orodreth

I'd forgotten about the inventory limit - definitely an important difference between the two. However, in my opinion Apocalypse is more realistic here. The TFTD limit is more a "gamey", as if done solely to force the player into some tough choices - I mean, your average Triton ought to be able to hold more than, say, 80 clips for the dart gun.

I have just finished Apocalypse, playing on Medium, with no reloading, in TB. This was my second playthrough of the game, but a first with no reloading. Here are some of my thoughts on the game, particularly as it compares to TFTD, which is the X-Com game I've played the most (I only played EU once through): 1. Environment is in my opinion better in Apocalypse - much more varied, much more destructible, with consequences for the destruction both on the tactical map (explosions) and strategically (organization relations). A big step up from the predecessor. 2. Diplomacy is much better, since it was practically non-existent in TFTD; being able to raid other organizations is particularly cool. From what I understand, had Apocalypse been actually completed as planned, with abductions of organization personnel etc., this aspect would have been fleshed out even more - too bad this didn't happen. 3. Ship combat on the tactical map is also much, much better - there is actually a big challenge to it now. Especially with no reloads, if you keep that Hawk or Valkyrie in combat too long and it gets destroyed, that's a big hit, especially financially. Sometimes you just need to keep your nose down. There is one extremely annoying part, though - the fact that one stray shot can kill EVERYONE at your base. Luckily, this did not happen to me in this game, otherwise I might have reloaded. 4. Now, the meat - tactical combat vs. the aliens. Here I must say in my opinion Apocalypse, at least in TB, took a giant step back from its predecessors. There are some positives here - I like the fact that aliens also seem to move around in "squads" and try to support one another. This is much better than individual aliens hiding out in rock crevices or dark corners hoping to get a pot shot at you. However, I have often found that aliens, for some reason, refuse to actually fire at you. On countless occasions I would finish my turn with several aliens visible to my crew (and vice versa), expecting those aliens to lob grenades/fire at my guys, but the aliens either withdrew or just stood around. Similarly, aliens would sometimes clearly surprise my guys, popping out from an elevator or from behind a corner, and then proceed to... run straight in between my guys without firing a single shot (and without, e.g., arming an explosive to go off when the alien dies - sort of like suicide bombers). Actually, the most dangerous aliens, by far (they caused probably 70-80% of deaths on my squads) were the brainsuckers, since these guys would just charge (incidentally, I have also had my soldiers survive sometimes two or three brainsucker attacks in a row, but I don't know how). The second most dangerous aliens were the hyperworms - once they commit to attack, especially in a group, they can be deadly to anyone. By contrast, the humanoid aliens seemed to be too "tactical" for their own good - I'm sure they were following some complex AI, but it just never resulted in them actually hurting me much. Defensively, the aliens fared no better - I can probably count on the fingers of my two hands the number of times I was hit by reaction fire - during the entire campaign. Aliens would mostly just stand around while my guys ran circles around them. Once toxic guns come into play, the game becomes slaughter. Incidentally, I think a lot of this may be down to TB play - I tried, as a test, to play the final battle of the game in RT, and it was mutual slaughter - I lost about 1/3 of my guys (in RT the aliens got a grand total of 1 shot against me - most succumbed to toxic guns in the first turn, without any reaction fire). However, from what I understand, RT play makes brainsuckers far LESS dangerous - and given that they are the only reliable threat the aliens have... A side topic on tactical combat - Psi warfare. Here, I have no qualms. Much better than TFTD. The requirement of visual contact improves the game makes it more risky. Taking over aliens remained a tough proposition throughout the game. 5. Equipment - I actually really like the equipment in the game, with one sole exception - toxic pistols. They are fairly accurate, have long range, and can be fired very quickly. This leads to crazy play - see above. To me, toxic pistols unbalance the game even more than no-LOS Psi attacks did for TFTD. So, on the whole, I think that Apocalypse is basically a huge improvement over TFTD, with one, glaring, obvious weakness - tactical combat against aliens. Whereas TFTD really put "terror" into that type of combat, with aliens that were absolutely deadly and ruthless, in Apocalypse the aliens seemed to have lost their edge. Since the tactical game is really the heart and soul of X-Com, I guess if I could have a game that combined the cut-throat tactics of TFTD with pretty much all the other aspects of Apocalypse, I'd be in X-Com heaven. I'd love to read other folks' thoughts on my assessment, so feel free to let me know what you think.