STEAM SUMMER SALE 2015

[TheVampire100]

Wchich XCOM?
The original xcom is pretty old and the controls are not really comfortable. But it is an experience worth.
If you mean the remake, than yes, get it. While I missed some of the old concepts, it is easier to conrol and handle like the original. Especially the crappy "You have to put every single item in the diablo-like inventory of each of your soldiers and don't forget to get enough ammo. Oh, and also leave some room for alien tech because you have to pick up every shit for yourself."
I know the standards of gameplay were pretty low around that time but from all features in XCOM I hated this oene the most. Arrenging the inventory in every single mission was a crappy design, the remake made a wise descision in scrapping this (but it seems that the sequels plans to bring it back). Instead every soldier has equipment slots and you can only put the fitting items in those slots. Also every item gets picked up automatically after the mission.

So, to sum it up.
Original: If you have no problem with uncomfortable/retro controls, then yes. Keep in mind, it launches only with DOS Box
Remake: Yes. Of course only if you are interested in that Genre but I guess that's why you ask anyway.

[Mick]

Are you trying to suggest games that simulate packing your luggage for vacation aren't fun?

[Zebeast46]

Sorry for not specifying but yeah I meant the remake.

[TheVampire100]

The remake is worth to pick. I really liked it, especially if you have the expansion.
What i missed in the base game was the difference in weapons and grenades. In the original there were niche weapons that were better against different enemies and tehrefor every weapon had its purpose.
In the remake weapons are squad based and cannot get changed (unless you play as assualt which can for some reason change between SMG and shotgun). The only thing you can do is get the stronger versions of those weapons by researching alien tech. It's even worse with grenades, there are only two types of grenades, normal ones and the stronger alien grenades. But besides the damage there is no difference. There is a research project that converts all normal grenades to alien grenades, making the normal ones even useless after that.

The expansion improved this a little, weapon difference is still a mess but they added a lot of new grenade types with their own purpose (poison grenades for an example). They also added some of the missiing weapons from the original game (flame thrower for the MEC).
But really, don't await any sinificant weapon differences, it all comes down to what soldier class you use.

[Zebeast46]

The remake is worth to pick. I really liked it, especially if you have the expansion.
What i missed in the base game was the difference in weapons and grenades. In the original there were niche weapons that were better against different enemies and tehrefor every weapon had its purpose.
In the remake weapons are squad based and cannot get changed (unless you play as assualt which can for some reason change between SMG and shotgun). The only thing you can do is get the stronger versions of those weapons by researching alien tech. It's even worse with grenades, there are only two types of grenades, normal ones and the stronger alien grenades. But besides the damage there is no difference. There is a research project that converts all normal grenades to alien grenades, making the normal ones even useless after that.

The expansion improved this a little, weapon difference is still a mess but they added a lot of new grenade types with their own purpose (poison grenades for an example). They also added some of the missiing weapons from the original game (flame thrower for the MEC).
But really, don't await any sinificant weapon differences, it all comes down to what soldier class you use.

Okay, so in terms of weapons the game is a bit scarce, but are the parts out of the fighting very interesting? My friend said that you spend a significant amount of time not fighting and working on your base.

[TheVampire100]

The battles are the best part in my opinion.  They are very deep and rich, especially on higher difficulties you have to think hardly about every turn you make because the Aliens are terrifying smart. They know exactly how to deal with your soldiers and a single mistake could be your doom.
Base building is less important as in the original game. It is still tehre but you don't have to plan the entire layout and they removed the base defending parts (aliens could find and invade your base). There are slots where you can build different rooms and some rooms have adjacency bonuses. If you play on higher diffculties planning your base is more important because you start with lower cash and I think you also earn less cash. Since rooms cost a huge load of cash and you also want weapons and other stuff you have to plan more carefully where ti build. On easy however you can build how you want, if it does not fit, scrap it and build something new. Also, rooms need time to build, so you won't bother anymore until it's finished.
However, the scannening/waiting phase is painful (was also in the original game but had it's purpose there). You will click on your globe and it starts scanning the world for alien activities. Actually they just fast forward the game time and then you get a message when aliens appear. This takes sometimes longer as usual and you have the feeling it wastes your playing time.

[kasnavada]

I found the "waiting" time quite good myself -  in the first one the longer the game, the more encounters there was. But near the end encounter were pointless as you already had all the stuff and litterally went to clear things just so you didn't lose the game.

About base management, I don't find it takes that much time past the first games. There is quite a lot of cutscenes but once done... basically it's the same all over again. Most of my time in games is spent fighting. The AI is quite good and will use cover / outmanoeuvre you if it can. Also, as the maps are "hand-drawn", while the "first" maps are rather in your favor, the later ones tend to be in favor of your opponent. It also offers quite unique perspectives on maps which random maps just can't do.

I personally find most of the mechanics they remade way superior to what was done in the first series. The best of the X-Com games stays Apocalypse for me though, but that's nostalgia talking (die, damn cultist, die !) - objectively there are a lot of flaws in that game.

[Traveller]

I found the "waiting" time quite good myself -  in the first one the longer the game, the more encounters there was. But near the end encounter were pointless as you already had all the stuff and litterally went to clear things just so you didn't lose the game.

And that's why Xenonauts lets you airstrike alien crash sites you don't want to handle, giving you token income and not costing you any score.  As someone who played a lot of the original X-Com...  Xenonauts is a massive improvement.

[TheVampire100]

I still need to get my hands on Xenonauts. All I know it's closer to XCOM than, well, XCOM (the Remake).

[kasnavada]

Farther IMO. No psychic powers. No buy.

[Kahuna]

The cover and hit chance systems in the new x-com are complete garbage. It's lovably (edit: got to love this new word filter) retarded that your agents can get one shot from the other side of the map when they're in cover. Irl if I'm behind an obstacle the shot would hit the obstacle not me. And so are the higher difficulty levels. Aliens never miss and your agents never hit. Aliens one shotting your agents from other side of the map. That's just cheap hard and way too luck based. X-COM Apocalypse on Superhuman difficulty is challenging and fun. I've been thinkin about buying Xenonauts. How would Xenonauts compare to Apocalypse and the new X-COM?

[topper]

Have any of you guys used OpenXCom? You use your game assets from the original Xcom that you bought, and they rebuilt the game.

For me, it runs better than the old game, all the main bugs are fixed, and there are some serious quality of life improvements to the gameplay (like stacking of items of the same type, and saving the loadout you equiped each soldier with)

[kasnavada]

The cover and hit chance systems in the new x-com are complete garbage. It's lovably (edit: got to love this new word filter) retarded that your agents can get one shot from the other side of the map when they're in cover. Irl if I'm behind an obstacle the shot would hit the obstacle not me.

Most of what you're describing is already on the first X-Coms... Also, it's a "cover" not an invulnerability field. High cover is supposed to hide most of the body but from the look of the field alone it's pretty clear that it's not 100% fool-proof. About "range" it sounds like you're describing the first games rather than the latest one. But, aliens having better sense than you was always part of the series (I remember stopping my transporters to get a "day" fight rather often in the first X-Coms, just because of that part).

[TheVampire100]

There are different factors that influence the percent chance of hits.
Range (in some cases more than others. Shotguns have a awefully short range and you have to be directly before the enemy to get a good shot), cover (half cover and full cover give different advantages. They decrease the chance to get hit by an amount unless youa re flanked), line of sight (it should be noted, like kasnavada already said, full cover BLOCKS line of sight but you can still get hit if the angle is right. And yes, aliens are clever enough to get around that angle), firing angle (in the expansion more as in the base game but lien of sight is still important and therefor the angle to your enemy. Also, flanking) and some other stuff like buffs and debuffs.
Alien weapons have, especially in the higehr difficulties a rather high success chance and I agree that this is a little off. But the tag "Impossible" should give you a hint that the game really gets impossible. On "classic" the game gets managable and it depends on you and the full use of cover, buffs, debuffs. If you miss all that... well, than the fault is on your side, not the game. XCOM is very punishing, has always been. One mistake and you will mourn over your full armed soldier.
Liek I said above, full cover can block line of sight and the right use can give you a big advantage. Set your soldiers on overwatch and let them come. They have to move to the right angle and while moving enemies are hard to hit, they still loose the cover bonus while in motion. Some enemies cannot even use cover at all (but have some other bonuses to make up for that)!

I think the game is manageable. And now I want to play it again, dman you all!

[Mánagarmr]

Have any of you guys used OpenXCom? You use your game assets from the original Xcom that you bought, and they rebuilt the game.

For me, it runs better than the old game, all the main bugs are fixed, and there are some serious quality of life improvements to the gameplay (like stacking of items of the same type, and saving the loadout you equiped each soldier with)

I thought that project died with most of the other ports? Apparently not.


Regardless, I prefer Xenonauts for my XCOM-fix these days. Vastly superiour to anything out there atm.