First run-through (and no idea how to change difficulties), so I may have missed some interface quirks (such as whether there's a way to move to the next turn without using all squad members' movement points, either to move, fire or set overwatch, or a way to avoid having to click "Ok" every time you want to perform an action other than moving).
Quick summary: While I may be guilty of falling prey to preconceptions, since I first mentioned this a while back, but it feels very familiar ... remarkably similar, in fact, to a turn-based version of Dawn of War 2 (the campaign rather than single-player, in which you had characters in place of squads, one of each class, and who levelled up in similar ways). Less so to X-COM; the heritage is still there, but in much the same way it seemed to be in the real-time game. This is not a bad thing by any means - DoW II is a fine game, and its campaign mode (the first game, not the expansions) had the best campaign system I've seen since the original UFO days (and, while more tightly-scripted, it gave the impression of having been inspired by them). But also as I said before, it's likely to be a game I'll pick and play while thinking of it as something other than X-COM, and going back to the original when I feel in a mood for a 'real' X-COM game.
Cut-scenes/tutorial: I actually liked the storyboard approach, although the dialogue could use some work ("Project X-COM activated" was only the worst, not an isolated travesty). It does liven up the tutorial mission, although I wonder how well it actually introduces the game concepts in more freeform play for those who aren't familiar with this style of game; in particular most elements of the interface are neglected.
Interface: For all the effort that's gone into the graphics and animation, the interface icons are a bit bare-bones, looking rather Endless Space-like low budget efforts. It's quick to find most things you need, although the soldier details toggle is rather oddly-placed in the centre-left of the screen. As above I have issues with the difficulty of just clicking/double-clicking on a target and shooting it without a pop-up that I have to acknowledge (ironic considering that the original game did exactly the same, but those were option menus, not just "grenades deal 3 damage. Ok?") Units seem inconsistent in their responsiveness to my clicking them to move, and yes, the way levels move up and down seems slightly inconsistent as well. Plus it seems no one in the new X-COMverse has heard of stairs.
Mechanics: The two-move system feels very inflexible - halfway between an action point-less RTS (like Dawn of War) system and a turn-based one. Move-fire, fire-move and move-move are your only real options, and overwatch now seems to be there mostly to use spare movement rather than to actively set up traps (although, anticipating a floater I spotted elevating into his line of sight, I did put my sniper on overwatch for a good shot. He missed.)
The little we see of the class system is fine, but again feels more like DoWII than X-COM, but the demo should have carried on long enough to meaningfully differentiate them. At least in the US mission I selected, enemy targets didn't cluster enough to even use my squaddie's promoted rocket. As it is I could only really see a difference between my sniper and my other units (and oddly a headshot has exactly the same chance to hit as a normal shot).
The two things I really miss are the inventory - there's no space for one, and upgrades seem mostly automatic; rocket launchers and sniper weapons allocated by class, for instance - and the effect of wounds. When my heavy was wounded, he just suffered a Battle Wounds morale hit (though I saw no effects of morale in my game) - which happened in UFO as well, only in that game you also suffered ill effects from wounds; reduced hit points and so greater likelihood of being killed by the next shot, and above all "fatal wounds". Half the tales of lucky escapes in the old games were about getting your fatally wounded, highly-promoted character to the safety of a medikit in time, or desperately hunting down that final alien before your soldiers succumbed to their wounds. There doesn't appear to be any provision for that in the new game. A few minor changes lose detail without much good reason - the reduction in the number of stats, no longer having a kneel option.
That's it for the nostalgia - on the plus side the game plays well, if simply given the limited amount we see. The tight scripting appears lavish and strictly limited to this one tutorial mission (or possibly tutorial campaign). Mission selection, too, recalls Dawn of War - missions come two at a time, you have to choose one, the rewards differ by mission, and failing or abandoning one mission will result in a loss of influence in that region (panic in XCOM, an increased rate of Tyranid infestation in DoWII).
Again nostalgically this aspect of the game looks simplified, as does the much coarser scale (which seems to work by continent rather than key donor nations - and sure in the original game this meant an overabundance of important powers in Europe and the need to promote Nigeria and South Africa to world power status to make Africa worth the investment, but I preferred having more factions to juggle). But treated as a new game in its own right I'd say that on first glance it looks at least comparable to DoWII's campaign - which I already praised highly - with the addition of base building, research (not sure I'm a fan of weapons self-destructing, though - past a certain tech level in the original game, making do with gear from dead aliens after you'd dropped your kit in panic or whatever was all part of the sense of desperation) and what may be less tightly-scripted progression; the alien abduction missions may come in pairs, but there will still be good old-fashioned UFO hunts.
Maps: My concerns about map size have largely dissipated - the map we were presented with in the second mission wasn't huge, but when playing it felt big enough, with plenty of room for aliens to hide (and if they'd fired back it might even have been challenging). What's more, the maps look and feel rather a lot like old X-COM maps, even if everything is oddly orange-tinted for some reason.
Overall, the demo gave me a pretty good sense of what XCOM: Enemy Unknown is not, and to a large extent it's not UFO: Enemy Unknown. Unfortunately it didn't give enough of a sense of what it is - suppression is seen very briefly in the first mission (before the suppressed rookie dies) but its effects aren't shown and I haven't succeeded in suppressing targets myself. So it could be an interesting addition, or not. We've seen little kit, got no idea of tech progression, the aliens are the usual suspects without the promised new additions, and we've seen that classes exist but not a lot about what they do. I like the limitation in squad numbers, and the ability to unlock new squad member slots as time goes on (broken record time: DoWII does exactly the same). I wonder if you'll tech up to 24 men by the time you start building Avengers?
Difficulties were messed up to start with; front menu was broken- until patch 1.4 all levels were set at 'easy'?
Not sure I remember that, and I bought the game when it came out.
Anyway,
At start of the game I would sell all rifles and pistols (I felt they wore not worth much), buy another base, and rearm with auto cannon.
Then tech was armor (troops last longer), then straight to (lazer rifles n interim, pistols no use?) Heavy Plasma Guns
Pistols weren't worth anything, but I prefer mobility to autocannon - and it's horribly inaccurate (okay, HE rounds help with that somewhat). I tended to research the first two laser techs (heavy laser's no use for anything - often I'd leave it unresearched until I had literally nothing else left to research) and heavy plasma - I max out on scientists early and run several research projects in parallel, so I'm usually researching both laser and armour as soon as I get back from the first mission. Usually personal armour completes at about the same time as laser rifles. I tended to buy lots of soldiers, so that I could start levelling up the survivors quickly and replace them on the Skyranger for the next mission - if you get armour too early, you just end up armouring a bunch of rookies who'll die anyway, and need to buy more armour as well as another rookie...
And this issue can potentially turn the remake into a huge pile of X-COM fail 
)
