XCOM - Enemy Unknown makes great characters with zero personality.

[No-Superman10]

So I actually decided to pre-order XCOM, not normally something I do. And I've been playing the balls off it for the last half-month. Overall it's a lot of fun, they fixed a lot of the daft stuff from the old game and is basically everything a remake SHOULD be.

However there's something that they carried across that needs a little more looking into.

In the first X-COM game, UFO Defence, many people (myself included) found themselves becoming more and more attached to their soldiers as time went on. Now that the soldiers get voices too this little aspect of the game seems to be more prominent.
Imagine the situation.

Spoiler

An alien Battleship had crash-landed on the south coast of Germany and my elite team had been sent in to clear the place out and loot it dry. The team consisted of 6 people, an Assault Captain, two Sniper Colonels, a Support Lieutenant and two Heavies, a Major and a Squaddie. After murdering their way to the bridge of the ship (which was hanging Italian Job style over a cliff face) the team took up positions. The Assault Captain cautiously opened the door and proceeded down the ramp, spotting a pair of Sectoid Commanders cowering behind the flight computers. Sensing an opportunity for my first live capture in a while I opened fire. The Commander was wounded and inches from death, now all I had to do was get my Assault Captain into position and break out the Arc Thrower.

This is where it all goes a bit wrong.

Suddenly realising that the other Sectoid Commander was in a position where none of my soldiers could hit him I had no choice but set everyone to Overwatch and pray. The wounded Commander retreated and the reaction fire missed completely, he was now in a position where I couldn't stun him for another turn and the second Commander had mind-controlled my Heavy Major. Rapidly running out of ideas I had my Squaddie Heavy sprint down the ramp and open fire, praying it would save me from laser-based doom. (Spoiler: It didn't.) Elite Heavy now beyond my control and moving to join the Commanders I somehow managed to get into stun range. I crossed my fingers...And swore loudly when the stun failed.

Somehow one of my Snipers made it into a position where she could take the head off the second Commander, and pulled it off gloriously. The Heavy was now free! Only to immediately come under mind control again from the wounded Commander. Moving my Assault Captain back into stun range I ended the turn and hoped I could succeed next turn. The mind-controlled Heavy wounded the Squaddie and dug in hard. The wounded Commander then attempted to panic my elite Sniper, and succeeded. Resigning myself to failure I went to take a drink.

But then I heard something. A cry of defiance. "No! No! NO!" My Sniper had somehow retained enough of his sanity so his panic-stricken shot was a perfect blast right between the Sectoid Commander's eyes.

Needless to say that man is now one of my top Psionics.

These soldiers never say a word outside of combat, yet to me they come across as some of the best characters the game has to offer.

 

[Muunokhoi]

As a gamer that loved the orginal and was impressed with this remake I agree with you completely with the ability to create and add personalities to these blank slates.

 

[chinangel]

agreed, though i would like a bit more variance in the voices, and maybe the appearance a little. it seems all my characters look the same : <

It would also be nice if I could choose the nationality of my characters.

 

[Rack]

I hated the way I have an Australian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Russian, Scandinavian and Brit on my combat team.... and they all have American accents.

Likewise, in fact I turned voices off for this very reason. I can't understand why there are 12 voices and they are all virtually indistinguishable. You can barely even tell the men from the women.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I'm having great fun with the remake, but I don't have the whole 'personal attachment' thing to the soldiers at my disposal. Don't get me wrong, if my Sniper-class Major were to buy it I'd be mighty pissed off, but only at the loss of a highly skilled sniper, not at the loss of Joe Bloggs, 36, from England, survived by his wife and three kids or what-the-hell-ever. I feel no emotional connection to the pieces on a chess board, and I have no emotional connection to the squad pieces on a UFO board.

Mind you, I did get into this type of game by playing Bullfrog's Syndicate, a game in which your Agents are mindless remote-controlled drones, so maybe that has coloured my view of the genre somewhat.

 

[Squilookle]

Some of my favourite moments in gaming involve the emergent personalities of NPCs when the game has done nothing to intentionally give them any. Mount and Blade, Battlefield and pretty much any other game where you can sit back and watch bots have at each other has the potential to do this, and it is glorious when joe nobody manages to punch way above their weight and pull off something incredible.

 

[Grimh]

Yeah, my great characters are constantly hit by crits, piss themselves in panic and then start shooting each other.

God I hate this game so much.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to playing it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

More voices, more faces, more accents, more hair, more body types. All would be appreciated. On a 4th of 5th playthrough a lot of looks start running together.

