Strategy Core Members Reviews, Opinions, Rants & Raves.

[FireWarrior]

Interestingly, my biggest gripe with the game has nothing to do with the gameplay, but the developers. The game does not inherently support Windows XP, however it took the community less than 3 days to find a fix. A simple emulator-thing that changes how the game loads (from a Vista-specific load system, to an XP-compatible one), which apparently exists as a free add-on or something to Microsoft Studio allows for the game to work.

Considering that was done by a fan in 3 or 4 days, I have a hard time coming up with a justified reason for the devs not including this, by all accounts, extremely simple fix to get the game working in WinXP.

 

And please, someone create a mod that allows for multiple deployments. An elite world-saving combat unit with only one vehicle for deployment is just utterly and completely illogical.

 

What I find interesting though, is that they actually seem to have a created a balance with the classes. A tag-team of 2 Assaults with the right perks is an absolute powerhouse and 2 snipers with squad sight will dominate as well, it's all in how you play.

[Mero]

Assault troops are awful, replace them with Heavies and you'll find dealing with the tough enemies MUCH easier later in the game...

 

Tried that, but i really like "run and gun" and "lightning reflexes" my snipers do 90% of the killing anyway

[Sorbicol]

Assault troops are awful, replace them with Heavies and you'll find dealing with the tough enemies MUCH easier later in the game...

 

Now I wouldn't go that far, assaults are very useful but have to be used correctly. Like you I use heavies as my front line assault troops, the assault class are my flankers. If you use heavies to blast away cover and suppress aliens, you can then bring your assault up with run&gun to flank exposed aliens and take them out. You need to give them the best armour you can (including vests etc) as they do draw a lot of fire, so getting them levelled can be a challenge without getting them killed, but once they reach "major" you should have a veritable walking death machine at your disposal. The ability to reaction fire at anything 4 squares or closer without being in overwater is a massive ability. Just remember to reload rather than go into overwatch!

 

And FireWarrior, not even Microsoft support XP any more. Moaning that a developer hasn't supported it either seems a bit harsh?

[FireWarrior]

It's not so much moaning, more perplexing. If it takes one man, with no knowledge of the sourcecode a few days, I don't get the logic behind not fixing. Surely spending a day making it playable for more OS's will be made back in sales easily (or failing that, fan goodwill if they make an announcement out of it).

 

I only bought it after verifying that the fix worked on the demo anyways (had simply chosen to ignore it, no point in wasting time on a game that don't work on your system), so it was never a big deal. More disappointing is the utter lack of empathy shown by the gaming community if you aren't using 7. Some of us are old enough to have an interest in the non Win7 classics you know.

[The Veteran]

Yup, I was annoyed when things started getting released for Vista and above but it's just progress mate. The reason for it is obviously down to the amount of extra time and money the developers would've had to put into the game in order to ensure it runs smoothly on another OS. You might say 'yeah but the fans have already fixed it' but have the fans also carried out extensive QA into the game running on XP? I doubt it... Given that QA of the game is not one of it's strong points in the first place, I'm REALLY pleased they didn't try and please everyone by just slapping it onto any OS people asked for. XP is still the best Windows in my opinion but it's just dated now so you need to upgrade if you want to keep gaming. You know you can't have DX11 on XP either right? Skip Vista, it's a pile of crap, 7 isn't all that bad though

 

Again with assault troops, only time I ever used them was at the very start of the game befor eI had a strategy of any kind and in the alien base mission as I thought it would be more enclosed than it was. I agree run n gun is a nice skill but I just find they have to put themselves in way too much danger to be useful to the squad. Personally, I think I'm doing pretty badly if enemies are within 4 squares of me could be great on a Chryssalid encounter though!

 

As an ender... How many people have taken on the battleship? Need I say more :s

 

Some of us are old enough to have an interest in the non Win7 classics you know.

 

Umm... We ALL are mate... That's why we were excited about this game...

 

Besides if you've known for months that XP wouldn't run this game why not just upgrade? To me, the fact that you'd rather never play the game than get a much needed upgrade is kind of ridiculous...

[Pete]

The reason not to support XP is that in a few weeks it will be 4 versions and 11 years old. I know there are a lot of people who still have it, but honestly you have to draw the line somewhere.

 

It's also probable (but purely speculation) that if the boxed version has a Windows logo on it that one of Microsoft's requirements is that devs ditch old platforms. They're all about trying to get devs to keep up with the times nowadays, certainly with Internet Explorer so I imaging the same is true of Windows.

 

It's good that there's an easy solution though.

[Sorbicol]

FireWarrior

 

If you are interested in non windows7 classics then go and get stuck into www.gog.com Loads of old games on there that fog do all the hard work making emulators for.

