The Demo

[Pete]

First, if you haven't played it, here's the info: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/news/xcom-enemy-unknown-demo-released/

 

I just completed it. It's two missions so you'll only need about an hour - the first one heavily scripted to get you into the game and used to the controls, and the second one more freestyle (so there's a danger of you getting your squad killed!).

 

I suspect that this demo will be like marmite - you'll either love it or hate it and it's as simple as that.

 

It's quite story-driven, and the features that have been left out from the original are numerous, but on the other hand what's been added in provides a wide variety of tactics. I came up against Sectoids, Floaters and Thin Men - none of them showing off their special abilities just yet, but in the second mission where it was my choice over whether my men lived or died I took a lot of heat and dished out a lot of pain, which was most satisfying.

 

After watching some of the early videos I took it pretty cautiously so all my men survived, but when facing the last two enemies I decided to surprise the enemy by kicking in a door and letting loose with an automatic rifle which was a lovely "glam cam" moment

 

They seem to have purposely restricted your movements around the base for now and provided just enough to entice you, but I like what I've seen and the questions already posed (what the hell are those objects that are grabbing people and leaving nothing but a charred mark on the ground? Some form of inter-dimensional transporter? Seems a waste just to use it to kill a few curious bystanders!).

 

So what did you all think?

[silencer_pl]

Ok so basically what we were given are 2 tutorial missions. From all the demos I played - this one doesn't give much but at least it lowered the pressure.

 

What I don't like in this game:

 

a) Poor quality textures - that is it - consoles or not PC edition should be treated with respect - if the GUI was treated specially why shouldn't textures. Or maybe it's just demo but in previous I didn't see any better.

b) Probably it is a demo and was tutorial - I had to confirm that I want this action - for example clicking selecting overwatch - gave info panel and OK button to confirm my order.

c) Corner shooting is idiotic.

 

x| | y

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

x and y can shoot each other. I can understand FPS where you lean out. But in tactical games - never was possible - not even in original X-Com nor in UFO series nor in any strategy game I was playing.

 

I had this situation that my sniper missed 75% chance on straight flanked line. But he shot other one in above situation with 45% chance and it was visible that I wouldn't be able to hit - I guess when it comes to XCOM - magic bullets.

 

d) Low FPS cinematics - while the game was constant 60 FPS (Unreal Engine 3 limitations though some games don't have it), the cinematics were at 27-28 which showed a bit of slugishness (sp?). Once again - I am blaming consoles.

 

e) Starting soldiers - A Japanese one looking Caucasian and speaking English like born in USA. Well if you choose a country for a soldier his voice should resemble that. Even Americanised Russians speak like Russians (or maybe only in American movies ).

 

There were some graphical glitches I saw - for example I swapped my sniper to pistol and fired - but in animation my sniper fired through sniper rifle. I am guessing that demo is few months old build version.

 

Glam cam also once put a very bad angle in close quarters. But I guess sometimes it just happens.

 

That is it about my negatives.

 

What I like in this game: Everything that I didn't mention in "I don't like" section, starting with music which if you didn't know who wrote it but played Deus Ex: Human Revolution you will notice resemblance.

 

Oh and I've just noticed - I can't hit Ambient Occlusion on High - probably disabled on demo

[Sorbicol]

Well, it was very restricted with what you could do wasn't it? The combat was quick and intuitive though (mostly) and I did have some floaters flank me and took a bit of damage. My sniper will not be nicknamed 'headshot' though, couldn't hit a barn door at 5 paces :-/

 

The music is lovely but not as tense as I was expecting. If you've played Deus ex: human revolution then you know what to expect. The voice acting was a bit suspect too, but you can more than live with that.

 

Can't wait for the full release. Thank god I have fibre optic broadband for the download, would take days otherwise!!

[Space Voyager]

Love the battle UI. Everything can be done through keyboard and turns can fly.

 

It was laggy as hell on my comp but playable. I trust the full game will run better.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Since I rarely (and I mean RARELY) ever download a demo, did anyone think that 5 gigs is a bit excessive (for a demo with such low system reqs) considering some of the flaws mentioned earlier?

