paecmaker
11-14-2012, 10:37 AM
“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
Arthur C. Clarke
It was a long time since I did my last review, and frankly I haven’t played that many games now.
However today I will review
X-com Enemy Unknown.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/xcomcover530.jpg
Plot
You are the commander over a secret international project simply called the X-com Project. Basically X-com exist to protect earth against hostile extra terrestrials, or aliens. When the game starts you just got the command and earth is under full scale attack, so basically it’s a busy day at work .
Gameplay
X-com is a turn based action/strategy game combining action with base building. There are two major parts of the gameplay, the battlescape and the geoscape. The geoscape is where you take care of your base and the battlescape is when you are out in the field killing aliens.
The geoscape.
When you start the game your base is pretty small, it only have the most important things that allows you to survive however as you gain more resources you can build more facilities. The game will let you research new technologies and even the aliens themselves. You can also fabricate researched weapons and armor so your trrops can use them.
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2012/01/b9a2dc6039b8b80668d6e902fcb08ac1.jpg
When it comes to your soldiers you can outfit them as you want with weapons and armor(if you have researched new things) as well as change their looks, name and origin. When your soldiers are out in the field they will gain new ranks(all new soldiers start as rookies) when this happens they are given a class(automatically) and a class weapon. Whenever they go up in higher ranks new abilities and powers are unlocked.
Also if a soldier is wounded he will be unavailable to you for a number of days until he is healthy again, however if a soldier would die in the field he is gone forever.
The core of your base is the “command center. It features a scale model of the earth and its there you choose new missions. Also you got a place known as the situation facility, its there you check up on the world, to see how its going in the fight against the aliens. And even more important it shows the status of the council nations. The council nations are the countries behind the X-com project, they fund the project and of course these nations take it for granted that you will help them if they are attacked.
In the situation facility you got a map over the world showing the status of all council nations. Each nation got something known as a panic bar, it’s showing the state of public panic in the country. Let’s say you got three missions in three different nations at the same time, you can only choose one of them.
Each nation will give you different rewards if you help them. If you for example help USA and let China and Germany fend of the aliens themselves the panic will increase in the countries you refused to help thus the bar will go up. If the panic goes up to high the nation will leave the X-com project giving you fewer resources to fight the aliens. If too many nations leave the project it will be cancelled and you will lose.
Also different nations might give you challenges you may do for extra resources.
Apart from building and taking care of your base and research its also in the geoscape you can order to intercept UFOs. You can track alien ships using special satellites and if you find one and got an interceptor ready in the area you can order it to attack the alien ship. So a small simulation will be seen where you also see the health of your own ship. If the alien is shot down you can order ground forces to enter the crash site.
Disclaimer: a satellite can only see a small area, if you want more coverage you need to deploy more satellites, it’s the same with the interceptors.
The battlescape
When you start a mission you enter the battlescape. This feature the area in which the operation takes place. You see the camera from the top and you can control up to six units.
http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/XCOMEnemyUnknown/GasStation_03_1280watermark.jpg
Now this game is played like a turn based action game. Each of your units got two “time units” per turn. Everything they do will consume one time unit and sometimes two. When you select a unit you can see that the area around the unit is in different colours, more precisely blue and orange. The inner area(closest to the unit) is in blue, this means moving somewhere here will consume 1 time unit, however if you move into the orange area(the outer area) it will consume 2 time units.
If you have moved to a cover in the blue area you can either move again or stay in cover. Also you can order the unit to do a special move for example “overwatch”(the unit will automatically shoot any enemies in range even during the enemies turn) however special moves will always deplete any time units you have(no matter how many you got)
If you deplete 2 time units by moving you won’t be able to do anything else at all so try to move shorter distances if possible.
The good thing is that the enemy is also forced to follow these rules.
The game is also very cover based, a unit without cover will soon find himself in a pool of his own blood. In the game there are two types of cover, partial and full cover(full cover is obviously better). If possible always use full cover. One important thing is that cover doesn’t make you invisible, only harder to hit, also all covers can be destroyed by sustained fire.
Graphics
The game features 3d graphic in both the geoscape and the battlescape (its only that the camera is locked to certain places)
The graphics aren’t that bad, however I am not a great fan of the slightly “cute” style they have gone for. Its bright colours and the male soldiers all seems to be made from the same mold that made the gears of war soldiers(even the weapons are made bigger with the male soldiers). I would personally prefer if they went for a bit darker and a more realistic approach.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-preview-2.jpg
Issues
Here are a few of the issues Ive had
“free aiming” weapons like rocket launchers and grenades can be pretty annoying to aim with as the camera got a nasty habit of following the aim.
Sometimes Ive had problems getting people to move where I want(mostly if there are different levels)
Sometimes Faulty and strange hit chance(the chance to hit the target)
Overall
I think this is one of the better strategy games that has come out during the last year and I have had some real fun with it. Also its pretty challenging balancing the economy as well as helping the other nations while trying to keep my soldiers alive (RIP Xiao)
Ups and downs
+It features lots of tactics
+I love the Research and deploy aspect of the game
+Base building
+pretty challenging
+For those who likes it, hardcore mode(named something else)
-A bit to “cute” graphics
- The gears of war model(aka guys that all look like massive body builders that can lift small cars)
? I feel like they could give us slightly more research options and weapons with more diverse advantages and disadvantages. Now its very simple, all weapons you research is better in any way than the human weapons you got in the beginning.
Thank you if you read though this review, please comment and tell me how you though about this.
Also please comment about what I did good and what I did bad about the review, what should I change and what should I keep doing.
