XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[Elgrim]

Anyone else pre-order this? The old game from back in the 90's was a favorite of mine. Can't wait to get my hands on this one tomorrow. The gameplay videos out there make it look outstanding!

[drigore]

Never played and only recently found gameplay footage of the new one. I'm rather interested in it. Being a Heroes of Might and Magic and FF Tactics fan, this is right up my alley.

[shad0ws0ngs]

I thought it was a mass effect 3 ad at first, when I saw one. If anyone gets it please let me know more.

[drigore]

Programmers playing it. This video is just over an hour and has a bit of quick information on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VP4YmExQAE

[Fallen]

I am definitely interested in this game. Glad to see it receive strong reviews as well. It has been described as being built around the concept of the challenge level, meaning you WILL lose soldiers (death is permanent) and you will have to leave countries hanging. You're overcoming very long odds to survive, and the choices you make will stick with you through the whole game. Good stuff.

[Tgo01]

A remake of Xcom?! Man I was playing the original just a week ago, I love that game. This game looks like they took the original game and just made it better/newer, I love when they do that with games instead of totally remaking it and ending up ruining it.

[Makkah]

I was gonna make a thread on this last night. Hell yea, I will be checking it out tomorrow. Anyone have a way to get the original for free?

[Tgo01]

I was gonna make a thread on this last night. Hell yea, I will be checking it out tomorrow. Anyone have a way to get the original for free?

Not free but you can buy the original on Steam for 5 dollars.

[Makkah]

Yea... saw that. Might even nut up and go 15 for the full collection. Blegh, I was just trying to get a quickfix before tomorrow.

[Androidpk]

Just watched that video and I have to admit I am pretty impressed. Now only if there was a WH40K game exactly like this... :spaz:

[Gsgeek]

Excellent, was wondering how they were going to go with this game's remake. Read before I think , that they were debating I think on whether to stay true to the original or completely screw it up(so to speak). With this and the baldur's gate reboot update coming in november supposedly, got some stuff to look forward to.

[Atlanteax]

I loved the original, and didn't care so much for the spin-offs that followed.

If this remake keeps true to the design of the original, I'll be very intrigued.

[Atlanteax]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9964-XCOM-Enemy-Unknown-Review

This review, which includes a 5-minute video, essentially affirms that it *is* true to the original... awesome!!

I dare say that it looks 'better designed' this time around too, judging from the video.

[Drakefang]

I'm having a terrible time trying to download this from Steam.

[Atlanteax]

I am going to hold off until a patch, after reading this thread:

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?149231-Dedicated-Bug-Reports

Way too many multiple and distinct issues affecting ability to enjoy consistent game-play, from the looks of it.

[Taernath]

Excellent, was wondering how they were going to go with this game's remake. Read before I think , that they were debating I think on whether to stay true to the original or completely screw it up(so to speak). With this and the baldur's gate reboot update coming in november supposedly, got some stuff to look forward to.

Unless we're thinking of two different things, the BG enhanced thing isn't a reboot.

XCOM:EU is pretty fucking awesome though. Apart from inventory/loadout management, it stays really, really faithful to the original.

[Tgo01]

There are some things I miss about the original. I miss Time Units, that was a neat and noticeable way to make your unit more powerful, allowing them to move farther and do more actions. I guess the way they have it setup it now it forces you to pay more attention but I dislike the two moves per turn bit, I liked being able to move one square at a time if I wanted to. I also miss choosing how you wanted to shoot, rapid fire which fired 3 shots but the accuracy sucked, aimed shot fired one shot but was very accurate and snap which fired one shot but wasn't as accurate as aimed but didn't use as many time units either. I miss the throwing stat which determined how accurate your person was at throwing a grenade, seems kind of silly I have a 25% chance to hit a stationary alien with my high powered rifle but I have a 100% chance to throw the grenade right on him. I don't like the limited number of items my soldiers are allowed to carry, before I could load them up with several different items as long as they had room; grenades, medi kits, stun rods. Now it seems like it's just armor, primary weapon, secondary weapon and one other item.

