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...

 

It doesn't feel dumbed down - even if you have multiple of perks - there is only 1 power build which majority of people take. If in SS you don't go with Sniper for Always Critical - you are an idiot. Here you have choice of 2 skills that you have situation "Man, I wish I had this one right now" - but turn later - you are "Thank God I took this one".

 

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

 

I don't know I was kind of impressed with Alien Base and Battleship. Almost lost a Firestorm to that beast.

 

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!

 

I still wish for High res textures for PC.

 

 

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.

 

That is because the original used the generic sounds that were also used in movies

 

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.

 

Don't know on Normal - on Classic you get 2 UFOs per month, on Impossible you get 3. Also if you fail badly you can get Battleship in third month.

I suppose for a small squad size the perks enable you to make a unique enough squad, but I found myself wanting a third choice at some levels. It all depends on how you play as well of course.

 

At my stage in the game now I'm happy enough with shotgun wielding soldiers on reaction fire and the burst mode on their next turn - great against Berserkers! Earlier on there were one or to occasions where I was picking a skill I'm sure I wouldn't use because it was the best of the two.

 

Different strikes for different folks

 

That is because the original used the generic sounds that were also used in movies

 

Funny fact - In Terror missions, one of the sounds in XCOM when a civvie gets it is the same as the sound of a civilian getting killed in X-Com Apocalypse

Was grinning very broadly when I heard that noise I must admit.

 

I find the animations and clipping a little immersion-breaking though... A sniper using a rifle one-handed, even when he is taking cover against a perfectly good railing?

The civie sounds here are used from all 3 versions of originals. I liked the TFTD one though it was universal for both males and females.

Just like the sound of the Starcraft Hydralisk have been used in a dozen or more movies as the universal "alien monster" sound

A sniper using a rifle one-handed, even when he is taking cover against a perfectly good railing?

 

Yeah, wtf is with that? The rifle even has a built-in bipod that NEVER gets used! Just makes you wonder, if they can do a 100% accuracy shot while standing, imagine what they could do if they actually set up for the shot first!!!

First classic ironman play through and the issues with the camera, and the way the game works out flanking cover is, well, becoming a bit of an issue. Plus it's a lot harder than normal!

I'm playing through my second game in easy for a bit of a giggle! It's not particularly challenging as you can imagine, though I did lose one assault troop to an unlucky Chryssalid encounter on my first terror mission... Now I have the squad in carapace armour with laser weapons, got plenty of dosh, 4 satellites and will have firestorms within a month. I haven't even completed the 'capture a live alien' part of the story mission yet which is great as I'm only up against about 5 enemy types (6 including the outsiders) so I'm burning through R&D like nobody's business! Now that I've seen all the cutscenes and such from my first playthrough I'm pretty confident that the stronger (and certainly strongEST enemies won't start appearing until I advance the story so I may use this as a tactic when I play through in classic next time, although I have a decent number of countries that are starting to panic even on this low setting. The choices I'm getting for missions are terrible so I've already had 2 countries begin rioting because I had to ignore their missions when they were on 3 bars already (seriously thought easy wouldn't give a 2 bar penalty!!!) I'm trying to keep stocked on satellites for just in case instances of the above. Launch them just before the council to ensure noone is at 5 bars when crunch time comes, working so far but out of slots now and not enough engineers to start building satellite matrices so will see if my luck holds out long enough to keep up that tactic! I certainly don't see myself losing 8 countries on an easy game but honetly so far it's been such bad mission choice so actually much worse than my normal in that sense!

 

EDIT : Just got that bad luck again... India on 4 bars and France on 3 so I can only save one of them no matter what I do... End of the month is a long way off but there's no way I can get another satellite launched in time to prevent losing one. Think I'll save france as it'll only be on 1 bar then whereas saving india would leave it on 2. Plus I started in Asia so having all countries there in satellite cover is worhtless but covering all of Europe will get me their bonus. Bye bye India

3 Types of Mutons? Seriously? Two I get. But 3? C'mon! The "Original" and the "Elite" I get, but the bezerker is seriously stupid. The whole "Intimidate" feature is balls, from memory I can only remember one time when I had a soldier panick. If you haven't gotten that far into the game, sorry but the Bezerker (A modified version of the Muton) that is melee with tons of health basically charges your soldiers and karate chops them. Sorta like this:

 

 

Now an Alien like the POPPER would have been badass.

