The game just released. Looks like it is getting pretty good reviews. I pre-ordered on steam, but I am in the midst of a move and the gaming PC is not accessible so I can't play for a week yet. Anyone here play it yet?....what are your initial impressions?
There's some activity about this over at Videogamegeek.com if you want to check that out. Not much activity yet though, as it's really just an expansion of the 'boardgamegeek.com' site into all games... not a lot of videogamers hanging out there yet.
Annoyingly buggy. Played for about two hours before the game stopped accepting input (it wasn't hung, just not accepting any input at all). Guess I'll be starting over again from scratch, this time with auto-save turned on.
And I really miss time units. And incremental movement. And larger squads.
Yes, I'm a grumpy old man. Get off my lawn.
It's an absolutely amazing game that will torture your mind at every choice you make, from moving a soldier to producing goods or selling alien bodies on the black market. Each decision can have terrible consequences. Move a soldier badly, and you might lose one or 2 high-level guys that you liked a lot. Buy a satellite and you might get long-term financial rewards, but might not have enough money to properly outfit your soldiers (who will then die on the field). Every decision has a cost and significant repercussions. Very few are meaningless. Good job Firaxis!
Unfortunately I have to wait until Friday to get it, if indeed I will. It looks great and while I'm certain that Firaxis will get around to addressing all the bugs, I'm getting tired of buggy games in general and I may just wait a couple of months until I can see my face in the polished chrome.
I love this game. Yes they did cut some stuff out but it's just so much better than the original. What is there to talk about? I don't even want to write a longer reply because I'm going back to playing it.
It's definitely a good game.
I'm enjoying it. It's a polished and interesting game that focuses on asking you to make tough decisions. That said, it's not the game purists were really looking for. It is, in many ways, less like X-Com: Enemy Unknown than some of the spiritual successors like UFO:AI. It changes up things in a number of areas. It focuses very heavily on scarcity: you won't have enough funds to build or manufacture everything you need, so you have to choose between, say, whether you want better armour or a new laser sniper rifle. Likewise, you simply can't keep every country happy, and you have to consciously choose which ones to save, and which to leave an alien wasteland.
A lot of this, I would argue, is influenced by it's release on a console. There are a number of simplifications that make this a much more arcade-like strategy game. But, again, it isn't a bad game; it's fun and interesting and I'm having a blast. It does not suffer much for a lack of strategic depth. It's just not a true X-Com successor.
For those who aren't aware of it, there's also Xenonauts.
http://www.xenonauts.com/
It's somewhat more a spiritual successor to X-Com in that it retains most of the features of the original, while also expanding on a few features here and there (air combat is more interactive, you can spend extra Time Units to have a more accurate shot, etc.). It's also an indie game, which means it's not going to have the production value of XCOM. It's looking promising though.
There's room on my credit card statement for both games.
I think the new XCOM will be fun because of its RPG elements but I have very large concerns about the controls and some of the design choices.
I am very interested in xenonauts except I haven't seen any mention of whether you unlock futuristic technology or if you use the modern day tech for the whole game.
Yep. The game takes place in the 1970s so you start with only that level of technology, but you can unlock futuristic things like laser rifles, body armour, etc.
Great great game with some minor and annoying UI problems. Buildings don't go wireframe vs. staying solid consistently, for example, which can make it challenging to move your guys around.
I'm loving it.
One tip which in no way spoils anything and may help you out a lot (it certainly helped me out): you can build multiple structures at the same time.
I would also recommend that you start above normal, the pacing is much better on hard.
Yes, the wireframe building issue is driving me nuts. I want to know where the cover is, but it's really difficult if the building is in wireframe mode. I have to bump the camera view up a level for it to pop back to non-wireframe.
Well I gave in and got it. Haven't regretted it so far, even when I lost a guy because I had him heal his wounds next to a burning car. Oops.
This game is still good and fun. I just don't really consider it a real x-com game. Also it being made for consoles and then ported to PC didn't help.
I caved and bought it, havent tried it yet.
Got this as a birthday present. Loving it so far.
Something you should definitely bear in mind is that some things that you need to improve your odds are going to need engineers to make. Lots of engineers. The satellite uplinks themselves also require an increasing size of engineering team.
It can be a very difficult hole to dig yourself out of if you haven't built at least one Workshop by the time the tougher aliens show up.
I never liked the original, but this one is awesome. (On XBOX anyway) It is somewhat buggy, but nothing huge. (Unless you leave the game alone doing nothing for a couple minutes: My brother had to restart because it stopped taking commands.)
-Twi /)
I just finished the alien base mission. It wasn't as difficult as some of the abduction missions but there were a couple of tough spots. Was worth it though, selling off all the alien junk allowed me to go on a little spending spree. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the game plays out.
Thanks for the tip on xenonauts, Cauldyth! (and I've also been having a blast with the new XCOM title)
I'm really enjoying this game, but I wish the pacing was a bit better. I would like a much slower overall progression. I don't want to have an elite squad of badass soldiers in just a few missions, and in a few months have them kitted with plasma weapons. I'd prefer a longer game, but I understand the limitations that prevented this, and how repetitive it would be to new comers or those not enthused with this type of game.
Maybe I'll get lucky and there will be a MOD or DLC that adds to the length, and balances the slower route to the endgame.
FYI, it seems as though SHIVs are very buggy. I'm on my second one, but the game won't let me include it on my team. It just gives the 'invalid selection' noise when I click on it, and the page for it in View Soldiers doesn't have a 3D model and the only available button is Dismantle. There are lots of other reports of this bug around, so hopefully it gets fixed soon.
So if you're running your budget right on the edge, you may want to avoid investing in SHIVs until they're fixed.
@kodiak
On the xcom nexus there is a way (through a mod) to enable marathon mode, but you'll probably not be able to get beyond a certain point (late game) due to needing 2 orb thingies instead of 1.
http://ufoai.org
These folks have been doing a great job capturing the original game's feel.
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