Author Topic: XCOM : Enemy Unknown  (Read 4752 times)

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Offline niflheimr (OP)

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XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« on: October 25, 2012, 05:34:46 AM »
I've finished it a couple of days ago and I wanted to see what do you guys think about it . IMO , while it does keep the original theme and is quite immersible they took it down a notch with the simplified features and short gameplay. FYI , I've finished it on classic in about 15 hours.
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2012, 06:39:12 AM »
I've finished it a couple of days ago and I wanted to see what do you guys think about it . IMO , while it does keep the original theme and is quite immersible they took it down a notch with the simplified features and short gameplay. FYI , I've finished it on classic in about 15 hours.

Similar feeling. A dumbed down version of the original but with some of the original feel. Played for about a week but have now lost the urge :)

I can't believe that with all the various attempts, no one can come up with a better version than in 1993. I do think one of the main problems though is that either the population is less intelligent/has a much shorter attention span than 1993, or, more likely, a lot of game designers think they do.

Or possibly the computer-using population in 1993 was a different demographic than the current one.

Steve
 

Offline Icecoon

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2012, 07:10:47 AM »
I have the feeling that modern mainstream commercial game designers go for the money in the first case. The quality of the game is secondary for them.
Thanks to Steve and other similar old school game designers that we can enjoy brilliant games in the 21th century too.

Propaganda over, where are the cookies?  ;D
If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.


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Offline niflheimr (OP)

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2012, 08:44:58 AM »
I've tinkered with its files after a while and used a friend's mod ( Abductions are preceded by ufo interceptions and a few other toys) and it did get a bit better - and it was all included in the original files . I have a feeling they are doing a dlc-based milking again. And if it's one thing I hate is DLCs. Can't remember the last time I bought a DLC besides Dawnguard for Skyrim.

About the demands of the majority - I believe you are right in both cases Steve - if not all three . Mainstream gamers bitch around the forums all the time that game x is too difficult or that it's too complex and all that. So the devs have to balance the few that actually got the disposition and time to enjoy some complex gameplay with the hordes that will buy a " new shoes for character X" DLC.

Demographic wise it could be . While I was pretty much raised around computers (I was 6 I believe when I got my first "pc" , a zk-based spectrum , 256k ram :D ),  20 years ago  most of the guys and gals using them were at least in their late teens/early 20's. Right now you see kids barely out of diapers getting Ipads and smege , with dumb-downed features on them to make the more user friendly .

But I digress - I will wait and see what changes with patches and DLCs .

Verdict : Half-decent reimagining that will  remind you of the OG and will keep you on your chair for a few days.
 

Offline Canek

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2012, 09:37:51 AM »
Quote from: Steve Walmsley link=topic=5469. msg56191#msg56191 date=1351165152
Similar feeling.  A dumbed down version of the original but with some of the original feel.  Played for about a week but have now lost the urge :)

I can't believe that with all the various attempts, no one can come up with a better version than in 1993.  I do think one of the main problems though is that either the population is less intelligent/has a much shorter attention span than 1993, or, more likely, a lot of game designers think they do.

Or possibly the computer-using population in 1993 was a different demographic than the current one.

Steve

Oh boy.  I declare this quote as just stolen by me.
 

Offline ardem

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2012, 11:41:20 PM »
In 1993 you had to be smart and enjoy complex machinery.

Then came the mass public with a different needs, the same people in 1993 are around they are just a lot smaller on the demo scale.

Also there was a lot less marketing companies (aka EA) driving what consumers should buy. However I am encourage by Crowd Sourcing such as Kickstarter to get some of those small demographic games produced.

I often fantasy Steve would do this and create a C++ version of Aurora and get enough money to spend a little money on a UI designer/ artist/ AI programmer <snigger>
« Last Edit: October 29, 2012, 11:55:07 PM by ardem »
 

Offline jRides

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2012, 05:50:30 PM »
I thought it was pretty good, Its a lot better using modded files right enough but it was an enjoyable game with good mechanic.

When compared to the original it pales a bit, for me at least it is kind of missing some of the things that made the original game so good. Of these the biggest is the bases - I barely looked at the antfarm and just used the handy UI buttons.

