The folks at Fraxis put up a new video showing off two non-story missions in the new XCOM reboot which can be found here http://www.twitch.tv/2k/b/330155062 and runs about an hour and a half. They didn't show any new aliens or features that hadn't already been brought up, but it's nice to see how a mission can play out and what effects the reduced squad size has so I thought I would share some of my thoughts and look forward to hearing some of yours:
1. It looks like the aliens don't use overwatch and always seem to lose the initiative against him. I never once saw a true xcom style ambush where a squad member goes off too far and gets shot by an alien in an alleyway.
2. Chryssalids aren't nearly as durable as in the original. It looks like they aren't as willing to make a beeline for a squad member as I remember from the first game, but then again looking back at other people playing it they did sometimes just around around in circles so it might just be part of their personality.
3. The damage doesn't seem to be very variable, outside of crits which double damage it seems like at most we see a two point variation in damage from the listed value. Supposedly you can turn off your ability to see alien health to make the game harder, but it's still a bit odd.
4. The smaller squads do seem to make turns a lot faster, which I like and the attrition percentages are still fairly similar where you can expect to lose 20% or more of your squad per mission. The only shift is that instead of that being 4 guys, it's now one guy.
5. Cyberdiscs seem like they're the early game nightmare opponent replacing chryssalids. That said they were pretty scary even in the original because of their high accuracy and loads of hit points / armor.
6. You can get civilians to run away during terror missions, that's a HUGE plus compared to having them wander around in circles blocking doors.
7. It looks like you will always be outnumbered by aliens instead of it starting out with you outnumbering them slightly and then finally being outnumbered by 2 or 3 to 1... and even more when it comes to Terror From the Deep.
8. The glam cam looks very nice in single player even if it will likely be turned off in multiplayer due to the time limit per turn.
9. It's good to see capturing aliens matters more early on instead of them treating capture as something that only matters to get your psionic powers and thus break the game horribly.
10. It's good to see that missing shots still happens and just how bad the results can be because of it. It does feel weird that the xcom troops have so many hitpoints, but I'm guessing that's due to the fact they were sporting fairly advanced armor combined with the limited squad size. So it looks like it's unlikely for a soldier to ever be killed by a single shot late game or to have six guys die to a single blaster bomb.
11. I loved it when the guy panicked.
12. It looks like ammo is still a big deal, and it even matters for laser weapons unlike in the original where the laser rifle was godly and to be used for almost everything except the final mission and base attacks where the heavy plasma comes into play in an effort to save elerium.
13. They said it would be showing up on Steam for pre-order, so w00t.
1. It looks like the aliens don't use overwatch and always seem to lose the initiative against him. I never once saw a true xcom style ambush where a squad member goes off too far and gets shot by an alien in an alleyway.
2. Chryssalids aren't nearly as durable as in the original. It looks like they aren't as willing to make a beeline for a squad member as I remember from the first game, but then again looking back at other people playing it they did sometimes just around around in circles so it might just be part of their personality.
3. The damage doesn't seem to be very variable, outside of crits which double damage it seems like at most we see a two point variation in damage from the listed value. Supposedly you can turn off your ability to see alien health to make the game harder, but it's still a bit odd.
4. The smaller squads do seem to make turns a lot faster, which I like and the attrition percentages are still fairly similar where you can expect to lose 20% or more of your squad per mission. The only shift is that instead of that being 4 guys, it's now one guy.
5. Cyberdiscs seem like they're the early game nightmare opponent replacing chryssalids. That said they were pretty scary even in the original because of their high accuracy and loads of hit points / armor.
6. You can get civilians to run away during terror missions, that's a HUGE plus compared to having them wander around in circles blocking doors.
7. It looks like you will always be outnumbered by aliens instead of it starting out with you outnumbering them slightly and then finally being outnumbered by 2 or 3 to 1... and even more when it comes to Terror From the Deep.
8. The glam cam looks very nice in single player even if it will likely be turned off in multiplayer due to the time limit per turn.
9. It's good to see capturing aliens matters more early on instead of them treating capture as something that only matters to get your psionic powers and thus break the game horribly.
10. It's good to see that missing shots still happens and just how bad the results can be because of it. It does feel weird that the xcom troops have so many hitpoints, but I'm guessing that's due to the fact they were sporting fairly advanced armor combined with the limited squad size. So it looks like it's unlikely for a soldier to ever be killed by a single shot late game or to have six guys die to a single blaster bomb.
11. I loved it when the guy panicked.
12. It looks like ammo is still a big deal, and it even matters for laser weapons unlike in the original where the laser rifle was godly and to be used for almost everything except the final mission and base attacks where the heavy plasma comes into play in an effort to save elerium.
13. They said it would be showing up on Steam for pre-order, so w00t.
