I'm a huge UFO and TFTD fan, and was very excited for Apocolypse but when I bought it and played it I was VERY dissapointed. First of all, the aliens looked terrible... was that a chicken with its head cut off coming at me there?! The graphics were also very bad... it didn't have that x-com feel, the people moved in .. funky ways, the guns didn't really sound very good... things like that. Safe to say I didn't play it much. Does it get better? do you eventually encounter aliens taht resemble... well UFO and TFTD aliens? Because I was jut not geting in to it

I felt much the same. Apoc is a big change, in pretty much every area, and it does take a bit of getting used to. I think it's because EU and TFTD are so similar, you move onto Apoc expecting the same yet again. Stick with it, I found it grew on me. Don't be afraid to mess with the turn-based/real time switch, either. You may enjoy it much more one way than the other.

You're just cranky 'cause that chicken killed all your soldiers... Aren't you? You'll feel much better about things once you get revenge.

The thing about the better X-Com titles (which include Apocalypse) is the detail put into them. In Apoc, you deal with just one city instead of a globe, but the politics become much more involved then in the originals (TFTD is, in my mind, more of an expansion then a new game). The different groups ally and fight against each other and you, depending on what's happening in the city (which, by the way, you can even level if you so feel like it).

UFO had decent terrain destruction, even if it was more or less 2D. It's 3D in Apoc - and gravity now applies to structures. Set a few grenades off in the hydrofarm and watch the chaos!

It's not the same game as UFO, and the original will ever be my favourite. But Apoc is still far better then most - definitely an X-Com title. And yeah, the Sectoids do make a cameo appearance.

Apoc did take a bit of getting used to, but it's one of my favorites now. The tactics you use in Apoc are different, and you have to think a bit faster if you go with real-time. As BB points out, there are some fun things you can do in Apoc that weren't possible in the first two games. I haven't played in a while, but this makes me want to pull it back out and play again....

Explosive chain reactions being one of my favourite "Fun things to do in Apoc"

The physics were nice, not gonna argue that... but I just couldn't get into it. The depiction of my foes was just... very very lame... I don't know why they had to do that.

The X-Com games are games where the gameplay takes the fore, not the graphics. I mean if we were overly worried about the graphics, most of the X-Com games wouldn't be played! Besides, the aliens are meant to be ugly. Let their ugliness push you forward. You must destroy the ugliness that is the blue, yellow, green pink blobby mounds of plastacine that dare make their presence visible to your sensitive eyes!

Personally, if there was a bit of atmospheric lighting and shadows, it would've improved things vastly, if only by making them look more creepy.

Just keep at it, Apocalyse is a worthy addition to the X-Com line despite its many misgivings.

- NKF

But the Aliens in UFO Defense and TFTD are cool looking, the Mutons, the Etherals, all those guys. I can see menace in them, they want to kill me as much as I want to kill them!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't find the aliens in this game very scary or threatening or ... anything along those lines. Looks like I can just step on them and they will die.... don't see the need for all this weaponry.

I can't see how these crawling things have mastered any technology at all.

I dunno, big puffy guys in monotonous green suits? Flowing bright orange robes? Big lizards with buck teeth? Rip-offs of the Alien movies? Purple floating dudes? You saw menace in that?

Personally, my biggest turn-on with Apocalypse was that the aliens and UFOs were much better looking, on terms of design. The first two games gave me the impression I was fighting in a very "cartoon" environment, and that was further influenced by the "cartoon" introduction sequence. Still a very, VERY, good game though.

I like Apocalypse better because I enjoy the interaction in the city. I very frequently see raids, dogfights and such in progress throughout each week, even as I have cleansed the whole city of infestation. Something would always be happening, no matter what.



The crawling things? They didn't. In fact, they have nothing to do with the technology. If you look in deeper into the Apocalypse storyline, those aliens you're fighting are technically not your enemy, there is a microscopic entity in their bloodstreams (The Micronoids) that is controlling them. Their goal is to do the same to humans, by use of Brainsuckers.

The technology probably came from the Anthropods and/or Skeletoids before they were taken over.

Basically, some of the creatures you're fighting ARE "technology", genetically designed for certain tasks while others are an "infant" stage of the humanoid aliens.

Ok, didn't really word that very well. I did like how the Aliens looked in UFO and TFTD. I didn't mind the cartoonish approach, but nevertheless it was a suspensful game with the lighting effects the aliens the music... it all came together very nicely.

I just didn't feel that Apoc captured any of that very well.



yep, i guess your turn on is my turn off I've already stated taht the aliens or .. my foes were lame, but didn't you drive around in a fire truck looking thing?!

I mean I WANT to like it I'll give it another go ... hopefuly I'll have a better experiance this time.

Heh, I honestly do not mind the red color scheme either. I always found it very interesting that the game takes place in a future with a retro visual style. (Kinda the same appeal of Gotham City in Batman, if the architecture style of the dark ages were mixed with modern day. Something about the merger...)

So I guess I can be counted as one of the few that is capable of seeing the beauty of Apocalypse. XD Unfortunately, the debate on it's looks is so old, I recall debating this very topic a few years ago here.

Maybe the game was meant to be sold to people alive during the 60s and 70s...

Also keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to explore the depths of Apoc's tech tree. The aliens advance as you do, rest assured they'll soon be cutting your soldiers down with super weapons.

You don't have to use the ground vehicles, by the way. I have a habit of selling them right from the start. Buy some bigger engines for your aircraft and fly in style!

Hey all, this is my first post. I love X-Com Apoc. I love the future-retro theme of it. Though some of the aesthetics are cheesy, like the megapol armour for example. I'd like to know if it is fairly easy to mod the images in this game. If I was to make changes, it would only be slight changes to the weapons and equipment. I love the cityscape, thats perfect.

I was reading the concepts to the game, and it included the content that I thought was needed in the game; such as a much more detailed Organisation system, with leaders and the possibility of assasinations and kidnappings and the like. I wish there was a group out there somewhere that would be up for remaking the game with much added features. I'd be happy to play the game even without the aliens, would be great if you could create your own organisation, specialising in whatever you wanted. I'm fairly sure that mythos were going to have a scenario creator with it.

Could anybody tell me how I could make changes to the armour and agents images etc?

Mark.

Apoc'd might be able to edit armor attributes of units on a mission, but I'm not sure if it can edit the stats for the armor itself in the executable (yet). The man to ask would be j'ordos though. Welcome to the forums, faithmyboy!

- Zombie

Apocalypse uses a number of image formats (including PCX, which many common image editers can handle). The battlescape sprites apparently use the PCK format pioneered in the first two titles.

Catch is, it's not the same format, and I don't think anyone's decoded it yet...

XED has an Apocalypse PCK viewer on it. I know I've used it to extract some of the sprites of the armoured cultists and gangsters ages ago. Don't know if it imports images as well.

- NKF

Ah thanks, I will look into that when I have the time. All I really would like to do is replace the images with something I'd create. Thanks for the help.