I hated this game at first. Until this happened. [pics][and possible spoilerish stuff]

[Meneliki]

After playing (and loving) UFO: Aftershock, i found the transition a little difficult. My biggest beef is the inability to use the old "LoS" mode which clearly showed you where your troops could see and where they cannot. What we have without it is enemies popping out in open fields seemingly without reason. I find it takes alot away from the tactical depth of the game since using tight tactical movement plans is all but worthless.

 

Anyways, ive been playing Afterlight despite this and i got to the point where i decided to attack the Martian home base. The mission was to destroy an object deep within the base. Here's how it went down:

 

 

The squad breached the entrance to the base and quickly took down the entrance guards with silenced weapons. One of the guards had a strange light sword on it's corpse. The base appeared to be very heavily defended so it was decided to send a stealthy lone operative in to destroy the target. Samantha was selected due to her speed and expertise in setting explosives. She'd always been handy with a knife, so she decided to take the new lightsword with her, just in case. She set out to get the job done while the rest of the team stayed behind to keep the exit zone safe.

 

Samantha did her best to avoid attention and made her way to the objective. She climbed the last spiral ramp and found her target. Just as she was finishing planting the explosives, she heard the sound of a light sword behind her. She wasn't going to escape without a fight. She drew her own lightsword and prepared to do battle with the martian swordsman:

 

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259/Meneliki/SabreDuel_zps227c5bd3.png

 

She narrowly defeated it(and wouldn't have were it not for "Major Toughness" which allowed her to stay concious with with her healthbar all in the red), exhausted and wounded, she dove to the floor and barely escaped the blast. She picked herself up and ran:

 

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259/Meneliki/Escaping_zps208acec2.png

 

Apparently the martians had caught on to the plan and had sounded the alarm. The defenders at the exit were swarmed by angry martians, but were determined not to leave without their comrade:

 

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m259/Meneliki/DefendingExit_zpsd39ad666.png

 

Samantha made it to the exit not a moment too soon and with a furious fighting withdrawl, they got into the UFO and returned to base.

 

 

 

==========

 

Cool scripted events in games are nice, but the truly great moments are the ones that ARENT scripted, and happen purely by circumstance.

 

just my little AAR. Thanks for reading.

 

Meneliki

[ERISS]

After playing (and loving) UFO: Aftershock, i found the transition a little difficult. My biggest beef is the inability to use the old "LoS" mode

Thank for the show.

Yes I have great difficulty in entering Afterlight (there is too much to be done for a sole base), I had did it for the curiosity the first time and the game was good and I finished it, but I can't play it again as my curiosity has gone. That's why I prefer Aftershock.

You make me want another try for a second play.

I don't remember LoS view had disappeared.

[Strokend]

Personally, my favorite instance when when I had Samantha go on a shotgun run against shielded reticulans. I had everybody else sit at the UFO, which landed in an out-of-sight area, since the wandering reticulans usually use rockets, not Psi weapons.

 

Once I get down to the last four reticulans, Samantha ran around a corner, saw them aiming at her, and dove for cover. I sent her out a few times to see if they were still watching; they were. They had her in their psionic sights. Sent Harold, who had a grenade launcher, over to the cliff beneath Samantha, and shot a defense grenade over the cliff, over the obstacle, and straight into the group, knocking them off their feet, giving Samantha the chance to kill the three that didn't die to the blast. Why is she such a good soloist?

 

The other soloist I use is Pauline, the technician, for any bomb runs, but usually I send them both, since I give them both stalking, athletics, and suit wearing, which lets them scout ahead and take out the alchemists.

[Space Voyager]

Thank you for the AAR, Meneliki! Sounds and looks really cool. Well, hot.

I have to admit I would love Afterlight a lot more if one could afford any losses. Frankly I see a lot of Afterlight in the new XCOM.

[Strokend]

Thank you for the AAR, Meneliki! Sounds and looks really cool. Well, hot.

I have to admit I would love Afterlight a lot more if one could afford any losses. Frankly I see a lot of Afterlight in the new XCOM.

 

I've seen a mod that revives your dead back at level 1, untrained... That's sort of an affordable loss system. A lot moreso than what exists normally.

[Space Voyager]

With the specialization necessary in Afterlight (and the pace at which it is gained), I don't think this is affordable. Sooner or later you'll have to start reloading the game, and the sooner you start the better.

 

I do admit I have never tried to master the game utterly, so I can't say if anyone ever finished it on self-chosen ironman. It just seems impossible to me.

[ERISS]

Yup, as UFO:AS/AM players generally used to reload when loosing a soldier, then AL has been made as a non-ironman game with already all important set toons.

Playing ironman with AL is thougher than with other 2 games.

[Meneliki]

Thank you for the AAR, Meneliki! Sounds and looks really cool. Well, hot.

 

No problem! I find that games like this require a little bit of your imagination; without it, it's a fairly stale stop-and-go, emotionless experience... but if you use your imagination a little, it becomes very fluid, very tense and full of excitement and emotion. It's in that spectrum that what happened in my game felt like something straight out of a movie:

 

She infiltrates the alien base intent on destroying a valuable artifact, she sneaks past the guards.. plants the explosives.. and is confronted by a light-sword wielding alien intent on killing her and diffusing the bomb. She's forced to draw her own newly aquired sword, fight off the alien and defend the explosives, escaping the blast radius JUST in time.. sprinting back to the LZ and making a fighting withdrawl with her companions in the nick of time.

 

It's even better than a cool movie or a cool book because it's interactive.. you didnt just see it happen or read about it happening.. you made it happen.. you were a part of it. It's memorable moments like this that make gaming worthwhile.