Lastly I liked how in the original your ship landed in a random spot on the map, you could either be in a corner where there were only two directions the aliens could come from or you could land right in the middle of a field and be surrounded by aliens as soon as you stepped off your ship, now it seems like you land at one far end of the map and the aliens are basically at the other far end of the map.

Granted I've only done 3 or 4 missions so maybe some of these things change later on down the road and I'm still in the "tutorial" phase. Either way those changes aren't deal breakers for me and I'm liking the game so far.

[Fallen]

Good call on the bugs. In a game with an "iron man" mode, I don't want a glitch popping up and ruining a runthrough.

[Kembal]

Guess I'll wait til the bugs are sorted out. X-Com was the game that got me into computer gaming...gotta play this one.

[Makkah]

Been playing original X-Com all day... gonna overnight new XCOM DL. The original is very awesome... brings me back to like 99.

[Atlanteax]

Good call on the bugs. In a game with an "iron man" mode, I don't want a glitch popping up and ruining a runthrough.

Posted bugs/complaints got 2x longer than when I posted it yesterday =(

[Kembal]

Been playing original X-Com all day... gonna overnight new XCOM DL. The original is very awesome... brings me back to like 99.

Ok, curious. I've never used Steam before, so how do you get the old X-Com games to work in a Win 2k7 environment? I've been itching to play those games for a really long time now.

[Tgo01]

Ok, curious. I've never used Steam before, so how do you get the old X-Com games to work in a Win 2k7 environment? I've been itching to play those games for a really long time now.

I forgot the name of the program but there is some program that allows old DOS games to work on Windows. If you buy the game from Steam it automatically runs the game with that program so it's playable right off the bat and you don't need to download any program.

[Fallen]

Think it is called DOS box.

[Atlanteax]

Yea, I play X-Com original via Steam too, only $5 ... works great.

[Gelston]

I just got this on steam. The cover system seems a bit clunky at times and the game is VERY unforgiving to a mistake. It is quite fun though. I love that you can fully customize a soldier and watch him get promoted through the ranks, and then cry when they get killed.

[Reliel]

Got this last night.

I haven't been to sleep yet. This game is awesome.

[Atlanteax]

I take it that you two have been able to mostly avoid running into the issues on that posted bug list?

[Makkah]

I keep forgetting to download the damn thing overnight on Steam. Bought it 3 days ago but still haven't downloaded... fail.

[Reliel]

I take it that you two have been able to mostly avoid running into the issues on that posted bug list?

I've been lucky so far.

Well...lucky in avoiding bugs. Not so much alien bullets.

[Taernath]

I take it that you two have been able to mostly avoid running into the issues on that posted bug list?

I've had my guys become unselectable during mission a few times. It usually happens after a bit of dialogue or an alien notices us, and I think the game is forgetting to give control back to the player after the cutscene. It's not a huge issue to me because I quicksave a lot, but in ironman mode it would be a pain in the ass.

Moving between levels on some of the larger, cramped areas is pretty bad though. The mouse (apparently) has trouble deciding which level you want to be on so it flickers between all of them rapidly, or you can't select the tile you want to move to, and it's kind of luck if you wind up where you want to go.

[Drakefang]

The game is serious fun. It's also a serious pain in the ass. I hate losing guys but I'm averaging roughly one soldier lost per mission. Maybe just under one per. That's on normal. Sometimes I reload and sometimes not. I've replayed some missions three or so times in order to get a good or better outcome. Quite often it's more about missing shots versus being out of position or the enemy doing anything spectacular. It's amazing how one or two blown shots or one soldier extending too far just can haunt you, even to the point of getting completely wiped.

The main issues I have is the sluggish mouse response and the frustrating inability to place my troops where I want at all times. Same issue as Taernath is having above. I'm not sure I've run into anything else major. Quite a few issues with camera angles and rifles poking through walls and the such, but those are minor annoyances to me.

[Reliel]

The game is serious fun. It's also a serious pain in the ass. I hate losing guys but I'm averaging roughly one soldier lost per mission. Maybe just under one per. That's on normal.

I had 3 Majors go on a mission with a Rookie. Two majors were severely wounded, the third died and the Rookie was also severely wounded. That was on Large ship landing site. They throw everything at you and then some. It's so insane.

[Delias]

Just watched that video and I have to admit I am pretty impressed. Now only if there was a WH40K game exactly like this... :spaz:

I once again demand that they remake chaos gate.

[Taernath]

I had 3 Majors go on a mission with a Rookie. Two majors were severely wounded, the third died and the Rookie was also severely wounded. That was on Large ship landing site. They throw everything at you and then some. It's so insane.

Large UFOs and base assaults are intense. I would definitely recommend bringing at two supports with maxed medic skills (+3 usage, +4 healing). I hope they introduce a non-combat movement mode in the future, similar to Jagged Alliance 2. Moving cover to cover in some of those areas is pretty boring.

Does anyone else feel like the heavy would be useless if he didn't have a rocket launcher?

[Tgo01]

Large UFOs and base assaults are intense.

Yeah I definitely rushed the first base mission too soon. My guys didn't even have laser weapons, they actually did pretty well in the beginning but then it got to the point where I had 5 of those reaper things rushing me all at once and I couldn't kill them fast enough. Had to start over. Just as well anyway, took me forever to realize workshops gave engineers so I was way behind on my manufacturing anyway.

[Androidpk]

Is there co-op in this game?

[Tgo01]

Is there co-op in this game?

I know you can play against another person, pretty sure there isn't a co-op feature.

[Reliel]

Large UFOs and base assaults are intense. I would definitely recommend bringing at two supports with maxed medic skills (+3 usage, +4 healing). I hope they introduce a non-combat movement mode in the future, similar to Jagged Alliance 2. Moving cover to cover in some of those areas is pretty boring.

Does anyone else feel like the heavy would be useless if he didn't have a rocket launcher?

I haven't done the first base, I want to develop plasma weapons and get people fully geared up since the original game just wrecked you if you didn't have them and you went into a base like that.

I don't know. I went the suppression/grenade route for one of my guys and he does pretty well. I'm not a fan of how they penalize you for using an explosive but shove 2 discs with 4 drones, 6 mutons, 3 thin men, 4 chrysalis and a couple of those Outsiders at you. How the fuck am I supposed to deal with ALL that without using a single explosive?

[Drakefang]

I don't know. I went the suppression/grenade route for one of my guys and he does pretty well. I'm not a fan of how they penalize you for using an explosive but shove 2 discs with 4 drones, 6 mutons, 3 thin men, 4 chrysalis and a couple of those Outsiders at you. How the fuck am I supposed to deal with ALL that without using a single explosive?

Lots of plasma rifles.

I am finding the assaults (titan armor and plasma rifles) with arc throwers to be the best overall units. Capturing aliens pays off big time through the course of the game. Heavies...I am not finding massive uses for them, until now. Just came across a sectopod and they fucking suck big lemon-sized balls. The upgraded mutons, the elite, suck almost as much. Actually, I am just going to say that all the upgrades make the enemies really blow hard.

This game is a massive challenge even on normal. I'm actually doing very well, but after trying the base assault twice, I am afraid of it. I've put it off for nearly three months. I've lost four countries, including all of Africa, however at this point no one else is over two points of panic. The key to helping out the panic is placing those satellites. The game tries to help you out with the panic tossing you missions in countries with 5 panic but if you have two at 5 panic at once, you can be pretty screwed.

I'm loving the game...but am reloading two or three times per playing session because any loss of life over two per mission is just not acceptable. Speaking of which the game crashed and sent my computer into sleep mode, that or there was a power surge, either way I had just finished a HUGE landed alien mission (with the sectopod and elites) which just sucked...then didn't save immediately after and lost my progress.

