I am an XCOM veteran and have now played XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Psionics aren't even available for the majority of the game. And even once you do have access to them, Explosives are extremely viable.

Heavy Plasma > explosives, for most purposes.

You are pushing the strategy you used as the best, fine, it worked for you, but it isn't really the best.

Using overwatch with everyone is pointless in EU. Unless you are only running Supports, you only react to movement with Overwatch.

So explain a situation when you would end turn without setting everyone who still has a move left on Overwatch.

Nah, it's a complete waste to put Heavies on Overwatch, unless he's the last one to move, for use against patrols. You generally want to keep one of your Assaults off overwatch too, and maybe even a support in case you need Smoke.

Your Overwatches generally all attack the same enemy anyway, so there's not much point in using more than your sniper on it.

If everyone has a move left and there aren't any enemies on screen, then yeah, everyone uses Overwatch, unless they need to reload.

Otherwise, it's almost completely pointless to use overwatch when there are enemies present.

Well duh, if you have to shoot enemies - and you pretty much have to if you have a good line of sight, what else were you going to do, talk to them? - you won't have a move in the end, so you can't use Overwatch.

In X-COM it was and in Xeno it is automatic. Soldiers have TUs left, they use them to shoot. Why the hell did Failaxis make it a special move instead, I have no idea.

Just adds a ridiculous amount of unnecessary clicks... Guess that's depth these days.

It's because of the skill Flush, and because of the surprise move aliens get.

I use the Gamepad, so I just press "Y" and it goes into overwatch. Not really a big deal.

I still don't see how that makes it a decision, seeing how small your squad is. Furthermore, it certainly doesn't make it a viable decision to end turn without overwatch.

The game should just assume that if you don't use a soldier's second move and end turn, you want to put him on overwatch. Like the original did. It's a no-brainer. Difficult Decisions indeed.

Well, only thing I can think of right of is not wanting to shoot the aliens you are trying to capture. Maybe you don't want to have to move your soldiers twice and trigger a shot from the enemy, but also don't want to risk taking a reaction shot and killing your precious sectoid commander, etc. Just glad they actually had that binding on the PC since the other overwatch numerical key jumped around depending on the soldier.

Besides what Svidangel said, if you go into overwatch mode, then trigger the aliens free move, you will attempt to hit them before they can take cover. Same thing with Flush. If you didn't have the option to go into overwatch mode, you would either a) Lose the opportunity to hit them or b) assuming it automatically did do reaction shots, you'd lose the actions of people who you wouldn't want to put into overwatch.

The Overwatch penalty is an example of them not thinking things through. Why would someone on overwatch, who is essentially settled into a good shooting position and surveying the terrain in front of them, suffer a penalty to aim? That's ridiculous. If anything they should receive an aim bonus, but perhaps they suffer a move penalty when they come out of overwatch, or they take a turn to come out of overwatch or something.

Things like that irk me. I don't mind the way it plays sort of like a tabletop/boardgame adaptation on the whole, but the logic of things are bemusing. I must say though the game is growing on me purely as a spectator sport. I have been watching a few friends play it and when I'm not suffering the floaty controls and somewhat dubious RNG rolls myself, it's fun to watch. If I take the controls and try to navigate the interface I lose patience fairly quickly (it plays great on a gamepad but I've been banned from using that on their copy. And I do just want to play with a damn mouse and keyboard).

The depth argument I think revolves mostly around the freedom you had in the original, vs limitations in this (inventory, battle tactics, squad creation). People liked having customised soldiers toting specific weapon and equipment combinations. They liked having squadmates shuffle equipment and ammo during a battle. That stuff is engrossing.

I just had a group of 3 Chryssalids walk into my view out of the darkness. Sicne they stopped into my LoS, that triggered theri cinematic. And they got to move agian, right towards me.

Then another group of 3 appeared. Same thing happened.

Then another.

I just had 9 Chryssalids do 2 turns and cover half the damn map and sorround my soldiers. Game over man.

F*** you you cheating game!

You get a penalty because you are trying to hit a moving target.

I just had a group of 3 Chryssalids walk into my view out of the darkness. Sicne they stopped into my LoS, that triggered theri cinematic. And they got to move agian, right towards me.

Then another group of 3 appeared. Same thing happened.

Then another.

