XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown demo is available on Steam. Has anyone played it? What are Your opinions on the game?

I have played the demo and my first impression is somewhat positive, yet I have some doubts. Soldier statistics are very simplified (at least in the demo), I was hoping that Firaxis would let players mingle with ingame units more. Graphics is okay, nothing eye catching, but that's not the purpose of this game. I am aware that there is too little gameplay in the demo to accurately judge it, but to me it seems too simple. I absolutely love turn based strategies, first instances of XCOM or UFO were my favourite games back in the days. I loved Fallout: Tactics, Incubation, Jagged Alliance etc. I also absolutely love Civilization V - I think that gentlemen from Firaxis have done a great job with this game. So with my spirits high, I played the XCOM demo, hoping that Firaxis would make it at least as appealing to me as the latest Civilization. After playing the demo I am not fully convinced, that I should pre-purchase the game on Steam for ~70$.

What are Your thoughts?

 

I liked it.

You have to remember we're not in Kansas anymore, and a game with the old XCOM's rugged gameplay and statistics would be doomed to fail, or cater to a very niche crowd. When taking into consideration that it was made (read: dumbed down) for today's generation of gamers that prefer to just press the blue X button on the controller, I say we have a success here.

I think it has the right amount of stuff to do without getting in your way, and some of the choices in there somewhat remind me of Pirates or Civilization Revolution when it comes to the bonuses each option gives you (+4 this vs +10 that). This is definitely a console game rather than a PC game, and it has its charms as well as its drawbacks.

For example, I very much liked the dramatic camera angles during a battle (dashing, shooting, stuff like that), and the way Firaxis roll out the story via scripted cutscenes throughout the mission helped me ease into the game's plot a great deal. Less cerebral, true, but more fun and involving.

What I didn't like, though, is that the China mission and the US mission are identical - it's the exact same map and scenario, just the bonuses you get change. I really hope this is merely due to the demo's limitation (Who am I kidding? The demo is more than 5GB), otherwise this hurts the replayability of the game a great deal. And if this is the case, I hope the 'campaign' is long enough.

 

I don't think it's fair to disparage an entire class of gamers. I think it's excellent that more people are getting into gaming, and game design should reflect this. But I applaud things like the 1999 mode that BioShock Infinite is including. Firaxis should include a 1994 mode that holds true to the original game.

 

Oh, I have nothing against those gamers. Like I said, Civilization Revolution has its certain charm over the more 'serious' Civilization series, dumbed down games can be quite fun, actually.

There might be a way to add a classic XCOM mode in battles by removing those floating 'shield' icons or by throwing the numbers in your face, but the more I think about it, the more I realize there's nothing wrong with today's XCOM and the way they implemented (and complemented) the classic game's mechanics.

Besides, I'm sure there'll be more you can do with your soldiers than what was shown in the demo, since there wasn't any way to customize your squad in there. I really want to play this game already, I liked the experience very much. At least I have Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 to tide me over until then

 

I remember the old X-Com games from the 90's it would be great if we could get more games like that.

 

That's...what this is?

 

I couldn't help it and pre-ordered the game on Steam. Luckily, with pre-order, three levels of extras are given to the users, and all three have been unlocked (they were dependent on the number of pre-orders made). The third extra is a free copy of the great Civilization V! How good is that?!

 

I just pre-ordered this on GreenManGaming.. was only 44.99 for the game, some free DLC stuff, TF2 skins and something else, and Civ V for free too.. also greenmangaming offers a $10 credit too with all of this. Its all hooked in thru steam too :-/

I played the first Xcom years ago and loved it and watched some vids on this gameplay and it looks like it will be a real nice game, anyone else getting it/looking at it??

 

I got it through GMG also, got it all pre-loaded and looking forward to it.

 

I loved the original series. I'll definitely get it once the price drops a little. Steam Christmas sale perhaps.

 

Oh, my goodness.... XCOM was/is one of my alltime favorite games, and I've wished for a remake that was true to the original (playstyle-wise)for a long time. (I'm deployed right now, so I actually didn't know ths was on the radar!)

Something else to look forward to when I get home!

 

Get home safely! it'll be here when you are back.. its getting great early reviews too BTW

 

I would have liked the game a bit more if the difficulty bug didn't exist.

I.E. Any difficulty you choose is ignored and defaults to "Hard" automatically.

 

So far the game is pretty damn awesome! My first playthrough is done already after i wiped bad on a board and decided to see whats the best options for base builds to get better items faster and I just simmed thru days building my base instead of fighting. Game isnt easy IMO.

