is xcom that good?

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Ed130 The Vanguard

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Sep 10, 2008
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It's a Turn Based Strategy based/inspired/is a re-imagining of an old 1994 classic.

People like it due to:

It being a TBS. (a rather neglected genre these days)

Brutal difficulty. the 4 difficulty levels are Easy, Normal, Classic and Impossible. If you make a mistake on the higher levels the game will tell you about it by messily killing your troops.

It's something different.

There are probably more reasons.
 

mateushac

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Apr 4, 2010
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Ed130 said:
It's a Turn Based Strategy based/inspired/is a re-imagining of an old 1994 classic.

People like it due to:

It being a TBS. (a rather neglected genre these days)

Brutal difficulty. the 4 difficulty levels are Easy, Normal, Classic and Impossible. If you make a mistake on the higher levels the game will tell you about it by messily killing your troops.

It's something different.

There are probably more reasons.
Pretty much this!

Also, Random Number Generator Masochism. I've missed 3 95% shots only today.
 

Syzygy23

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Sep 20, 2010
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Just go look up any LP of it (As long as the LPer in question is playing on Classic difficulty with Ironman mode engaged)
 

BeerTent

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Here's what I like about it...

The genre, for one, and the ruleset in regards to how your troops need to move. Cover is extremely well done. Everything feels cinematic too, yet your actions obviously is the primary drive to your playthrough.

The Starting tutorial is awesome, a little hand-holdish, but after that, your on your goddamn own. Nothing else other than cinematic driving you to your next major goal. What those goals are, I'll let you find out.

The game finds a way to help you get invested in your solders. Nick-naming them for you, and letting you outfit them and upgrade their equipment and abilities. Solders can perma-die too, and the game will remind you how awesome Matthews was before he died via the Memorial Hall in the Barracks. (Got himself killed saving O'Connor. 23 kills before he bled to death.)

And finally, a total "Wipe" when all of your solders are lost... The game lets you stare at the outcome before you turn around and mutter to yourself "I'll avenge you guys..." And then every mission that is flawlessly executed will never lose that "Fuck yeah!" feeling.

I don't normally recommend major big bucks AAA games... But X-Com is a must buy.

EDIT: And I didn't mention the research and cool Gadgets. Skeleton Armor on a Squad-sight Sniper with the best sniper rifle SCIENCE! has brought about... Still working on avenging his fallen comrades. You can do it, 'Longbow'...
 

thiosk

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Sep 18, 2008
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It tickles the pleasure centers of the brain when you pop a section from across the map with a plug of superheated plasma.

I beat it quick, but will probably put it down til dlc and expac packs.
 

Windcaler

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Nov 7, 2010
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Another thing thats not talked about but still awesome (and classic XCOM has in common) is that every playthrough will be different. You'll hit the same bullet points through the course of the game but due to the high variety in maps, countries, events, etc each playthrough will be different. Some slightly so, most highly so

That said it also has some great replayablity because its different everytime
 

Okulossos

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Oct 3, 2012
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I want to love the game. The underlying ideas are fantastic and well thought out... BUT the game is not only buggy, it is buggy to the point where bugs have bugs. Just yesterday it crashed on me just after before I was able to finish the game. That was truly trolling. The camera is all over the place and clicking on spots can be a *****. The Missions in lager UFOs are just a mess. the ceiling, which should simply have been removed always comes in the way and it takes time and pixel-by-pixel precision to get to where you want. And there are just the major bugs. Don't even get me started on the gameplay bugs...
The game is very good in many parts. fights always seem exiting, with every shot and every move comes a lot of tension and it is extremely rewarding to see your strategies pay off in the end. I must add, that UFO: Enemy unknown was the first game I bought from my own money for the PC. I played and loved it back then, even though I did not really understand it all and never got far. I loved that game and thus I was exited as hell for the remake. When it came out it was like a hard punch in my childhood to see it technically flawed to the point where I can no longer believe that they had it beta-tested at all. But I still love it in spite of the problems.
What I want it add is, that if they make a 2nd part, or remake TFTD, I hope they give it more time. This game should have stayed 2 more month in the grinder before release. Lets just hope that future patches can fix some of the problems.
 

Kekkonen1

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Nov 8, 2010
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If nothing else it is incredibly addicting. When I first got it I played for 13 hours straight without realizing it (was kinda awkward to explain to my girlfriend why I was up at 05 in the morning), and I still didn't feel like stop playing. It is a really wonderful game, and the kind of games that simply doesn't get done anymore.
 

