Only 70% ish Game Reviws!

[bloodchill]

Ok 3rd of October my trusted PC Gamer coems out, i go right to Ufo AM and i see a big fat 74 %. Hey what the, this the magazine that told me about this game so long ago, hyping it up so greatly and then to let my heart down.

 

Well magazines arent everything i thought, I'm an old style x-com ufo defense or for me ufo enemy uknown fan (UK). I will defy the Magazines I will buy it in hope that this game hadn't failed miserably.

 

So I'm sitting at home game in hand and i go to install it and i get a error message half way through about a cd drive time out something. again i try, failed again. Just before i leave it and like in my experiance email support and wait days! I try one last time. Hurray its Worked.

 

So finally i get to play i go on my first mission after the tutorial , i do two mission great. all going well then my men get slaughtered by just one alien i start the game again having not saved then slaughtered for a god dam stupid reason.

 

So my fears have surfaced i see now why it got the 74 % i come back 30 minutes later in a desperate attempt to ENJOY it. I found myself taking a base over killing the aliens with no problem at all. before i know it ive already gone to the dreaded area 51 researched alot and got a kick ass team.

 

I can understand why it go this score but to me this is one great thing about it. You get so frustrated when you loose. If it was rubbish then you wouldnt care but this is different anger boils in your blood and you jsut go nuts get a whole squad with shotguns and storm around a level.

 

I recommend this for stress relief, anyway get over your first loosing try it again and get into it, It is one great game.

 

What are your thoughts or Q's about it?

 

Sorry for all typos i make

Edited October 11, 2003 by bloodchill

[ShadowBlade]

I'm disappointed at the review from PC Gamer (74%). Unfortunately, many magazines' reviews don't calculate scores in a balanced way. For example, PC Gamer focuses too much on graphics and too less on gameplay, IMHO.

 

I think the game is great and deserves much more than a crappy 70%. The only thing I don't like about it is the difficulty "shifts" that take place (the first when the Reticulans start using plasma weapons and the second when they get sky armor and rocket launchers/psi weapons). :devil:

 

PS: You can use the "Edit" option on the upper-right corner of your message to get rid of the typos.

[bloodchill]

ARGH Psi weapons, And PC Gamer does focus too much on graphics, but in this years top 100 they did have the old ufo and Elite in. Public demand maybe?

[ShadowBlade]

Yes, maybe PC Gamer wasn't like it is now during that time. Probably because of the people that left and the ones who came in. I had a suscription in 1999 and some of 2000 and they weren't like this then. I cancelled my suscription because some of the magazines didn't bring CDs or didn't arrive at all. (the order had to fly all the way from the US to Argentina, on the opposite side of America...)

[bloodchill]

It seems to me that, this game is loved by those who play it hated by those who have to review it for some reason. Maybe because they died and this game gave them a real challenge, I look at the review now and it is a good one but The thigns against it seem to be only building one weapon at a time and because they died. I see a good game with a good review but sucha a bad score, maybe it because theres no multiplayer or maybe he died and got a hammer smashed his computer to bits and has to pay for a replacement.

[ShadowBlade]

Yes, in PC Gamer, the lack of multiplayer also affects the score considerably (in a negative way, of course). I've also seen scores lowered more than they should, as you, bloodchill, said in your post, which makes me wonder if there are some hidden details they don't show in the review.

[bloodchill]

It could be i dont see any real negative things, It would be nice for multiplayer, though the game rocks, I think i read that if enough copies were sold there may be multiplayer support but i doubt it

[Raion]

XCOM is sort of linear, and players are led around by the nose, so to speak. Wait, for invasion, shoot it down, do battle, wait, again, and do again.

 

There is a distinction with UFO:Aftermath, one can not handle it all, and one can choose. That distinction is important to me, at least.

 

Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!

[bloodchill]

im not quiet with you there,

[Kal Cyann]

Think he means in X-COM u have to shoot down a UFO 1st or wait for an alien base or terror mission to pop up before u do anything, yet in UFO:AM u can pick an choose missions at ur own speed. Well most of the time.

