Is it worth buying?

[franconbean]

I recently aquired a copy of Enemy uknown and I am enjoying it greatly. Is TFTD as good as or better?

[Bomb Bloke]

It's really a matter of taste.

 

Personally, I find TFTD's premise to be ridiculous, it's graphics to be somewhat garish in places, and it's gameplay downright annoying at times. I'd take the previous game over it any day.

 

To put it in less biased terms, the game is UFO, but mostly underwater. It contains many new maps and stuff to explore - far more then UFO had, though you'll see some more then others (and soon get sick of them because of it).

 

The tech tree isn't as straight-forward, so you won't advance as quickly - many items require you to interrogate certain aliens before you can research them. However, the stuff you'll be finding is all near exact matches to tech from the previous game, with the exception of a few new melee weapons (which are immensely gratifying to use, due to the meaty sound effects). Some bugs apply to research which can even make it impossible to finish the game, but there are patches around our files section that deal with them.

 

The new aliens will surprise you by being far tougher and more versatile. In addition to simply having higher stats then before, they're also a bit better at flanking you. While it was true that different weapons would have different levels of effectiveness against certain aliens in the previous game, it didn't really matter - a Heavy Plasma assigned to every man, woman and child would take down any alien force. This time around you'll be better off keeping a more diverse armory.

 

Really the two games are very similar - at the end of the day, people tend to prefer whichever one they got to play first! It should be noted, though, that TFTD is all-around harder.

 

Anyway, these days the game can be bought for dirt. The link in my sig lets you pick up that and most of the rest of the series fairly cheap as well. If you really, really like the first game, then the sequel is at least worth a play through.

[Civilian]

TFTD has some things that are better than in EU. The ability to open doors without needing to walk through them, a slightly better weapon balance (albeit some are useless now e.g. Rocket/Torpedo Launcher), melee combat weapons, stronger enemies and more terrain.

 

However, some terrains tiles are flawed (e.g. on the luxury ship), the alien bases have a catastrophically confusing look and layout, some missions drag on forever as there are too many corners and places to look at. To make things worse those annoyingly long missions are sometimes consisting of two stages!!!

 

Personally I can not recommend TFTD, but tastes differ, there are some (Hi Catwalk! ) who prefer the second part over EU.

 

What BombBoke said is true: "It's really a matter of taste."

[franconbean]

thanks for your advice, the underwater setting was always a bit of a turnoff for me, but im willing to give it a try. Higher difficulty im not too bothered with. I reckon i will actually give it a shot - its only about

[Catwalk]

I prefer TFTD over EU for a number of reasons:

1) More challenging alien base design (and really cool artifact sites)

2) The weapon stats appeal to me more (didn't like unlimited laser ammo and Plasma weapons being overpowered)

3) Cooler alien graphics (matter of taste, of course)

4) Being able to open doors without entering them

5) All-round higher difficulty

 

Hi Civilian

[franconbean]

ok, thanks again for all your helpful advice. I downloaded it from steam about an hour ago and have been playing. Bomb bloke, your sure were right about those garish graphics :O i have to rest my eyes from time to time. Other than that, I think its brilliant. Not as good as EU though, but a nice change. (Underwater DOES work ).

I have encountered something odd though. My gauss rifles wont take gauss rifle clips :<. I havent researched Gauss pistol clips though, could that have something to do with it?

[NKF]

No that shouldn't. Have you got XComutil installed on it? XComutil introduces the 'improved' Gauss weapons that eliminates the gauss ammo clip requirement. That is one of the possibilities.

 

Myself, I say if you enjoy UFO, you should at least play TFTD as well. Ignoring its flaws, it's a great game. UFO is certainly the more relaxing of the two.

 

- NKF

[BadgerBadger]

thanks for your advice, the underwater setting was always a bit of a turnoff for me, but im willing to give it a try. Higher difficulty im not too bothered with. I reckon i will actually give it a shot - its only about

[franconbean]

i realize this isn't precisely what you asked, but my opinion is - again it is always a matter of taste -

do not pass go; do not blow up Cthulhu;

proceed directly to X-com Apocalypse.

 

hmm, what makes it better than the original?

[Civilian]

Apocalypse has one MAJOR advantage: A higher resolution!

And cool weapons and cool equipment... and a cool setting!

[franconbean]

any serious gameplay changes though?

[NKF]

You can't really compare Apocalypse with UFO/TFTD - though it shares elements, it's a different game altogether.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Think of TFTD as an expansion of UFO, and Apocalypse as a true sequel.

 

It's certainly an X-COM game (unlike Enforcer and Interceptor, which just happen to have an X-COM theme), but it does play quite differently due to the massive amount of additions and opportunities to micro-manage.

 

Frankly I think Apocalypse to be the best game in the series, but for some reason I still play UFO more often. This is probably because Apoc feels slow - in UFO, you shoot down one, maybe two alien ships and hey presto, you've captured enough tech to research and build all the very best equipment. You don't need to invest a lot of time to get into a campaign. Apoc doesn't quite have that "pick up and play" feel to it.

 

The main differences would be the CityScape (instead of the GeoScape) and the addition of Real-Time combat (with the option of still playing Turn-Based).

 

You might think the idea of playing in just one city instead of around the whole world would make the game feel limited. The opposite is true - the amount of tile sets goes through the roof. You land at a stadium, for example, you'll be fighting in a stadium.

 

Then there's the diplomacy aspect. Along with the aliens and the government that pays your wages, you've got the police, the transport authorities, the gangs, the cultists, and all the other groups that exist in the city. They can be co-operated with, or fought against. Heck, you can even level the city if you can get the firepower to do so (and you will) - there are obvious drawbacks to doing so, but the game engine won't stop you.

 

So basically it's UFO with a lot more depth. It's got a higher learning curve as a result, and you'll spend more time trying to advance through the game. As ever, whether you prefer things that way is a matter of taste - but Apoc is certainly worth playing regardless of which you like more.

 

The only thing I can think of that they simply didn't include would be the tanks and the blaster launchers. Psi still exists, but was greatly toned down; it can still be a devastating weapon, but it doesn't allow you to dominate the battle from the word go until the dust settles.

[BadgerBadger]

 

I came on the board to post something else; and saw this.

That's more or less what iw as going to say.

 

That Apoc can be played turn-based (like X-com) or become real-time-ish is , to me, the biggest gameplay change. It was PAoc that broke my reluctance to try non-turn bassed, I liked "Fallout Tactics, which tried to do teh same thing, but in my opinion, APoc made it work far[/] more seamlessly. It actually works.

 

The other major aspects is, for me, while keeping some of the video game tropes - like aliens not uisng their good equipment until you "level up" - most of the tropes get shot down like a bi-plane over area-51, and i feel ALOT of what was chnage din APoc was probably due to the natural development of " why should it be this way ?" and changing it - which i wish the whole genre would follow as an example. The diplomacy and SCALE are fine examples.

 

The scale fixes one of my oldest complaints of RPG/"squad based mission" games - that often in such games (eps "fantsay" games, but certainly not only, and in the x-coms) - your squads get sent to do things with such great impact, it isn't what COMMANDo teams would eb sent for, it would be the regular army( or larger untis from the army, anyway- not a commando is my point). That's a huge flaw in the rationale of MOST games, IMO ( that a commando is being sent to do an army's mission, making you wonder if armies serve NAy purpose in these , uh , continuities) - and in Apoc, it simply doesn't exist.

The only seeming exception would be Apoc's version of base assault ( NUUUUKE ITTTT!!!!) - which, I can say without spoilers, fits 100% into the storyline, WITHOUT stupid 'Deus Ex' plot devices, as to why a commando is assaulting instead of the full might of Earth Forces.

 

There's few things in this that aren't of course a matter of taste - a few are; objectively, improvements, but overall I it was summarized:

"Think of TFTD as an expansion of UFO, and Apocalypse as a true sequel."

[BladeFireLight]

it's always interesting to see how quickly a comparison of games can come out of this question. TFTD is my favorite despite it's short comings. the research issues can be avoided and I hope to fix the redundency of the terrain. Unlike UFO the Geoscape texture of your landing site has no connection to your map used. and the selection process is quite lacking. While the imagery is not as crisp it is realistic coloring for underwater. But what really makes me love it is the variety of terrain. The maps have lots of cover, hiding places, and even the ships look functional. UFO they are empty, 700 sq feet of empty space on a military ship? Not what I would in vision. Oh well to each it's own.

 

Bottom line any one who likes one game should get them all.

[Bomb Bloke]

Unlike UFO the Geoscape texture of your landing site has no connection to your map used.

As it happens, the textures do still have some bearing on what terrain you'll see. It's just that the game will randomly stick you in the coral/seabed terrains no matter where you touch down (say about 50% of the time? I haven't done any definitive tests on the odds as yet).

 

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=W...2F_Terrain_Type

[(name_here)]

Regarding aliens not using their best tech until you level up, that may possibly have been explained by the cut masterminds behind the invasion holding back the guns from their micronoid pawns. The devestator in particular is very specifically not of micronoid design, though the plot line that was leading to got cut, along with at least one additional alien dimension.

 

Of course, the real reason is the same as in every other alien invasion story ever: if the aliens simply opened with their best weaponry it would be a very short game.

[Gimli]

I have a love/hate relationship with TFTD. There are many improvements, but boy can it make me want to strangle someone.

The most recent example: I'm on a base defense mission with Tasoths and Bio Drones and a "never sent on a mission crew". I hide them all as well as I can then drop their TUs to 0. Next turn my guy gets MCed and kills the guy next to him. How if he had no TUs? Then I stun a Bio Drone and it still explodes, great. How do you even ge a live one? Then on another mission I waste a lot of crew members to get a single live Tasoth, then get back to base only to find out I can't research it.

 

Personally, I think of TFTD as the second episode of one game.

[Bomb Bloke]

MC'd units get full TUs. This was true in the previous game as well, with Psi.

 

Can't remember for certain, but I think the BioDrone is like the Cyberdisc - your best bet for getting the "live" research article is to start capturing medics and interrogating them. However, it's a bad idea to do this until you've got all the "important" research projects done, as it can break the tech-tree if the medics happen to return the data for certain aliens.

[Gimli]

So what's the point of dropping TUs to 0? Just for preventing reaction fire? Bleh, I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do the "drop weapons" routine.

[Bloodmoney]

a slightly better weapon balance (albeit some are useless now e.g. Rocket/Torpedo Launcher), melee combat weapons, stronger enemies and more terrain.

I disagree completely, TFTD is great example how looks bad balance. Human weapons & ammo are so nerfed comparing to those in EU, that they are not even worth taking on mission. I think that only Heavy or Auto Cannon resemble get boosted. Gauss Gun technology gets also useless pretty fast (most of Aliens are very resistant, up to 90%(!)), basically you can just go straight for the Alien Tech. When in EU every equipment can be used successfully, you can't say that about TFTD, and this is the biggest issue for me.

[Bomb Bloke]

Sure TFTD did a lot of nerfing, but in EU, weapon selection basically boils down to "use the heavy plasma for everything once you've got it researched". TFTD muddies the waters a bit by removing the almighty auto-shot mode from the equivalent Sonic Cannon, meaning the "best gun" isn't quite such an obvious choice (indeed, I'm fairly certain the "best gun" in that game depends on what it is you're trying to shoot at the time, and at what range - as opposed to EU, where it's pretty much always the Heavy Plasma).

 

This is leaving out the Blaster Launcher-type weapons, which are just too expensive to put into regular use until you've essentially won the game, by which time it doesn't matter any more.

[Bloodmoney]

Again I disagree. Even if you had Plasma Weapons, Auto-Canon, Rocket Launcher (both of having splash damage type of ammo) or Laser Rifle could be successfully mixed with Heavy Plasma (I did this many times). What about TFTD? You stick to mix of Sonic Weapons, this is not how incline should look. If TFTD devs remade weapon system for something different, then they could achieve something much better, thought maybe if they had more time they could probably make proper balance.