X-Com Enemy Unknown: Firaxis remake

[GruntMark]

Part 5 of OXMs youtube is up.

 

[D-Lyrium]

I never played the orginal X-Com, but it seems like I missed out. From the demo, it seems really cool, and has a great WH40k: Kill Team vibe (though the latter is probably based on the former, in this case), which is awesome. Will definitely be picking this up when it comes out.

[VBigB]

I played the orriginal XCOM a lot and thus this has been one of my most anticipated games this year. It's one of the few I actually pre-ordered.

[Dragonmack]

One thing I really like from what I have seen in the demo and youtube gamplay vids, and that I think is definitely an improvement over the original is how the aliens react when spotted.

 

They duck into cover, and go to flank your positon, whereas in the original game, basically they used ambush tactics ( ie hid somewhere and then gunned you down when you spotted them) and then just straight assault when they found you. Granted alot of that is the limit of computers back in the mid 90's ( when DOS was still king, and hard drives were still in the MB size) but from what I see so far, the Alien AI is a lot more challenging now.

 

And with the smaller squad size, you really have to be more methodical and careful ( or liberally use grenades and rockets! ) as you dont have the extra bodies to just have some rookie run out into the middle of the map and get wasted to reveal the alien locations. Before that was only 1 guy out of 8 or 12, whereas now, early on, thats 25% of your team.

[Comradebot]

One thing I really like from what I have seen in the demo and youtube gamplay vids, and that I think is definitely an improvement over the original is how the aliens react when spotted.

 

They duck into cover, and go to flank your positon, whereas in the original game, basically they used ambush tactics ( ie hid somewhere and then gunned you down when you spotted them) and then just straight assault when they found you. Granted alot of that is the limit of computers back in the mid 90's ( when DOS was still king, and hard drives were still in the MB size) but from what I see so far, the Alien AI is a lot more challenging now.

 

And with the smaller squad size, you really have to be more methodical and careful ( or liberally use grenades and rockets! ) as you dont have the extra bodies to just have some rookie run out into the middle of the map and get wasted to reveal the alien locations. Before that was only 1 guy out of 8 or 12, whereas now, early on, thats 25% of your team.

 

Which I love. I would make an audible groan when I read someone who's strategy was to send a bunch of unarmed rookies out to scout while a handful of longer tenured soldiers just stood in/by the Skyranger with blaster launchers and psionics. Yeah, it's super effective, but its also super cheesy and completely removes the challenge of the game.

 

With smaller squads, you'll likely find yourself trying to make the most out of every soldier, meaning rookies are a little less expendable, and you'd probably rather try to keep them alive and try to make them more effective, rather than hoping against hope only a single soldier or two is/are awesome enough to deal with all the aliens. But really, so long as psionics are nerfed from the original and there's nothing as lulzy as the blaster launcher...

[crownsy]

Played the demo last night. I loved it, I think this game is going to be an awesome update of the original.

 

I loved the look of my base and how movement and combat is handled. some of the other things i really liked.

 

Love how you can get to places. for example, the fact that your troops can be smart and shimmy up drain pipes, crash through windows, and generally not be caught out is aweome.

 

I also think it's great from a tactical standpoint. One of the most annoying things about the original xcom (well until flight suits) was that snipers were so ineffeciant and useless. It took so long to get around inside a house that by the time you got a sniper anywhere like useful, your strike teams had already cleared farther than he could cover.

 

This is another reason i don't mind squads capped at 6. as mack said, the old xcom's 12 person limit led to a sense that 4-6 of your team were cannon fodder to essentially draw a death shot from an ambush group. Now, don't get me wrong based on limitations in PC tech that was ok then, because things like AI taking cover, and the tactical cover system in this game was absent or in it's infancy. But that still sucked. My squads were always 6 vets in armor, and 6 rookies/squaddies who went out in, at best, personal armor with a plasma rifle and took shots to the forehead to alert my better guys where to direct fire.

 

Between the new cover system, the easier ways to get snipers to important places quickly, and how overwatch works i think this game maintains and improves on the tactical gameplay aspect of the first.

 

also Loved that using heavy weopens seems balanced by having it be easy to use but blowing up inportant research material. It adds that element of "hmmm can i take these 3 aliens with no losses if i pin them down? is it worth the risk for the drops?" Rather than the old one where if you could, you went all explody on that alien behind because why not?

[D-Lyrium]

I do have one criticism, having seen some let's plays of the original. It doesn't seem as tense/scary as before.

 

The main reason being that, before, if an alien saw you before you saw him, he just shot at you, and you'd have no idea where he was. You could hear them doing things (like opening doors and firing weapons) but had no idea where they were unless they were in line of sight. Whereas now you get a cinematic showing exactly where and what the aliens are when they take their turn. That could well be because it's only the first two levels though. Hope so.

