XCOM EU I wanted so much to love this game... but I HATED it.

[NephilimNexus]

1) Lack of free aim irks me as well. In X-COM, the main reason to bring lasers was to be able to use Daelek tactics in bad terrain (i.e. level everything).

 

2) It is impossible to turn off the cinemactics whenever aliens show up on the map. For fark's sake, we know what they look like already, we don't need to see it a thousand times. Especially considering that the animations never change.

 

3) Only one fighter at a time when engaging UFOs? Who's idiotic idea was this?

 

4) Satellite coverage just happens to perfectly match the borders of the country, rather than work in the shape of, oh dunno, a circle around the satellite itself?

 

5) UFOs are magical and can not only arrive in three places at once but also fly right under your satellites without being detected whenever one of these stupid scripted "choose and suffer" missions pop up.

 

6) Alien off-screen movement is just one point magically shifting along patrol points. They do not actually move or even exist until you stumble into one of those points, which brings me to -

 

7) Aliens getting a free movement turn every time you run into them, interrupting our own turn on top of it all. This is absurd. Do we get a free movement turn when aliens stumble into us? No, we do not.

 

8) There is no such thing as diagonal cover. Box on your west, box on your north, enemy shoots from north-west and guess what? You're not in cover. Cute, eh?

 

9) No permanent fighter upgrades. Probably from the same moron who brought us "one fighter at a time."

 

10) We can't shut up the NPCs. Every new game, you have to sit through their dialog on "Oh wow a UFO engine!" and "Oh wow a UFO navigation computer!" Every. Single. Game.

[Perraine]

Her we go again ...

 

1) Lack of free aim irks me as well. In X-COM, the main reason to bring lasers was to be able to use Daelek tactics in bad terrain (i.e. level everything).

The devs purposely removed this feature, so that players couldn't use the tired (and boring) old technique from the original X-Com and simply level every map, you now actually have to use TACTICS to fight the aliens. You CAN still use 'nades and rockets to remove walls and such, but you CAN'T just nuke the whole map .. This is a good thing I believe.

 

2) It is impossible to turn off the cinemactics whenever aliens show up on the map. For fark's sake, we know what they look like already, we don't need to see it a thousand times. Especially considering that the animations never change.

This one I'll give you ... Once for each new alien species would have been enough

 

3) Only one fighter at a time when engaging UFOs? Who's idiotic idea was this?

Only one fighter can "engage" at a time, but you can send up all 4 interceptors (if you have them) one after the other and the damage DOES stack ...

 

4) Satellite coverage just happens to perfectly match the borders of the country, rather than work in the shape of, oh dunno, a circle around the satellite itself?

The satellite coverage DOES effect Continents as well as countries and I really don't think the fish out in the oceans are going to be able to contribute much the the war effort, so their is not much point showing their coverage. The 'Situation Room" is a graphical representation only of the countries/council members supporting the X-Com program ...

 

5) UFOs are magical and can not only arrive in three places at once but also fly right under your satellites without being detected whenever one of these stupid scripted "choose and suffer" missions pop up.

The UFO's have been there for some time (use the mod that turns on the "terror" UFO's and you can shoot them down before they attack) the "3 choice" missions are from the "council", and you are given a choice as to which council member you help. If you have already shot down 2 of the UFO's (and ransacked the crash site afterwards) then you only get 1 of the "abduction sites" ... Listen to the pre-landing briefing (although this does get repetitive to be sure) ... "We've had several requests from council members... blah, blah , blah"

 

6) Alien off-screen movement is just one point magically shifting along patrol points. They do not actually move or even exist until you stumble into one of those points, which brings me to -

They DO in fact exist, because if you use the battle scanner for instance you can spot them, the whole idea is for you to listen for the location and type of alien and plan accordingly.

 

7) Aliens getting a free movement turn every time you run into them, interrupting our own turn on top of it all. This is absurd. Do we get a free movement turn when aliens stumble into us? No, we do not.

No, WE get several soldier upgrades that allow free shots and double shots/double movements, and the best 2 of all, the Sniper's "Squad Sight" and "In the Zone" ... I've had one Sniper kill six aliens in a row, and I put her on overwatch just so someone else could make a kill and level up!

 

8) There is no such thing as diagonal cover. Box on your west, box on your north, enemy shoots from north-west and guess what? You're not in cover. Cute, eh?

Cover works in a 200 degree arc for almost all weapons, so diagonal cover is pointless. I do feel though that the "to hit" system needs a BIG revamp, as with everyone else I'm sure, I've had soldiers/aliens behind full cover be hit and I've had soldiers/aliens with no cover 3 squares from their opponent be missed!

 

9) No permanent fighter upgrades. Probably from the same moron who brought us "one fighter at a time."