Gennadios

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Aug 19, 2009
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I think the general idea of XCom is good - bringing a beloved classic back in the same genre instead of shoehorning it into some s***ty FPS reboot gives it a massive pass on alot of it's problems.

I have a love-hate relationship with the game. There are bugs, there are crazy line of sight issues, and the game's just feels like it has too much random to be all that tactical. For those reasons I refuse to touch Ironman mode, but when the game works, it's quite brilliant.

If OP is asking whether to buy it? If you like Tactical RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics/Ogre Battle/Valkyria Chronicles/Disgaea, yes, there's a very good chance you'll like this game. Otherwise, I can't see it causing any kind of grand awakening/genre conversion on your part.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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It's a type of indepth game we haven't seen at this level for a very very long time, but I will say that while the mechanics are good the presentation isn't up to snuff, it's not actually triple A level but people were excited and devs bumped up the price.
 

SFMB

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May 13, 2009
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The controls are bit awkward, the cursor doesn't always find the place you want your trooper to go. Also, I miss the possibility to spray an are with plasma fire without seeing any enemies i.e. Destroying walls with quick shots and revealing enemies behind them... And the troopers inventory is a joke. Well, you cannot have it all, when the game is dumbed down for consoles.

It's a nice game, though not a true X-com...
 

blackrave

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Mar 7, 2012
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There are two noticeable issues (at least on PC- during missions, when quicksaving, allow game to finish saving before giving out orders- I had a lot of crashes because of this, also sometimes when terrain is multi-leveled it is pain in the ass to move troops to particular spot- occasionally it can be solved by changing camera angle and zooming closer, but there will moments when despite everything you can't move soldier to particular spot- and I'm talking about places where you can see movement grid).
Anyway the game is great, finished it yesterday and I was a bit surprised that game didn't follow the original plot (I think it will be in DLC), but nonetheless if you like global TPS mixed with turn-based tactical combat, you should try this game out.


SFMB said:
The controls are bit awkward, the cursor doesn't always find the place you want your trooper to go. Also, I miss the possibility to spray an are with plasma fire without seeing any enemies i.e. Destroying walls with quick shots and revealing enemies behind them... And the troopers inventory is a joke. Well, you cannot have it all, when the game is dumbed down for consoles.

It's a nice game, though not a true X-com...
Yeah, few things are missing (but I wouldn't call the crucial)
What I still have a little problems with is infinite ammo and cropped inventory
Also the inability to have multiple Skyrangers
Because when first given choice between 3 abduction missions (you can pick only 1) I was like "too bad I cannot help all of them, well after this mission I'm building at least 2 more skyrangers and splitting troops to cover more missions", but no you can have only one Skyranger and only one response team at any time.
Because I had hangar space, troops and funds to cover multiple missions on the same time, but developers felt that such artificial limitation would introduce meaningful choices.
 

volkmar77

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Mar 18, 2009
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I could not possibly disagree more.

"Not a true X-com game"??
Why exactly?
Yes, all the annoyances said above are true, especially the damn UFO ceiling in certain alien crafts being in the way. It is also utterly unrealistic that during terror attacks I can dispatch just one squad to one place when I have 30+ soldiers and couple squadrons of interceptors, but seemingly I can have just one transport plane somehow.

But the inventory being more limited, your soldiers not be able to shoot at walls (actually, you can do exactly that, you just need to use explosives), the loss of some flexibility (but also the loss of all that damn micro-managing that bogged down the game so much in later areas) are minor things in my eyes.

The spirit of the original x-com is here, reborn for the new era. This game has the same great sense of urgency and lethality the original one had, it has the same free form mode that let you decide what to do next and even if it does not allow you to have multiple bases, it let you have interceptors all over the world and let's face it, that was what the extra bases were: radar station and interceptor bases. It has the same feeling of getting attached to your soldiers, even improving on that with the nicknames that somehow always end up being so appropriate (my crackshot veteran Colonel sniper got nicknamed "Omega" and she is really the end all for any and all x-rays around) and the same addictive feeling of one more ufo to shot down! :)

Plus it is turn based! in 2012! and it is amazing turn based at that! So I would really want to know what makes an x-com game now, because seemingly all the above is not, so what is?
 

Product Placement

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Jul 16, 2009
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mateushac said:
Also, Random Number Generator Masochism. I've missed 3 95% shots only today.
That same random number generator scored a hit for me on a 1% shot. It was my only soldier that had a move left and a Muton, with an itchy trigger finger was ready to gun down an exposed teammate. I figured "fuck it" and shot anyways.

I seriously did a victory pose when I realized that my guy managed to not only hit but kill him.