XCOM

Coriolanus

So, I think that a lot of people have, like me, picked up the old XCOM games in the most recent Steam sale. I have an old box that I used to reconnect the odd time to be able to play Apocalypse but it's literally the first time in more than a decade that I've been able to play Enemy Unknown or Terror From The Deep!
Did a quick search and they do seem to pop up in a lot of peoples favorites threads, or all time classics etc.

So, which is your favorite? Why? Have you played Interceptor or Enforcer (no to the first, second I found to be a bit a doom clone)

There were a few games that seemed to be heavily inspired by them, the UFO iterations afaik had a good few of the original staffers on board, but somehow they didn't pull me in near as much as the originals.

Would a new version of any of them work today? If there was a company sounding out ideas for developement, what would you want in them?

L31mr0d

Didn't like any of the games after Terror from the Deep.

Tried a recent community game that was inspired from the originals but it was rubbish, they'd completely left out the fog of war darkness which really added to the tension of the originals.

If you're interested it's called:

UFO: Alien Invasion

Gunmonkey

I played TFTD more than the original, but that was more due to the fact my brothers rented Enemy Unknown on the PS1 back in the day and I was so sick of it I couldnt stand playing it.

Pity TFTD was rock hard (for me anyway), damn Lobstermen and that big dinosaur yoke that I could never kill

Coriolanus

Yewah, TFTD was my favorite, then Unknown but I did love Apocalypse.

Ps1 version huh? Interesting... I wonder if there's been an emulated version done for DS! Might be just the thing to swing me over to buying one.

Mantel

TFTD was insane at times, damn lobstermen! At least with Unknown you just had Crysalids and Etherals instead of walking crustation tanks. I think I like Unknown the most, since it was the original and built up tension hunting for that last remaining sectoid hiding in a building somewhere instead of stamping around on the sea floor only to have that crap you thought was dead stand up and sonic boom your soldiers.

Also the Legend of Patrick Stewart

L31mr0d

Nevore wrote: »

Ps1 version huh? Interesting... I wonder if there's been an emulated version done for DS! Might be just the thing to swing me over to buying one.

Avoid the PS1 version like the plague.

uberpixie

Loved Xcom Apocalypse.

It's the only Xcom I have every played. Granted most die hards who played the first game hate it due to it's real time combat, they really hit the nail on the head with this game imho.

They got whole base management\combat missions\research alien tech right.
And the real time system they used for the game really helped speed up combat missions and was implemented very well in the game.

I always liked the you had to try different weapons on with each agent you had on staff before you found one that suited them, I liked that your men only got tougher after they got injured in combat and healed back to full health.

The politics of the city and trying to keep everyone on side and doing the least amount of damage to buildings was a nice touch. You always ended up bribing someone after accidentally setting their warehouse on fire during a mission and they were always something important like an arms dealer or a fuel supply company!:D


I have yet to see a Sci/fi squad combat that plays better than Apoca, even well over 10 years on. (played the new ufo series, the 3rd in the series Afterlight isn't actually that bad...)

superfly

i can't be doing with these modern games like X-Com
Rebelstar Raiders II and Laser Squad is where it's at

Gunmonkey

I remember playing a demo version of Laser Squad on my Amstrad, first mission was assaulting a building with 5 robots in it, second was assaulting a moon base. Good times with real manly loading times, almost an hour to load some games, none of this "OMG it takes 10 seconds to load, game is ****" crap nowadays.

The recent UFO: Afterxxxx series were quite good, Afterlight was my favourite, pity the game got so dull later on: defend mission....defend mission....defend mission.

You should all check out http://www.strategycore.co.uk/ , there are some good discussions in the forums (TFTD looked worse than Enemy unknown as it had 4 colour palettes for various times of day and depth) as well as a ton of great mods.


And yes, Patrick Stewart will **** you up no matter what media he is displayed in.

jonny72

They just got the first one completely right..

The look of it, the feel of it, the logistics were just perfect, the multiple ways you could do everything, the game gave you extraordinary freedom..

You could literally sit down with a pen and paper and plan the perfect mission, or if you were tired you could just load the ship full of cannon fodder and try to brute force the mission and take heavy casualties.

You could buy and sell, you had that sweet forbidden alien tech which was just so much better, you had such a simple but complex base building side of the game..

There was real tension and fear.

You have to remember it was the first time there was any game like that, and obviously after playing it, it would be very hard to recreate.

It is the only game that I have played again after 3 years, then again about 3 years after that.. crazy good.

Cunny-Funt

L31mr0d wrote: »

Didn't like any of the games after Terror from the Deep.

Tried a recent community game that was inspired from the originals but it was rubbish, they'd completely left out the fog of war darkness which really added to the tension of the originals.

If you're interested it's called:

UFO: Alien Invasion

Cheers for this , was looking for a more graphically updated XCOM game and this works.

Yeah there's no fog of war, but you still don't see the aliens unless you look at them kinda thing, so its there, just not graphically represented. But of course you do see the layout of the map. & I'd agree that the old style fog of war would be better.

Regardless I'm enjoying this, fun game to have on the laptop.

Cravez

uberpixie wrote: »

Loved Xcom Apocalypse.

It's the only Xcom I have every played. Granted most die hards who played the first game hate it due to it's real time combat, they really hit the nail on the head with this game imho.

They got whole base management\combat missions\research alien tech right.
And the real time system they used for the game really helped speed up combat missions and was implemented very well in the game.

I always liked the you had to try different weapons on with each agent you had on staff before you found one that suited them, I liked that your men only got tougher after they got injured in combat and healed back to full health.

The politics of the city and trying to keep everyone on side and doing the least amount of damage to buildings was a nice touch. You always ended up bribing someone after accidentally setting their warehouse on fire during a mission and they were always something important like an arms dealer or a fuel supply company!:D


I have yet to see a Sci/fi squad combat that plays better than Apoca, even well over 10 years on. (played the new ufo series, the 3rd in the series Afterlight isn't actually that bad...)

My favourite is Apocalypse and pretty much the same reasons above as uberpixie said. Bought it in the Steam Sale, saves me having to keep loading the CD, using emulators, VDS sound, Mouse fixes etc . Although iv played through the game so many times i always enjoy it (almost enjoy it even more) every time i play it again.