XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Sarky

Demo was shockingly easy, but it showed promise, a higher difficulty will sort all my issues with that. The base building and mission response options look "streamlined" however, which I'm cautious about. Looks like there's no hiring scientists or engineers, instead they're rewards for completing missions. Personally I liked having full control over multiple science and manufacturing teams across several bases worldwide, this change might be a bit too simplistic. Managing a global defense isn't supposed to be easy...

Anyway, from the demo I'm convinced it'll be worth a go regardless of how true it remains to the originals, so money has been put down.

richymcdermott

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Does it have multiplayer?

it does

Gunmonkey

VinLieger wrote: »

I think theres a versus mode where one player takes on the role of humans and the other plays the aliens

Its actually similar to a tabletop miniature game, each unit (human or alien) has a points value and you build a team of 6 from a pre-assigned points limit. You can mix and match humans and aliens, so 3 Xcom soldiers, a Sectoid and 2 Floaters if ya wish. Obviously no hot-seat (as could see what the other player has/where they moved) but does support system-link on 360 and online support is in.

Cravez

Sarky wrote: »

Demo was shockingly easy, but it showed promise, a higher difficulty will sort all my issues with that. The base building and mission response options look "streamlined" however, which I'm cautious about. Looks like there's no hiring scientists or engineers, instead they're rewards for completing missions. Personally I liked having full control over multiple science and manufacturing teams across several bases worldwide, this change might be a bit too simplistic. Managing a global defense isn't supposed to be easy...

Anyway, from the demo I'm convinced it'll be worth a go regardless of how true it remains to the originals, so money has been put down.

Exactly my thoughts on the game, I hope that the Micro Management Aspects aren't streamlined too much. Even if they are though, the demo showed promise to be decent.

super_furry

Demo on Xbox Live today, should be enough to convince people on the fence.

Sin_J

I was trying to get the steam demo to run today but was having problems. Thing just refused to start. Need to give it a go so i know if i am leaving it for awhile or if i ignore my financial woes and buy it now.

robcon

Downloading it on steam now! Grabbed it on amazon.com last night and just activated the key on steam. Approx 13 gigs install.

Stev_o

super_furry wrote: »

Demo on Xbox Live today, should be enough to convince people on the fence.

Don't download the demo. It's 6 gigs for 30 minutes or less of gameplay.

DarkJager

Stev_o wrote: »

Don't download the demo. It's 6 gigs for 30 minutes or less of gameplay.

The Xbox demo is coming in at just 1.51gb Downloading it now as I've been curious to see how the gameplay translates to consoles.

kingtiger

Got to play for around four hours today on PC, I ain't going to spoil anything for ya,

I loved it, a lot of changes but its fun to play and still has the old Xcom feeling, I may say the nostalgia of my 486 gaming days was wafting through my mind as I played today

Just one word of advice I would advise experienced players go for Classic Ironman, any difficulty below classic is just not challenging enough

quarryman

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

went into town to put money on the card to buy this, when I got back to PC price had jumped up to 39.99 so cant afford it

I am most upset

Dammit, missed out on the cheaper price too. Anyone see it available at the cheaper rate elsewhere?

Taylor365

Some places on ebay have it for around €27

Korvanica

I got it on bonanza.com for €31 and it included Civ 5 for free aswell.

Hmmm ... Seems like its sold out though.

Kiith

It's getting some fantastic reviews. Might pick it up later today.

IGN - 82%
Gamespot - 85%
Eurogamer - 90%
Gametrailers - 91%
Gamespy - 100%

Korvanica

Kiith wrote: »

It's getting some fantastic reviews. Might pick it up later today.

IGN - 82%
Gamespot - 85%
Eurogamer - 90%
Gametrailers - 91%
Gamespy - 100%

Why spoiler review scores ?

Kiith

Some people don't like seeing them? I dunno, it's early :pac:

Grimebox

Some people like to make their own mind up entirely. One of my favourite things to do is go to the cinema knowing absolutely nothing about the film

Branoic

Played it for a few hours last night following its NA release, and it is amazing. Such a brilliant game, the atmosphere is fantastic. I was like a giddy schoolboy again. Never before has a remake of anything so captured the essence of the original.