 

I see your point but XP hasn't been retailed now for about 6 years. After a point you really should be upgrading and windows 7 is actually quite good. Judging from the hash they are making of windows 8 I would imagine its going to be the standard for a good couple of years yet.

[Mero]

XP is also no longer supported by MS as well.

 

As far as assault goes, i'll try the heavies again tonight. no big loss if they die anyway, since the snipers are the backbone of my squads

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

I went from XP straight to W7, I had the chance to get Vista. Heh, but seeing it over at a friends place I couldn't help but think to myself "Demo". Anyway Assault units are pretty kick ass when you get the stealth armour. Stealth + Xtra running + Arc = one crafty bastard.

[FireWarrior]

Because Win7 costs money. Quite a bit of it here in Denmark. And if I want to still be able to play my older games I'd need to run a dual-boot system, which means more expenses for another HDD.

My PC isn't strong enough for Win7 to be a "much-needed upgrade" either as I would have to spend further on hardware to get any sort of benefit performance-wise.

As an example, the cheapest upgrade here in Denmark, is actually the english version from amazon. Most editions run up to 200$ or more due to taxes (due to issues with my XP key I can't use the Upgrade options). That's a big investment for a single game, even if the game made use of DX10 or 11. (Un)fortunately, it doesn't, the only thing is a vista-enabled ID load system (haven't looked into it enough to give a proper explanation, apologies), so not going for that little bit extra compatibility just seems odd to me.

 

Had the game made use of DX10 or 11 for it's graphics or had a need for more than 3.33GB of ram, then I can see a case for not bothering with XP, but that is clearly not the case. The game works absolutely perfect on XP, all it takes are a few custom-made DLLs and 5min in a HEX editor for the the .exe file to make it use the new DLLs.

 

And Veteran, I have already seen (and talked to) several people whose sole experience with X-Com is from Youtube and yet still whine that "it's not as good as the original". Just the nature of the interwebz I guess, apologies to Sorbi if I sound a little annoyed on that account.

[silencer_pl]

Assault troops are awful, replace them with Heavies and you'll find dealing with the tough enemies MUCH easier later in the game...

 

I felled from my chair laughing too much... the strongest soldier next to sniper is awful...

[Sorbicol]

Firewarrior

 

No problem here Sorry to here that getting hold of an affordable copy of windows is such an issue in Denmark though, I had no idea. You are right it is an investment for a single game.

 

I love this new game entirely on its own merits. You can't really compare it to the original other than in the feel of the game and its atmosphere, which I think Firaxis have nailed. The combat and strategic levels are completely different though, I know they have simplified the inventory and weapon systems in the new game, but I don't feel that has taken away from any of the tactical complexity of the game

[The Veteran]

I felled from my chair laughing too much... the strongest soldier next to sniper is awful...

 

Meh you think what you like and I'll think what I like... I have a few assault troopers on my roster but none of them have recieved more than a few promotions and they're virtually NEVER used in missions. The best way to stay alive in this game is to engage enemies at the longest range possible while in the best cover available. Assault troops really don't do either of those things very well and while it's true they're deadly at close range, do ou really want to risk flanking enemies when there's a possibility it could reveal another group of aliens just round the corner? The life expectancy of assault troopers has got to be the lowest in the game and, for that reason, I'm out...

[StVier]

I like my Assault soldiers too, nothing beats 100% to hit with a shotgun to the back of an alien... except maybe two consecutive 75% shots for the more pesky ones.

 

In any case, I wished I had Heavies. 6 months in and still no Heavies among the promotions, except for 1 that's been bugged in 'Wounded' status for more than 4 months.

[FireWarrior]

Veteran, you can equip Assault troopers with rifles instead of shotguns, helps alot with range if that is the main hurdle. Get one up to Lieutenant rank and get Flush or Rapid Fire, they are amazing.

[Pete]

Rapid fire with a shotgun is awesome indeed

[Sunflash]

Assault troops with shotguns and rapid fire are fantastic. I've had more kills with those than my supports and heavy combined.

 

Use the assult troops in skeleton/ghost armor and run up the sides. When you wake up groups, they'll either move farther back from you(non threat) or towards the middle of themap where your sniper and co can rip 'em up.

[The Veteran]

Now that's a good point, I'd noticed that assault guys can have rifles instead of shotties but never twigged that it may make them more useful (for me personally) I've completed the main game on normal now using rockets, grenades and snipers for 90% of the work. Going to play a quick little easy game next but taking a little break first. I know I have to play 5 games to get all the achievements but they can be any difficulty so next will be tackling one of the countries with a poorer starting bonus on easy for a quick run through with my new understanding of the game!