Haven't gotten a chance to test the Archangel armor, yet. Upgrades through the foundry are nice. Anyone got the alloy gun/rifle?

[TheEschaton]

Have any of you been playing on Ironman mode yet? That sounds like balls.

[Androidpk]

I've never played an xcom before so I started on easy. 30 minutes into the game and I had already lost China, Argentina and India. Fuck em. I don't like that there isn't a way to bring those countries back.

[Kembal]

Downloaded the original, found myself staying up way past my normal bedtime. Wife was ready to kill me last night. Think I might wait to get the new one until she's visiting her parents in India.

[Reliel]

Haven't gotten a chance to test the Archangel armor, yet. Upgrades through the foundry are nice. Anyone got the alloy gun/rifle?

The alloy rifle is hard as nails. I can drop most of the brutes and other upgraded units in one shot. Getting close is rough though.


Have any of you been playing on Ironman mode yet? That sounds like balls.

I started the game on Ironman. It can be one of the most punishing, brutal aspects of the game. It ups the tension and makes you consider things VERY carefully.

[Fallen]

Still waiting on a patch to jump into the game. I would definitely want to play Iron Man first (probably couple) times through, but as mentioned here 1 bug can ruin your day.

Question: Can you grind in this game? As in not advance the "plot" so to speak, but just do missions for experience without moving into harder territory.

[Tgo01]

Question: Can you grind in this game? As in not advance the "plot" so to speak, but just do missions for experience without moving into harder territory.

I think so. One thing I've learned so far is to not build the hyperwave decoder thingie until you're ready. Suddenly UFO's start appearing that are much more difficult to bring down, the ships you start with won't be able to take them down and every one you have to skip counts against you in the monthly council rating.

That's the only brick wall I've found thus far. You can put off doing the first base without it affecting your monthly report, not sure about bases after that because I haven't gotten to one beyond the first.

[Gelston]

You can grind it, just don't do the priority stuff and random abductions and stuff will pop up.

[Reliel]

Priority research progresses the games story but the different type of aliens pop up after a certain amount of days. Just to introduce varying types of enemies and situations.

Beware the Chrysalid. They will wreck your troops in almost any armor if you get too close.

[Drakefang]

Still waiting on a patch to jump into the game. I would definitely want to play Iron Man first (probably couple) times through, but as mentioned here 1 bug can ruin your day.

Question: Can you grind in this game? As in not advance the "plot" so to speak, but just do missions for experience without moving into harder territory.

Iron Man takes balls, no doubt.

Yes, you can grind. At least, I presume that is what I've been doing. The plot has not lept forward since I've not performed the first base assault, yet. I've definitely researched a ton more and gotten a load of equipment. The issue is that I am continuously losing soldiers. I know I've lost 2-3 colonels, the same amount of majors and a host of squaddies. My wall is probably 15-20 deep, at least. The missions are so tough that, at least for me, I am willing to lose one soldier in order to just defeat a board. So, my experience with grinding is that it's definitely a meat grinder...I have way more tech and built up gear but I think my overall troop experience has dropped over the last 3-4 months of combat action.

PS. Oh, and as for that bug I mentioned, still not sure if it was my computer, the power or the game. I'm beginning to think it was a power flicker. Also, I've not encountered a single other bug that would keep me from buying this game. Not a one. I suspect some exist but I've not seen it. Also, there was a patch (no idea how big) because maybe two days after purchasing, there was another steam install before I could play.

[Androidpk]

The camera seems kind of jittery, especially when you go to throw grenades, but the only major bad thing that has happened was a lock up. I had just completed this very difficult mission with 0 casualties. Probably one of my best performances so far and then bam, the damn game freezes.

[Reliel]

So I tried Impossible.

Never again.

[Drakefang]

So I tried Impossible.

Never again.