Arthur C. Clarke
It was a long time since I did my last review, and frankly I haven’t played that many games now.
However today I will review
X-com Enemy Unknown.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/xcomcover530.jpg
Plot
You are the commander over a secret international project simply called the X-com Project. Basically X-com exist to protect earth against hostile extra terrestrials, or aliens. When the game starts you just got the command and earth is under full scale attack, so basically it’s a busy day at work .
Gameplay
X-com is a turn based action/strategy game combining action with base building. There are two major parts of the gameplay, the battlescape and the geoscape. The geoscape is where you take care of your base and the battlescape is when you are out in the field killing aliens.
The geoscape.
When you start the game your base is pretty small, it only have the most important things that allows you to survive however as you gain more resources you can build more facilities. The game will let you research new technologies and even the aliens themselves. You can also fabricate researched weapons and armor so your trrops can use them.
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2012/01/b9a2dc6039b8b80668d6e902fcb08ac1.jpg
When it comes to your soldiers you can outfit them as you want with weapons and armor(if you have researched new things) as well as change their looks, name and origin. When your soldiers are out in the field they will gain new ranks(all new soldiers start as rookies) when this happens they are given a class(automatically) and a class weapon. Whenever they go up in higher ranks new abilities and powers are unlocked.
Also if a soldier is wounded he will be unavailable to you for a number of days until he is healthy again, however if a soldier would die in the field he is gone forever.
The core of your base is the “command center. It features a scale model of the earth and its there you choose new missions. Also you got a place known as the situation facility, its there you check up on the world, to see how its going in the fight against the aliens. And even more important it shows the status of the council nations. The council nations are the countries behind the X-com project, they fund the project and of course these nations take it for granted that you will help them if they are attacked.
In the situation facility you got a map over the world showing the status of all council nations. Each nation got something known as a panic bar, it’s showing the state of public panic in the country. Let’s say you got three missions in three different nations at the same time, you can only choose one of them.
Each nation will give you different rewards if you help them. If you for example help USA and let China and Germany fend of the aliens themselves the panic will increase in the countries you refused to help thus the bar will go up. If the panic goes up to high the nation will leave the X-com project giving you fewer resources to fight the aliens. If too many nations leave the project it will be cancelled and you will lose.
Also different nations might give you challenges you may do for extra resources.
Apart from building and taking care of your base and research its also in the geoscape you can order to intercept UFOs. You can track alien ships using special satellites and if you find one and got an interceptor ready in the area you can order it to attack the alien ship. So a small simulation will be seen where you also see the health of your own ship. If the alien is shot down you can order ground forces to enter the crash site.
Disclaimer: a satellite can only see a small area, if you want more coverage you need to deploy more satellites, it’s the same with the interceptors.
The battlescape
When you start a mission you enter the battlescape. This feature the area in which the operation takes place. You see the camera from the top and you can control up to six units.
http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/XCOMEnemyUnknown/GasStation_03_1280watermark.jpg
Now this game is played like a turn based action game. Each of your units got two “time units” per turn. Everything they do will consume one time unit and sometimes two. When you select a unit you can see that the area around the unit is in different colours, more precisely blue and orange. The inner area(closest to the unit) is in blue, this means moving somewhere here will consume 1 time unit, however if you move into the orange area(the outer area) it will consume 2 time units.
If you have moved to a cover in the blue area you can either move again or stay in cover. Also you can order the unit to do a special move for example “overwatch”(the unit will automatically shoot any enemies in range even during the enemies turn) however special moves will always deplete any time units you have(no matter how many you got)
If you deplete 2 time units by moving you won’t be able to do anything else at all so try to move shorter distances if possible.
The good thing is that the enemy is also forced to follow these rules.
The game is also very cover based, a unit without cover will soon find himself in a pool of his own blood. In the game there are two types of cover, partial and full cover(full cover is obviously better). If possible always use full cover. One important thing is that cover doesn’t make you invisible, only harder to hit, also all covers can be destroyed by sustained fire.
Graphics
The game features 3d graphic in both the geoscape and the battlescape (its only that the camera is locked to certain places)
The graphics aren’t that bad, however I am not a great fan of the slightly “cute” style they have gone for. Its bright colours and the male soldiers all seems to be made from the same mold that made the gears of war soldiers(even the weapons are made bigger with the male soldiers). I would personally prefer if they went for a bit darker and a more realistic approach.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-preview-2.jpg
Issues
Here are a few of the issues Ive had
“free aiming” weapons like rocket launchers and grenades can be pretty annoying to aim with as the camera got a nasty habit of following the aim.
Sometimes Ive had problems getting people to move where I want(mostly if there are different levels)
Sometimes Faulty and strange hit chance(the chance to hit the target)
Overall
I think this is one of the better strategy games that has come out during the last year and I have had some real fun with it. Also its pretty challenging balancing the economy as well as helping the other nations while trying to keep my soldiers alive (RIP Xiao)
Ups and downs
+It features lots of tactics
+I love the Research and deploy aspect of the game
+Base building
+pretty challenging
+For those who likes it, hardcore mode(named something else)
-A bit to “cute” graphics
- The gears of war model(aka guys that all look like massive body builders that can lift small cars)
? I feel like they could give us slightly more research options and weapons with more diverse advantages and disadvantages. Now its very simple, all weapons you research is better in any way than the human weapons you got in the beginning.
Thank you if you read though this review, please comment and tell me how you though about this.
Also please comment about what I did good and what I did bad about the review, what should I change and what should I keep doing.