I know we've got some folks on this forum who have played the original X-COM: UFO Defense (aka UFO: Enemy Unknown) and I'm really excited about the Firaxis remake coming out next week - XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I have not played the original, but it always did appeal to me whenever I ready anything about it.
For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about X-COM is a 1994 game that is famed for being one of the best strategy games, and just flat out one of the best games, of all time and is famous for being a very difficult game. It involves you as the player commanding an international military force called X-COM to defend Earth against an alien invasion. Did I mention the difficulty? You start off with a severe technological disadvantage. The enemy can strike anywhere on the planet at any time, and you have only limited coverage at the start. When your soldiers die they are dead and there is no bringing them back... which is especially painful when you've named them after family members. The game takes place in two layers, the larger strategic layer and the tactical layer. You can lose individual missions in the tactical layer but still win the overall game.
The remake will be on both PC and consoles and apparently works well on both. The lead designer is a huge fan of the original, and this is pretty much what he considers his reason for becoming a designer in the first place. Here's a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNyhyzjYCksFor those worried it might suck, a limited build of the game was released to the press a few weeks ago, and the consensus so far has been that it is very good and still feels like XCOM. There are differences from the original though, and I'll list the major differences below for those interested:
NOW FOR A WALL OF TEXT!Strategic Layer - This is where the bigger game happens. Here is where you manage your base, research technology, attempt to shoot down UFOs, monitor the status of the Earth, etc.
Base Management:Original - Freely place bases anywhere on the map, have multiple bases, aliens can attempt to invade your bases.
Remake - Select from five base locations on different continents. A bonus is given based on your location - for instance North America gives you the "Air & Space" bonus which halves the cost of building and maintaining aircraft. You only get one base, and aliens can't attack it. Base layout is important as you manage it because different rooms give adjacency bonuses.
Research and Development:Original - You hire scientists and engineers to research and build things respectively. Having more speeds up projects, and they can be assigned in groups to work on different projects. Has a maintenance cost.
Remake - Scientists and engineers are rewards for completing missions and fulfilling council requests. Having more scientists speeds up research projects and you can only research one thing at a time, while having more engineers lowers the cost of building things. To do some projects at all you will need to have more of them. I do not believe they have a maintenance cost.
The Grey Market:In both games if you're strapped for cash you can sell recovered alien artifacts for money. The drawback is that you need those for research and building things.
UFO Interception:Both games have a UFO interception 'minigame'. You can shoot down UFOs, force them to crash land, and then send your troops to kill any survivors so you can get the goods the UFO has in it. Your planes of course can be shot down by the UFOs as well, and so you need to research and build better planes to destroy bigger UFOs.
Tactical Layer - Missions. You put boots on the ground to fulfill certain objectives, the most common of which is to kill or capture all aliens on the map. The fog of war obscures your vision - the aliens are out there and you don't know where, and you could run into an ambush at any point. It's turn based. First you move and shoot, then the aliens do, and then back to you. This is arguably the 'meat' of the game.
Maps:Original - In the original maps were randomly generated based on a set of tiles, and enemies are randomly placed throughout.
Remake - There are ~80 handcrafted maps, with some variants, but enemies are placed randomly throughout. You are not likely to experience the same map twice in a given playthrough.
Movement & Combat:Original - Each unit has a resource called "Time Units" that they have a limited number of on each turn. Moving, shooting, kneeling, using an item, etc. all take TUs. Soldiers could get more TUs by gaining experience, and they could lose them by being badly wounded. The success of some actions, like shooting at an alien, depend on other stats like a soldier's AIM. Soldiers can panic if things go badly, making them lose all TUs for the next turn and have a chance of dropping items and running away.
Remake - Time Units have been eliminated in favor of a two move system. A soldier can move a certain distance and then either move again, fire their weapon, enter "Overwatch" where they will fire on the next enemy that moves in their line of sight on the enemy turn, use items, or perform any special actions that their class might have. They can also "Dash" and move very far in one move at the cost of both moves, but having the added benefit of increasing the chance of dodging reaction fire. Shooting or reloading automatically uses up all moves. Some exceptions exist - for instance the Assault class has a "Run & Gun" ability that allows them to shoot even after moving twice or dashing, while the Sniper class can't fire the sniper rifle after moving without the right perk. There is also a cover system added. As in the original, environments are destructable and that means so is cover.