Tenger

Branoic wrote: »

Played it for a few hours last night following its NA release, and it is amazing. Such a brilliant game, the atmosphere is fantastic. I was like a giddy schoolboy again. Never before has a remake of anything so captured the essence of the original.

I played about 3 hours worth yesterday...(was in the US when I pre-ordered and was there again Mon/Tueday so got it before home)

I too feel giddy about playing X-Com again. It is definitely an excellent remake of the original. Already I can see that it is money well spent by me. In fact I have actually spent the previous 4 days playing the original game to whet my appetite
Visually it looks fantastic. (And you have a certain level of armour/body customisation avail to you?)

I do however have some points of unhappiness. Spoilers to protect some ppls sense of wonder:

-I dislike the very small squad size for one, In the last mission I did before quitting I lost my sniper in to the very first Alien shot,this really hamstrung me for the rest of the mission. However you very quickly are able to increase to 5 men (Definitely made a difference to me in those last 2 missions) In addition when the snipers can't move and shoot having only 3/4 units able to fire on alternate turns greatly impacts the firepower you can bring to bear. I don't see what is wrong with starting at maybe 5 men and upgrading to 8 perhaps. I'm not asking for 14+ spots in the Skyranger!!!

-The equipment you an give to units is VERY restrictive. (You can have a grenade OR a med-pak!) Literally each trooper get 4 slots, you are allowed a main weapon,armour, sidearm and 1 special item (grenade,medpak,stun,motion tracker) At 'Major' each trooper is allowed a 2nd special item.
(ranks: Squaddie->Sarge->Lt->Capt->Major->Colonel)
To me this seems unrealistic (but fighting aliens is?) elite troops should have decent kit. Also the guns need to be reloaded quite often,ammo is unlimited but reloading takes up an action for that turn,so plan to reload in prep for a firefight.

-I dislike the class system, I always prefered all rounder troops so i wasn't relying on a particular skill to get me through a mission. (see first gripe above) I feel this is forcing the player to follow a set of linear progressions rather than a feeling of freeplay.

-Each trooper starts as a 'Rookie', after 1-2 missions they get auto assigned a class. You have no control over this. (Well not that I saw in 3 hours of play) In my initial playthrough after 7-8 missions I had 2 each Sniper/Assault/Heavy but only 1 Support (who was injured!) So the final mission I had no medic.
-
-The tactical gameplay seems a lot less 'free' than the originals. You have 2 actions per turn, shooting ends that units turn. (The Heavy can get a perk that allows shoot then move) So you can move and shoot or move twice, or move and reload, etc (except the sniper who cannot move and shoot early on) What was wrong with the old 'time unit' system? On a good note the maps are smaller and more 'contained' than original X-Com. Easier to know when you are nearly finished a mission.

-The maps themselves are quite small so far (relative to the original) Also they are all named so that adds to my sense of being railroaded through the campaign. The combat system is completely cover based....and all cover is destructible....so don't stay in 1 spot under fire or more than 3 rounds. This could well be the rationale behind restriction grenades, they destroy a lot of cover!

-I am playing on a laptop and can see that the control system is tailored towards console gamers. not really a bad thing. More of an observation but doesn't seem to suit mouse and keyboard very well. (After playing X-Com:UFO Defense for the last 4 days!)

-The perk system is very linear, as the trooper get promoted they have to pick between 2 class specific perks.I have only unlocked a few,so atm I can't even plan out a final perk system for each trooper (assuming they survive) granted after 2-3 initial playthroughs I will have them all noted down. And I guess this also encourages repeat play. Personally I would be trying to make all my snipers level up to suit my playstyle, I can see it being difficult to remember "Did I bring the Medic Support guy or the Buff support guy?" Again,no point having a single uber sniper if he is wounded and not avail for a mission.

-The single base restriction initially seems bad but in reality it actually gives longevity. Each continent gives different bonuses so you may well want to play campaigns with different advantages.
-The base system seems very restrictive, you will have to plan it out well in advance, what to build where and when to build. Each type of buildign gets an adjacency bonus. So you want your labs/workshops/power plants besdie each other. I actually like this restriction, I can see it forcing you to make tough decisions on how you play. With finite space and money you have to focus on 1-2 areas unlike the original where at the end you were all conquering. EG..Do you want max upgrade troops or max upgraded weapons?

