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Xcom Apocalypse best game ever
Palladin
Member UncommonPosts: 430
XCom Apocalypse
As real time stratagy games go this game was and for me still is a fabulous game. I would piss myself with joy if anyone were to recreat this game in a multiplayer online version. I have it all planned out in my head see.
I will try to give you an idea of why i think this
1) real time with pause to consider stratagy
2) research to make the corp stronger
a)science
b)biology
c)engineering
3)player crafted gear
4)extrademinsional travel exploration
5) I bought this game back in 96 and still play it to this day
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
Comments
Two new XCOM games are on their way. One will be a FPS which will probably suck but the other one will supposedly be more like the original games with turn based squad tactics, researching etc.
And neither are really like Apocalypse.
Judging from the OP's first statement, probably a fan of the real-time mode of Apocalypse?
Personally, I couldn't really dig into Apoc very much when I first played it. But since I only gave it about 10 hours, I'll probably try again at some point.
XCOM Enemy Unknown is what you're thinking of.
http://www.gameinformer.com/p/xcom.aspx
Let's get this outta the way first
In the heirarchy of X-Com games, the general concensus is that so far even after all these years, X-Com Enemy Unknown, the original is considered the best of the series. Hard to argue, because even its own sequels in the 90s didn't get that same exact feel, not to mention numerous X-Com-like games coming out since then.
However, X-Com Apocalpyse does have a nice, warm place in my heart for all the reasons you stated. Except the Real Time portion for the ground tactical game. Personally, I thought it was blasphemous, but Microprose thankfully gave the option of the traditional Turn Based gameplay.
The various factions you try to curry favor with, namely the government, was something different, something extra. I recall taking the fight to the various alien cults in the city. Doing raids, shooting cultists, setting fires to ensure maximum damage and seeing how far in debt the cults go, which ensured the interference they do is negated for a long time. I recall even doing some crime fighting by sending my X-Com members on raids in criminal organizations. I thought it'd be out of the scope for an alien fighting strategy game, but the game allowed that much freedom. And of course, the eventual reprisals these organizations would try by attempting an attack on one of my bases. Base defense is FUN!
The maps of X-Com Apocalypse also were, IMO, the best I've seen in this style of gaming. 9 possible levels / floors and a very wide variety of city terrain maps, including wide open and densely packed maps. You got the long streets, side alleys, tall apartment buildings, office complex, factory complexes, shopping malls, city parks, suburban neighborhoods, ghettos, sport arenas. For great versatility, I had some elite troopers equipped with top of the line weapons and the MarSec flying armor (very poor protection though). I used them to zoom quickly to some very advantageous firing positions, or to assault from unexpected directions. A popular method with a tall building that was heavily defended against the majority of my guys at the ground level entrances, was to send this flying team to the roof or blast an entry from a higher up floor and starting to clear things from there, causing havoc to the defenders. Or, if I felt destructive, equip them with incendiaries and have them shooting incendiary weapons and grenades through the windows, working their way up. The rest of my troopers will be sitting at the exits at ground level to shoot anyone trying to escape the fires.
Anyways, I loved the openness and flexibility of playing the games.
Edit to add: The X-Com series is also being sold for quite cheap on Steam. Trying to find a bonafide set of discs / CDs of these games can be quite a chore or costly. Though I detest Steam, it's hard to argue against getting immediately the whole X-Com franchise for dirt cheap. The purchase even includes the DOSBox utility required to run some of these games. The "X-Com Complete Pack" sells on steam for a whopping $14.99 USD. Very hard to beat that package for old school X-Com gaming, IMO.
Oh, and I'm really excited about the Firaxis take on an X-Com game, which should actually respect the IP more than that abominable FPS down the road. However, I do wish Firaxis good luck on this venture. There's 14 years worth of anticipation for a true X-Com game. That's alot of expectations for us old fans, not to mention turn-based squad tactical games have been almost extinct since the 1990s. A few have entered, but they haven't quite gotten that magic the 1990s squad games had.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Curiously, have you guys been following the news and reveales of Firaxis' remake?
A bit here and there. Like the stuff from the link someone posted earlier. Though I'd like to see a video of the ground tactical combat. They're making it a cross platform title, so I have reservations about what kind of game design limitations the PC version will have because of it.
I can accept slight changes in gameplay from the originals, but the heart of what made the X-Com games need to be there for me.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I tried the Xcom Apoc in turn based mode a few times and always got my ass stopped. I've always prefered playing it in real time mode myself.
One thing I would love to see in a remake is the ability to wonder arround the city in FPS mode. maybe control one guy in the squad directly and position the rest as you see fit.
Fireaxis you say...will check this out.
One of my favorit things to do with the CUlt of Serius was to send in a squad with all heavy rocket launchers and see if i could colaps the building...that was always alot of fun.
One of the things about the game I always really enjoyed was how well line of sight worked. It was always alot of fun trying to hit the aliens or which ever corp squads you were fighting when they ran for cover.
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
I still have nigtmares about this game....
Defending a city slum with multiple lvl 9 buildings from aliens.
Team goes in kills the invading aliens, but game wont end. From the sound effects I can tell there is 1 alien worm still alive.
So I search the buildings romm by room with motion scanners still nothing, cause the freaking worm wont move.