[Pete]

I suspect it's just got a lot of files that need to be downloaded - most of the game engine and some of the cutscenes for example. I'm expecting the textures to be okay in the final version.

 

It wasn't just me that saw some video lag then? Again, will likely be fixed in the final version.

 

Despite the minor niggles I enjoyed it overall. Also, remember we've not hear much from the re-mixed music from the original yet, so that will be cool when it's encountered

[silencer_pl]

Also my little comment on starting locations.

 

Africa is a place for total greenhorns who die a lot and don't know what to do - that increased money income would benefit them if they will be buying lots of new recruits and guns.

 

Europe/Asia is interchangeable because they both gave similar benefits - either you produce something faster or you research something faster so it's just basically for casuals. Though Europe might be tad better - since when I will start producing those new shiny laser rifles you will be half there but in theory both should finish production in same time. But that will also depend on what bonuses you will get during the game.

 

Both Americas bonus I fail to see a positive. Cheaper planes - but it still is down to money to create those satellites. Better interrogations and corpse analysis - maybe if they were beneficial to tech tree it would be better bonus than USA. So my vote would be USA for higher challenge as bonus there is the least what would you want in the early game.

 

Of course Africa bonus in late game will be useless since you will probably have lots of money but it will surely help with start.

[Pete]

I would assume that they've balanced out the starting locations but I think that having specific bonuses for each region is a nice idea to tempt you into trying different locations. I know in the original I always built my first base in the USA until I realised that Europe was the better spot to cover more funding nations and never built my first base anywhere else after that!

 

This way though I think I will probably try a few locations at different difficulty settings to see what impact it has at least.

[Pete]

I almost didn't want to post this by the way but somebody will, so apparently the demo does indeed contain most of the game files.

 

Be warned there are MANY spoliers and I stopped when I saw the Ethereal (first link I clicked on) as I don't want to spoil it any further for myself (he looks cool), but here's a thread on the 2K forums stating that a lot of alien vids and autopsy vids and all of the cutscenes shipped with the demo and are relatively easy to view, as well as other stuff: https://forums.2kgame...-the-Game-Files

 

Now resist. RESIST I SAY!

 

No idea what they were thinking including all that, but they did. On the bright side, it sounds a doddle to change lots of in-game values so it might well be worth it if prospective modders have a poke around the code

[Pete]

Continuing my spam, for those of you concerned about being able to shoot through walls, this will not happen in the final version: https://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?138856-Demo-Feedback-Pros-amp-Cons&p=1901166#post1901166

[silencer_pl]

XCOM without Ehterals? Now that would be a surprise

 

Following link and skimming quickly:

 

and it's easy to cheat probably. Will need testing but you can alter funding, standard equipment, prices on the grey market, ....

[Pete]

Cheating/modding - there's a fine line between the two

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

@Pete

"so apparently the demo does indeed contain most of the game files."

I figured something was amiss because demos are never that large. I dunno who said it on the main page, silencer maybe? Said that this was an older build that they're using as a demo which makes perfect sense.

 

..

..

 

Etherals?! Damnit Pete and your spoilers! I've been TRYING to live a under rock until now, so thanks a lot mate!

[Pete]

It's not a spoiler that they'd be in it, just resist following the link and reading anything on the page or any links it contains

[Space Voyager]

Now resist. RESIST I SAY!

 

Shit shit shit, I just took a little peek and ran away. I've spoilt myself.

[7h30n]

I thought the demo sucked.

 

Voice acting is among the worst I've heard. Interface still looks like it's for gamepad (and I might even use it to play this game 'properly'). Cinematic camera is really annoying (thankfully it can be turned off) and the overall camera work completely wrecks the atmosphere I adored in the original.

Tactics and strategy - I cannot talk about them since there weren't any present in the demo.

 

Overall it feels a lot like style over substance.

 

I can look past the control and interface issues, but I hope the rest of the game isn't a linear cover based shooter.

[Thorondor]

Well, I can't say I haven't enjoyed the demo and that's saying a lot already.