I just had 9 Chryssalids do 2 turns and cover half the damn map and sorround my soldiers. Game over man.

F*** you you cheating game!

Well, if the "enemy discovered" cinematic plays on THEIR turn (followed by the automovement) that's the only move they get to make that turn, but yeah, it could end up very bad.

I've finished the game at least a couple of times and both on Normal and Classic - Didn't go for Impossible yet

A few points on the game:

DISLIKES:

1) Interception - it feels a bit... simple... what you need to do is basically this -> buy 1 interceptor per covered continent, arm it with Phoenix cannon (it easily downs small and medium UFOs) and if you hit a large UFO use dodge... This is pre-mid game special mission. After the mid game mission, you should have two interceptors with laser cannons per continent and should build one firestorm per continent.

2) LoS/LoF bugs - this can be fixed, but I hate a bug where I am clearly in a flanking position and it still counts the alien as in full cov.

3) Some facilities are useless - for now, I did not have to build any lab at all... also never went for satelite nexus.

4) Not being able to PICK a class. - I like the idea of specialization, but I'd like to be able to designate which rook becaomes what class once he hits the first promotion... rolling 5 snipers isn't fun.

5) No randomization of basic stats of soldiers - each class has exact carbon copies of aim/def/HP as if each class was producing clones within itself... they had options prepared in so called "Second Wave', but it did not make into the launch - shame. Only Will seems to be fairly random

6) Limited number of suburban and broad daylight maps... - this I guess could be fixed.

7) Power of blaster launcher - considering what steps you have to make to be even able to research one (you need to bait a Battleship to appear, then down it fairly intact - so basically Firestorm with EMP weapon - the blast power is underwhelming... it does only 9 dmg and it has a standard rocket blast radius... it can't kill a freaking muton on a classic difficulty... that weapon should be doing around 15 dmg, and it still would not be killing stuff like sectopods, berserkers, ethereals.

8) There is basically only a one build order that will let you to win the game -> FOCUS ON SATELITES FOR THE FIRST THREE MONTHS. Anything else and you lose on classic+ difficulty

ON THE FENCE

1) One base - it's not a big deal to be honest. They just replaced bases, with satelites for radar coverage. I also kind of accept that there is only a one full base - I can't imagine that excavating, building all the special facilities and infrastructure would be any less than a full year IRL, so it's kind of believable that you are limited to a one MAJOR base.

2) No base assault - there is only a one mid-game mission where you raid an alien base. I guess same logic applies for setting up alien bases. On the other hand I also kind of accept that there is no XCOM base invasion. Normally if aliens would detect it, they would just send a few battlecruisers and make a huge crater in the earth... I cannot imagine highly intelligent race with superior firepower and no real use for inferior tech to go into ground combat into a place, which they can simply vaporize.

3) Alien spawns - there seems to be around 2-4 passive spawn places and 1-3 roaming patrols per map. On terror missions Aliens always are on a patrol rote, but they seem to be static if you are not making any move at all. I can live with it... And man, things can be really hot if you fight one spawn and you suddenly get three more patrols on that place... very likely to happen on very small maps

4) No free aim - I understand the logic here. Since the cover is an important part of the tactical gameplay they wanted to make sure that you cannot destroy cover with anything but limited explosives... to make choices matter more. Random misses can still destroy cover, and that can tip a balance of engagement.

5) Limited explosives - This is also tied to the cover mechanic. That would make small and very small maps cover mechanics pointless. Most of the maps are medium in size with few large and very large. You still can have a heavy though with 3 rockets and two grenades... If you get a blaster launcher and alien grenades on that dude it's a lot of guaranteed AoE.

6) anything but move ending your turn... - It again enforces you to take some decisions and dealing with consequences. It also gets rid of a silly abuse of, move to corner, shot and move back to not being shot at... I kind of understand that shooting makes you to fully commit to your action for that particular turn. I guess they would have to completely redesign combat and cover system if they would allow for TUs.

