UFO: Enemy Unknown, remake by Firaxis

[Andvare]

From my point of view this is a big plus in a strategy game. Commanders mostly don't get to choose the abilities of their troops, in the real world.

That is just not true. They might not be able to choose the quality of the sniper/machinegunner/driver/whatever, but they sure can decide if a soldier is trained as a machine gunner or as a sniper.

Which is one reason I don't like the class system. Here a sniper is a sniper, there is no difference between two snipers at the start. They both have head shot (IIRC), and that is it.

 

[DaviddesJ]

That is just not true. They might not be able to choose the quality of the sniper/machinegunner/driver/whatever, but they sure can decide if a soldier is trained as a machine gunner or as a sniper.

I think you're confusing different roles. The people who command troops on missions don't generally have any role in choosing how they are trained. They may have some ability to select which of the available troops are assigned to a particular mission (which is reflected in this game), but they don't train those troops or decide on how they are trained, that is a completely different function and responsibility.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I also love to have at least some games out there where the "playing with the cards you're dealt" philosophy is still present. In this day and age, where games keep advertising how you can "customize the experience" and "make the game your own" and you can change the color of your some underwear, it's almost refreshing to have a game that goes "this is what you got, deal with it" (I realize you can change some colors in X-COM).

It's sort of how I play Civ for instance; random map type, random civ, etc.

 

[Maniacal]

Most of the "world maps" in civ are terrible, terrible maps. I like being able to change the colours of the armour and stuff of my units in games like this, but yeah customization is all too often limited to just a few different faces and colours.

 

[scratchthepitch]

So no one here has a problem with it being only available thru Steam? Or is this just a rumor?

JosEPh

I mentioned I don't use Steam here several pages ago, but I didn't notice any others objecting to having to sign up with Steam for the game. Since then the region code news has turned me off even more. If I buy something and some crook can just take it away, I call that thievery. That such is legal shows how far we are degenerating from people into mindless consumers. Sorry about the rant, but that kind of big business abuse of power really ticks me off.

That's incorrect. You can buy it from other sources but you do have to authenticate your license through Steam. You don't have to be online to play. It seems somewhat annoying but all DRM is somewhat annoying, it's not really a big deal.

What happens if somebody buys the game from another source and then signs up with Steam to unlock it, but then once the game DRM has been verified, cancels their Steam account and then tries to play the game again? Will the game work? I bet it wont. Which means you need Steam to play it, which also means it doesn't matter where the game is bought, the buyer still needs to use Steam.

I also love to have at least some games out there where the "playing with the cards you're dealt" philosophy is still present. In this day and age, where games keep advertising how you can "customize the experience" and "make the game your own" and you can change the color of your some underwear, it's almost refreshing to have a game that goes "this is what you got, deal with it" (I realize you can change some colors in X-COM).

I find the lack of choice in games to be an interest killer. The main draw of the Civ games, for example, was their modablity. The less I can play around with, and the more that is foisted upon me by a game negatively influences my interest in playing such game. Also the more I can change in a game directly impacts on replayablity. Being able to change things so that the game varies with each play through keeps my interest. The less I can change, the sooner I start feeling I'm just repeating the same thing and I drop the game out of sheer boredom. This is why I don't care for console games, because there is not enough variety in them to hold my interests beyond one play through (and most don't even have that).

 

[Andvare]

I think you're confusing different roles. The people who command troops on missions don't generally have any role in choosing how they are trained. They may have some ability to select which of the available troops are assigned to a particular mission (which is reflected in this game), but they don't train those troops or decide on how they are trained, that is a completely different function and responsibility.

You are not just the sergeant of the platoon, you are the commander of the entire operation. You decide what the platoon consists of, and how it is equipped, how the money is spent, what research is done, what to build, which area to focus on.
It is like saying to a colonel that his troops can't use machineguns. No modern brigade functions like that.

No, I am not confusing different roles, partly because the role you have in the game is a blend of every officer level there is.


And where are my destructible floor/roof/walls? Why can't I target structures?

 

[PhilBowles]

Well, im still on normal and iron man. Things are going well so far. I had one slightly dodgny mission wherr i lost 2 in one sortie, however inow have almost a full compliment to go back with.

the game, i think, is spot on. What i have issue with, especially as you dont get to equip your troops before the mission (considering engineering purchases are covered), is that you cant just buy additional equipment at the drop of a hat (or a mission). Maybe this is supposed to be tactical, but i think it a little silly.

You do get to equip your troops before the mission - click 'Edit Unit'.

Still no Iron Man, but since I haven't reloaded it might as well be. My big gripe is that there seem to be a lot of interface issues.

There are the camera problems I noted before.

Additionally, there's no minimap, which is actually a step back from the original game, which was one of the first to have a 'Tactical Map' display.

Having to click twice to use overwatch or to fire is very annoying - it's very occasionally useful to avoid an inadvertent order, but not as often as it's annoying to have to confirm a right order. There should be an option to disable the need for confirmation.

Newly-acquired abilities are added at different points on the action bars, so there is never a consistent hotkey to set overwatch, hunker down or use suppression or a backpack ability, either across soldiers or on one soldier over the course of their career. Only fire is always 1.

