I picked this up for the ps3 late last week. I never played the old versions, unfortunately. Where is an easy place to acquire that game and what is it called exactly?
Good Old Games and Steam both have it; I think it's cheaper on Steam.
I like the game a lot. I like how it is a turn-based and not a live action. I love how it gets intense and challenging during the missions. A lot are easy and typical, but every now and then you walk into a brutal one and stand to lose your best troops and do all you can to keep them alive. I was waltzing through the early parts... then I had a terror mission. Chyssalids were new
That must have been a treat. I hadn't considered quite how scary these would be to all-new players...
Incidentally, I thought the 'Code Name' for the Chrysalid autopsy was a misspelling when I saw it was Ridley rather than Ripley. Then I remembered who directed the film...
as were FLoaters. The Zombie thing and the gestation thing were surprises and it turned into a hopeless situation that ended with most of my best troops getting systematically zombified/killed and the last one cowering on the 3rd floor of a building awaiting death. (luckily 2 of my experienced troops were convalescing)
A good thing to consider is that you can abort missions by retreating to the Skyranger entry point (the blue box). I saved one of my favourite operatives from a mission gone bad (due to Chrysalids) that way.
I like the troop system and like how it is from random countries. I do wish that troops had different bonuses and/or weaknesses based on their country of origin. I name each troop depending on their country (friends, tv/movie characters, European/Canadian hockey players, etc...).
I always keep the randomly-generated names, and they are at least approximate for countries. And there are many more than in the original X-COM (where most characters had English, French and sometimes German name with the odd Japanese addition for variety). I really wouldn't like bonuses per country - in the real world people don't have bonuses based on their nationalities; institutions and societies develop specialisms and stereotyped characteristics, but it doesn't follow that, say, every soldier from a country with a reputation for using high-quality artillery will be a master Heavy or whatever. Not to mention that there are so many nationalities represented.
As it is even the continent bonuses are one of the weaker parts of the game, and at least on first glance very badly-balanced. I can see very little benefit to a North American base (at the start of the game you save $20 maintenance a month compared with gaining about four times that in extra income in Africa, and the relative difference only further benefits Africa as time goes on), one of the stronger bonuses (South America) can be obtained with two satellites while the mediocre bonus from Europe requires four, and so forth. If there's anyone past the tutorial game (when that option is locked) who doesn't base in Africa and stick satellites in Brazil and Argentina at the first opportunity, I'd like to know their reasoning. Not to mention that giving the extra cash bonus to Africa of all continents is just bizarre, and because XCOM's host country will never withdraw from the Council, you keep the bonus even if you lose Egypt and South Africa (as happened in my ongoing game).
It would also be cool if they ended up in class depending on their Rookie field actions (someone a few posts ago claims that is the case).
It seemed that way from that mission. I suspect, as I mentioned, that there are certain triggers that you have to meet to get assigned a class this way, and if a character doesn't trigger one of the conditions it's probably assigned a random class. There's a later-game element that works similarly - psionics. The game explicitly states that you only gain psionic levels by using psionics in battle (and it seems to level up a bit too quickly, particularly given that there are only three levels of psionic power - two missions using psionics a couple of times a mission, and psi-operative Kerrigan already has mind control. Any Zerg about should watch out...).
EDIT: Tried another Classic restart and, sure enough, the soldier who grenaded multiple Sectoids became a Heavy. I got a Sniper as well - I think the trigger may be getting a kill on overwatch.
Just had the most frustrating mission possible in my main game. I'd had some close firefights - in one UFO corridor a Sectopod and its drones showed up. Then in the alien turn three Muton Elites came to join the party. Suffered two losses and a critically wounded Sniper fighting that off, but then the road was clear to the UFO's centre. Where I found three rather than the two expected Sectoid Commanders. Two of my team were mind-controlled; the third managed to kill one of the controllers, and another Commander (not the other controller) was then on one hitpoint. I should just have fired with my newly-freed assault trooper, but I thought she had two moves rather than one once freed, so I moved in for a closer shot only to find I couldn't fire. Next turn she died and the remaining Heavy was mind-controlled, when one different move (using Run and Gun) would likely have killed one Sectoid and left the other unable to fend off both the assault soldier and the heavy.
Yes, this is a nice addition that wasn't in the earlier games. But as a minor point it would be nice if the order of losses could be selected by column.
The home base invasion idea sounds like a really cool element, but it would cause a domino effect in the structure of the game. Unless it would just mean your game was over if you lost.
I'd be fine with that, actually - I'm a little surprised that they didn't add it as a story mission, as like the alien base attack a mission type that could occur any number of times in the original could be turned into a one-off story element in XCOM's more structured campaign. Or the story could accommodate a reason for the aliens to attack XCOM without destroying it (to recover their hyperwave relay, for instance).
Cons:
I dont like how things are re-usable, even if troops die, such as MedPacks. Once you develop one, its basically an infinite resource.
With more resource-intensive items that are hard to replace, this could be too limiting, however as I noted I'd like it included as a game option (XCOM is lacking in options to tailor game elements which are common in most other modern games; you get Ironman, difficulty level, and that's basically it). It was the way the older game worked, if you lost a mission or fallen items were destroyed by explosives (if troops die but you win a mission, it makes sense for your guys to recover fallen equipment that's still intact, however). I'm fine with the way it is now, but I'd prefer the option to play the 'old-fashioned' way on replays.
Interceptor system is awful. I still have no idea what is going on. There are 2 commands there. When do I use them/not use them? The technological upgrades arent well defined. Took me too long to connect A (satellites) with B (Interceptors).
There is a bizarre presentation issue - if you play a second runthrough (without the tutorial missions), it will tell you when you launch your first satellite how interceptors relate to them. The only place this isn't mentioned is in the tutorial...
The tech upgrades are poorly-described generally, with much more emphasis on flavour than game effect. I actually like the approach, but there needs to be a resource that also tells you exactly what each technology/upgrade does. As to when to use them, I haven't found the tracking upgrade useful, but the dodge and aim ones can help a technologically weak interceptor take down larger UFOs than it otherwise would. There's no trick to using them - you enter the combat screen and click them.
The lack of any in-game encyclopaedia is also problematic, since the manual is cursory to say the least. For instance you have to work out that the sound wave graphic works like the old game's motion sensor, or the pink circle that appears around wounded soldiers represents battle injuries - both, admittedly, somewhat intuitive, but nonetheless not clearly presented.
Wonky walls/floors integration
Does this happen on consoles as well?
When an alien shoots a vehicle I am using for cover, it starts on fire. OK, great. Ill just retreat to an object with less gasoline in it. Before the Aliens are finished with all their moves, the vehicle(s) blow up as if I took too much time. On a turn-based strategy, the Car should either just blow up, or give me a chance to fall back for a turn then blow up. It gives a false sense of hope.
Your soldiers should tell you "It's about to blow" the turn before it goes up - it won't always go up the turn after it's shot; the size of the fire is also usually a warning sign to get out of there. It should always explode at least one turn after it's set on fire, so you have a turn to retreat. I have encountered cars exploding at random that don't seem to be on fire, or in missions when I haven't even encountered aliens with guns. I think this may be an implementation bug rather than a deliberate feature. As you say, the tactical element in this approach (unlike the original game, where if you shot a gas pump, it exploded immediately) is that it gives you the choice between risking damage and being exposed to press an attack, or finding alternative cover.
There's a gas station map where battles are dictated by the way you're forced to corral your troops into the ever-decreasing availability of cover as all the cars and gas pumps explode...
It would be cool if you can build up the resources/troops to respond to multiple abduction sites simultaneously. I understand the cost/benefit of choosing, but 1/3 each and every time seems too robotic. It would be nice to develop better capabilities in order to expand our effectiveness.
I think having three options, in the early game always on three continents, and usually with one each of money, scientists or engineers as a reward, is too pre-determined and should be varied more. But I'm not sure having multiple squads to respond would be as desirable as it seems - one would usually be weaker than the other, and you increase the prospects of failure as well as success. While you can fail UFO missions without repercussions other than lost material and soldiers, losing abductions is very serious. Losing two in succession would probably cost you the game.
Haven't enjoyed a singleplayer game this much in several years.
The reason I want to play now is it seems really tough. I want to play before they nerf the game. And I have a feeling they will nerf the game seeing as the game is as difficult as it seems.
! Even if you have a full compliment of troops (at this point I had 4, having had 1 killed), its still brown trousers time. Anyway, held on by the skin of my teeth and managed to keep my soldiers alive (only just). But there is so much you have to consider. Its true that you don’t have things like crouching, but you have unique abilities (both yours and the aliens) to consider, flanking (which was never in the original), elevation etc.