7) Amount of missions - the game is roughly designed to last around 6-7 months, that's around 35 missions total. You can prolong it, but there is really not much sense, unless you want to have a fully maxed out of all soldiers being psychers too. It is a fairly ok amount of missions, but that also means that you can afford losing 1 mission early (but only a UFO mission) and 1 mission late, where you have all panic levels down to around 1-2 bars. This also not allows for getting a full squad wipe of leveled up soldiers at around 2/3 months mark, because then it just snowballs down to a loss. This amount of missions makes it also highly unlikely that you will see a same map during one playthrough. (there are around 8 different council missions, around 25 different abduction missions, 5-6 terror missions, and 3-4 missions per each UFO downed and 3-4 missions per each UFO landed, 3 story specific missions)

8) Panic - it is ok as a mechanic, but it triggers far to easily... also if there is a firing move, they should be completly random, not always aim at the units in your LoS - this results in a game braking friendly fire chain

9) Squad size - it works ok if you do not lose more than 1 soldier per mission. Bad thing is, that if you had an unlucky wipe or near wipe, your low grade soldiers cannot recover the game, because they cannot overcome the RNG with numbers... I'd rather see 8 soldiers per mission max.

LIKES:

1) Combat AI - this is a major improvement... the aliens actually work as a team and utilize their combat abilities... that makes for example muton/chrysalid combo a very dangerous one. If you trigger on classic+ more than a one group of aliens, you are in for some tough fight.. if you trigger 3 groups and more... and you have very limited and RELIABLE high cover (i.e. not destructible) then you will most likely lose a mission or at least a few people.

2) Strategic layer makes you fight for your gold and maintaining countries in the council. Panic could see some improvement - for example a successful UFO mission also kills a point of panic. I heavily disliked las cannons factories in OG, which made you basically fully independent, breaking the immersion of an international organization depending on the council of governments.

3) very nice research tree... each research has a meaning

4) resource management - you rely on what you get from aliens to build own advanced weapons and armor. Also a nice balance between foundry projects, and researches. Foundry greatly enhances many things on the field, but can strangle your research, and other way around.

5) Grey market - I like the idea that you cannot randomly sell highly advanced weapons and armors to just anybody. You get the embargo on that by the council as in real situation such organization would get. You do however get some occasional council requests to provide them with some weapon/armor/alien stuff for extra cash/eng/sci

6) Weapons - rifles - good all around, but average dmg; pistols - no ammo requirement, but usually lower dmg - some perks and foundry upgrades can make them equivalent of a rifle; shotguns - crap at long range, super powerful and accurate at close range; sniper rifles - crap at short range, but goes well with high acc snipers on the long range; heavy weapons - they are good at any range, but unfortunately soldiers carrying it have crappiest aim... - it is coupled with a nice feat on heavies which allows them to shot twice or shot and then take another action.

7) Psionics - no more crappy and OP psionics, where it could happen without the LoS... now both aliens and your soldiers have to have their targets in their own LoS to target with Psi power

8) SHIVS - the only remote chance for recovering from a squad wipe is to field a couple of these babies with rooks... They are however foundry projects which have some research time and resource consumption - a good balance IMO

9) The feeling that you are against an overwhelming force - seriously I see people complaining about not being able to react to all abductions... imagine that it is only a small scale of what would really happen. If you would have free roam on skyrangers and squads, then they would probably send you 20-30 abductors on different locations at one time - try to shot all of them down and send skyrangers full of teams - sure it would be a great mechanics from the Immersion point of view, but it would require a ton of more maps to retain it enjoyable and varied enough. I like this mechanics as it is, besides, once you get sat coverage over countries, they are far less likely to get abduction missions. Sat coverage is a key in ability to respond to alien threat.

I do actually have one big gripe about XCOM EU. You can't equip Snipers and Heavies with Assault Rifles. That really annoys me.

5) Grey market - I like the idea that you cannot randomly sell highly advanced weapons and armors to just anybody. You get the embargo on that by the council as in real situation such organization would get. You do however get some occasional council requests to provide them with some weapon/armor/alien stuff for extra cash/eng/sci.

Totally agree with this one. When I was on one of my playthroughs of the OG, I kept half-expecting some random headline about a bank being robbed by energy-weapon wielding thieves or McDonalds releasing a new burger that was colored grey inside...

9) The feeling that you are against an overwhelming force - seriously I see people complaining about not being able to react to all abductions... imagine that it is only a small scale of what would really happen. If you would have free roam on skyrangers and squads, then they would probably send you 20-30 abductors on different locations at one time - try to shot all of them down and send skyrangers full of teams - sure it would be a great mechanics from the Immersion point of view, but it would require a ton of more maps to retain it enjoyable and varied enough. I like this mechanics as it is, besides, once you get sat coverage over countries, they are far less likely to get abduction missions. Sat coverage is a key in ability to respond to alien threat.