 

Two more days for the EU release
I'm gonna get a physical copy since the importer is literally in the next door.

 

You are talking about the old ones right?

 

The ending was kind of... weird. I don't necessarily dislike it, but it was kind of jarring how it zigzagged.

 

Managed to download it from Steam so I can play while deployed!!

Just finished the tutorial (at least, I think I did - seems to be free-play now, and I don't have any more 'Go Here!' messages!) and I had a few questions maybe someone can help me with:

1) Soldier leveling. I see that when my soldiers are no longer rookies, they get assigned a class - assault, support, heavy, etc. Up to this point, it looks like they get assigned the class by the computer - is this always the case, or can I choose what class they take later in the game?

2) soldier reinforcements. I know scientists/engineers are no longer purchased, they are given as a result of events/rewards. Is it the same with soldiers, or if I take some losses can I just hire some new recruits?

3) Weapons, range. Is there a general difference between weapon ranges in this game, as in some can shoot farther than others? So far, it seems if I can see a target, I can shoot it, and ranges don't seem to come into play...

4) Weapons, range (accuracy): Is there any bonus/penalty to accuracy for range? Near as I can tell, the base to-hit percentage is constant, modified by cover and skill but not for range. Is this the case, or have I just been inside the weapon's effective range up to this point? (Seems silly, in that I have the same base 67% chance to hit standing next to a bad guy as I would from half way down the block...)

5) Weapons, secondary. So far I haven't seen the point to sidearms - is there a good reason to draw your pistol in this game? (In the old days, I used to have my rocket- and grenade-launcher guys have pistols, and they'd use them if they had a bad guy close or for some other reason didn't want to deal area-effect damage...)

6) Is there no map in the tactical portion of the game? I get that the tacticat areas are smaller, and I'm OK with that - but I kind of miss having a map to at least understand where the edges are and get a bird's-eye view of where everyone is on the map. Granted, with a limited number of units and a smaller area, it's not THAT big of a deal, but found myself missing the map...

Overall, I'm having fun with it - seems like a good reboot of one of my all-time favorites. Too early to tell if it'll be my NEXT all time favorite, but at least worth the money at this point!

 

Classes are randomly assigned. Or, at least I haven't noticed any correlation to how I use the rookie and what class he/she gets assigned.

You can recruit them at the barracks for 10 currency a pop. They take about three days to arrive at your HQ.

I think you're right. If you have LOS on a target, you can usually target it. However, whether you hit it and get a critical depends on the weapon.

Although... I have noticed sometimes my Sniper can't target an enemy with a pistol, but can after switching to the sniper rifle.

Hmm. I'll have to look into that.

Pretty sure distance does play a part. There were a few times I've moved closer to an enemy--without changing relative direction/flanking it--and my hit/critical chance went up.

If your soldier has an assault rifle, there's usually no point to draw it unless you have no ammo and need to make that shot.

Assault troopers with shotguns could find it useful, if they can't close the range and need to take a potshot.

Snipers cannot enter Overwatch mode or shoot with their sniper rifle if they've moved already. So if you move and want to engage Overwatch or hit an enemy, you have to draw your pistol. That said, the Sniper class can choose to grab a perk upgrade (I think it's "Snapshot") which allows a Sniper to shoot or enter Overwatch mode after moving, with an aim penalty. Of course, choosing that upgrade means you can't pick up Squad Sight, which I think is a lot more useful.

Not that I've noticed, barring zooming out all the way. But then your view is obscured by the fog of war anyway.

 

I pre order this game and have had nothing but trouble, it played for a few hours fine, and the demo was fine I played through that, but now it crashes affter a few minutes of game play. Hopefully some patches and updates will get this game working soon.

 

The game looks great, I preordered it but it keeps crashing after after a few minutes of play. It played fine on the demo, and for a few hours when it came out, but now, I can't play.

 

I really like the game, but one thing bothers me about it:

I only managed to play 3 levels until now, but is it just me or my soldiers are really puny when in overwatch compared to actually shooting their weapons? It got ridiculous to a point that I had 3 different soldiers missing a single alien at the same time while on overwatch, and to add insult to injury, the alien then just shot and killed my heavy guy that was right behind full cover in the same turn. Needless to say I reloaded, but that was kinda weird.

 

Well, while in overwatch they have a a reduced aim rating when they take potshots at aliens. I've had a lieutenant Assault miss point-blank with a shotgun before. I don't know what the penalty is, but from the looks of things it's pretty damned steep.

