Nausicaa

Did numerous searches and was surprised there is no thread for this game yet? What is wrong with you people!

Anyway, I've been following this one for a while. My disappointment after the initial trickle of information waned as development proceeded and the developer's reverence for the original became clear.

The demo was recently released (at least on PC), have any of you played it?

I gave it a go on Sunday and was pretty impressed. The demo only contains 2 missions, and about 80% of it is basically a tutorial, so you don't get to do much, but you definitely get a feel for the mechanics of the game and gameplay.

I was pretty impressed. It's been SO long since I played the original, I don't remember all the mechanics, but this new title seems at first glance to be very faithful to the original.

Visually the game is pretty good. Not state of the art but it has some flair and, even though it could be a little darker in mood, they did a good job bringing some of the old with the new. And it is mitigated by the inclusion of destructible environments as in the original. Grenades and rocket launchers do serious damage to any surrounding items. Walls get blown up, crates and objects in the environment get torn to bits, etc.

Gameplay is about what you would expect. Grid based turn based strategy with realistic fog of war. The missions were too short and basic to really get a sense of the complexity here. For instance, one of my favorite parts of the original was customizing every aspect of my soldier's load out kits. I wasn't able to do this as far as I could tell in the demo. There were ample options for leveling your characters however, so I assume its buried there somewhere.

The 'ant farm' base view is awesome. Real nice homage to the original game and beautifully rendered. I spent 10 minutes just scrolling around looking at all the little details. It looks like you'll be able to expand and construct more but you can't do this in the demo.

Lastly, the second mission in the demo makes you chose between two attack sites, with the ignored site's home country experiencing an increase in public panic. I thought this was cool and I hope there are many strategic elements in the real time campaign map in the full game.

One little thing that bothered me were the 'cinematic' views every time I moved a character. If I did a long distance dash to far away cover, the camera zooms in for a close view of the 'action'. Or if I sent someone throw a window or door, it will zoom in and show your guy kicking down the door or smashing through the window. I found this extremely annoying, and I hope they have an option to turn that crap off. I want an undisturbed overview of the map at all times. Completely unnecessary.

You also can't free rotate the map, rather it must be in 45 degree intervals. Likely a concession for the console crowd, but a frustrating choice in a full 3D PC strategy game (even if it is grid based).

Kedrix

Looks like I'm getting this one to review as well. I played the PC version as a curiosity and probably put about 25-30 hours into it. The problem is I'm pretty sure I had zero clue what I was doing and just trying out things. It was super-fun though and while I know its blasphemy to some, I hope its dummed down a bit. If I can, I'll download the demo too...have to work through Borderlands 2 first though (and probably NBA 2k13 right after that).

Nausicaa

Based on what I played in the demo, it is dumbed down a little bit. Or at least very streamlined. I don't think too many people will have difficulty figuring out what to do. For example, while I love the ant farm view, it is obvious that we won't be having any aliens invade our bases as in the original. And base placement seems limited as well. Just one example.

Also, I just realized the original UFO Defense is available on Steam for 5 dollars. Hello sleepless night...

House

Did anybody pick this up? I'm trying to decide between this and dishonored. I'm leaning towards this game because it is something new that I haven't seen before. I've been bored with most games this year, but this actually looks interesting just because it's so different than anything else out there right now.

Nausicaa

I'm also making this decision. I will play both eventually, but I've decided to go with XCom first because I'm kind of burned out on FPS games and generally prefer strategy games. I've also heard Dishonored is kind of short. I'll post my impressions tonight after I've had the chance to play for a few hours. I'm pretty excited to dig in since the reviews have been quite favorable.

kvrdave

The original is easily my favorite game of all time. Very happy to see this came out and happy with most of the reviews. Being very old school, I freaking hate cut scenes, though. I blame Final Fantasy VII with making them nearly universal. I want to play the game, not watch some predetermined movie clip. So hopefully they can be turned off.

I'll likely wait for a price drop on this before I get in. Not much time to play games, but this has me excited.

Edison

I grabbed this when BB was giving a $15 giftcard with pre-order. I didn't have a chance to try it last night, but hopefully today.

lordwow

I will probably grab this once there's a good sale on it, it looks like my type of game.

House

I picked up the game from Best Buy after work. I think the game is great, it’s a lot of fun! The graphics look great, I was on a level and it was raining, it looked phenomenal. I’m still learning how to play, and dealing with the panicking nations is going to be a challenge, but the research and development aspect of the game is fun and reminds me of Civ games.

My only gripe is that my game got hung up like 5 times in a row on a level. I took my turn and then the screen said Alien Activity and hung. I kept reloading my save and it didn’t work. So after trying different movements and then finally revealing the Aliens before it hung I was finally able to advance.

Nausicaa

Same, huge fan of the original. The good things about this game is that it is clear the creators were also big fans, and the whole thing feels like an homage/re-imagining of the original. Even the sound effects of your crew emerging from the ship as they walk down the metal ramp will give you flashbacks. And when you intercept a craft the screen showing your interceptor and UFO firing at each other is almost exactly the same. And much more.

I played for about three hours last night, and greatly enjoyed it. They've really captured the feel of the original in terms of combat as well. Lots of detail and destruction in the environments. Great, clear visuals, and the game is actually pretty spooky.

The game seems to be lacking some of the tactical breadth of the original in favor of a streamlined approach - similar to Civ 5. I think it works fine and don't mind not getting bogged down with too many options. There's still a lot to do here and keep track of.

The tutorial and cut scenes are kind of annoying some times, but they begin to wane after the first two hours or so. My last hour of play was uninterrupted.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Picked this one up a few days ago, and goddamn, what a game. I can sit down, intending only to do a mission or two, and look at the clock and 6 hours have gone by. Thumbs way up on this one.

They also threw in some "interesting" units that can be obtained (spoliered for potential ... spoilers?)

lopper

I really had no interest in this game. It just isn't the type of game I play.

But I'll be goddamned if, after watching a 45 mn gameplay video the other day, this hasn't moved to the top of my 'What Should I Buy Next' list.

Nausicaa

It's really a well made game - challenging too even on normal.

I recommend new players start out with the tutorial and play for about three hours to get a feel for the game, then restart a new game. The tutorial forces you to lose three soldiers in the first few missions. Having these experienced troops survive instead helps out a lot.

Also, focus on building workshops (to get engineers) and satellite uplink facilities in the beginning. Build lots of satellites. Keeping the council nations panic level low is difficult and it takes a long time to construct these things if you're in a bind. Your goal in the beginning should be researching armor and getting satellites in the air. Launch satellites first in countries that give you the most funding and engineers.

You should also research the alien communication computers right away once you clear the first few spaceships. This will give you the option to build larger uplinks early that support four satellites instead of two. The adjacency bonus should also be considered when building you base for power stations and uplink facilities.

In combat, avoid long dashes for more than one unit at a time. Almost all of your units should be on overwatch every turn. Also develop the reaction shot abilities for your soldiers so they are more effective. Always have a sniper with battle scanners and have him scout the area for your team. Keep all of your units close to each other. It also helps to always have two support units with the medikit perk (3 medikits for each 1 in inventory). I've saved many injured soldiers lives this way and have managed to keep most of them alive. I now have a very experienced, very large roster. I could have two battles with lots of injuries sustained and still be prepared for a third .

LolaRennt

I will buy this on Steam, but I would like to wait for a price drop to maybe $20 or $30.

Does anybody know of a website or a service where you can "watch" games until they drop in price, and you'd get an automated email informing you about the price drop? That way, I don't have to check in to see if the price is better.

Liver&Onions

traded in borderlands ($42.50) and picked this up on the weekend, and I am extremely happy with that trade. This is the better game in my opinionation.

starman9000

cheapassgamer has that feature, as does camelcamelcamel for amazon.

fujishig

I'm still pretty early on, but I tried out some of your tips. One problem I'm having is choosing whether to do overwatch... it seems like the enemies always use cover anyway, and my overwatch only wastes bullets by continually missing. Do I just need to try to flank them a bit better?

My first thought, having not played an X-com game in forever, was that this was a lot like the 3DS Ghost Recon game. I had forgotten that one of the designers of the original X-com made that game. I thought X-com was going to an FPS model (from the Bioshock 2 guys), did that never come out?

M Polo

The FPS XCOM is still in development as far as the last time I had read, just pushed back to next year TBA.

deadlax

i started playing on normal. like 5-6 missions in the game went from kind of manageable to shit hits the fan at with the click of the mouse.

Kain Shin

I am really loving this game, but I had to stop playing when I ran into the dreaded SHIV bug where you can no longer insert a SHIV into your party.

Hopefully, Firaxis will patch that soon so I can continue my playthrough.

Wolf359

I'm really liking this game but its going to take me forever to finish it! Every time my favorite guy dies I get depressed and have to reload.

Duran

Several things affect overwatch (and shots in general). Assault troopers armed with shotguns are usually not going to be very effective on overwatch due to the range. I suggest switching them to pistol first, as it is more accurate.

Also, don't be afraid to "hunker down." I makes a trooper in full cover almost invulnerable.

Kedrix

Finally got in my copy today from the website I write for. Hopefully I can get to it this weekend and start writing about it. Excited, wish I wasn't still in the thick of Borderlands 2 though (at least I'm at the pure pleasure point and not trying to write a review anymore for that one).

Breakfast with Girls

Just finished my first play through yesterday, on normal. Bizarrely, I scored better on pretty much every metric than the world average, sometimes exceptionally better (I invaded the base 3x faster than the average) and yet I scored about 20% lower. I lost one more guy than the average, but I can't imagine the penalty is that severe.

Anyway, lots of fun despite that. My next play through will probably be Classic Ironman mode (for the achievement, of course!).

Nausicaa

How long is the game Breakfast? I haven't played too much in the last couple weeks. I think I left off with the big mother ship landing over S. America. Do the missions continue to be largely story driven to a standard conclusion?

This game is great in almost every way. But that is my biggest complaint is how story driven it seems. I liked how the original was more open ended. You could build multiple bases wherever you wanted. This game is more structured and obviously tailored to an overarching story.