The order of unit selection is invariate between missions, and invariably suboptimal. It's done by seniority (either rank or missions lasted - for my units these tend to be the same), and since my tutorial heavy is still alive (as is my first sniper), that means that the selection order is Heavy > Sniper > everyone else, when these are the characters I often want to move last.

I've also run across at least one bug -sometimes a character who's seen an alien will retain the alien alert icon for the rest of the mission, after the alien in question is long dead and no others are in range or sight.

 

[PhilBowles]

I'm glad that my worries seem to have been for nothing. I was initially optimistic, then pessimistic, now I'm optimistic again.

One quick question before I buy (yes I know I can find system reqs on the website most likely), does the game play well on an average rig? I built my computer fairly top of the line, but that was 4 years ago, so...

All I know is Civ5 doesn't play very well on my computer at all. Just the same, I don't care for it very much and have since went back to Civ4 and it's amazing mods.

I haven't noticed any lag whatsoever, and on my machine too Civ V (and Total War games) cause problems.

I find the lack of choice in games to be an interest killer. The main draw of the Civ games, for example, was their modablity. The less I can play around with, and the more that is foisted upon me by a game negatively influences my interest in playing such game. Also the more I can change in a game directly impacts on replayablity. Being able to change things so that the game varies with each play through keeps my interest. The less I can change, the sooner I start feeling I'm just repeating the same thing and I drop the game out of sheer boredom. This is why I don't care for console games, because there is not enough variety in them to hold my interests beyond one play through (and most don't even have that).

If you could freely choose classes, I rather suspect you'd end up playing more similar teams on each run through. The inability to choose classes proves to be an interesting limitation that has implications for your strategy. For example, in my game my first four soldiers were one of each type; you can also complete certain missions that give you a known unit type and I got a second support soldier that way - everyone else has upgraded to a heavy or a sniper.

My only non-rookie death so far has been my first support soldier, while my assault specialist is in the habit of getting wounded every mission she's in and taken out of commission for the next one. I've also had trouble levelling up anyone else - if I take a rookie in a squad slot he or she invariably proves to be the redshirt of the mission, however I do like the choice that prompts between taking a rookie in the hope it will level into a class you need, or using a more skilled specialist.

Still really liking the game, and one plus over the original is the variety of enemies in a mission - no longer can you be sure that you won't be facing Chrysalids because the first enemy you spot isn't a Snakeman, for example. There are some interesting nuances you come to appreciate - the 'aliens run for cover when spotted' effect originally struck me as an interesting device to make them more challenging to attack. But if you use the right order and placement of units, it also becomes a way of setting up overwatch fire in your turn. The way they spread out can make rocket attacks harder to pull off, of course - but in my first terror mission I got a perfect shot to take out a couple of Floaters and a Chrysalid (and wound another Chrysalid).

I like the choice between aiming at mind-melded Sectoids in favour of other enemies - in one mission I had to decide whether my assault trooper would shoot a Floater with 72% chance and which was more of a threat, or a 50% chance at a melded Sectoid. The Floater obliterated her cover next turn and she was (as usual) wounded by another one, but she did kill the two Sectoids with that shot (and then killed the Floater next turn).

 

[Andvare]

Isn't overwatch keyed to "y" as default? I think I saw that in the interface settings.

And, yeah, a missing minimap. I suppose the countries of the world won't share their maps. Top secret those maps.

 

[DaviddesJ]

What happens if somebody buys the game from another source and then signs up with Steam to unlock it, but then once the game DRM has been verified, cancels their Steam account and then tries to play the game again? Will the game work? I bet it wont. Which means you need Steam to play it, which also means it doesn't matter where the game is bought, the buyer still needs to use Steam.

Yes, you need to use Steam. That's correct. The previous poster said you can only get it through Steam, which is not correct.

 

[DaviddesJ]

No, I am not confusing different roles, partly because the role you have in the game is a blend of every officer level there is.

It's a blend of some command functions but not others. You're complaining that some roles are included and others aren't, but that's just up to the designer which roles to include.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Normal diff is apparently pretty easy.

Yeah, I'm glad you can change the difficulty at any time because I didn't lose a soldier in the first month so I went up to classic. It said classic was for experienced XCOM players, but I wasn't sure if it meant this specific game or any X-COM.
It did get harder but I'm still not losing a lot of guys or having to reload too much.
I have to keep Grace Kelly alive because that name just came up at random so I gave her the nickname 'Princess'. She captured two aliens in her first mission including an Outsider (after panicking) and now she's a psionic medic.

 

[PhilBowles]

Yeah, I'm glad you can change the difficulty at any time because I didn't lose a soldier in the first month so I went up to classic. It said classic was for experienced XCOM players, but I wasn't sure if it meant this specific game or any X-COM.
It did get harder but I'm still not losing a lot of guys or having to reload too much.
I have to keep Grace Kelly alive because that name just came up at random so I gave her the nickname 'Princess'. She captured two aliens in her first mission including an Outsider (after panicking) and now she's a psionic medic.