-In the same vein you can no longer respond to multiple attacks/UFO's/Terror sites. It is 'rescue Miami or Rome or Perth'. So while you may win 1 the other 2 cause damage to your cause....and impact on funding

Now whether you read the spoilers or not please be clear that I am really happy to be playing X-Com again. Initial reaction from me is positive (it is a reboot rather than a clone of the original).....now to get my mates to buy so we can got head to head multiplayer!

Branoic

Some good points,Tenger, some I agree with and some I can see but they don't bother me.

I think the smaller squad numbers work quite well. The maps are a lot smaller so the 14 / 16 member squad was never going to work. I read an interview with the devs where they said they play tested it with that number and thats the way it was for months, but they eventually scrapped it because it just wasnt working. Instead they settled on the 4 - 6 number as a good balance. They say now that every decision you make and every death of a squad member is more important.

With the small squad and soldier classes there is the chance that you could end up losing a high level squaddie and be left without a good sniper / medic etc. Or you could end up losing your entire squad in a disasterous mission and be left with a barracks full of rookies. To combat this I try to make sure I've no one uber squad in use the whole time. I'll constantly swap out 1 or 2 good promoted units and replace them with rookies in order to level them up so that I've got a large roster of decent guys to call up.

I agree the inventory seems needlessly restrive and gamey, and usually results in only 1 squaddie bringing along a grenade while the others pack arc throwers, medikits, scopes etc.

I like the new actions system though. Reminds me an awful lot of the merchanics in the tabletop skirmish game Infinity, which I'm a big fan of.

Azza

Apparantly PC users can switch in game cinematics to 1080p from 720p. They ship with the game but don't run by default.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/372407/blog/blog-how-to-switch-to-high-res-cinematics-in-xcom-enemy-unknown-pc/

Cravez

To those who have played the full game so far. Have you noticed if missions are set or are they randomised?

Just consdering for re-play value if you will be doing the same missions over and over again or have new and different missions (to an extent) when you start a new game

Tenger

Michael Cravez wrote: »

To those who have played the full game so far. Have you noticed if missions are set or are they randomised?......
.........Just considering for re-play value if you will be doing the same missions over and over again or have new and different missions (to an extent) when you start a new game

Not really sure. The missions are all named (only done 7-8 atm, along with 1 terror site) This leads me to think they are at least partially scripted. But each mission was a choice so for replay you could decide to take the 'other' option when prompted. Combine this with the 5 different base locations, the different tech options and the different Soldier Perk paths........I would say it has very promising replay value.

At the end of the day the mission are all variations of the same, the Original X-Com could be horrendously repetitive when farming for Enemy Commanders to interrogate, however in this campaign I have already played 2 hostage rescue variants.

Branoic

Michael Cravez wrote: »

To those who have played the full game so far. Have you noticed if missions are set or are they randomised?

Just consdering for re-play value if you will be doing the same missions over and over again or have new and different missions (to an extent) when you start a new game

The maps are not randonly generated - there's a pool of about 100. However for the most part the encounters are random in terms of alien positioning and composition so there is definite replay value there, especially when you consider all the other elements. However, there are occassional "story" missions given to you by the Council of Nations which further the plot along and are less random.

richymcdermott

According to HMV in my location xcom isnt a popular game so they are only ordering 2 copies and im not allowed to reserve it so i have to be in the store to hopefully pick it up at 9 o clock in the morning on friday

What a ****ing hassle

Sephiroth_dude

How's the A.I?

degrassinoel

richymcdermott wrote: »

According to HMV in my location xcom isnt a popular game so they are only ordering 2 copies and im not allowed to reserve it so i have to be in the store to hopefully pick it up at 9 o clock in the morning on friday

What a ****ing hassle

how do they know if it's popular or not before it's been released here?

richymcdermott

degrassinoel wrote: »

how do they know if it's popular or not before it's been released here?

Have not the slightest idea

So annoying

Having only two copies is a complete joke

Gunmonkey

Probably based on pre-orders/views of its page from the HMV website and such.

degrassinoel

I would have thought it'd be the best seller for the next few weeks across three platforms, but hey.. what do i know, i just play games