 

It also seems to be missing all the stats from the old game, which is a shame.

[Dragonmack]

The soldiers do have some stats, as I saw at least four of them on the right side on the level up screen. They may have simplified some stats from the original as being unnecessary and they may even have a discussion about it on their forums or dev journals. Granted I haven't gone in depth but from the stuff I have read, the developers really looked at the older game and use most of the systems and core of it.

 

As for the aliens shooting in the dark, I think thats still there on the terror missions as they are killing civilians. plus they were still playing a beta version so who knows what tweaks or changes may be made in these final weeks.

 

Just in the Mists of Pandaria alone, I played missions in the beta less than three weeks before the launch, and those same missions in the launch were different in mechanics and ui on several of them.

[crownsy]

I do have one criticism, having seen some let's plays of the original. It doesn't seem as tense/scary as before.

 

The main reason being that, before, if an alien saw you before you saw him, he just shot at you, and you'd have no idea where he was. You could hear them doing things (like opening doors and firing weapons) but had no idea where they were unless they were in line of sight. Whereas now you get a cinematic showing exactly where and what the aliens are when they take their turn. That could well be because it's only the first two levels though. Hope so.

 

It also seems to be missing all the stats from the old game, which is a shame.

 

yea, I feel you on that. I'm hoping that in later missions, you'll see the alien cinamatic AFTER they take thier over watch shot if thier in cover.

 

I mean, essentially in the demo/ lets plays so far the human ALWAYS has initiative. correct me if im wrong but the order goes Human move- Discovered Alien-Aliens DON'T SHOOT but get a reactionary run to cover.

 

and so far the Aliens always seem surprised like "oh snap, an xcom squad!" instead of pushing the action.

 

In the original, the type of mission kinda dictated what you'd face. Crash sites were often easy wins for the Xcom side, as aliens were spread out and disorganized. Base assaults, landed UFO assaults, terror ect however, the aliens tended to have good ambush spots set up since they were expecting you.

 

I'm hoping later on in the game we'll run into alien squads who don't sit passively till discovered.

[Dragonmack]

I've already seen something like that on the OXM 5 vid. they were doing an escort mission and thin men aliens were dropping out of the blue behind them, so it wasn't a case of them being discovered, but actually ambushing the team.

[Harmor]

 

This is a video with two devs playing the game on classic difficulty level - it's interesting to see (don't wanna spoil things but err, no idea how to avoid it without typing any further) that even devs can get plastered in their own game. I think we really don't need to worry about line of sight etc very much - the game is obviously very challenging in the upper reaches of difficulty. Just watch and see for yourself...

[Comradebot]

yea, I feel you on that. I'm hoping that in later missions, you'll see the alien cinamatic AFTER they take thier over watch shot if thier in cover.

 

I mean, essentially in the demo/ lets plays so far the human ALWAYS has initiative. correct me if im wrong but the order goes Human move- Discovered Alien-Aliens DON'T SHOOT but get a reactionary run to cover.

 

and so far the Aliens always seem surprised like "oh snap, an xcom squad!" instead of pushing the action.

 

In the original, the type of mission kinda dictated what you'd face. Crash sites were often easy wins for the Xcom side, as aliens were spread out and disorganized. Base assaults, landed UFO assaults, terror ect however, the aliens tended to have good ambush spots set up since they were expecting you.

 

I'm hoping later on in the game we'll run into alien squads who don't sit passively till discovered.

 

They most certainly do NOT do that. It's been long confirmed that the aliens have their own patrols across the map as they actively look for X-Com or civilians. In some of the gameplay videos out there, you can see some pretty clear examples of it.

[Harmor]

Great, and now the OXM (Official XBox Magazine) guys released a 45 minute video of an alien base infiltration mission - this is more likely than not the final mission in the game >_<

 

From several posts on the official forum I understand the OXM squad is getting mowed down to the last man but I still will most likely NOT watch it - too many spoilers (although I'm itching to...). Darn it ... another two weeks!

[GruntMark]

Great, and now the OXM (Official XBox Magazine) guys released a 45 minute video of an alien base infiltration mission - this is more likely than not the final mission in the game >_<

 

From several posts on the official forum I understand the OXM squad is getting mowed down to the last man but I still will most likely NOT watch it - too many spoilers (although I'm itching to...). Darn it ... another two weeks!

 

I watched it. Does not appear to be the final mission. However, (video spoiler)

 

(spoiler) All his men are killed halfway through anyway. (/spoiler)

[Harmor]

I watched it. Does not appear to be the final mission.

 

True, it's not the final mission in the game which also confirms that 'standard' alien base assaults are in the game as well. Off to watch the vid ^^

[crownsy]

True, it's not the final mission in the game which also confirms that 'standard' alien base assaults are in the game as well. Off to watch the vid ^^

 

Kotuku has a link to a Video "choose your own adventure" demo which i found kinda fun.