Soldiers:Original - Soldiers start as rookies. They gain experience in missions which can increase their stats and possibly give them promotions. Promoted soldiers increase morale on the battlefield, preventing panic. Soldiers can be equipped with anything, but there is an 80 item limit for the entire squad. (one annoying feature people note is that you have to set every soldier's inventory on every single mission)
Remake - Soldiers start as rookies. They gain experience in missions by killing enemies and promote after that. When a rookie promotes he or she gains a class and the default class ability. The classes are Assault, Heavy, Support, and Sniper. As they promote further you select perks from their skill tree - each rank usually has two choices that are mutually exclusive, with the usual theme being one that helps with suvivability and another that focuses on offense. For instance, when a Sniper promotes to Corporal the choices are "Snap Shot" and "Squad Sight". Snap Shot lets the sniper move and shoot in the same turn, which helps the Sniper's survivability because Sniper rifles lose accuracy at close range and if an enemy gets close to the Sniper you can move away and then kill the enemy. Squad Sight allows the Sniper to shoot at any enemy that other squad members see, provided the Sniper has a line of fire, allowing the Sniper to deal high damage from very far away. Soldiers have a limited inventory - primary weapon, sidearm, armor, and an item such as a grenade or a medkit. Class specific items like the Heavy's rocket launcher do not count as inventory items.
Squad Size:Original - 14 to 26 soldiers. A Heavy Weapons Platform (tank type unit) that took up four slots could also be brought.
Remake - 4 to 6 soldiers. You can bring a small robot tank called a SHIV in lieu of a soldier, but it only takes up one slot.
Other Stuff:Aliens:Many of the aliens from the original are in the remake, but some have been cut in favor of new aliens. For instance the Snake Men from the original appear to be out, but there are now Thin Men aliens that look like tall, thin humans in black suits... that spit poison. Chrysalids are in, so you get to continue being afraid of them.
Difficulty Levels:Original - Beginner, Experienced, Veteran, Genius, Superhuman. Specifics
here.
Remake - Easy, Normal, Classic, Impossible. Difficulty affects availability of certain resources, health of both your soldiers and that of the aliens, enemy AI, etc. There is also "Ironman Mode" where the game autosaves after every decision, does not allow manual saves, and as such all decisions are final. The developers have stated that Classic on Ironman is what they regard as the "true" XCOM experience, though they advise a first playthrough on Normal. Impossible difficulty is not actually impossible, but only two of the developers on the entire team have won a game on that difficulty and none have won it on Ironman mode.
Winning the Game:In both it's pretty much the same in both games - hold out long enough to figure out where they aliens are invading from, go to the final mission to deal with that, and win that mission.
Losing the Game:Original - There are four ways to lose the game - be over $1 million in debt at the end of the month twice, score badly two months in a row (score calculated based off of your successes and failures as well as alien actions like landing a UFO or signing a pact with a funding nation), lose all your bases, or fail the final mission.
Remake - There are only two ways to lose the game - have 8 of the 16 funding council nations drop out of the XCOM project or fail the final mission.
Multiplayer:Original - Doesn't have it.
Remake - One on one death matches. Each player has a number of points to spend on building a squad of up to six units which can include both human soldiers and aliens. A basic soldier costs a flat amount of points, and additional points can be spent on gear and abilities. Aliens cost a set amount of points. Post release balancing will be done by adjusting point costs, not by adjusting unit and item stats. The player that spends the least points gets the first turn. Turns last from 60 to 120 seconds, or can be set to unlimited, and points are anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000. Ranked matches are set to a standard of 10,000 points and 90 second turns.
Also, here's 20 minutes of gameplay. I believe it's on normal difficulty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgKj3wxMm8Also also, if you preorder on Steam you get a free copy of Civilization V in addition to the normal preorder bonuses.
Ok, I've geeked out enough today.