Some things it did do better, for instance the promotions for troops - you get attached to your fellows and level them, in both but in the new version they become a lot more personalised, through the unit editor and the skills you have gave them as they levelled.

I have to say though, while I understand the reasoning behind not being able to choose class (forces you to play differently if for example your only sniper (for example) is injured) - I hated it, throughout my entire game I got one single sniper - ended up spending about $200 on troops and that again on the auto-promote rookies thing just to find and level a second sniper. This made worse by my friend in reply to my whining about only getting a single sniper ever, posted a pic from his current game of an entire 6 man team made of snipers..
 

Offline niflheimr (OP)

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2012, 08:24:28 AM »
you get attached to your fellows and level them, in both but in the new version they become a lot more personalised, through the unit editor and the skills you have gave them as they levelled.

I can definitely agree with that - on my second playthrough I managed to finish the game with no loses and you do get attached to that sniper that did 4 "in the zone" kills and saved the three knocked-out soldiers :)

With enough modding it's enjoyable but I didn't had the time or the willingness to get into it and do more than some basic mods.
 

Offline madpraxis

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2012, 04:22:40 AM »
Eh, I wished I could play it, but my craptastic laptop's craptastic melty face nvidia chip made whimpering sounds and tried to desolder itself and run off...But I tried!
And game production suffers from the same thing that has been afflicting every other type of entertainment media (Ya, I'm talking about you movie land) it's just been taking longer to catch up to the (deplorable) standard is all...ie, lack of substance, but WOW, it sure is pretty ain't it, but that one big bang doesn't leave much afterwards now does it ;)

Eh, I'm going back to the early 90's gaming scene and never leaving again :D

Thank god for indie developers like stevie boy and his fellow cahooters saving us from mediocrity!

Actually, the whole thing, games, movies, etc was summed up rather well by my son a few years back when he was 10. 'Dad, let's watch star wars!'  Ok, old or new?   'New!'  Aww...really?   'Ya, I know they aren't that good movie wise, but I want to watch the special effects!'
One of his favorite games? Beating out halo a fair amount of the time? Dungeon crawl stone soup :D THERE IS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE...maybe...
 

Offline Paul M

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2012, 10:23:28 AM »
I sort of have an issue with the whole dumbed down thing.  I don't have a problem with a game looking good.  For all arcanum has a great game the fact I can't zoom in on my character really turns me off, and frankly I quit playing the game because of that and the rather (for me) unclear leveling system.  Skyrim on the other hand bores me to tears regardless of how good it looks. 

On the difficulty though I recall I offended one of the GameBanshee moderators one time when I pointed out that the "skill" required to play an RPG is the ability to click a mouse.  True I've seen some pretty awesome healers in Warhammer Online, but now that I know about the mods they were using I'm not sure what I was seeing.  Most of what you need is knowledge, and that comes from playing the game.  I expect twitch based combat systems (WAR was that to a degree...6 fingered mutants would do better people using mods even more so) are not so much knowledge based.  But really what makes a new monster dangerous in RPGs is that ypi don't know what it can do.  After you know that well it is a script and you are a thinking human so it looses once you work out your tactics.  And once you do that you always will win because while you are flexible it is a script.

I don't think people are dumber now, it is for me far more likely that expectations have grown.  What to me has changed is the culture of instant gratification has developed.  Look at that whole mass effect 3 ending internet rage explosion.  While I have to admit I wasn't happy when I hit the ending...as in where is option 4?...I can't help but think the main complaint is that there was no option to sail into the sunset with Ash and have many little sheps.  In other words no hollywood feel good ending.  I think the expanded DLC helped a lot and can say the female shepard kaiden ending was a tear jerker.  That was exceptionally well done.

I really think the big thing though now a days is that it has to be fast fast fast.  DA2s combat system epitomizes this...  but I'm not sure that dumbed down is appropriate to use.  A more complex system with a better user interface may well appear to be "dumbed down" compared to when you had enter arcane combinations of key strokes to do even simple things.  I don't know if I am right but I am really leary of sounding like some old foggie complaining that modern youth has it easy compared to when I had to slog to school through the snow on my two feet.  When what I say sounds like that I have an alarm going off in the back of my head that maybe I should look at the situation in more detail.
 