Still, I agree completely, it's very easy to project a personality on to them. They're not as personable as the JA2 Mercs, but that also gives you more room to make them YOUR characters, rather than existing characters you're renting.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

i have to ask did you love the ending of syndicate as much as i did? 50 missions and just the credits roll?

I was just glad to finally crack the Atlantic Accelerator! The way you get swamped by all those rival teams right at the very start was just insane, although once I figured it out it got significantly easier.

 

[Pink Gregory]

agreed, though i would like a bit more variance in the voices, and maybe the appearance a little. it seems all my characters look the same : <

It would also be nice if I could choose the nationality of my characters.

It would have been nice to hear racially-linked accents as well; it's still quite disconcerting listening to a burly black man barking in a burly white man's voice.

 

[Zhukov]

I had this one shaven-headed shotgun-wielding assault soldier. I swear she never missed a shot. Made it to max rank in no time. Many an arse was saved thanks to her. Seemed to cop a severe beating in every mission though, but would always make it through.

However, all those injuries had taken a toll on her will power (I hadn't yet bought that one officer school upgrade that gives extra will on promotion) so she had a habit of panicking. However, her idea of "panicking" was "gun down every alien in sight with unerring accuracy".

I eventually took to equipping her with combat drugs to boost her nerves.

Then she turned out to be psionic.

I promptly gave her the nickname of 'Subject Zero'.

 

[Klaflefalumpf]

Well you've pretty much nailed it on the head, make a game open enough and the story writes itself (I find the same with the Total War games).

Although as people have already said the fact my international specialists all have American accents is a bit of a downside. Especially seeing as you can't 'Customise' the nationalities away from them.

That said I found far too often playing this game that I would be frequently reminded on the strategic map of dumbing down. I for one wanted to be able to build multiple bases and have to worry about them getting stormed by aliens. The map I'd fight it out on being determined by how I laid the base out when building it.

 

[BlackStar42]

south coast of Germany

Ummm...

Note the distinct lack of coast to the south. Switzerland and Austria are in the way.

 

[XMark]

I... I think I've fallen in love with my female sniper.

 

[Melon Hunter]

Oh hell yes. I have a habit of naming my soldiers after a common theme. My first (Normal) playthrough was with people from British TV, where Sharon Osbourne became my chief psionic and Michael McIntyre a grizzled Heavy. But the best one was last night, on Classic Ironman, during an abduction mission on the fast food restaurant map, with Team Hollywood:

Scarlett Johannson (Heavy) had been killed early after I accidentally sent her dashing into a monster closet of Sectoids, and Robert De Niro (Sniper) had been taken out by a couple of lucky shots. This left Tom 'Bane' Hardy (Support) and rookie Colin Farrell trapped on the opposite side of the restaurant to the Skyranger with Sectoids and Thin Men closing in fast, armed only with assault rifles. What happened next was glorious; a segment of good luck pushed back the Sectoids with a bunch of on-target shots, and the two-man team managed to clear out the infested Burger King without any further injury. I'd like to think those two have an epic bromance forged in battle now.

I also let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding when the last Sectoid went down. The tension was perfect.

 

[AntiChri5]

I had this one shaven-headed shotgun-wielding assault soldier. I swear she never missed a shot. Made it to max rank in no time. Many an arse was saved thanks to her. Seemed to cop a severe beating in every mission though, but would always make it through.

However, all those injuries had taken a toll on her will power (I hadn't yet bought that one officer school upgrade that gives extra will on promotion) so she had a habit of panicking. However, her idea of "panicking" was "gun down every alien in sight with unerring accuracy".

I eventually took to equipping her with combat drugs to boost her nerves.

Then she turned out to be psionic.

I promptly gave her the nickname of 'Subject Zero'.

All of the win.

Just........just all of it.

 

[Bostur]

Note the distinct lack of coast to the south. Switzerland and Austria are in the way.

Must have been the south coast of Switzerland then. ;-)


Jokes aside, it's a neat thing when it works. It takes a little bit information to get our imagination going, but then details are left blank to make room for interpretation.

I think Crusader Kings 2 uses the same effect. It has hundreds of randomized characters with stats and numeric traits like +1 Lazyness or -1 Stubbornness. Most of the characters end up feeling generic because they don't matter to the game, but the characters that do matter often get a personality of their own.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Yeah, my great characters are constantly hit by crits, piss themselves in panic and then start shooting each other.

God I hate this game so much.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to playing it.

I think a recent update took out the "Panic? BETTER SHOOT MY OWN TEAM" mechanic.

Thank god for that.