NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 (Note - please allow this topic to be held in sticky status)I had the great fortune of playing this game officially on the 8th of October and I must say I'm torn between nostalgia and the current remake. If anyone of you have had an opportunity to play the game (officially, not the demo) let's make this the topic of discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 10, 2012 Author Share Posted October 10, 2012 Quick note. Although the character customization is adequate, I've noticed that all the voices for the characters are not unique. Example: If you have a German soldier you cannot change his voice to have a German dialect, he simply sounds like he's American. This goes for ALL backgrounds (British, French, Polish, etc.) Kind of strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 I did mention that in the demo topic - I was disapointed about this fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Close to 35 hours into the game now on "Classic" + "Ironman" And I've lost a total of 25 soldiers with various ranks. The Memorial wall looks like an obituary in a newspaper or a high school yearbook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 ::SPOLIER ALERT::https://www.designboom.com/weblog/images/images_2/andrea/vanlieshout_thinman/thinman01.jpg The "Thin Man" has replaced the "Snake Man/Snakeman" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 There's a great AAR here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 Well, I'll just muse too myself. S.H.I.V.s = P.O.S. (piece of shit for those new to these slur/curse wordabbreviations). Seriously the SHIV is crap. Even if you add all the extra research involved with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflash Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I love this game. Having said that, I will agree with the father's opnion: "Good. VERY Good. Not excellent. But Very Good." The main 'penalties', if you can call them that, are the lessened amount of options. A single base, no inventory management(rather, the lack of NEEDING to do so), removal of time units(I'm split on this, I love it and hate it at the same time), and so forth. These are the things that required mastery of strategy AND tactics, rather than just tactics; which in turn made the orignal such a deliciously demanding game. Will you enjoy the new Xcom if you liked/loved/etc the orignals? Without a single doubt. This game is Xcom to the core, and it reflects in pretty much every aspect I've stumbled across thus far. The main cavet is, like EVERYTHING, to not go into this expecting a picture perfect retooled copy of the orignal. That, this game is most assuradly not(as can be presumed from all the more....strict reviews from fellow SC members. ) But it is close. Close enough it goes straight into my 'favorite games ever' collection without even blinking. I'm still fighting off sickness(and still piggy-backing off my dad's copy) so I won't go into more detail yet.Still if you're on the fence, I say go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 The SHIV isn't crap at all mate, what have you been trying to use it for??? The only problem is the fact that it's completely broken in game so if you lose your first one then there are no more. Ever... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 The only problem is the fact that it's completely broken in game so if you lose your first one then there are no more. Ever... Uh oh.... that's not good. I dunno Guv, I'd rather have a medic with a plasma rifle personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Well there's always the debate of how useful it is but my main reason for liking HWPs and now SHIVs is the fact that they're entirely expendable. They make good scouts and can be used to draw fire away form other more valuable or even injured troops in the field. If they die so what? Buy a new one... Only in this game you can't get a new one because it's bugged But anyway, did you know that the SHIV is actually portable cover? Stand a trooper behind it and they'll be in full cover, I bet your medic would be grateful for that! Besides remember the HWP techtree in UFO? Same thing applies here, it won't always be a gatling tank y'know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflash Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Pretty sure the portable cover has to be gained from a research tech, btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I'm on hover SHIV's and am building a Firestorm and I've not played the game for more than half an hour today. Played too much on Friday and yesterday! There are some interesting developments with the standard aliens later on to keep things interesting and tough. Not going to spoil it for you Had an awesome mission this morning when my whole squad was lured into an alley and completely surrounded. I LOVE some of these maps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I've had some neat missions today too, sent my sniper to dash into cover and he ran into a cyberdisk and 2 drones! Luckily my assault avec plasma one-shotted the disc and the ensuing explosion took out one of the drones I think I'm starting to learn how to play this game which is funny as I've been playing the old one for over a decade! Undeniably though there are some major differences and I'm just now figuring out how best to approach each different situation. Been having some great missions today and I'm no longer leaving my troops in bad spots. Not pushing further than I KNOW I can handle. The new plasma weapons make it pretty nice too, especially with my snipers now max rank Also just building first 2 firestorms here but can't build the hover shiv because my game is buggered for them now Starting to meet some of the aliens I imagine you're referring too which is cool. It's a good way to stop the player feeling too overpowered with the new tech but with decent strategy they aren't impossible (like the first time you meet some of the earlier aliens!