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Oddly enough with the bazillion soldiers I've hired in my second play-through, I honestly have yet to see a "heavy"* female character. (By Heavy I mean Class, not weight, like those heavy women you see at McDonalds*) Is it just me?

[The Veteran]

It's just you! I have 8 heavies on roster right now and my best three (all colonels) are female! Even got a racial equality thing going on in my base as I have an American, (south) Korean and South African

[silencer_pl]

Try doing this with heavy.

 

 

Heavies are more defensive units than supports, and they can even bearly hit in mid range. Surpression? Never needed.

 

My friend with 4 assaults and 2 supports almost completed the game on classic using basic shotguns.

 

Here is my current team:

 

 

I could go for final mission but I am trying to level those last soldiers:

 

Omega, Ice and Congo are from the starting batch of rookies, Android is also from the first one but I get her late since all the rookies I had none want to be assault . Septic is lucky from second batch when I had New Men addon (the one that gives squaddies instead of rookies) and Strobe is my third batch of recruitment - also couldn't get feamle heavy

 

So there you have it Valkyries of death. Also Android and Congo are PSI specialist - which I am lucky because very few soldiers in my team are gifted

[Pete]

I wrote these musings in an email to FullAuto but will post them here too since it's a mini-review too. Some of it is repetition of what I've said elsewhere, but I'm not going to spend another 40 minutes editing it

 

---------

 

The game is a bit like marmite for the more seasoned veterans of the original.

 

It's not the same, and it does lack depth from the original in some key areas, but it is definitely X-COM.

 

The research tree and manufacturing options for me are a good example of areas they've expanded upon - every item, including corpses, is vital for research (good armour from Chrysalid hides for example) so things like that are nice, and there's a nice nod to the Gollop bothers in one of the facilities you can build near the end of the game.

 

Hiring is still there too, but the black/grey market feels simpler as you can't make tonnes of cash of selling laser weapons. This is an annoyance for some, but it's to make the struggle feel more like a struggle and there are times (though too few and far between even on Normal setting) where countries will offer to buy things from you for cash, scientists or engineers - this has obviously been done in an attempt to balance it a bit more so you can't become a powerful warlord with lots of Firestorm's and all the gucci gear.

 

It does irk me that I can't hire my own engineers/scientists, but again I see why they've tried to move away from that - to me it seems again like it's an attempt to not allow you to become too powerful too quickly.

 

So I think they've made some logical choices when you stand back and look at them, but at the end of the day it is annoying as it has simplified some aspects that micro-managers liked. It's both an attempt to balance the game, but there's no denying it's also been simplified to appeal to a wider audience.

 

Onto the soldiers - I thought I would hate everything about classes, but they work wonderfully. I would like a skill tree more akin to Silent Storm though where there are more options to choose from and whilst each soldier has a speciality they are much more unique in Silent Storm as a result of the wider array of perks available. This feels a little dumbed down with either/or choices, but again it does work surprisingly well in the field if you don't choose the same perks for all your same-class soldiers and was an area I was determined I would hate but actually like. Psi abilities are similarly a choice of one or the other ability, with an even shorter tree - presumably because you're near the end of the game and they might not have time to reach the top. The whole idea with the different soldiers is to stop people playing like I played the original - all soldiers with rifles and no variation, plus making you think about tactics, but an unlucky game could land you with a barracks with too many of one class and they could have solved this by making it a choice which class your soldiers were during their first promotion rather than randomising it.

 

Aliens - wow! I love them. Later on, Mutons and Floaters get upgrades (Floaters are harder to kill, Mutons are MUCH harder to kill). Sectopods are frighteningly powerful in terms of weaponry and the one Ethereal I've encountered had some nice new abilities. They've stripped out the pointless aliens and essentially upgraded the remaining "original" aliens in interesting ways so they're fresh for all players regardless of experience. They do seem to back off at the slightest sign of a beating in later missions on Normal setting, probably because I'm overpowering them in the first couple of turns like a bad sport.

 

Difficulty settings - Normal is a bit easy for me. Looking on the forums though it's as wildly unpredictable as the original game is though as you can get wiped out quickly for wrong decisions or an unlucky roll of the dice, but once you get better armour and used to the tactics on hand Normal is a bit of a breeze for veteran players of the original (spot, snipe, repeat) and I'm essentially playing self-imposed Ironman to boot! Not played classic yet, but hear it's a lot harder.

 

The maps... I read somewhere there are only 70 unique maps. I can see why they're not randomly generated, but of all the missions so far on Normal, only once have I been impressed beyond words (I was lured down an alley and the enemy flanked me effectively - fortunately I had Titan armour and enough perks to resolve that but it was a moment where I actually said "oh wow" out loud). That shouldn't be the exception though, it should be the norm, and maybe the aliens are harder in more ways than just hit points and accuracy on higher settings.