AN don't get oo cocky with whipping aliens butts atm, i'm pretty far in got a kick ass team an 1 mission i got all my squad wiped out in 1st 10 secs an all i did was turn around. + if ur loosing men for little reason then ur stratagy is'nt much good an hence u will become frsutrated, plan ahead move slow is what i do. True takes a lot longer to do missions but at least they get back in 1 piece. Well most of time ???

[bloodchill]

Thats a great improvement in UFO AM i think i remember in ufo i had to choose between 3 missions becaus i dint have 3 bases in europe to many things and to little time to do it in. One month 50 ufos next 5. Frustrating

[Kal Cyann]

Yup an the transport in X-COm could'nt moveto another mission o nway back to base it had to refuel an rearm ur trooeprs etc. Where in this u can change to do that mission but with what ever u had left from the last mission.

ALso though if u find ur getting speard thin u can delegate some missions away, helps that little bit more.

[rezaf]

i think 7x% is a very sensible score for UFO:AM. It's a solid game, but it isn't really VERY good due to numerous nitpicks (sloppy, badly presented story, a number of little issues with the interface, a step backwards in many ways from the X-COM games in ways what you can do and what you can't, etc.), and it's pretty far away from being a top-title. That's my opinion, anyway.

_______

rezaf

[bloodchill]

I can see your point all too clearly but 70 i think was still harsh expecially after you read the review where there are only 3 bad thigns mentioned,

 

One at a time weapons productions

 

Anoyying Psi weapons

 

And victory conditions

 

to take it down that much? is that fair mayeb maybe not, i recommend the review is read. I think 80 percent shoudl do at least

[rezaf]

The run-of-the-mill review can't point out ALL little issues that make up the final score, anyway. A lot of reviewers also have that tendency to not even properly play the games they test, but that's a different story.

And like I said, there are so many issues one can find while playing UFO:AM, 7x% is exactly the range I would rate it. Btw, back in the days I'd given the original UFO a high 8x% score, maybe even 90%.

_______

rezaf

[Terror From the Deep]

Pcgamer gives harsh reviews for crappy graphics for good reasons it's the year 2003 and it shouldn't look like the year 1998's graphics which this does. This game is a mid 70's game an will remain there until they do what people want which is bring back an X-com type game with updated graphics. not some pseudo game where the ships and alien bases look someone on crack made them.

 

Oh and pcgamer always gives 3 bad things and good things at the review unless it's a bad game like low 40's then they don't waste the ink. If you think there all about graphics they canned the Enter the Matrix game rightfully too because it stunk to high heaven.

[bloodchill]

maybe then that brings up the issue of the game magazines dismissing the game?

that would be aggrovating. When you sya you would give ufo a scorelike 80 to 90 % in the days? did you play it when it first came out? Or is it because of the reputation. thats a point about game reviews they may just cave in to demand and give it good scores and ufo am didnt get it maybe?

[Skeelo]

I agree, 7x% is about fair. ufo:a just seems to lack a certain quality that should make it stand above the rest. The biggest disappointment for me was how short the game was, I had it beat in just over a week and that's not playin 24/7(work got in the way of me doing that . oh and on normal difficulty.

Dont get me wrong its a very enjoyable game and i was hooked at the start but i feel that it hasent got that replayability of some of the x-com games.

I just dont have a great urge to play it over again, It would have been nice to have a skirmish mode.

Oh well back to mach commander2.

[Pete]

Skeelo - try it on hard setting with no reloads if you lose your men. My brother is suicidally attempting this. Fair enough though, he's got past Area51 with few problems (keeps losing a squad member every so often, and the aliens will make sure a downed man stays dead by pumping them full of laser holes!)...

 

I personally didn't think it would be possible to get that far on hard setting, but I've noticed a lot of games are never that fun the first time through. To be honest, the first X-COM game wasn't all that fun for me until I beat it on the harder setting and had to change my tactics, X-COM Apocalypse was at it's most fun on Superhuman setting...

 

I think I will try what he's trying - He's managed to get to February the 22nd, has all his men at level 10 or above, one will be able to carry the really heavy armour and a gatling gun and *possibly* jog (just waiting for him to get the gatling guns now to see what happens) and he's just ripping the aliens to shreds with their own laser weaponery.