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflash Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Had a case early on that made me love Heavies. The vet ran up in the alien base just fine, moving to peer down a ramp and probably do overwatch to end his turn. Sadly, he spotted and woke up three crysalids...who promptly abused their free move to rush up the ramp and surround him. I'm pretty pissed at that point, and ready to reload because of that cheap move; when I decide "EH why not." Had another Heavy shoot a rocket into the mess. Hit all four units(Three cryssys and the Vet). The vet then dropped a grenade. Smoke cleared, and the Vet was standing with two hit points above three cysalid corpses. I could not stop laughing for almost an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 That's the beauty of decent armour Sunflash - tactics that worked in the original too (though I wouldn't recommend dropping an alien grenade at your feet as I think they're more powerful in the original). Sectopods and Ethereals are really scary - they've taken the aliens that were already pretty tough and given them new abilities. You'll all see what I mean when you get there I'm pretty near the end now, but I still feel I'm progressing on the priority research, building projects and key missions too quickly - I need to stockpile more stuff really before rushing ahead so I shouldn't have done a few key missions today I feel. I'm also failing to do what the game suggests and field some lower-ranked troops with better troops on "easier" missions (at my stage they're all a bit trickier) so the loss of a Captain today was like a kick in the nuts. I felt better about it though when I figured it took an Etheral to take him down I love the research tree and construction jobs too - they've made stockpiling things a requirement and many later construction projects rely on you having certain combinations of items to complete them, so that side of things - whilst it all seems more streamlined in some ways - is now more interesting I feel. One of the Steam achievements is to complete a game in each of the starting locations - some of which I guess will unlock after first playthrough, as they're locked on your first game. Not sure I fancy completing it 6 times in a row though It's also worth noting that if you're on classic and getting your arse kicked you can change difficulty whenever you like. I've not done it, just spotted that it's there on the main menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireWarrior Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 They aren't actually locked, it's just that the game limits you to Europe and US if you play the tutorial - In order to select any of the starting locations, you have to deactivate the tutorial (retarded, I know). In general the whole game reeks of two things, consolified simplicity (alongside a few retarded design ideas) and a lack of throrough QA work. In the end though, I've dumped 12 hours into it over 2 days, so somewhere along the line I am having fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Who needs shivs when you can have 6 people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Agreed, I'm now able to buy hover plasma SHIVs and even if they DID work in my game I'm now at a popint where I wouldn't bother. I now field 2 Snipers, 2 Heavies and generally 2 Support or 1 support and a rookie. I find if you give the support guys the +3 movement perk they make great scouts on their first move and if they run into trouble you can set up the other troops relative to where the new baddies are then fall back with the support and kill the new contacts with RF in their next movement phase! Plus of course you have snipers to finish off anyone that got through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I voted for The Equalizer in the poll by the way, but only because it needs another option for "as good as the original, but in other ways". This is just my personal perspective and obviously you'll all have your own views, but for all the things I think it's missing they've improved it in other areas. There are also some things I thought I might not like that I've thoroughly enjoyed as the game progresses. I would strongly urge anyone who's not liked it early on to give it more time and see what happens further along (I was really worried about short missions early on, but they make you work hard later). Classes work well for me, the cover system makes sense in combat, I've not found myself missing time units at all which is my biggest surprise and the story seems deeper with a much bigger research tree that works very well at knitting together all the species and items, as well as taking a stab at explaining the alien names. Whilst trying to see what the average rating was so far, I went and had a look on MetaCritic. I was horrified to see people (players, not review