Impossible? Is that Iron Man or Classic difficulty?

[Reliel]

Impossible? Is that Iron Man or Classic difficulty?

There's 4 difficulty options. Easy, Normal, Classic, and Impossible.

[Drakefang]

There's 4 difficulty options. Easy, Normal, Classic, and Impossible.

Interesting that wasn't an option when I started my original game.

[Androidpk]

I've gotten a couple of cool character nick names so far, this is my current favorite.

http://i45.tinypic.com/2vi5gt2.jpg

[Makkah]

My Major sniper is "Witchy"
My Major support is "Cargo"

I had a heavy named "Diesel" but he got shot the eff up.

This game does have awesome nicknames.

[Drakefang]

I have an assault Colonel "Tombstone"
Another sergeant is "Hulk"

My first sniper Colonel was "Slim" but he got smoked after 15 missions and 28 kills. Le sigh.

[Makkah]

Tombstone and Slim are freaking awesome...

[Reliel]

Is it racist that the black guy in my unit got the nickname "Freestyle"?

[Androidpk]

No. It is, however, racist that I just got a black screen of death, at a very inopportune time.

[Drakefang]

No. It is, however, racist that I just got a black screen of death, at a very inopportune time.

Yeah, that'd bite. Wonder why you're having a bit more issues over the rest of us. Is your system borderline to run the game? Any video settings too high?

[Androidpk]

Shouldn't be the hardware. i5-2500k, 16GB ram, gtx 580. All of my drivers are up to date. It has happened twice now.

[Makkah]

The only issue I've had was one time the game got stuck. I could click on stuff, but nothing would change. I think it got stuck after I shot then had a time unit it wouldn't recognize. I run it on a year old laptop and it runs beautifully.

[Drakefang]

Yeah I just have a six month old Cyberpower that's not quite middle of the road. Like their second cheapest pre-built. Runs fine. About all I am looking to do is upgrade the video card.

[Taernath]

The only issue I've had was one time the game got stuck. I could click on stuff, but nothing would change. I think it got stuck after I shot then had a time unit it wouldn't recognize. I run it on a year old laptop and it runs beautifully.

This is generally what happens to me, but the lockups seem to become more frequent as the game progresses. I'm probably getting one every couple of missions now.

[Androidpk]

Started the game up and let it idle on the main screen for 5 minutes or so and it got an error and shut down.

[Tgo01]

I'm kind of disappointed with how they dumbed down some things. Only one base instead of several, only one weapon on each aircraft instead of two, limited number of items you can give each soldier, no more using ships to patrol areas where you have no radar coverage. Also unless I'm totally missing something the monthly report seems pointless too, in the original depending on how well/badly you did determined how much of an increase/decrease you received in funds, in this game it seems it doesn't matter how well or badly you did for the month you get the same amount of money.

The game also seems kind of short. I'm not done with the game yet but with only 12 hours in I've already researched the flying armor and plasma weapons, those were end game gear in the original so I have to assume I'm near the end, unless there is a whole slew of new weapons and armor waiting for me.

I still enjoy the game and find it fun though.

[TheEschaton]

I thought the whole point of the one base/one aircraft was to make your decisions that much more meaningful and the consequences that much more dire.

[Reliel]

I thought the whole point of the one base/one aircraft was to make your decisions that much more meaningful and the consequences that much more dire.

I like the whole "Pick a country/place. The other two can suck it."

[Androidpk]

What exactly causes panic level to rise in different countries?

[Atlanteax]

What exactly causes panic level to rise in different countries?

If it is consistent like the original, there is probably a lot of abductions/etc going on. Possibly terror missions too.

[Reliel]

What exactly causes panic level to rise in different countries?

Failing to aid a country during abductions. Failing missions. Ignoring abductions, UFO sightings, failing to clear a terrorized city. Ignoring UFO landing sites.

[Taernath]

Not aiding a particular country also affects the others on the continent. So if you miss a mission in China, China's terror level goes up 2, while other Asian countries go up 1.

