Enemy Unknown tribute app on Android - AvH

[sp1ke]

I've just found a game on Android in the Play Store called Aliens vs Humans (aka AvH), by LeisureRules Inc. It's about £2. It appears to use the original graphics palette, or a close approximation of it. Tactical gameplay is a slightly more modern type of 2.5D projection. I haven't even done the tutorial yet but it looks interesting. It is an explicit homage to original X-Com Enemy Unknown.

 

Is anyone else aware of this, or playing it? There have been previous attempts to do X-Com on a mobile phone, but I have never found one that worked.

 

cheers,

Spike

[Space Voyager]

Spike, I apologize but this tread slipped under my radar. It can not be published within X-COM news so I moved it here.

 

I did find a great X-COM-like game on Android, Xenowar. If you're looking for an X-COM recreation, this is a great choice, too.

 

I've looked at Aliens vs Humans (now) and it seems almost like a port of X-COM! Nice find.

[sp1ke]

I've played a bit more now. The recruitment, weapon allocation and grenades are simplified vs EU but similar and the simplification is sensible. Each soldier gets 5 multi-purpose grenades (smoke, prox or HE can be selected) and weapons are assigned from a pool granted by 'HQ' that improves in quality as your team progresses. The 'training' mode of the game is purely tactical (battlescape) but they have now issued an upgraded version of the game that has the geoscape elements as well. I haven't played the geoscape mode because frankly I can't read the fonts on my phone screen, and I can't get it to run in an Android emulator on my PC.

 

But the tactical game is fun and very much like the X-Com battlescape. Looking at the weapon stats it looks like they are fairly similar to EU, though the names are changed. So the 'Molotov' is functionally an incendiary autocannon, the 'T1 Laser' is a laser pistol, etc. As I say it's fun and easy to play. Sensible controls. There are different kinds of missions, such as artifact recovery missions and missions that resemble terror missions, as well as standard encounter missions. Probably the most frustrating thing is that when you scavenge alien kit off the battlefield you don't get to keep it for the next battle. But, actually, that is in some ways more realistic, and probably better balanced than in EU.

 

It may be different in the full AvH, as there appears to be normal research in the Geoscape - as I say I haven't played the full version yet, just the tactical 'Training Missions'.