sites) have scored it at zero - presumably because they've thrown their toys out of the pram that it's not an exact replica of the original. This annoys me because, for a start, you only give that score to games that are unplayable and have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. This is clearly an X-COM game - the ingredients are all there, it's just a different recipe. No respectable gaming magazine gives out low scores without explaining them, and the ones on MetaCritic are, as I say, people throwing their toys out of the pram because it's not a clone of a game that still works. It's all down to personal perspective, and sure the game could be deeper in some areas, but if I wanted to play a game like the original I'd play the original. If I want to play something fresh and new, I'll play this until I'm as used to it as I am the original. I feel that even though I'm on the path to victory, there are still hundreds of hours of playthrough after this game - Classic difficulty will have its own horrific surprises I'm sure as the aliens get cleverer and more accurate, and trying out new tactics will become a necessity as the difficulty ramps up. Similar to my "if you want to play a game like the original, play the original" statement, if I wanted to play a game where the soldier "perk" tree was deeper and there was more choice in terms of guns, I'd play Silent Storm. If I wanted to play the original with updated graphics, I'd play UFO:ET, or wait for Xenonauts to come out. I think it's actually been a clever move to bring it to consoles too (bear with me). I know some things are almost certainly simplified as a direct result, but if it's successful across more platforms I would imagine that the profits are much higher and the likelihood of sequels is higher with equally high production values. Maybe they'll do a more strategic PC-only game, or a less strategic console-only game in future, but I'm hoping that both camps call for more strategy in a sequel. If you think about it, it's a bit of an experiment on the console side of things to see if something like this would have mass appeal (although I reckon FullAuto and others will point out a few tactical, turn-based games for consoles that I don't know about ). Historically - and this is a generalisation - PC gamers are labelled as "too cerebral" by console gamers. Console gamers are told they have no attention span by strategy gamers in return. I hope this brings both camps together for a better gaming future. Etcetera etcetera zippythezip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 I've now completed the game. (I won't give any spoilers) I've run into several bugs, (mainly camera issues) My system crashed to desktop only once or twice but was stable. There were several times either I or the interface, my guess is the place makers cost me several rookies. I must insist if you are playing this game on a PC to USE the Q&E Keys or whatever binding you've set it to. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches. Overall I enjoyed this game and if I had to rate it 1-5, 5 being the highest I'd give it a 3 1/2. Until the bugs are fixed it will remain a 3 1/2. So now I'm going to try something slightly INSANE! I am going to attempt to play a run through with...get this...Difficulty - Impossible, Iron Man enabled, Autosaves OFF, & the zinger, I will not upgrade my squad. That's right folks; I'm going to attempt this feat with a 4 man squad.(By upgrading I mean of course paying the money to expand my squad size, I don't mean upgrade the soldiers skill/perks that would be just stupid.) Wish me Luck. Charlesmi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 A bit of warrning - on Impossible you lose 3 bars in abductions. There are 50% more aliens than in Classic. So yeah I will not wish you luck because you are just plain suicidal. Oh and of course you start with 5 engineers so it is most impossbile to build satleites in first month to reduce panic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 1st Update: I didn't use the tutorial for my new run-through. Have a team of two snipers, one assault and one support. I stared transitioning a sniper for a rookie each mission to allow promotions. Death count now is 5 rookies, 2 squaddies and 1 corp. It's very difficult, BUT if anyone of you has tried out my technique with sending the rookies first into the fog of war and have everyone else in "overwatch" you'll do just fine. BTW, having the rookie wear the best armor and grenades is also a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mero Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Voted equalizer, some things are better, some things are missing, but since i already have like 15+ hours of gametime on it since friday evening it does most of the things right. and thats more than i can say about my gameplay.. 8th game started on classic ironman, i refuse to play any other way. even if i get wiped out. first game i lasted 3 missions Currently running 2 snipers with squad sight 2 support and 2 assaults. old school snipes in the back with archangel and plasma. they kill verything. always the 2nd highest in rank and the lowest in rank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Assault troops are awful, replace them with Heavies and you'll find dealing with the tough enemies MUCH easier later in the game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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