 

Maybe it's worth waiting a patch or two, but I always get the urge with games like this after I've completed them once to try it again with different tactics

 

Anywho, that was a bit off topic, but I reckon that even if I might not want to right now (having just completed it) it'd get a good score on my own review for replayability. I'd probably be around the 78%-82% mark because I enjoyed too much.

 

Hehe - MechCommander 2 rocks - Bet you're glad they don't have to fit down any tight alleys on that game eh?

[Kal Cyann]

Yea totally agree Pete. I restarted my game an is now on hard mode, on easy got too far too quick for my liking, but now on hard every action has a reaction so if u foul up u gotta pay price. Early on its pretty tough Uzis shotguns, i burned through an entire backpack of ammo for the Uzi an had to take all the missions slow.

Now though my guys r getting better an doing well, am near end of January at time of writing this have lost 3 guys. But am having more fun than i did on easy setting thats for sure

[rezaf]

bloodchill: Yes, I played XCOM1 back in the days when it came out, and would've given it a high 8x% or a 90% back then. So it's nothing to do with reputation, only with personal experience. I still have fond memories of X-COM these days, and I even take it for a ride on my old P1 occasionly. UFO:AM is a solid game, but I will only remember it because it's somewhat related to a game I remember fondly, not because it's memorable by itself, which is why I think 7x% is fair. Solid, but not great.

 

About Pete's comment, somehow I seem to have different views about difficulty.

I admit it's a thin line, but while I like a game to provide a certain level of challenge, I hate being frustrated, or forced to think "how unfair". The latter happened in UFO:AM, when the notorious "rocket-launcher-syndrome" kicked in.

And I consider myself quite a dedicated gamer, I don't wanna picture how a casual player feels confronted with such a steep rise of difficulty.

Likewise, I enjoyed playing X-COM (or Apoc) on Normal. Personally, I enjoy playing a game, not having to "work",literally, in order to beat it. But maybe I'm odd.

_______

rezaf

[Skeelo]

Pete - I've had a go at what u'v suggested and started again on hard and to be honest there doesnt seem to be that much difference than on normal setting. I've not saved during a tactical mission and i've not lost a man(yet ).

That might be because im more accustom to the game and its style of play but im not looking forward to as rezaf puts its the rocket-launcher-syndrome, I agree with him on that point, A game should be challenging but not frustrating.

I lost count how many times i've been in an alien base or ship mission when at the start a peanut head pops round the corner with a missile launcher, u scatter ur team only to run into more rocket launchers or mind control. At this point there is alot less strategy and tactics required to win just more luck,praying,reloading and swearing.

It's a good game but it needs to be balanced because as the difficulty curve is, many people are being put off what is a generally good game.

[bloodchill]

wow thats alot of responses glad you took the time. Well Its interesting how everyone talked about thigns that i didn't eve consider maybe i am a deluded fool to stubborn to give in to the 70 % crowd. So My next Prayer its a true TBS of x - com made by the right people. that would be great the return of X-com , in the mean time i havent yet check out laser squad nemises so i should have enough spare tiem to wait another 20 years where we may live the exprience of the soldier and command your squad with voice or even a multiplayer where you commad one man.

 

Sorry got rambling there. I can see why it got 70s and 80s but even if it isn't that great for some wierd reason i want it on my gameshelf. This game would rock with the multiplayer ill start a thread about that i think.

Otherwise im very glad for your views you have showed me other sides tot he games badpoints and good

[Pete]

Skeelo, you're just too damn good at this type of game then

 

The rocket launcher syndrome is a little sucky-sucky. I might have helped if you could bring out the foldable weapons and keep them out. That would have almost completely balanced that aspect of the game for me and made it so much less frustrating.

 

I agree that this game does make you work too hard in places no matter what difficulty setting you're on (unless you're Skeelo )

[Kal Cyann]

And victory conditions

The missions should be more like X-COM's. Where u carry on till ALL aliens r dead or u want to abort the mission an have to get what is left of ur squad BACK to ur transport to get outa there, an none of this "KILL 3 transthingys for mission completed" wtf is that. everyone knows theres more aliens than that on any mission. :hmmm: