XCOM : Enemy Unknown - by Firaxis Games - Thread

Is the game turn based like rebelstar was?

Yes

Well i'm starting to get a lot of corpses I could sell, but I haven't researched them yet so I'm not sure how many I need to keep.

Early on you can sell them all bar one for research purposes. Once you have some more satellites / Interceptors up you'll have more corpses than you need.

Later on some countries will request x number of corpses now and again, and they are also needed to be able to buy certain upgrades, etc...once researched.

That's my issue... there isn't much you can do about that without getting bases across the world. But that doesn't seem possible like it was in the original?

Afaik you only have 1 base. Other countries only get satellite + Interceptor cover when you can afford it.

A few countries leaving the council just means your resources aren't stretched to the limit, so I wouldn't bother about it too much.
 
I think you can't help but lose countries, I have fighters and satellites in every country I can and I still get countries going red...?

I'm also finding the game way too easy on Normal, only lost one man after 15 hours, might have to restart of 'Classic' mode.
 
After a good few hours playing this game, I don't think this is in the same league as the original - it seems quite dumbed down:

- World map no longer feels interactive.

In the original xcom, it was an awesome mini game; choosing where to put your bases & choosing what targets to attack. Now it adds absolutely nothing to the game.

- Only a single base.

Just seriously dumbed down. I want to manage multiple bases with different teams of soldiers at each one!

- Fewer combat options.

I want to decide which way my soldier faces, or crouch down for an accuracy/ defense bonus!. I also want to pick up my dead comrade and stuff him in my backpack.

There's a few other things that they've missed the mark on too; however, it's good to see a big studio try to do a proper remake, rather than release another generic fps (ala Syndicate). It's certainly up there for GOTY already.
 
More Skyrangers would be nice.


Any way, after countless restarts I've got something that stops me rage quitting on Classic Ironman, the blessed Carapace Armour! No more casual sectoid one shot kills and restraining the urge to throw a mouse at the monitor.

Had some tense ol' missions so far, but well in to May now, and only have 5 nations looking to quit on me next month... :D
 
I think I will wait for this to go on sale...

The original was one of my top games of all time. I played the demo for this and it just seemed meh, like they threw in too much action and took away too much of the micro.
 
I think I will wait for this to go on sale...

The original was one of my top games of all time. I played the demo for this and it just seemed meh, like they threw in too much action and took away too much of the micro.

It probably is as you say but the demo is so early in the game its unfair to judge the later game play.
 
I think I will wait for this to go on sale...

The original was one of my top games of all time. I played the demo for this and it just seemed meh, like they threw in too much action and took away too much of the micro.

It is also plagued with some game breaking bugs.
 
I think I will wait for this to go on sale...

The original was one of my top games of all time. I played the demo for this and it just seemed meh, like they threw in too much action and took away too much of the micro.

Even some of the clones are better like Extraterrestrials gold,has more features and no dumbing down.
 
This is the first time I have heard of this game. It looks like Valkyria Chronicles combat wise which was a great game. Is this game touchpad friendly? (using a mouse is too awkward for where I usually sit)
 
Perhaps I'm growing out of gaming as I'm getting bored already...

I was really enthused by the game in the first 10 hours but now it's just rinse and repeat, doesn't have the same tactical appeal of the first game and I can't see any reason to re-play it as there'll be nothing new.

Perhaps I was expecting more and I just don't like dumbed down games?
 
I knew I should have saved more often. I just finished a long mission and when I came back to base I planned to save after I sorted out promotions, selling damaged stuff on the grey market etc..., but after I left the situation room the game sort of just got stuck, I should see my whole base but I had no UI, I couldn't click on anything, but if I pressed esc or arrow keys I could hear stuff like it was interacting with the UI. I had to alt-F4 out, I wish the game would have had a auto-save slot that it just saves to whenever you start/finish a mission.
 
Initial few hours of play I really enjoyed this but soon enough the disappointment set in as I was starting to see how shallow the game really was. I persevered and played through on Ironman on normal difficulty but for a 10+Gb rehash of the Xcom series, its pretty dull once you get past the initial couple hours of play. Expected much more (esp being a 10+Gb install, must be some crappy video compression to take up so much space), agree with most opinions above about it being far too over simplified and dumbed down, shame, as it does have great potential.

Moving on...
 
Initial few hours of play I really enjoyed this but soon enough the disappointment set in as I was starting to see how shallow the game really was. I persevered and played through on Ironman on normal difficulty but for a 10+Gb rehash of the Xcom series, its pretty dull once you get past the initial couple hours of play. Expected much more (esp being a 10+Gb install, must be some crappy video compression to take up so much space), agree with most opinions above about it being far too over simplified and dumbed down, shame, as it does have great potential.

Moving on...

I must admit the game is cheesing me off at the moment.

Part of its difficulty is from being deliberately unfair.

The two biggest offenders so far:
Dropping alien "reinforcements" into the middle of the map, literally out of thin air, who immediately go into "overwatch". Often they are flanking my men, who can't move into cover because overwatch means the aliens will just shoot them, with massive critical bonuses for not being in cover.

Second huge offender: one unit on 9 health, gets poisoned. Immediately panics, for absolutely no reason. Now, paniced units in this game won't run like they did in UFO. Instead, they try to gun down their team mates. That's not panic! That's changing sides! So this rookie who paniced then gunned down a sergeant, causing my other seargant to panic and gun down the sniper. Two units lost, for what reason? The 9 health unit dropped to 8 health... it was a flesh wound!


So yeah, the unfair parts of the game suck, tbh.
 
I must admit the game is cheesing me off at the moment.

Part of its difficulty is from being deliberately unfair.

The two biggest offenders so far:
Dropping alien "reinforcements" into the middle of the map, literally out of thin air, who immediately go into "overwatch". Often they are flanking my men, who can't move into cover because overwatch means the aliens will just shoot them, with massive critical bonuses for not being in cover.

Second huge offender: one unit on 9 health, gets poisoned. Immediately panics, for absolutely no reason. Now, paniced units in this game won't run like they did in UFO. Instead, they try to gun down their team mates. That's not panic! That's changing sides! So this rookie who paniced then gunned down a sergeant, causing my other seargant to panic and gun down the sniper. Two units lost, for what reason? The 9 health unit dropped to 8 health... it was a flesh wound!


So yeah, the unfair parts of the game suck, tbh.

There are counters to those issues.

1. Alien reinforcements generally only appear on escort and bomb missions, don't disable the bomb until your men are in cover and on overwatch. Ensure the guy near the bomb has both moves available so you can move long distance to cover.

With your men on overwatch when the aliens drop they will attack, if you have snipers on elevated terrain they will kill them. Support with certain abilities can attack twice in overwatch.

This usually results in most aliens being killed before your turn, meaning its easy to dispatch the rest of them.

2. Rookies and Squaddies panic easily. Don't use them if your on tough missions. The only time I took squaddies or rookies on a mission is if i needed to replace a dead high rank member. In those cases I kept them back and away from anyone of importance.
 
I think a lot of the design intent behind the game was to create dynamic scenarios that were not always fair. You think there havent been real life scenarios where a group of soldiers have been holding a position, only for the blood curdling realization that they are flanked by an enemy they were unaware of and as a result the mission was doomed? Real life isnt very fair and i kinda like that the game isnt either, the game isnt about keeping a squad of soldiers alive so long that they all are supermen incapable of defeat. The game is about being a commander and making tough choices and dealing with the failures. If it wasnt for some of the unfair occurrences in the game i think you would just be able to methodically plod through each and every scenario in a very clinical way, and i dont think that would be much fun.
 
Why does this game have the feel of a free title ? the customization and weapons etc are so shallow ? what a missed opportunity this was
 
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