X-COM (1994) vs XCom (2012) - KKK?

[Zeriel]

No one ever did that on the Codex. It was basically a war of "hey this is fun if you forget X-COM" and "NO EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS TERRIBLE EVEN THE SHOVELWARE X-COMS WERE BETTER".

Everything about it IS terrible compared to all of the X-Com-likes, at least without Long War.

Thanks for illustrating my point.

 

[GrainWetski]

It'll be judged accordingly to the name it has. If it was called Bad-to-Mediocre Turn-based Combat: The Movie Game, it wouldn't have been as bashed.

Don't use an old franchise if you're just going to take a dump on it. It's pretty simple.

 

[HotSnack]

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I wanted to write a post about this, but I don't think I could have said it better.

That said I don't think I would call nu-xcom arcadey per se, but it does feel artificially gamey. The squad powers feel like they belong in one of those boardgames where you get a deck of cards that grant special abilities, or even a little MMO-ish. Either way, nu-xcom approaches the same subject of x-com from the a completely different angle than the simulation-leanings of x-com.

Also, I think a part of nu-xcom's success can be attributed to it being announced after the announcement of the trainwreck that was The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which was originally just named XCOM to add more fuel to the fire. Nu-xcom just had to look vaguely like the original and it would be hailed as the "true successor" by the press, with new gamers buying into the hype, and oldies that were just glad the x-com legacy wasn't reduced to being a ME ripoff.

 

[Average Manatee]

The soldier abilities are literally needed to make nuX-Com playable. Without them there are simply too few knobs to twist to make the combat tactically viable. Games like Jagged Alliance 2 implement tons of complexity that would never be seen near an AAA game and even it generally pushes you towards asymmetic warfare/night fights/ambushing with 6 soldiers. For a game like nuX-Com and only 4 soldiers to not have the abilities would be like... well... playing with rookies the whole game.

 

[Jools]

perfect, factual and detailed X-Com VS Xcom comparison post

Thanks. I'll finish my nuXcomEW campaign (slightly improved over vanilla nuXcom, but still lots of limitations/streamlining/dumbingdown), then will give Openxcom a serious spin (I do have the original X-Com on steam, is that alright, or does it badly need mods/fixes?).

The game improves on "Classic" difficulty, although not without some drawbacks and while still remaining pretty straightforward/streamlined.

Things I'm finding annoying, so far (some are peculiat to the "Classic" game difficulty, some also apply to the "Normal" difficulty too):

1.Stupid Sectoid with plasma gun crits/hits my fully covered guy from -literally- across the map. Every. Single. Time. (and that's just sloppy difficulty padding, tbh, not worse than simply increasing the enemy's HP, like some games do).

2.Intercepting UFOs is completely pointless, not even "minigame" level of silly.

3."Story" missions feel like they're random content padding thrown at the playe.

4.The whole strategy campaign seems to be pivoting around building and putting satellites into orbit, rather than, I dunno, other stuff (research or defences or something else?).

5.The EXALT espionage thing is a good idea, poorly implemented. It would have been nice if they had played a better role, politically and strategically. Instead, the whole EXALT thing is an excuse to throw a few random "covert extract/protect/hack" missions at the player. It does work in adding some variety to the battles, though, and yet become trite after short time.

6.The character/class system promotes scumsaving, and hoping for battles in order to farm xp, with which to rank up and unlock skills. Losing a fully upgraded squad is just game-over, really, and this also promotes scumsaving.

7.The whole character/class system feels like a Pokemon game. Keep 3/4 strong members in the squad, and use them to "boost" the rest to a higher level. Also, once you get a full squad of high-level soldiers, you pretty much can steamroll every single battle, unless the RNG god of hit/miss/cover/crit chooses otherwise.

8.The class "spin-the-wheel" system is just retarded (and that quote was brilliant, it made me chuckle IRL), and merely an excuse to keep the player's finances in check, at least for a while, since it can be easily be "broken" by either buying dozens of soldiers and levelling them up to the first rank, or by buying that barracks upgrade that will make your recruits automatically levelup upon arrival (both options are sorta expensive).

9.Snipers are OP as fuck (well, it's not annoying but it feels really imba), at the second-to-higher and higher ranks.

10.The weapon progression feels very limited. Regular > Laser > Plasma. In fact, one can do well with regular ones until late-early to early-mid game, skip lasers altogether and rush for plasma. A couple of assault guys with ARC throwers can help a lot in gathering a few plasma rifles (building them is too expensive), and plain and heavy plasma rifles can be encountered on almost every map, as early as early-to-mid game, so the only one that needs being purchased is the plasma sniper rifle.

11.What's the point of EXALTED having the same exact weapons as the player, only different in skin/prop? It would have been an interesting idea if EXALTED had carried out their own research, and featured slightly different weapons, for variety and for a twist (I dunno, higher dmg but lower accuracy, or higher range but lower damage...).

[edit] 12.FUCKING OVERWATCH SYSTEM. I just hate that one can't pick the "direction" of the "watched" area, or the order in which one's soldiers should react... First mob to get into the room gets reaction shots by EVERYONE. Every other mob rushing in just get ignored.


That said, "Classic" difficulty feels a lot better, the increased challenge (mainly delivered via a tighter economy and deadlier enemies) makes winning (and losing) more satisfying. Still, things "feel" a lot like popamole.