Also agree with this, though it would be nice if you weren't limited to only one skyranger...

Wait, I assume the burgers being grey isn't what is new... heh

4) Not being able to PICK a class. - I like the idea of specialization, but I'd like to be able to designate which rook becaomes what class once he hits the first promotion... rolling 5 snipers isn't fun.

7) Power of blaster launcher - considering what steps you have to make to be even able to research one (you need to bait a Battleship to appear, then down it fairly intact - so basically Firestorm with EMP weapon - the blast power is underwhelming... it does only 9 dmg and it has a standard rocket blast radius... it can't kill a freaking muton on a classic difficulty... that weapon should be doing around 15 dmg, and it still would not be killing stuff like sectopods, berserkers, ethereals.

4) Then everyone would just abuse it to constantly have 3 Assaults, and those Assaults would become very expendable. As is, Assaults are extremely powerful even just at squaddie, but it's extremely risky to use them to their full potential. There is an Officer School project that immediately promotes units to Squaddie, which is a fair tradeoff IMO. I always have an issue with having too many Snipers(they are completely useless for quite a while).

7) You can increase Damage with Mayhem, damage vs Mechs with HEAT Ammo, and Radius with a different skill. If you specialize, it will easilly kill a Sectopod with 1 hit. I do think that it's damage is still fairly underwhelming against non-mechs, but it IS 100% chance to hit. It would be nice if it had a splash damage system.

Having just finished XCOM myself today, this was the impression I was left with:

I became a science-fiction writer because of X-Com: UFO Defense. Had it been this new XCOM on my 386 back then (graphics aside), I don't know that I'd have ever sprinted down this path. XCOM's not a terrible game by any stretch. It's fun, I played for hours, and I had a great time doing so. But for whatever reason, for better or worse, the immersion just wasn't there for me. I'm sure I'll play again at some point, and I'm sure I'll be entertained. But right now, on the heels of just finishing it, I really don't feel drawn to fire up a second campaign. One of the first things I thought as I leaned back in my chair and looked at the endgame screen was, "I'm so glad I get to work with Xenonauts."

You guys are doing something awesome. I'm pumped up to be a part of it. This novella's going to be the best it can be.

Xcom:Enemy unknown, funny thats what the original was called well in my country it was...

I bought Xenonauts played the beta (loads) found out about Xcom:EU from one of our beloved leaders posts (Something like "I chose this date as the fraxis game comes out the day after and I'll be playing that for a while") I then looked it up and pre ordered that on steam

My thoughts:

Fraxis - XCOM:Enemy Unknown

The game is very pretty but bloody frustrating (why when you see an enemy does he get the chance to run away or take cover and yet when an enemy sees me he shoots first and why does the enemy hit you with 75% of shots yet your team repeatedly misses)

Original XCOM:Enemy Unknown (AKA UFO Defence)

Brilliant game that takes years off your life just by playing the game and loosing time a bit too dated now and difficult on the eyes...

Xenonauts:

The potential to be what XCOM the original should be like today but with out the pretty graphics we have come to expect.(nothing against the xenonauts graphics)

Loads more to say about the fraxis game but can't be arsed

It couldn't be called that, AFAIK:

First, it was X-COM, with a dash [of awesome].

Second, according to what I've seen, it was X-COM: UFO Defense or UFO: Enemy Unknown, although there might have been versions called indeed X-COM: EU. Still with a dash though.

BTW: Xeno graphics are pretty good as far as 2D games go. They certainly don't look dated. They look like CAD renders, intentionally or unintentionally. Such a look is relatively timeless (or it would be, if not for the rise of beyond-high-def displays, which will make graphics meant for 1080p look either small or blurry), while XC:EU already looks 5-10 years old.

I think many people here did a great Job summing up what's good and what's bad about Firaxis version of X-Com. I also don't understand those who are complaining about the graphics, because IMO that was one of the strong points, specially on the ground when compared to the screenshot of Xenonauts, which look clean, but very flat by today's standard. They could have been better, yes, but are by no means horrible. Also I have the feeling the artistic style was very much inspired by the old X-Com, with bulky oversized cartoonish weapons etc.