 

https://www.ufopaedia.org/images/a/ad/Popper_%28Alive%29.jpg

I haven't lost a country on classic, yet you are losing on easy... that is pretty bad

Had to start over on a fresh campaign after RNG decided completely and utterly f**k me over. 9 shots at 80% or higher accuracy missed over 2 rounds ( 5-man team, first terror missions) + a group of floaters that spawned right next to me mid-turn. Must admit that had me raging quite a bit. 2 snipers at 85% or higher, 2 Heavies with LMGs at 80% and one support with 2 90% shots (cryssie was right next to him).

 

Net result, best 5 soldiers killed and 5 countries gone into Panic and no way for me to get another satelitte up... Yay for RNG (I suspect my troops were rather more displeased than I was though )

I haven't lost a country on classic, yet you are losing on easy... that is pretty bad

 

I know right!!! I lost France and Germany on my normal playthrough and knowing what I know now about satellites and such would probably have got me through the whole game without losing anyone. It seems to be just another part of the game that is completely down to luck and mine has been awful! Like I say, every abduction mission I get has the worst choices possible, all 3 countries at 2 bars panic and above so they end up either on 4 which is way to close for comfort or straight up to 5 bars and full on panic! It's one of the things I really don't like about the game, keeping the panic levels down involves literally zero skill.

 

The fact you've been able to keep everyone happy on classic while I'm failing miserably to do so on easy just goes to show how random it is as clearly it's not related to difficulty at all!!!

I lost France and Germany on my normal... ...keeping the panic levels down involves literally zero skill.

 

Interesting.... really interesting

You misunderstand on purpose you tease

 

You know what I mean, it's not possible to use skill to control panic levels, just dependant on luck of the draw when you get awarded abduction missions and such. I mean it's not like I'm losing tactical missions on easy but even after doing every single one thrown at me there's no way to keep panic down at this point in the game...

The poll for this is a little unfair, in retrospect, though I was honestly surprised at how many have voted for the Equalizer option, what with all the complaints I've been seeing lately.

 

Still, my early impression seems to have held true thus far: This game is astounding, and is as close to a remake as we'll ever get; but it is still a different game.

 

If you go into this game expecting X-COM: Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense circa 1990/whateveritactually was; You WILL be disapointed.

 

 

 

However it is definatly X-COM, no doubt about it.

as close to a remake

 

But it ain't remake - Jake said countless times - It's re-imagination.

And a good one. I voted better than the original. One reason is enough for me; the game (read: battles) is fast enough to stay playable. The original feels like life trickling through your fingers.

I can play this game, I can not play the original any more. The rest is logic.

I voted close enough.

 

It's got the XCOM DNA, but just as good? hardly, the game is good on its own right, but there's a long way to go between the original and this one; without thinking it is a bad game, I do feel strongly disappointed and honestly don't feel like playing it, I had a lot more fun playing UFO Aftershock and UFO Afterlight.

From my understanding, aliens don't abduct from countries with satellite cover, so cover a continent and you're fine in regards to that continent.

Hey Guys,

 

It's been aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages since I last visited this site, but I just thought I'd drop by and see what everyone thought of the new game. It seems like most people dig it, which is good. I'm really liking it myself, but I must admit, I sucked at Normal so have dropped back to Easy. Resources management was never my strong suit. Anyway, the aliens were always my favourite aspect of X-COM and was saddened to find out that the Silacoid, Celatid, Sectopod, and Reaper all got the flick. I know none of them were the most formidable of foes, but I still would have liked to see them reimagined with the rest. Overall, I think this new game is a worthy successor

The Sectopod certainly does make an appearance, and it's damn deadly!

... and the Cyberdisk is more fun than ever.

In a way I would argue that the Muton Berserker is the new Reaper. A scary, slab of muscle Reaper that won't go up in smoke with incendiary bullets, and hurts a lot if it hits you. I think they did a pretty good job replacing some of the more redundant Aliens, however I'm hoping that at least one DLC pack will add a few more.

No argument here Sorbicol, I posted something about Mutan Beserkers on pg 3 of this thread.

The reapers were a lot less scary :-/