The technology uses alien parts to make the various "enhancements" so they "burn out" after one or two uses that is as it should be ... I DO think they should have included a couple more interceptor variants like the original though, so you could have some progression with them.

 

10) We can't shut up the NPCs. Every new game, you have to sit through their dialog on "Oh wow a UFO engine!" and "Oh wow a UFO navigation computer!" Every. Single. Game.

Hit escape or the RMB and you can skip through everything ...

[patterabbit]

In Combat:

1 - what the f*** those "to hit" percentages mean? There is this mission where I have 55% to hit a grey with a sniper and 47% to hit another gray with a rifle. My soldiers ALWAYS miss it. I mean, I loaded the game 10 times, and they missed the shot ALL THE TIMES! So wtf those percentages mean? If they ALWAYS miss a 55% to hit, then that 55% actually means 5,5%????????

 

2 - I cant decide WHERE to shoot. I must shoot just at the aliens. Holy f***, I want to shoot between two different aliens, like in the original XCOM, so if my soldier is bad at shooting, I may have a chance of actually hitting the aliens with my bad aim

 

3 - developers said their new non-TU system is actually more "strategic" because with the TU system you couldnt actually know what you were doing, or thinking in group. I disagree. The new system is actually the one where you cant properly think strategically, and thats why players are finding it difficult and having squadies killed in every mission.

 

I will give an example: in the TU system, you had an good idea of how far an alien could move and how much he could shoot in a move. So you could decide where to position your soldiers. In the new system, the aliens can walk a very short distance, OR a very long distance, and still shoot, because walking a long distance or a short distance consumes the same amount of "action points". (very long distances consume more action points however)

 

 

STRATEGIC/BASE LAYER

 

1 - you cant select the precise location of the base. Nor build more bases

2 - for some reason, you can´t hire scientists/engineers from right away. The game restricts too much what you can or can´t do at the start of the game

3 - it seems they limited even more what you can do during fighter/alien craft engagements... you cant even decide anymore if you want them to be cautious or agressive. The only option is to abort the engagement!

4 - I hate this new system of "choices", where idiotically, you have two or more events happening exactly at the same time. Again, strategy and decision making taken out of players hands in favor of what developers thought was fun (in the original you could very well buy another Skyranger and deploy two teams at the same time in different locations around the globe. OR, if the two locations of events were near, you could do both with the SAME Skyranger and team... as long as it had fuel for both missions.

 

 

 

I like some things. Like the extra mission variety, I like the graphical style and sound/music. But I think there is so much else that is really irritating, not to mention the complete dumbing down of the game, removing TONS of features that made strategy deeper, in favor of stupid decision making "strategy" that make no sense whatsoever, like deciding if your soldier will carry a grenade or a gun sniper into battle. (cant do both at the same time, ridiculous!)

 

 

I'm sorry but your post fails on so many levels to provide any real criticism why the game would be worse(or better) than the previous ones.

That you don't understand the games mechanics and gameplay is not really the games fault

[Fayd333]

I can honestly say that the newest version of X-Com has failed to capture my interest as previous version have. I may be biased because of my preconceptions of the original.

 

The graphic design and story telling are brilliant. The detail put into the maps was fantastic. Kudos to the graphic design team. However, the watered down game mechanics were really weak. Replay value is really weak.

 

The decision to 'dumb down' the gameplay for whatever reason left me feeling cheated. You can only bring ONE extra item with you on a mission? You can wear a shirt, but not carry a grenade. Or you can carry a (one) grenade, but you can not carry a med kit. Only one type of soldier can carry a second item , and only when they just about max out thier level? The childish way inventory was handled really lost me.

 

The best soldiers the world has to offer keep shooting each other and crying for thier mamas because one of them took 2 pts of damage? Really? Wow. I mean, just.... wow. This really happened during a game :

 

Everyone is okay. Escorting Civilian to the dropship. Drop ship in sight. Looks like another perfect run... What? Talking fire. Man One is scratched. He panics and crys for his mama. Man Two feaks out and shoots Man Three in the back of the head (killing him). Woman Four looses it and shoots the civilian in the back of the head (Killing him). Man Five panics and crouches calling for emergency evac. Man Six, sick of hearing Man One cry for his mama, puts him out of his misery.... Our turn. All together now. Everyone crys for their mama while the aliens finish them off. Mission Failure.

 

Game Failure.

 

The same maps... over and over. You basically fight the same fight over and over. You appear in the same spot. The aliens appear in the same spot. They get a free move. It gets boring really fast. If the player could start in a different corner of the map each time you would have 4 times as many maps! Random maps would have been even better.

 

I really had high hopes for the new XCOM. Fortunately, I did get a free copy of Civilization 5 for pre-ordering. Guess what? Civ 5 is actually pretty good.

 

Throwing away more money on DLC for XCOM? Probably not.