Onyx Oblivion said:
I don't know. Haven't played it...I played a game hailed as VERY similar on the GBA. Made by one of the people who made X-COM, actually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebelstar:_Tactical_Command
I loved that game. Can you tell me if X-Com is actually like that?
Actually, based on that review it sounds like that game is VERY similar to the actual missions and combat in X-Com. However, it's important to point out that the missions are only a part of what makes X-Com what it is. A major part, to be sure, but not the only part by a longshot. It would be like making an RPG that consisted of nothing but combat (albeit one with an excellent combat system, but you would still lose something.)
Seriously, you need to play X-Com. As old as it is, it still beats the hell out of most turn based strategy AND simulation/city-building type games, and combines the two into a perfectly harmonious whole.
That being said, I think an FPS X-Com that includes all the base/organization building aspects of the originals COULD work, in theory, but is unlikely to be pulled off well. It would be harder to make building your organization really MATTER; I mean, what advantages could you get from it? You'd be able to buy your guy some new weapons, armor, gadgets, and give him additional allies with stupid AI who are more of a hindrance than a benefit, like the allies in most FPSes. You're not building your team from the ground up, where every choice you make and everything you purchase effects something you control directly, either in combat, in detecting and intercepting UFOs, or in defending your own base when it's attacked, like in the original X-Com. Plus, you'd be playing a completely disconnected game in order to do it, when you probably just want to get back to the shooting. The dichotomy between a simulation/base-building/resource management game and a turn based strategy game is much less extreme than the one between the sim game and an action game, and it would be harder to switch between the two without a feeling of disconnection. Just off the top of my head, the planet scanning in Mass Effect 2 springs to mind.
So it could be done, but it would be very VERY difficult.
Plus, I LIKE turn based strategy games dammit, and really, REALLY want to play another one of X-Com's caliber.