Offline niflheimr (OP)

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2012, 11:17:45 AM »
Regarding X-Com . It's not the interface - it's the fact that all spawns and enemy actions are pre-scripted , with just a few variations on one side and too much randomness on the otherIn case you didn't knew , all rolls are pre-seeded , so going past a more difficult part of a mission is just a matter of seeing which approach will fail every time and which will land that 1% shot all the time.

Also what I really missed was the base retribution missions and multiple bases- it really made you think twice between shooting that ufo down or not , launching an interceptor and how much time you will be vulnerable afterwards.

Skyrim ... Skyrim wasn't bad - on the contrary I actually enjoyed it . It's a TES game that , for me , improved on Oblivion while keeping the spirit of the series alive. Gotta agree though that I put less hours in it than morrowind ( almost failed a couple of classes in highschool when it came out lol ) or even Oblivion.

Even on the rts side the standards went down a lot. You cannot compare rts games from early and mid 2000 with the current one - just look at CnC 2 and 3 compared with the abomination that was the final game.

There's still hope though , and most of the time from small studios and indie devs.
 

Offline Conscript Gary

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2012, 11:52:39 AM »
While I enjoyed having multiple bases and having to worry for alien attacks in the original, the way that base management was streamlined didn't really detract from the game. You still had the elements of layout planning, you had a more reasonable interaction with your funding nations requesting supplies than just unloading laser rifles into the black market.
Inventory management, on the other side, hurt gameplay for its simplicity. I could be fine with a soldier having to choose one item to bring with him. When the man with the only medpack gets critically wounded and dies because nobody thinks to take said medkit out of his backpack, that's annoying. Same with the arc thrower and weapons in general.
 

Offline draanyk

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2012, 09:50:58 AM »
The thing that bothered me the most about this Xcom was that there are three missions at any point, but you can only pick 1, and the other two nations are going to get mad. Seems like just a way to make you have to manage politics with the funding nations, which seems unreasonable in such a situation. Alien invasions happening all over the world, but I'm only allowed to send out one team at a time?

As for the original, I miss some of the silliness that came with it. I remember clearing a cruise ship in one mission, and there was one alien left, but I couldn't find him. I ended up searching every part of every room of every deck on that ship, and finally found him... a 2x2 Reaper stuck in a 2x2 shower stall with a 1x1 door.    ;D
 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: XCOM : Enemy Unknown
« Reply #13 on: December 27, 2016, 01:45:15 AM »
I'm going to necro this thread to give my thoughts, having just bought this with the expansion during the steam sales.
My first impression was actually very strongly positive, the slingshot DLC added a few missions which made the early game an almost continuous series of important plot related missions. It felt very cinematic, albiet restricted and railroaded, but extremely tightly woven and exciting. However that didn't last very long because there was actually only 3 linked missions in the slingshot chain and once finished the game slowed down to the grindy shoot and clear crawlfest that the original game was known for. It was quite jarring really.
To be fair I played in the 'normal' difficulty so I could get used to the mechanics before upping the difficulty, and apart from the occasional poor tactical decisions causing loss of an entire squad it was pretty easy, and not very long to finish. The reviews left in this thread make no mention of enemy within, or the long war mod, I wonder if anyone has tried them and might perhaps change their opinion of the game after having tried them?
I'm on my second playthrough now with enemy within and a bunch of options turned on for added difficulty, including playing on classic difficulty and I must say the difference is very noticeable. Research is extremely slow, cash is tight, half my soldiers are wounded and in recovery at any time, the game now really is a slow grind to acquire any advantage possible. It feels like a war rather than a series of minor skirmishes. The most glaring problem I have with the game is that workshop production is instant rather than being time based like research, facilities, or the foundry. I just don't understand how they missed such a simple detail like that.
I do really miss being able to cram 14 rookies into a skyranger too, best way to train fresh meat.
I haven't experienced most of the new stuff yet, but EW has added a lot from what I've seen.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2016, 01:48:55 AM by MarcAFK »
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