XCOM: Enemy Unknown VS. Xenonauts VS. OpenXcom

[Awor Szurkrarz]

the lack of fully destructible terrain and UFOS.

WHAT?

I was just considering buying Xenonauts on sale, but WTF? No terrain destruction ?

 

[pakoito]

There is destructible terrain and I've only played a couple of missions.

 

[Ashery]

Yes...and no.

From what I recall, the outside of a UFO is indestructible in stock. So there's no breaching the upper floor of a battleship, sending in a bunch of jetpack troops to stun and capture a leader, and then leaving the rest to rot.

That said, as you should be able to make out from my addition of "in stock," mods have added the ability to blow through the outer shell of UFOs.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, it's not really surprising that a UFO's outer hull would be nigh impervious to any handheld weapon you could bring to the party. These things have ALREADY survived both zooming through orbital reentry and then slamming into the ground at supersonic speeds (strangely enough without leaving any damage on their landing site...), what more could YOU do to them?

From what I recall, the outside of a UFO is indestructible in stock. So there's no breaching the upper floor of a battleship, sending in a bunch of jetpack troops to stun and capture a leader, and then leaving the rest to rot.

You couldn't do that anyway. The Mission isn't considered properly ended unless you take control of the UFO. Aliens left wandering around lost in the fields can be left to rot, but you have to take and clear the UFO.

 

[Norfleet]

I don't really think that counts as a proper ending. The leader was the hard part, anyway. Why would you risk being shot out of the sky like that after you've already taken him down?

I actually did manage to take out the leader by shooting through a geometry-glitched window or something once. For some reason, one of my dudes could see him, despite standing outside the UFO, so I told the dude to take the shot, and it killed him.

 

[Dayyālu]

I don't really think that counts as a proper ending. The leader was the hard part, anyway. Why would you risk being shot out of the sky like that after you've already taken him down?

Have you ever played TFTD with his weird research tree? Sometimes it is better to take what you need and avoid stupid losses. If you lack MC control even a lucky Disruptor Launcher shot can ruin your squad, and you only need a Commander for some vital research.

All that plays in the tradition that X-Com and TFTD let you choose how to do stuff, while NewXcom (at least the base game) is all about what you cannot do. You cannot equip troops as you like, you cannot play the game as you like, you cannot build what you prefer or employ any strategy whatsoever (Who was the retard that decided that grenades destroy all Alien equipment? That was the case also in the old game, but only after you killed the bearer. Dumb decision.)

I was just considering buying Xenonauts on sale, but WTF? No terrain destruction ?

Mods fixed it. But yeah, in the versions I tried the lack of UFO destruction was a big no-no. Xenonauts is good for what it is.

 

[pippin]

I don't know if it's very codexian of me to say this, but modern XCOM seems to be one of the (really) few examples of "updating game to modern audiences" done sort of right. Most of the basic elements of XCOM were there; having limited squad size gave it a different approach. I do love UFO Defense (playing through it as I type) but it's not really believable for me that this special anti alien force barely knows how to aim. Fortunately, laser guns changed everything
Voted for Xenonauts, mostly because it was very bro of them to develop and release a game like that. We have enough indie rpgs in the market, but no proper squad tactics games which are worth playing. It's not without flaws but I really liked what I saw.
As a footnote, the "send rookies on missions" function of The Bureau was something clever, which I'd like to have on other XCOM games. It sort of made sense, when you had 4 UFOs storming North Africa at once, like what's happening to me in my UFO defense playthrough.

 

[omega21]

Wasn't the Bureau a third person shooter, though? The setting/trailers seemed fun to me, at least.

 

[Norfleet]

Have you ever played TFTD with his weird research tree? Sometimes it is better to take what you need and avoid stupid losses. If you lack MC control even a lucky Disruptor Launcher shot can ruin your squad, and you only need a Commander for some vital research.

I thought we were talking about Xenonauts here. TFTD is something else. At least that's you were talking about in the quoted section from the guy who quoted you.

All that plays in the tradition that X-Com and TFTD let you choose how to do stuff, while NewXcom (at least the base game) is all about what you cannot do. You cannot equip troops as you like, you cannot play the game as you like, you cannot build what you prefer or employ any strategy whatsoever (Who was the retard that decided that grenades destroy all Alien equipment? That was the case also in the old game, but only after you killed the bearer. Dumb decision.)

Well, I haven't tested Nu-XCom, only Ye Olde X-Com and Xenonauts, but being prevented from equipping your dudes in arbitrary ways is kind of a downer, yes. Xenonauts doesn't have that problem, you can equip your guys however you damn well please. I know my loadouts tend to be a bit nonstandard, like equipping guys with ammo for weapons they don't have so they can lug it into battle for those who do.

 

[pippin]

Wasn't the Bureau a third person shooter, though? The setting/trailers seemed fun to me, at least.

The Bureau was a third person shooter with real time with pause combat (?!). People hated it because it wasn't the real XCOM and gave us Xenonauts, but it's not really a completely bad game. That feature I mentioned and some setting elements (like the Skyranger being an old helicopter) were nice.