STEAM SUMMER SALE 2015

[Traveller]

I do really wish there was a good Apocalypse remake.  I hate a lot of things about it, lots of things have bad implementation, or bad design decisions, or not enough content...  But the engine itself is one of the most fun things ever.  There's nothing quite like sending three guys shoulder to shoulder walking down a corridor with HE cannons going on full auto, incinerating everything in their path.

Are there any other good or even mediocre RT+P squad games out there?  I heard one of the newer Jagged Alliance games is, but also that it's total trash, so that's out.

[TheVampire100]

Maybe the next XCOM would be your type of thing? Because it seems it will share some similarities with it.
To sum it up, if you haven't seen already the trailer: In the future mankind fucks with XCOM and surrender immidiatly to a new alien force (we saved the earth once, sure we cannot accomplish twice). XCOM on the other hand fucks with the leadership and retreats in the underground.
The new alien leaders don't intend to slave mankind, instead they create bright and beautiful cities, so there is a utopian feeling to it.
XCOM however believes the alien invaders are up to something (maybe they even have some proof of it) and starts a guerilla war against the new aliens.
They use surprise attacks and retreat very fast before the alien leaders can react to it.
Everything seems to play in the big city and you have to work secretly. I know it's not exactly Apocalypse but the setting is similiar (plays in one city, aliens live alongside humans). they also return some of the aliens of the original game that got cut in the remake (snake men or more fittingly, snake women).
I don't know if the different coporations will come into the game (probably not) but at least so far it looks interesting. That and melee weapons for soldiers.

[Traveller]

Welp.  I wasn't planning on buying it before, but I sure am now, regardless of engine.  That sounds awesome.

[Shrugging Khan]

Keep in mind that it only gets really interesting once you get the Long War mod. It's even endorsed by the developers as the full experience. It's not perfect, of course...but neither is the base game. Or anything.

[kasnavada]

Dunno.

The long war mod screams "boring grind" to me, and really sounds like a step back. 12 soldiers in a mission ? Very long recovery time ? Longer campaign ? None of that is really necessary. More classes might also sound nice, but problem with "more of stuff" is that only the top tier choice get played unless extremely well balanced. And even then, there's only a few roles that really need to be filled. To me the base game is already "long" enough to get somewhat boring sometimes.

[Shrugging Khan]

A matter of taste, I guess. I don't have to start and finish the game in one weekend. My last game of LW was started some time last year, and it was about one-third finished by the time I last played a few weeks ago. It's called the long war for a reason...although it does have options to shorten the campaign; introduced a few versions back.

And the additional content is quite well-balanced. There's very few duds and OP things, and most of those are heavily situational. The new classes are interesting and distinct enough to be worth the clutter, and the increased soldier count is offset by more aliens. It makes for more hectic battles with higher stakes. I will grant that it also just gets messier; you can't pull of as many clean runs.

Some players still do, of course. But that's the ones who win on the highest difficulty with no losses just by exploiting every developer oversight there is, no matter how boring. And at that point I myself could just as well not play.