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nzgunner

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  1. I've just the got the game and all I can say is WOW!! It takes real guts to put out a game when the legacy of its predecessor is going to loom so large over it. Learning and playing UFO: EU on my old Amiga is one of those watershed moments in my gaming life as it seems to be for a fair few others as well. Other games have come along knowing they will measured against the original UFO colossus - Chaos Gate, JA2, Silent Storm and the UFO: A series being the main ones - but UFO: ET has been brazenly promoted as the spiritual successor to its venerable ancestor. It also takes real guts to sell a game where the graphics look like they were developed 10 years ago, and even then done badly - and unfortunately that is my overwhelming initial impression from this game. The WOW!! isn't because I'm impressed, it is because I am horribly, horribly disappointed. I exited my first game feeling empty and slightly sick. When I first saw one of my troopers shoot at an alien not directly lined up with direction of his gun, and the bullet flew off at a bizarre angle, it absolutely killed any sense of immersion I had experienced to that point. The shot didn't hit the alien, but it flew out of the screen, and smashed deep into my soul with a hollow thwack. Yes, yes, yes - gameplay is more important than eye-candy - but I don't think that it is too much to ask that in the 21st century a game can have enough animations (it doesn't have to be 3d) to at least make things not look too bad. UFO: ET has got to be close to the worst looking commercial release in the last 10 years. I still play JA2 and would play Chaos Gate if I could get it to run properly, the dated graphics don't bother me in the slightest. But UFO: ET is just plain ugly and not in a nostalgic, kitsch sort of way. Maybe there's a great game in there trying to break out from underneath the grotesque visuals in the tactical interface (the strategic screens are fine) - obviously a lot of you like it - but I worry that I am not man enough to find out.
  2. I'm just starting out with AL and I'm wondering if people would recommend modding the game straight away or playing it through unmodded? (NB while I'm here I may as well make an initial observation - what a weak manual this game has, there are so many things that you have to work out through trial and error, just as well I've also played AM and AS so I know the basics)
  3. People are probably tired of seeing comments like this but as a veteran of the Xcom series and other squad based combat games like Chaos Gate and Jagged Alliance, in my opinion UFO:A is a bit of a disappointment. Firstly it's just a bit too easy (most of the time) where one set of tactics will see you right through most of the game. Occasionally you get a real spanking, like at the Russian base, but this is more to do with having your troops dropped in the middle of a hot LZ and it's down to pure luck whether your guys can make it through the first few salvoes and regroup. This is one of the very few games I've ever played where I could have got through it on my first attempt (I don't mean without reloading every now and then) - there just isn't much to learn and not much you can do wrong. The strategic aspect of the game is very basic and while the tactical missions look nice the real time aspect just doesn't work that well - it is far too easy to recover from a poor tactical decision and you never get the feeling the enemy are attacking in a coordinated fashion. If it had a stronger tactical model or was genuinely innovative the game would have a bit more staying power but as it stands it is basically a Mechcommander clone - and to be brutally frank MC did it much better (bigger maps, more variety). The game gives the impression of depth with lots of weapons but there is no compelling reason to use/develop many of them. I've never bothered using alien weapons and I've only used a few of the tech tree weapons (plasma guns and warp demolition devices). I've never used psi (mind you I never liked it in the original Xcom anyway) although I'm happy for the aliens to use it on me. Autoresolved missions suck - you get sick of many of the easy mission types (scouting, capturing transgenants) and leave them to the CoE, but they also get to some of the base missions before you and you end up expanding with no feeling of achievement. I've ended up bagging the game more than I intended because there are things I like about it - after all it is a game in a genre I love and if buying it is an incentive for more squad based games to be developed then it was money well spent. There are a couple of neat technology transition points where you overhaul equipment and tactics - eg once you've got heavy armour and warp demolition devices, base defence becomes a whole lot easier. As I've already mentioned the tactical missions look nice although only the urban environments require anything other than a steady central advance. I'll continue to wait for the next breakthrough squad game, maybe it'll be LSN: Earth with it's Combat Mission style tactical engine.
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