I also don't think it being a console port is what's at fault for it being dumbed down, seeing as some of the older versions of x-com on the playstation were pretty much identical to the PC version in gameplay, albeit with the nuisance of a controller instead of a mouse.

Anyways, I just put in for Xenonauts premium, hoping that they will come through (at least in story and gameplay, if not so much in graphics) where Firaxis didn't. I'm also really hoping that the modding community and maybe even Firaxis itself will change manyof the things we dislike about their interpretation of XCOM.

Btw, since I had to sign up for Desura to buy Xenonauts, I just came across UFO: Alien Invasion. What do people think of it?

Having just finished XCOM myself today, this was the impression I was left with:

I became a science-fiction writer because of X-Com: UFO Defense. Had it been this new XCOM on my 386 back then (graphics aside), I don't know that I'd have ever sprinted down this path. XCOM's not a terrible game by any stretch. It's fun, I played for hours, and I had a great time doing so. But for whatever reason, for better or worse, the immersion just wasn't there for me. I'm sure I'll play again at some point, and I'm sure I'll be entertained. But right now, on the heels of just finishing it, I really don't feel drawn to fire up a second campaign. One of the first things I thought as I leaned back in my chair and looked at the endgame screen was, "I'm so glad I get to work with Xenonauts."

You guys are doing something awesome. I'm pumped up to be a part of it. This novella's going to be the best it can be.

Yeah, since old game is more simplistic in presentation, you fill gaps with your imagination that allows for better immersion. New game has cutscenes, people talking to you, soldiers talking and some sort of explanation for aliens so it doesn't make you fill personalities for soldiers or imagine scientists yourself.

I have only played demo of new X-Com so far, and frankly I didn't get any "woooot omgz gotta get this game!!1"-feelings at all. Game is simply too streamlined and simplified and I can't imagine that full version would be that much more interesting, especially after reading about all the things that have been taken away and streamlined. Graphics are nice, but watching same cutscenes over and over again get kinda boring and nice graphics lose their meaning after initial "whoa". Maybe I'll buy it from bargain bin when it costs at least 50% less and/or some fan creates mod for it to put all the classic stuff back in the game as they were in the original. May sound absurd but to me the micro-management was big part of the original X-Com that made it so interesting (altough the inventory system was pain in the butt especially with >14 soldiers).

But after getting my hands on Xenonauts kickstarter version I immediately got the feeling that this is it, I'm going to put my money to this instead and bought Xenonauts Premium. Altough I see it has it's streamlining also as bought stuff immediately appear to base and infantry equipment is limitless (at least in kickstarter v10something version)...

Btw, since I had to sign up for Desura to buy Xenonauts, I just came across UFO: Alien Invasion. What do people think of it?

Felt kinda mehh to me, didn't keep me interested for long. Maybe I am such a graphics ho after all and stiff low polygon visuals was such a severe turn-off for me that I would prefer original 320x200 sprites over that

It couldn't be called that, AFAIK:

First, it was X-COM, with a dash [of awesome].

Second, according to what I've seen, it was X-COM: UFO Defense or UFO: Enemy Unknown, although there might have been versions called indeed X-COM: EU. Still with a dash though.

BTW: Xeno graphics are pretty good as far as 2D games go. They certainly don't look dated. They look like CAD renders, intentionally or unintentionally. Such a look is relatively timeless (or it would be, if not for the rise of beyond-high-def displays, which will make graphics meant for 1080p look either small or blurry), while XC:EU already looks 5-10 years old.

Dammit your right it was XCOM: UFO Enemy Unknown in the uk for the Amiga CD32 any ways

Yes I like the Xeno graphics I have nothin against them they fit the game real well my comment was that they wern't as pretty as todays big publishers do, they tend to spend the money on the graphics and leave the game play short, what I was looking for when I found xenonauts was a great looking up to date version of my ole fav game, playing the original is hard on the eyes where as the graphics of Xenonauts meets exactly to my expectations and thus I backed the project without hesitation.

Additional:

I found the tile sets for ufo's and crashed ufo's to be awesome along with the static screens, the graphics guys can produce far better material than I could, big publisher tend to make things all 3d when they dont need to be.

I dislike games that give you less freedom. so the new XCOM is very downgraded. lets go xenonauts!!!! you can do it!!!