in multiplayer, ESPECIALLY if you are flying.

caitsith01:
From everything I´ve read, the devs originally made something much closer to the original game but then had to dumb it right down to cater to a more casual audience.

-_- That sort of thing happens alot lately.

Anyway, from what I’ve heard, they’re going to support mods, so maybe that will help.

caitsith01: I agree 100% with everything you say.I was hoping GON (as a PC-focused site) would be a bit more critical of this, but unfortunately they´ve gone alone with the prevailing meme, which is to give this a positive review because it doesn´t totally stink,.

I don’t understand. It’s hardly a “prevailing meme” to give the game a positive review, because the game is great. I pointed out some things that bugged me but I don’t agree that the squad/inventory elements have been dumbed down enough for it to be a game breaker.

ooshp: This is not correct. I’m still on my first playthrough, on Classic, so I can’t speak for easy and medium, but aliens DO roam the map. I’ve been ganked by every single alien on the map with all soldiers stationary on more than one occasion.

Also, if you use battle scanners you can see the groups move around as a tight pack before they’re ‘revealed’ by direct sight. Their ‘free move’ enables them to scatter, but I have not ONCE been attacked by an alien on their free move – as far as I’m aware they only use it for movement (unless impossible is different).

From my experience, after completing the game on default difficulty, not a single alien attacked me before I saw them, not one. Sure, after they have been detected they move in the shadows, but until you break they seal they are sitting in static placement.

In any case, it’s the free move that bugs me, especially at higher levels with enemies that can literally rip you apart. I’ve had them attack me, or at the very least, move into a prime position for a 100% hit success.

James Pinnell:
Since your alien foes no longer roam around the map before they are detected, the developers have instituted a system where they are instead handed a free turn to move and attack. This can fundamentally change the entire course of the battle, since regardless of your unit placement, you can instantly be flanked and attacked without notice.

This is not correct. I’m still on my first playthrough, on Classic, so I can’t speak for easy and medium, but aliens DO roam the map. I’ve been ganked by every single alien on the map with all soldiers stationary on more than one occasion.

Also, if you use battle scanners you can see the groups move around as a tight pack before they’re ‘revealed’ by direct sight. Their ‘free move’ enables them to scatter, but I have not ONCE been attacked by an alien on their free move – as far as I’m aware they only use it for movement (unless impossible is different).

Other than those inaccuracies it’s a fair enough review. A few UI complaints when it comes to multi-level movement and grenade/rocket aiming, but other than that it’s fantastic.

BTW you can use hotkeys to skip the confirm action dialogue for overwatch, hunker down etc. I found the PC controls quite good with hotkeys personally, apart from what I mentioned which seem buggy, rather than badly designed.

All in all I’ve found it *slightly* too shallow in the strategic department, but the tactical combat is wonderful.

tajin:
Theres one major thing missing from this review.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good game and I like it so far. However, it is missing alot of the detail an mechanics that made the original UFO so special.

Squad and inventory management has been dumbed down alot.

They’ve added classes and abilities, which basically works but that too reduces the flexibility and complexity of the game.

No longer are you able to precisely tune the equipment of your soldiers to make sure they have everything they need for the situation without carrying too much needless stuff around. No longer do you have to worry about producing and taking enough ammo with you.

Had they decided not to scrap all those original features, this would’ve been one of the best games created in a long time for me. Now it’s “just” a good game.

I agree 100% with everything you say. I was hoping GON (as a PC-focused site) would be a bit more critical of this, but unfortunately they´ve gone alone with the prevailing meme, which is to give this a positive review because it doesn´t totally stink,.

From everything I´ve read, the devs originally made something much closer to the original game but then had to dumb it right down to cater to a more casual audience.

The game is also buggy as hell, particularly line of sight calculation.

Kudos to GON for noting the dodgy ¨free moves for aliens¨ issue, which truly sucks.

The main issue that annoys me in this game is trying to navigate multiple floors with the view changing constantly, levels do not focus where the camera is etc. Hopefully they fix it!