 

 

kinda neat.

[crownsy]

Damn, looks like they got on Take Two's last nerve with that base mission, got yanked.

 

Ah well, guess they were ok with the first 6 basic vids but that went to far.

[Harmor]

Damn, looks like they got on Take Two's last nerve with that base mission, got yanked.

 

Ah well, guess they were ok with the first 6 basic vids but that went to far.

 

They sure did break the none disclosure agreement with that one, yeah. I guess they're not getting any 2k games to preview in a while ^^ ... Anyhow, since I was able to watch the video I've got to say alien base infiltrations are going to be insanely tough - the OXM squad was completely wiped (Chrysallids and Mutons/Muton Berserkers) after having killed 11 or so aliens while half of the base was still in the fog of war. That's ouch!

[crownsy]

They sure did break the none disclosure agreement with that one, yeah. I guess they're not getting any 2k games to preview in a while ^^ ... Anyhow, since I was able to watch the video I've got to say alien base infiltrations are going to be insanely tough - the OXM squad was completely wiped (Chrysallids and Mutons/Muton Berserkers) after having killed 11 or so aliens while half of the base was still in the fog of war. That's ouch!

 

It seems like overwatch and careful advance are going to be the way to go if you want to play on ironman and classic.

 

Even that interactive preview youtube vid implies that. Anything like going aggresive = death. I got the top ending by taking a balanced squad and essentially hiding and playing the cover game until we heavily outnumbered them.

 

It will be intersting to see if assualt type squads are viable on the higher difficulty levels. While I love the idea of a bruiser xcom squad with a few support guys, it seems like the chances of the squaddie who's playing the "assualt" roles chance for long term survival is slim to none.

 

OF course thats all complete conjecture, prehaps a high level assualt troop gets so much defense and HP it becomes viable to close in on the enemy.

[crownsy]

On a side note, i just started a classic xcom game to hold me over. the worst part is, I'm reasonably sure My GF isn't going to give me this game until my birthday "party" on saterday (13th) even though my birthday is the 11th.

 

I better get to unwrap some sort of present that night to keep me distracted.

[Harmor]

LOL! Well, thanks to the demo editor I've been able to play the demo on higher difficulties and let's just say, compared to the vanilla demo the aliens are really, really no pushovers. Classic and Impossible will provide quite the challenge I'm sure of it - also on the strategic layer where it seems inevitable that some countries will leave the council eventually. Managing all that is going to be quite tough I reckon.

 

Assault class seems viable because of their run and gun skill alone - it could really make a difference if you can run up to an alien and fire a point blank shot AFTER you moved him. I might also very well give my assault squaddies shotguns because of this skill while singing 'LET FREEDOM RING WITH A SHOTGUN BLAST!' ... Machine Head ftw.

 

But anyhow, I shot you a pm on a sidenote ^^

[James Casey]

Unbelievably, I ran over my data allowance last month so today's the first day I've had a chance to run the demo.

 

it reminds me a little of my first play through on original UFO way back in the mid 90s. I enjoyed playing, and found the UI fairly intuitive - keyboard shortcuts are a useful add from the original, if nothing else

 

I'm not sure whether to go for the PC or XBox version. May wait and see how the reviews come in - My PC seems to run the missions just fine on Low, but it'll (presumably) look a lot prettier on the XBox. The slowdown during the video/loading scenes was ridiculous, which makes me think it may be a console job...

 

But as an original XCommer, I'm really looking forward to this.

[Harmor]

I have a 2 year old Asus Laptop rigged for gaming (i7 Quadcore, ATI 5870 gpu..) and on the demo, it lags when the Skyranger is shown from the outside in that cutscene. I would think this is definitely not because of your computer but certainly something that requires a little work by the developers (others have reported this on the official forum as well).

 

I also doubt that a console version would look better than the PC version even on low tbh, but at any rate - welcome to the XCom party James ^^.

[D-Lyrium]

I concur with Harmor. My PC lags a bit on that particular cutscene, but the rest of the game runs absolutely fine (it's turn-based anyway, what's the worst that can happen? ). Also remember that consoles are 7 years old now. Pretty much every game in the last couple of years looks much better on a PC with the higher graphics settings (unless it's a terrible port).

 

I would get this on PC every time. Especially when you think that it'll probably be modded quite a bit. Modding is always more PC-friendly.

[James Casey]

Interesting to know. My wife's laptop is only a year old and actually has a better setup for gaming (). Maybe I'll see how she feels about me installing on there. Could get problematic if she wants to use it at any point, though.

 

Maybe I'll turn up the settings on my next playthrough and see how it affects play.

 

Incidentally, does anyone know if the pre-order bonuses are Steam exclusives? I prefer to have a physical copy of any game I buy, but I do want that flat-topped soldier in my squad...