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First UFO: Aftershock reviews!


Slaughter

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"(...) it no longer has that feeling of 'everything is lost already', (...)"

 

Well, that's really because it isn't (lost already), Azrael.

 

Having laid claim to the Reticulan Laputa and swept aside the pitiful remnants of the resident Reticulan crew, the survivors of the survivors discover, after five decades, that significant human presence remains still on the surface of the Earth. Once again, there is hope !

 

::

 

The challenge before us is great. But the time now is to rally ! Rally forth and rise from the ashes, brethren!

 

Against all trial, we shall prevail !! :P

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That's the retail price in Poland or what??? :)

I know almost every other country sells almost everything at half the price than in this backwater little country of mine but 10 times lower????

 

Tell me that's not retail plz or I'll have to start packing for Poland!!!! :P

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Well, it IS retail price...

 

Cenega Poland decided to take the local market fast and decided to release all new games at the price of 30 zł (4zł = about 1 Euro). But if you pre-order it, you can get it for 25 zł, at almoust every Polish on-line shop, just like those at UFO:AS home page pre-order section

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was surprised that they picked up on the storyline as a weakness of the series, as I feel that the storyline is one of its strong points. I doubt that Altar could have made the storyline much stronger without making your campaign more linear.

 

And the sound? Having a cultist scream angry defiance at me during a tactical mission or urging my soldiers to bow before his gods before being blasted away by four XM8s on auto fire is one of the highlights of the game :(

 

At least this reviewer actually played the game he was reviewing (most of them regard this step as an optional extra) and he realised that the UFO games are not part of the X-Com series, despite the similarities.

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Gamer.no (Norwegian) gives Aftershock a 6 out of 10. Interesting that they gave Aftermath a 7 out of 10... ;)

 

What's wrong with the reviewers? There can be no doubt Aftershock is better than Aftermath, and still I've seen many reviews giving Aftershock lower scores than Aftermath!

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That's an easy one to answer.

 

Aftershock is a very complex game with a lot of factors for the player to deal with, both tactically and strategically. Although the tutorials help, it is not the sort of game you can get the hang of in a single afternoon which is about how long the average reviewer spends playing with a game before he writes his review.

 

What makes it worse is that a reviewer has to review every game that lands on his desk, regardless of whether it is his cup of tea or not. A reviewer who is not very interested in strategy games anyway is even less likely to give Aftershock a fair chance before he writes his review.

 

Looking at those screenshots, the reviewer just tackled the tutorial missions and the first planetside mission, so he would have missed out on things like the Cultists and the new alien races, to say nothing of the new goodies once your research and manufacturing get going.

 

I had expected the official reviews to be worse than they have been simply because the reviewers aren't spending the time they need to really get into the game.

 

I might add that the Sunday Times review you posted above looks like the reviewer dug out an old Aftermath review instead of actually playing the game he was supposed to be reviewing...

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I was surprised that they picked up on the storyline as a weakness of the series, as I feel that the storyline is one of its strong points.

Good lord, if they'd played Aftershock to completion, or even til the Wargots arrive, they'll find a very strong and ever-changing storyline.

 

I'm not convinced everyone will appreciate the final twist at the end of the story, but I found it a refreshing change at the very least ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

"That looked like a Friday afternoon review"

 

He did say "UFO Aftershock is, in short - strategy gaming brilliance (...)", so I guess I might let him off the hook; eventually... :D

 

But, as usual, there is no mention of appealing game elements such as the ability to customise your weapons with an assortment of accessories and the possibility of depoying drones in a variety of setups. Resources, foes, factions, motivation, storyline ? Who cares... :phew:

 

::

 

Real eye-openers about the state of PC gaming preview/review reliability.

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Did you notice how the visitors to the site gave Aftershock a much higher rating than the reviewer? I think it goes to show that Aftermath is aimed at a very specific segment of the gaming market, and it isn't the segment that writes the reviews.

 

I don't agree with his comments about the resources being grouped into low tech, high tech and alien resources instead of currency. Since the bulk of humanity gets wiped out in Aftermath, our current mediums of exchange would no longer be relevant. It makes sense that people would scavenge a lot of the stuff they need from the ruined cities - historically this has actually happened.

 

I also can't help noticing that pretty much all the reviewers have made X-Com: Enemy Unknown the benchmark by which Aftershock is being compared. If Altar produce a third game in the series, perhaps they should just give up and put a subtle reference to X-Com in the title, eg "UFO: X-Com".

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