If you loved X-COM, you will love this game.
I don't recommend very many games, but this is exactly what I needed after working on code all night
It's really something. Just about an hour in, and I'm already digging the feel.UFO: Aftershock
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UFO: Aftershock
If you haven't tried it... you should.
If you loved X-COM, you will love this game.
I don't recommend very many games, but this is exactly what I needed after working on code all night It's really something. Just about an hour in, and I'm already digging the feel.
If you loved X-COM, you will love this game.
I don't recommend very many games, but this is exactly what I needed after working on code all night
It's really something. Just about an hour in, and I'm already digging the feel.
)...
Mmmm JA2... 
Hours and hours of maxing wisdom with mines and more.
I don't think this game got a sector based world map system. I guess it makes use of random missions popping up every now and then instead of tons of sidequests. Your soldiers probably train their skills in classic RPG or XCOM/JA2 manner, hope the latter.
Also I don't think you'll have the freedom you had in JA2 nor the ability to combine garbage you find into useful items (fumble pack for the win) but you never had that in XCOM anyway. Combat is probably less focused on realism too. Well I can't say for sure, I only played all of the predecessors.
Hours and hours of maxing wisdom with mines and more.
I don't think this game got a sector based world map system. I guess it makes use of random missions popping up every now and then instead of tons of sidequests. Your soldiers probably train their skills in classic RPG or XCOM/JA2 manner, hope the latter.
Also I don't think you'll have the freedom you had in JA2 nor the ability to combine garbage you find into useful items (fumble pack for the win) but you never had that in XCOM anyway. Combat is probably less focused on realism too. Well I can't say for sure, I only played all of the predecessors.
No, you can produce stuff... sloooooowly. And research stuff... slooooooowly. And there are lasers and other futuristic stuff in from the very beginning.
I still don't have Implants for my Cyborgs, or Psi-stuff for my Psychic. And I'm like... 5 hours in.
However, it doesn't matter. Surprisingly. The combat is very fun, and you have a bizarre mix of Alien, modern and ancient weapons (katanas and blowpipes, oh my) plus plenty of high-explosives.
Do I like the fundamental game design as much as X-COM?
Well, yes and no. X-COM's biggest weak spot was in the development of your "characters"- on anything but the easiest level of play, you pretty much had to start a battle over again if you lost any guys, because getting experience for them was such a big deal in the long term. And if you were really being hard-core about it, you hired 10 guys and went through their stats, picked the very best guy, and then fired the other 9, in search of a decent grunt.
And X-COM's total discounting of modern weapons was kind've disappointing, as well- it had pretty piss-poor balance and ramping on the weapons, and there wasn't much point in using the rifles, pistols, etc. with normal or even Laser weapons- kill for kill, turn for turn, hand grenades and Explosives were soooo much more efficient.
However, X-COM had trade, so that you could boost your economy whenever you cleared your house of alien junk you didn't need.
Whereas UFO uses a very bizarre economic system where you're pretty much always operating at a slight loss, and make it up with "diplomacy" that resembles nothing more than an understated protection racket- you occasionally tell the surviving human factions to give you more resources, which (at least thus far) they always cough up.
And in X-COM they gave you those lovely disposable tanks right off the bat. And you could destroy buildings in great detail. In UFO, you can destroy walls and stuff, but there's no, "that darn alien is in that house somewhere- I'll just set it all on FIRE and wait for it to stumble into my sights" aspect.
On the other hand... you get psychics early, and even without their gear, they don't suck- they can detect bad guys through walls as their first ability, which rules. And UFO has 21st-Century weapons that aren't fantastic, but are just great for lower-level baddies, and make things feel much more Fallout-esque. And you can add suppressors, laser sights, and lots of other keen gear to them, which adds even more fun.
And it has a very nice, rich character-development system, where if you want (and the game gives you enough time) then you can cross-train your guys with a very broad array of useful skills, and boost their stats in whatever way you like. I'm quite sure there is an optimal path, of course- but it's not super-duper obvious.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed. If it had trade, it'd be better than X-COM- the economy is the only part that seriously sucks, honestly. I can live with the glacially-epic pacing... if I just want to get to the action, I can just turn off all the notifications and run between major events, after all...
I still don't have Implants for my Cyborgs, or Psi-stuff for my Psychic. And I'm like... 5 hours in.
However, it doesn't matter. Surprisingly. The combat is very fun, and you have a bizarre mix of Alien, modern and ancient weapons (katanas and blowpipes, oh my) plus plenty of high-explosives.
Do I like the fundamental game design as much as X-COM?
Well, yes and no. X-COM's biggest weak spot was in the development of your "characters"- on anything but the easiest level of play, you pretty much had to start a battle over again if you lost any guys, because getting experience for them was such a big deal in the long term. And if you were really being hard-core about it, you hired 10 guys and went through their stats, picked the very best guy, and then fired the other 9, in search of a decent grunt.
And X-COM's total discounting of modern weapons was kind've disappointing, as well- it had pretty piss-poor balance and ramping on the weapons, and there wasn't much point in using the rifles, pistols, etc. with normal or even Laser weapons- kill for kill, turn for turn, hand grenades and Explosives were soooo much more efficient.
However, X-COM had trade, so that you could boost your economy whenever you cleared your house of alien junk you didn't need.
Whereas UFO uses a very bizarre economic system where you're pretty much always operating at a slight loss, and make it up with "diplomacy" that resembles nothing more than an understated protection racket- you occasionally tell the surviving human factions to give you more resources, which (at least thus far) they always cough up.
And in X-COM they gave you those lovely disposable tanks right off the bat. And you could destroy buildings in great detail. In UFO, you can destroy walls and stuff, but there's no, "that darn alien is in that house somewhere- I'll just set it all on FIRE and wait for it to stumble into my sights" aspect.
On the other hand... you get psychics early, and even without their gear, they don't suck- they can detect bad guys through walls as their first ability, which rules. And UFO has 21st-Century weapons that aren't fantastic, but are just great for lower-level baddies, and make things feel much more Fallout-esque. And you can add suppressors, laser sights, and lots of other keen gear to them, which adds even more fun.
And it has a very nice, rich character-development system, where if you want (and the game gives you enough time) then you can cross-train your guys with a very broad array of useful skills, and boost their stats in whatever way you like. I'm quite sure there is an optimal path, of course- but it's not super-duper obvious.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed. If it had trade, it'd be better than X-COM- the economy is the only part that seriously sucks, honestly. I can live with the glacially-epic pacing... if I just want to get to the action, I can just turn off all the notifications and run between major events, after all...
But I love the "Burn em out" bit of X-com. And I have one thing to ask about UFO: Are the aliens cool. Cause the X-com aliens are really cool (Like the Chyrssalid. I hate and love those guys in equal mesure), or are they really lame like in the Aftershock or Aftermath or whatever came first, cuase I played the demo for the first one and said: "Lame! Those aliens are lame!"
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PauloMorfeo
- Posts: 2004
- Joined: 15 Dec 2004, 20:53
I've heard about the UFO series for literally years and years, but never actually tried it until like 6 months ago. I have to agree, it's a really well-made game.
I never really saw the advantage in plasma weapons and such - having to pay to build clips was so painful. That elerium stuff, it doesn't grow on trees. I always just used laser rifles - so cheap, and you can leave a base constantly building them regardless of whether you need them or not, since they can be sold for a profit.
What I really liked about it was the number of different battle strategies you could use. As Argh mentioned, explosives were pretty good to have (I'd give 2 standard grenades (or alien ones if I had them in stock... never waste the elerium!!) to each of my guys. However, I still used standard weapons primarily. I'd split all my guys up into 3 or 4 groups with each landing - in each group, one "commando", a guy in flying armor with crazy-high skills, two guys in power armor for most of the action, and one... eh, heh, "scout". I was nice enough to give my... scout... basic armor though. Psi-attacks were so crazy in later levels that I'd send the scouts out way ahead and let them get mind-controlled, then just have the other three guys in each squad randomly fire in the vague direction I suspected the psi attacks were coming from ^^ You figure, three guys who are half-decent shots, each firing 6 blasts per round... the entire 90 degree arc where they were firing wouldn't have even a freaking bush for those bugger chryssalids to hide behind after a turn or two
I never really saw the advantage in plasma weapons and such - having to pay to build clips was so painful. That elerium stuff, it doesn't grow on trees. I always just used laser rifles - so cheap, and you can leave a base constantly building them regardless of whether you need them or not, since they can be sold for a profit.
What I really liked about it was the number of different battle strategies you could use. As Argh mentioned, explosives were pretty good to have (I'd give 2 standard grenades (or alien ones if I had them in stock... never waste the elerium!!) to each of my guys. However, I still used standard weapons primarily. I'd split all my guys up into 3 or 4 groups with each landing - in each group, one "commando", a guy in flying armor with crazy-high skills, two guys in power armor for most of the action, and one... eh, heh, "scout". I was nice enough to give my... scout... basic armor though. Psi-attacks were so crazy in later levels that I'd send the scouts out way ahead and let them get mind-controlled, then just have the other three guys in each squad randomly fire in the vague direction I suspected the psi attacks were coming from ^^ You figure, three guys who are half-decent shots, each firing 6 blasts per round... the entire 90 degree arc where they were firing wouldn't have even a freaking bush for those bugger chryssalids to hide behind after a turn or two
Ah, Caydr, you didn't do the whole, "find their land base with scouting and then raid it (but not destroy it) for Elyrium" trick, eh? You could pretty much have an endless supply that way... plus it made Battleship raids happen more often, which = ambush the aliens and get free stuff
And yeah, selling lasers was the bomb! You could just keep doing that exponentially, and have ridiculous numbers of bases with ridiculous defenses that way. It was, in fact, one of the few ways to win on the hardest setting...
Aftermath is really missing out on that whole trade thing, imo... but I really quite enjoy the combat system and the amount of RPG-like involvement I have with the training of my elite mofos. If you play it in slow-mo when you've scouted and have found the enemy with your Psychic, it's like a RTS, but with complete control over your squad and enough time to make decisions... I found myself setting up realistic room-entry manuevers, etc.- the fights inside buildings are totally cool in slow-mo.
Of course, I am going home to mod, not to play, tonight, but meh, maybe half an hour after five hours of coding...
And yeah, selling lasers was the bomb! You could just keep doing that exponentially, and have ridiculous numbers of bases with ridiculous defenses that way. It was, in fact, one of the few ways to win on the hardest setting...
Aftermath is really missing out on that whole trade thing, imo... but I really quite enjoy the combat system and the amount of RPG-like involvement I have with the training of my elite mofos. If you play it in slow-mo when you've scouted and have found the enemy with your Psychic, it's like a RTS, but with complete control over your squad and enough time to make decisions... I found myself setting up realistic room-entry manuevers, etc.- the fights inside buildings are totally cool in slow-mo.
Of course, I am going home to mod, not to play, tonight, but meh, maybe half an hour after five hours of coding...
Uh really? I coded engine for this game but I never played it (I didn't like it much myself, because we were in terrible rush and underfinanced and haven't got time to finish engine and to balance game properly).
I left that company as soon as we released it, and I think they released some patches but I never had courage to test it :)
Might look at it now..
I left that company as soon as we released it, and I think they released some patches but I never had courage to test it :)
Might look at it now..
What game? Aftermath? Aftershock? XCOM1, 2, 3?
After reinstalling Aftermath and comparing it to the screenshots I think Aftershock is not much different but graphics. Same stockpiling of items, no money, useless "air combat" and a patch which fails to install on half of the systems including mine. The tactical combat was okay.
Uh yeah underfinanced is probably the right term.
Anyway there's a third game in the makings called UFO: Afterlife. Very creative.
Oh I really liked XCOM2 (TFTD) because of it's underwater setting.
After reinstalling Aftermath and comparing it to the screenshots I think Aftershock is not much different but graphics. Same stockpiling of items, no money, useless "air combat" and a patch which fails to install on half of the systems including mine. The tactical combat was okay.
Uh yeah underfinanced is probably the right term.
Anyway there's a third game in the makings called UFO: Afterlife. Very creative.
Oh I really liked XCOM2 (TFTD) because of it's underwater setting.
I worked on aftershock, it was really too ambitious given real world constraints.
They still owe me nearly 4 month salaries ("amazing" 550€/month), bleh.
I like original UFO:enemy unknown most (and terror from the deep is also nice).
I only hope that they now sorted troubles and next version will be much better.
Patches should work, at least for unpirated copies :) But SF protection is evil and I'm not really tracking it now..
They still owe me nearly 4 month salaries ("amazing" 550€/month), bleh.
I like original UFO:enemy unknown most (and terror from the deep is also nice).
I only hope that they now sorted troubles and next version will be much better.
Patches should work, at least for unpirated copies :) But SF protection is evil and I'm not really tracking it now..
Last edited by Licho on 27 Nov 2006, 20:08, edited 1 time in total.