Then in my 2nd search I found the worm behind a bed, stuck in a corner behind a chair. I kill him, mission ends...
Mission time: 4 hours 20 mins (4 hours searching for the worm)
hehehehe
You know you laughed once it was dead didn't you?
Been there done that laughed my ass off.
You know you can end a missions manually jsut by having your men exit the mission area.
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
It's funny. They were only doing the FPS at first. I went 'meh,' not interested. Then I heard about the strategic remake...
I'm like YEAH!! BRING IT ON ALIEN SCUM!!!!!!!
Yeah, it is funny. I still remember the initial news a while back that, "Hey, there's a new X-Com game coming out!" And then that excitement was washed away when details of the X-Com FPS were coming out. I guess there was enough Nerd Rage coming from us old X-Com fans that the Powers That Be in gaming decided to take a gamble and do a proper, bonafide X-Com sequel. With Firaxis, no less, a company that built its reputation on strategy games, especially Turn Based ones.
You see, internet flaming does work sometimes!
Oh, and I'm still waiting on that Alpha Centauri sequel out of Sid Meier.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Apocalypse was the worst of all of them... Interceptor was more fun... Honestly the RTS part ruined the game. Thank god Firaxis is making it so I shouldn't have to worry about a terrible RT option.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude; greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams
XCOMA did have a traditional turn based option. That was the only way I played that game! I was in the same boat as you: No RTS for X-Com!
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Firaxis is making it, but it's shaping up to be quite a bit different from X-Com. I was pretty enthusiastic at first, but the more I heard about it, the more dejected I became. I'm still keeping an eye on it, but I'm not all that hopeful that what they end up with is going to please us original X-Com fiends. It might be a decent game in its own right, but it just looks like they are way over-simplifying it. When the lead developer says that Time Units were removed because it was too math intensive and not action-y enough (paraphrasing), it's a pretty safe bet that they are gutting the game. Should work great on a controller though.
What's with all the horrible remakes these days? Jagged Alliance, Syndicate, X-Com. Everyone thinks they can throw these old classics in a blender, pour it into a box, slap the same title across it and no one will notice. Maybe the newer generation of gamer won't know what they are missing, but old farts like me remember how damned good those titles really were. It's hard to watch my youth getting trampled on like it is.
At least the original X-Com is still available on Steam and it actually works great. I still have that I guess.
BTW, X-Com (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown) > all.
If you are a fan of the original X-com games then why haven't any of you mentioned the best updated take (well from 2007) of the original? UFO: Extraterrestrials from Chaos Concept distributed by the awesome Matrix Games. For shame if you haven't played this.
Some people did like ET, especially after Bman's mod came into the picture.
Personally, I found it really boring and never got the same XCom-y feeling from it. After a few promotions, most of my marksman soldiers had capped accuracy (or near there), which meant they never missed. Add this to the fact that your soldiers couldn't really die, and actually took a few hits, I steamrolled any alien or terror mission I encountered.
Still, I'm curious how UFO2 is going to be like. I hope they fix a lot of the other problems the game faced.
Xcom apocalypse in real time mode rocks....you all realize you can pause the real time by hitting the space bar right and if things go really bad you can reload. Save early save often.
I've never talk with anyone that uses real time mde. For me real time is the only way to go. Strangly i get my butt kicked every time I play turn based mode.
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
UFO:ET? One of my big gripes about that title was the flat, single floor nature of the maps. There was no elevation, no multistoried buildings, etc.
I've also still have for a long time UFO Alien Invasion. It's free, BTW.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I really enjoyed Apocalypse and switched between real time and turn based all the time. If I was doing a mission vs a low number of enemy's or the cult that I knew I'd just wreck then real time saved much of my time. Was a great game for sure, and would love for some remakes to be made that stay true to the original. RT isn't a major concern I just want the terror from the sound bites back.
YOU SIR are smoking crack
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
Surprised no-one linked this one: http://www.xenonauts.com/strategic-management/
The other xcoms not so sure about.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
When I first found out about a new X-Com coming out I told my buddy. Once I found out it was FPS I sent them a nice letter. Here is a part of it.
" If I knew I would get away with it, I would drive to your studio with a gas truck ,soak your studio down with gas and light the place up. What your doing to X-com is a disgrace and I'm cartain gamers all over the U.S. feel the same way I do."
I know it don't do much good but it made me feel better anyway.
HAW HAW HAW
funny how all us old school Xcom peoples thng an FPS would totally suck
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
I knew about this but dind't think to link it. I've seen the videos but I am a bit sceptical for the time being. They had the change to make it better but from what I've seen they didn't.
IN a remake I am looking for full use of modern tech like 3D maps you can pan arround in, shinny 3D graphics ect....
AMD Phenum II x4 3.6Ghz 975 black edition
8 gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
I got that vibe from checking a few gameplay vids, though I also thought it looked a little better than the other 2? Although your idea above for the remake is cool step-forward (as is the other poster's petrol-fantasy!! lol).
Also following an iOS game Star Command who originally were including TBC xcom inspired combat but will aim to make it their first expansion (assuming 1.0 goes well) called "Away Teams". Could work great with the vision they're bringing to it even for an iOS then later android/pc game ^_^
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem