The new game is a nice reimagining of the original idea. The new concepts introduced change the mechanics, but the style and flavour of the game remains very similar. I've also backed the recreation of the original Xenonauts, so I'm totally happy to see a different take on the X-COM knowing that I have access to the straight modernization as well.
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| XCOM: Enemy Unknown ... actually the enemy is that thing over there! |
Things I Liked
The number one thing I like about the game was the game itself (he said somewhat redundantly). It's a lot of fun and it's easy enough to play (although I haven't tackled the higher difficulty levels yet, nor tried the ironman mode). There are moments of great satisfaction when you kill a bad guy cleanly and exactly the way you meant to.
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| Fast-lane ready to damage an xray. |
The class system is nice, not a new concept in gaming, but new to me in X-COM (I haven't played the original sequels). In the original game, especially at high equipment levels late in the game, you tended not to have any real difference between any of your team. One giant armoured turret was basically the same as any other. With the classes in XCOM it makes the game a little easier in the early running and a lot more fun.
The armour types were also fun, especially the ones available later in the game (although some of them I could have picked up a little earlier if I was smarter going through the research tree). In particular the armours that let you grapple around the map are a huge amount of fun. There's nothing like jumping across a giant gap to put your rifle up to the final boss's head and blowing him (it?) away.
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| Look, dude ... I like it too, but could you take it off to shower at least? |
Things I Didn't Like
The number one thing I didn't like about XCOM was the voice acting. XCOM is based on the concept of a military created from volunteers from all over the world. My final team included an Israeli, an Argentinean, a Japanese, a Nigerian, an Italian and an American. All of these sounded like they were recorded by the same person, who lived in LA. There were no accents, there was no local flair. In the character creator there are only 5 voice choices per character and they're all completely interchangeable. Given a game that has a strong international flavour, this is really disappointing.
It's also worth noting that most of the credits are localization teams, meaning that there are tons and tons of INTERNATIONAL VOICE ACTORS voicing the same game. It makes the lack of diversity all the more annoying knowing that if the internationalization teams had just switched up some of their work it would have made the game so much stronger.
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| We're ready to go. From all around the world, just don't listen to us. |
The next thing that I didn't like was the memorial wall. It's a nice concept, your soldiers put up a memorial for all their fallen comrades. You, however, are not allowed to see it. It's always behind the UI where you can see how many kills the soldier got before they died. You can't even sort the UI to see when they died, only the number of kills mattered. Again for a game where you're encouraged to care about your soliders this is disappointing.
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| Just let me see the wall too. |
The rank system the game uses to give soldiers new powers is good (although I'd love a few more options for customizing the team, but I'll always have Xenonauts), however linking it with military rank is slightly annoying. I took 4 Colonels and 2 Majors on my final mission. This is weird, but only in terms of the story that I make in my head as I play, not in terms of the game's systems. I would have much rather be able to organize my command structure separately from my skill selection. The way the original X-COM organized rank (where you had 1 sergent per 10 soldier and 1 lieutenant per 3 or 4 sergents) felt much more appropriate, but that wouldn't suit the style of this game that well.
I also found that in this game they didn't make as good a use of the interceptors which shoot down UFOs as the original game did. In particular you used to be able to team up into squadrons to take down bigger ships as an interm measure before you got stronger interceptors and they left that out. It doesn't detract from the game, but was an element that felt missing.
The last thing I didn't like is much less important than the others, but probably bugged me more actively during the game. In order to help you know where to look for the alien scum, they developers included an indicator which shows where "noise" is coming from. The problem however is that every time the indicator goes off the solider nearest the noise asks some version of "What's that noise?" It was aliens, it's always aliens.
Things I Noticed
I haven't played another tactical game with cover implemented this way. On the whole I really liked the way it makes things easier to manage, I know soldier X is pretty safe because she's standing in the right position. I know I'm taking a huge risk with solider Y because he's out in the middle, but hopefully he can take a reaction shot and keep himself out of trouble.
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| I know where they are, and my guns are loaded! |
Things I'd Include in a Game
The number one thing I'd take from XCOM is the feeling of the combat. You always feel powerful and in control, but never invulnerable. Even with your normal weapons you can fight any alien, although it may be harder, you're never out classed so badly that the game becomes impossible. On the other hand then you're never so secure in your position in the late game, no matter how good your armour or your arms that a lucky shot from even the weakest enemy can give you trouble. You always have to play smart, but playing smart is always rewarded.
Final Thoughts
XCOM is really good. I'm certain I'm going to play it on and off for years to come. Fraxis took X-COM and made it modern, easy to play and fun without losing the fundamental aspects of the original games. I always felt like I knew what was going on.
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| We will be watching you. |