 

There's something wrong with the game mechanics, especially aiming. Let's say I have a soldier, who can shoot an alien. The probability of hitting the alien is 69%. I save the game before I make him shoot. He misses, I load the game to try again. No matter what, he will always miss, regardless of how many times I load the game.
Also, I miss things like setting a soldier in overwatch to shoot only if certain (set) probability of hitting is reached (i.e. alien gets close enough so there's 75% chance of hitting him with a shot, otherwise the soldier won't shoot).

 

I have a new issue... the game played flawlessly on my a10 fusion laptop.. but now on my new MSi GT70 I have no voices in game. Not a game breaking issue, but its weird that its so silent.

 

No, there is not. That is entirely by design:
http://techland.time.com/2012/10/12...metimes-arent-and-you-should-play-on-ironman/

 

Interesting read. Thanks for bringing this up. +rep

 

Love the game. Can't get enough of it.

I was happily kicking behinds and taking names with my team of experts, researching everything I could get my hands on in blazing speeds and building special weapons all around until I started losing continents like flies. Only then I realized that the most important thing in this game is not high tech research, nor is it a perfect kill ratio with zero casulties count - it's all about sattelites, and plenty of them.

I really don't like this aspect at all. Had to completely restart from scratch, and now I'm all good. Still, I don't like the emphasis on such a trivial thing (IMO).

 

Got a couple of months into my first run - normal difficulty - and hadn't lost a guy. (Well, ok, lost a rookie because I was stupid, but yeah, that'll happen...)

So, I figured, hey, I got this! Let's just start a classic ironman game!



Holy crap, that's quite a jump in difficulty!

 

Don't.

The game's difficulty doesn't lie at the battles at all. The game is really tough on managing resources later on. I'm on my second game and I'm at a stage where there's panic is all over the place, I don't have enough money/manpower to do almost anything, and I'm battling on all fronts every two days to a point that it loses its charm. Terror missions (protecting civilians) are becoming extremely annoying later on that it becomes yet another chore. Never lost a single guy in combat, but again - that's not what this game is all about, it seems.

Oh, and yeah, I'm on normal.

 

I must not be doing as well as I thought then - was doing well on my original (normal) game, but felt like I was really struggling with the first few battles on Classic.

Maybe I was just overreacting, thinking it would be harder - or, then again, maybe I'm just not used to rookies!!

 

Other than my game crashing often, I can still play a couple hours everyday, this game is not to hard on normal and easy, battles are not the problem, it is resource management, I can't get enough money to get enough satellites. I have not lost a country yet, but I am going to be close this month. Having lots of satellites is great but the game tries to make you lose countries. If you get too many missions in a month you cannot keep the panic level down.

 

Here's how I managed it: For the first couple of months, I focused on operations that would get me more money. I built more satellites and satellite uplinks, and launched satellites on countries with orange or red panic. If I remember correctly, it reduces panic to only 2 points when you launch one.

This was on a normal game, and by the time I beat it I still had all countries in the program.

 

How do you guys deal with the Zerg chrysalids and their spawns?

I've managed to have a strategy for every other enemy but this guys are too fast. And if I take long to prepare for them they just start eating people.

Is not that I can't fight them it's just that I haven't been able to do it in a efficient way.

I'm playing ironman and they destroyed my main squad in the alien base.

 

Hmmm - I actually do OK on Chrysalids, but I tend to have about half the squad assault - generally my sniper/heavy/support guys take down or wound about half the bugs, then the assaults pop the ones that remain as they charge.

My trouble is mutons and cyberdisks - getting demoralized working so hard to get all my guys into hard cover in good position, just to watch them miss their 70 and 80% chance flanking shots, and then watch the bad guys happily pick them off (out of their hard cover!) in the bad guy turn...

I know, it's random, and random is random - but I've had days that remind me of the old Civ IV rants. (People used to swear that game's RNG cheated, too!)

 

This game is pretty trollish. I did a UFO landing mission. Brought my squad up near the ship, had them all in cover. Step one of my troops one tile closer, bam, 3 groups of 3 pop up and get free moves. I go from a clear field of view to completely surrounded in one turn. Try to use my heavy's rocket to take out a tight cluster and even up the odds, completely miss and take out a tree. I know that's xcom, but it's pretty upsetting.

One thing I love is developing a connection with your soldiers. I have a sniper that has literally never missed a shot. Every time I take a shot with her, I'm expecting to miss and she always, always hits. I think she's got more than double the kills of anyone on my squad.

 

Question to G73jh (or other 5870M users): What is the performance for you guys? I tried out the demo and with LOW AA+FOW (everything else on high+1920x1080 resolution) I get 20-32 FPS during the first mission. Is this suppose to be good for this game? I am using Catalyst 12.8.