 

Like most of you I've detected a number of little glitches, but nothing too serious.

 

I did notice, for instance, in the second mission, having my sniper selected, that when I tried to elevate the view with the keyboard shortcut keys to see the top of the larger house's roof, the shaft/cylinder-like height marker thing from the console version appeared...

 

Where's my 'phone booth'?

 

The only thing I did dislike and found uncomfortable, much like 7h30n, was the rather restrictive camera control - this day and age there's no reason not to give full, free camera control to the user, especially in a tactical environment where you need to assess overal situation, soldier exposure, paths to target, etc.

 

::

 

And while I can see the limitation being suitable, and even useful, for streamlining control in the console version of the game, I can't really excuse it in the PC version.

[Sorbicol]

I've just been watching the game spot pc play through (2 hours if it!) and it looks pretty clear to me that the camera control is either different in the preview build, or becomes a lot less restrictive as you progress through the missions. Could be wrong of course but it did look like swinging the camera round wasn't just restricted to the keyboard

 

EDIT: Which, by the way, is yet another video play through with a journalist with the tactical awareness of my 7 month old daughter. Where do they get these people from?!?

[Koloth]

Shit shit shit, I just took a little peek and ran away. I've spoilt myself.

Was that spoilt or soiled?

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

@Sorbicol

 

yet another video play through with a journalist with the tactical awareness of my 7 month old daughter.

I'm not sure either, my guess is they don't know how to play on a pc.

 

Regarding the Demo, of which I have now finished. The camera angles were off, and I killed a floater with a 37% of hitting and popped his ass. But we must keep in mind this is most likely a beta-build demo and I’m sure (hope) most of this stuff has been fixed. We’ll know if it hasn’t if there’s a 5gig patch the day of release.

[Koloth]

It's good to have the demo. I've been on the 2k forums and there has been a lot of criticism of the English language reviewers not providing much detail compared to what's coming out of Germany, Russia and Poland. Too much editing, I expect.

 

First run through I lost one guy... better next time I hope.

[silencer_pl]

They said that whole game would be like 20GB or something close to it.

[Pete]

Yes, but those stats were just as wild in the original and in any other game with chance-to-hit ratios.

 

Any percentage - even a chance of 1% - can connect with a target otherwise it would say 0% and not let you take the shot.

 

You looks at the figures and you takes your chances

[Sorbicol]

Yeah According to steam the game needs 20GB of free Hard Drive space - gonna have to uninstall a few games this end then....

 

Having replayed the demo again, once you get into that second mission where it isn't scripted the game really does come alive. I had both floaters completely flank me from the rear (no sniggering at the back there please) - so it was good to see some aliens using their "special" abilities. That caused me no end of problems, and although I didn't lose a soldier, but 3 of them got badly injured. I assume that's because I was playing on easy though, on "classic" difficultly I would expect to have seen them all torn to shreds.

 

The camera control isn't the best but as I have said before, I reckon the controls being displayed on some of the press preview build vids looks a lot smoother and more intuitive. Hear's hoping anyway..

 

The main problem with the demo is that it is very restrictive in what it will and won't let you do. I can see the possibilities though, and I am really looking forward to the release date now. Clearly I'm going to spending what little gaming time I have on this game for the rest of this year, and probably well into the start of next.

 

The only other thing to say is that if you are looking for a more "classic" XCOM experience, then go and pre-order Xenonauts at https://www.xenonauts.com/ because that's the closest I've seen to someone replicating the original so far. OK I'm not sold on the over complicated air combat they've added, but the cold war feel from the 1970s really gives it a totally different atmosphere. The one issue I always had with XCOM, and the new one, is that although you are outgunned and outnumbered at the start, it's always clear you are still sending in the "best of the best" with what earth has to offer to combat the situation . In Xenonauts, playing with 1970's military technology it really really adds to the ideal that you are woefully under-prepared and under-equipped for what is coming. Makes the game a lot more intense experience for me.

[Koloth]

Played the demo. Wonder if you can skip the tuitorial mission...