First Timer - help

[ailoutwar]

Hello - I picked up this game the other day, after being amazingly excited at seeing a descendant of the X-com game I knew and loved. However, this game is not living up to my expectations...can anyone offer some advice?

To start out, let me say I began playing X-com very late; I saw a bargain $5 CD-Rom game at EBGames prolly in '99, called X-Com Apocalypse. I played it once and thought it was horrible, so I shelved it for a year. Later I tried it again, and found it amazingly intricate and addictive. Here are some things I loved about X-Com Apocalypse:

- Turn-based OR real-time combat
- huge variety of weapons/armor to equip, vehicles to use, special items to throw
- variety of soldiers to hire/fire (scientists, engineers, androids, humans, hybrids)
- how the death was realistic - poppers, for instance - and how hard it was to avoid a death completely
- relations with businesses, services, and factions - gang wars, cults, and alliances
- the ability to manufacture and sell for a profit, raid factions, and augment income
- five speed settings, including pause

Some things I obviously disliked, were:
- the stupidity and repetitiveness of the names (Shigiro Tanakwa EVERY game??)
- the incredibly long time to load and wait during AI's move in turn-based

Other than that, the game was perfect. I was expecting a game that took all those things and brought them a decade or so into the future; instead, I am seeing that all these amazing features were all but forgotten.

• Turn-based combat ONLY??
• only TWO vehicles? Only TWO guns, to start?? WHAT??
• now only TWO unit types to hire/fire?? humans and some mini-tank-guy?
• on first mission, on Easy, everyone keels over after one hit - but no one dies?? Until of course I lose the mission, and ALL units were lost.
• no gangs, cults, businesses, factions - even buildings???
• no pause, and only three unwieldy speed settings
• after all this time, the names still suck; begin ANY game, and see if you EVER get unique last names. Odds are about 80% that you have at least two brothers.

Am I being too hard here? The back of the guide says these developers are very proud of their product...yet I'm seeing a literal step back in intricacy from a DECADE old product. I can see how having an updated version of UFO Defense and TFTD is great for those die-hard fans of the originals out there, but this just doesn't seem worth the wait - much less worth the $39. For crying out loud - my time now is more valuable than in 98 and 99, yet the animation of the aliens seems to take absurdly long. And it's not exactly enthralling.

Just like my original X-Com purchase, I am not about to give up right away; if you have any perspective to offer, please do. I will certainly give it another attempt, but I cannot fully express my initial dissatisfaction with this game.

[GalacticOrigins]

Well, first off this game is based on the first game in the series, and you played Apocalypse, which was the 3rd game. Most of the fans of the series did not love that game as much as the very first one, which this is based on.
 
Also, you can get a mod that makes the game somewhat closer to the older version, Bman's mod, in the mods section. It is highly recommended.
 
As for the weapons, yeah, there is only Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun and Rocket Launcher early on. Many more are available after research. This game is primarily geared towards a planetary invasion and not a single city. There is a lot of combat with the interceptors and going to the mission sites. Figuring out the long-term goals of the aliens is a concern (by researching captured commanders).
 
The game will pause when you are inside the base screen.
 
Many like the game, since it is what the very first game was like.

[ailoutwar]

Thanks for the input.

I was aware this was based on the first game; I just simply assumed there would be some gameplay improvements over the original, since it has been about 15 years. If people just wanted to play the original game, they can certainly obtain an old copy; this version seems to offer little beyond a shiny new box.

I think it is sad that they did not improve upon the original or add extra functionality; instead, this looks like a simple marketing re-release for a profit.

My point of view is somewhat odd, coming into a franchise in the third installment and really falling in love with it from there; after chasing threads for years and tracking down the original UFO Defense and TFTD, I must say the originals were close, but not as complicated or dynamic. I feel bad that I missed the originals, but Apoc was certainly a decent game by itself.

Anyway - I will research the game mods, and attempt to make this game more interested. Hopefully I will find something, but if not I will attempt to resell it before it drops in sticker price.

[hdm7k]

While both sides of this issue have merit, I've seen "updates" of old games that have been absolute trash as well as ones that were better than the original.

The first X-Com was released well before Windows XP and you had to be a Computer Nerd to get it to run in XP. I LIKE the fact that some of the stuff is new (new mobs) but the game overall follows the old format.

So what if you got a bunch of guys all named the same? Great, try to get ALL of them named the same. A game within a game...

Howard

[MjH]

The first X-Com was released well before Windows XP and you had to be a Computer Nerd to get it to run in XP.

If you're still pining for the old days, head over to here and download DOSBox. I was able to get the old X-Com running on my (relatively) new Windows XP computer in short order.