I'm yet to attack the first alien base, so it may get tougher, but I'm on Normal and, though not playing Iron Man, haven't reloaded. To an extent it feels similar to the original game difficulty-wise - it never feels like I'll actually lose, but it's tense and I do lose soldiers (although so far, only one higher-ranked than squaddie, and three of my original four-strong team are still alive, including the heavy). I had a tense moment in my last mission when my colonel (the original heavy) stumbled into a room with half a dozen mutons and floaters. He got out and the aliens didn't do much damage to him on their turn - all but one were killed by his rocket strike the next. It was the first mission where I lost 2 squad members in a single mission - at that point, 33% of the team.

The AI seems somewhat lacking; aliens almost invariably decide to shoot, and then flank with a remaining alien who then doesn't shoot itself. Aliens will run to cover but don't seem to try and escape being flanked. They either don't have or don't use grenade equivalents. And on the terror mission I had, a Floater actually shot a civilian next to a Chrysalid that could have zombified it instead. Floaters and Thin Men use their teleport to land next to your units in the open, when they can invariably be killed, rather than somewhere out of your sight where they can flank you next turn. If they're set up well in cover and on overwatch they can be very dangerous, though, if only because they're so much more accurate than in the original.

I'm finding the strategic view is starting to become more difficult to manage, though - I'm on the verge of losing South Africa and Nigeria, and other countries are teetering. I made a bad call in not investing in satellites early, and now I'm not obtaining alien materials in sufficient quantity to develop my facilities or sell to build satellites, which I need to detect UFOs to obtain alien materials...

 

[Disgustipated]

Can anyone comment on how well the game runs on their system? Do you need a fast rig? I ask because of games like Civ5 where I meet the requirements, but it is still slow.

And is the combat turned based like the original? Or real time like a shooter? Actually if anyone can link to some Let's Plays they like, that would be cool too.

 

[Cytokinesis]

Would probably be my new favorite go-to strategy game except the interface is just TOO SLOW. It takes so long to do things compared to other games (because it was designed with controller mind). Having to press q and e to rotate instead of just rotating mouse like every other strategy game? To some it's minor but it really get's on my nerves after 10 hours of playing and there are still times when you can't see because of the angles. Also they did the whole walls/floor/fading thing pretty bad. It's like playing sims with walls up at all times. Then my only other gripe is you can't skip the stupid conversations the engineer and doctor and everyone want to have with you all the time. I've already heard it, let me skip it!

 

[sherbz]

Noooooooooooooo! My save game has disappeared! Where for art thou! Is this a steam problem?

 

[ColdFever]

Noooooooooooooo! My save game has disappeared! Where for art thou! Is this a steam problem?

The PC version has a severe showstopper bug:
The game cannot save any options/savegames if the default "my documents" location has been changed, see the 2k forum threads:
For anyone that can't save/load games or change any in game options
Can't change options or save/load games

Workaround: restore the default my documents locations or create these four directories manually at your custom "my documents" location:
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Localization
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Logs
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\SaveData

 

[ColdFever]

Here is how you can DISABLE THE STARTUP MOVIES:

1. Locate the file My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config\XcomEngine.ini
2. Open it with any text editor (notepad is fine)
3. Find the section called [FullScreenMovie]
4. Delete the following lines in that section:
   

   StartupMovies=Logo_2KFiraxis
   StartupMovies=UE3TechLogo
   StartupMovies=LogoLegal_PCConsole
   StartupMovies=1280x720_Black

 

[PhroX]

I'm finding the strategic view is starting to become more difficult to manage, though - I'm on the verge of losing South Africa and Nigeria, and other countries are teetering. I made a bad call in not investing in satellites early, and now I'm not obtaining alien materials in sufficient quantity to develop my facilities or sell to build satellites, which I need to detect UFOs to obtain alien materials...

Interestingly, about an hour after I posted saying I was loosing the world, I seemed to hit "critical mass" where I could protect all the remaining nations and their funding was high enough to keep me operational (in fact, I was making far more with just half the world than I was with the whole lot). I'm guessing the key is to not try and protect everywhere, but instead focus your efforts. If I were to start again, I would look to protect probably 3 continents (for the complete bonuses) and totally ignore the other two.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

My gripe so far, is it would be nice to have an auto save going into missions simply because in 2 times of playing the game has crashed in mission, and I have not saved in a while so lose a whole chunk of progress!

Now if I screw up a mission and lose loads of progress going back to an old save, that is on me!

If the game explodes and I lose loads of Progress that is on Firaxis and I get irratable! EDIT: Ok I officially apologise to firaxis, I found the auto save button in the options menu. Lets see how this works then!

Apart from this problem i Have been enjoying the game for the most part.

A few niggles here and there, but I haven't got far enough yet to be able to see the full scope of the game. The one piece of inventory is a little irratating but hey it forces you to make choices.

I would have liked a little more detail to the gun stats and a little more diversity in that. Coming off of the mega selections of guns from the Altar games UFO that's where that comes from.

I do enjoy watching the acrobatic 'Fargo's From Eureka' jumping all over the place!