 

Atmosphere - it's not scary, but I do dream about it, so there's that I had in common with the original. I think that's just down to too much cheese in my diet and an unhealthy amount of play time in a 48 hour period

 

Graphics - detract from the atmosphere in places. Certain (or most) animations and some of the silly things your team say remove you from the feeling you had when playing the original. Other than that, it's darned good-looking for a game using an engine this old!

 

Music - can't really fault it, except I might be right in saying there's no suspense music for things like the alien base or night missions. Both mission types and maybe others could have used it to give you a scarier atmosphere.

 

Sound effects - there are nods to the original. I've heard a few whooshes that sound like buttons being pressed in menus on the original, and the footfall when you're on a metal floor such as a UFO sounds like it's right out of the original - there are quite a few nice nods to the original.

 

Voices - meh. They had a long time to implement more than the few they did, and Jake lamented on Twitter that he wishes they'd done it. With the budget they had I can't see why they didn't, but since it's this popular it won't be long before some talented community members add their own voice packs I reckon. At the end of the day, it's not the end of the world and doesn't ruin the game by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Modding - we've been told it's easy to mod and it appears to be true. Someone has already released a fix to enable you to play on Windows XP which was unsupported by the default game. Looking forward to more from the community.

 

Weapons - love the choices, but hope the community mod more into the game. Not too many more, but a few more types of each weapon which vary slightly on accuracy, range and damage would be most welcome.

 

End of game - can't comment as I'm not quite there yet. I'm assuming it's been left open for a sequel. They had to be about 70% sure it was going to be a massive success but it has been a gamble as so much of the game was developed before the announcement in January! I'm also still convinced they're going to attempt to tie this in with the other XCOM game in production somehow if only because they said the two aren't related (denial is the first sign of a sequel... or addiction... one or the other ).

 

Bugs - what game doesn't have them? In true gaming tradition, some people seem to be encountering them way more than others. Everyone forgets the original had a mass of bugs on release that are still being found and fixed 19 years later!

 

Geoscape/Mission Control - I'm unsure what to think here. UFOs seem few and far between compared to the original. I don't know whether they've restricted it to a set number between each story mission or what, but I've been at stages in the game where I've been pleading with the game to give me more UFOs because I don't have enough materials to progress any foundry or research projects - this seems a bit silly to me. It could be like the original that if you happen to start far away from the first alien base then you don't see many, so only a second playthrough will prove that one way or another.

 

 

Conclusion - needs to be waaaay longer. I think part of this is because I'm used to the original otherwise I wouldn't have a clue what to research in which order, but the main thing is that it seems to feed you the story missions too quickly thus allowing you to put the pieces of the puzzle together too quickly.

 

The game does project a chaotic struggle in terms of the atmosphere of an alien invasion in places, but as with any game the only way to get that across is with insane rolls of the dice and ramped up stats on aliens at harder difficulty settings. It could use more AI with the aliens (a request of pretty much every game ever) and with a limited number of maps I feel that they might have done more to get the aliens to flank you more often or be more sneaky with cover etc (again, this may be because of the difficulty setting though, so I will of course try it on much harder settings to see what that brings).

 

It's a damnably enjoyable and addictive game though. As PC gamers we're spoilt for choice with strategy titles so the things it lacks are all the more apparent, but each part that has been removed or simplified seems to have been done with the best of intentions, even if they don't always quite gel. It's not been built purely for console gamers, as was the original fear, but definitely bears them in mind as the game has to be navigable and playable on a controller.

 

I will keep coming back to the game once I beat it, there's no doubt about that, and I look forward to future content from devs (fingers crossed) and players alike!

 

I'll stop waffling now as I'm not writing the review, more throwing my thoughts at you and seeing what sticks (like a monkey with faeces).

[Knan]

Terror sites. Oh yikes, the terror sites. (playing on classic here)

 

Gunning down chryssalids point-blank with your backup laser pistol at two hit points because you have no time to reload. Retreating before a horde of zombies and hearing chittering and still more screams. Giving up on the civilians, just trying to pull some of your squad out alive.

 

They nailed it

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Thanks Pete.

They've stripped out the pointless aliens and essentially upgraded the remaining "original" aliens in interesting ways so they're fresh for all players regardless of experience.

I hope by that statement you were referring to the Silacoids and Celatids and not my beloved re-made Snakeman aka Thin Man. This gives a nod by Dr. Vahlen where she mentions "Reptilian Eyes" & "Snake" during the autopsy. Good read mate.

[Pete]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I enjoyed the reference in the Thin Man research, plus the fact they spit poison (you get the feeling Snakemen would have been poisonous in the original if that could have been programmed in).