[Tgo01]

Snipers seem pretty powerful in the beginning but towards the end game it seems to be all about the assault class. Just drives me crazy having a sniper decked out with the scope and bonuses to aim and everything and misses time and time again with an 85%+ chance to hit. Meanwhile my assaults just run right up to the enemy and destroy them. Combined with rapid fire and the ability that gives them an increased chance to crit they can take out any enemy in one turn by themselves.

[Reliel]

My sniper does pretty well, it's really about finding a perch and having the right abilities. Like the first skill (Below the initial one) pretty much defines what and how they do in combat. I'm not a huge fan of that but it is what it is.

[Tgo01]

My sniper does pretty well, it's really about finding a perch and having the right abilities. Like the first skill (Below the initial one) pretty much defines what and how they do in combat. I'm not a huge fan of that but it is what it is.

Yeah I bring along at least one of every class, I just like to be diverse like that. In the beginning I liked snipers for their motion sensor thing and the fact that I could kill aliens from far away with relative ease when I was too afraid to get too close to them. Now with ghost armor I find little need for the motion sensor things and with 20 health assaults just seem to outshine snipers in every aspect. Then again it's the late game so I guess things are bound to get unbalanced for some classes.

[Taernath]

Snipers are pretty powerful. One of mine has 'damn good ground' and whatever perk it is that lets you fire twice in one round... he's an absolute beast. The only downside is that I didn't choose the 'fire after movement' perk. Disabling shot is surprisingly useful.

Assaults tear aliens up, but I mainly use my supports for medic duty. They can still hold the line though. Heavies I haven't really found a niche for yet. Suppression is... ok, but if I'm going to be firing, I feel like I should be able to hit them at least. The rocket launcher is nice though.

[Tgo01]

Snipers are pretty powerful. One of mine has 'damn good ground' and whatever perk it is that lets you fire twice in one round... he's an absolute beast.

I find that useful for weak enemies when he can one shot two aliens, but assaults also have a double attack, granted it's on the same target though but that's what makes it so nice.


Heavies I haven't really found a niche for yet. Suppression is... ok, but if I'm going to be firing, I feel like I should be able to hit them at least. The rocket launcher is nice though.

I actually like heavies. Suppression was nice in the beginning for capturing live aliens when my guys couldn't move very far in a single turn. I would move a unit in as close as possible, use a smoke grenade on the unit, use suppression on the alien and the alien was forced to stand still and even if he did fire on the guy closing in chances are he was going to miss. After you're done capturing live aliens or your guys can move father so it's not as hard to use the stun weapon suppression seems 100% pointless.

I do love the rocket launcher though but it's situational of course, only when there are groups of aliens or when you want to tear down a wall or get rid of the enemies cover. I find shredder rockets useful in similar situations if I have other troops nearby with grenades, the AOE damage really adds up.

[Androidpk]

2 snipers, 2 assault, 1 support and 1 heavy. Gonna have to say snipers are my favorite, especially with the snap shot and in the zone perc. My top sniper is routinely getting multiple kills in one round with a record of 5.

http://i46.tinypic.com/10hrfpx.jpg

[Tgo01]

Moving from normal difficulty to classic is like night and day. Seems like I can't take two steps without coming across 4-6 enemies all at once.

My sniper is definitely making all of the difference in the early game again though, just can't beat his 70% chance with a regular sniper rifle while some people have a whooping 30-40% chance and end up doing two damage.

[Drakefang]

Yeah, I just had a depressing mission this evening. It was one of those ridiculous long missions. I shot down a "battleship" class UFO. Shit sucked. I made it out with one point of health left on a Hover SHIV. Lost 3 Colonels, a Captain and a Lieutenant. Right after the mission I had one assault Colonel left and 15 squaddies...well and my hover SHIV. I finished another two missions since, got one colonel, one sergeant and three corporals, now. I am debating going back and redoing that mission, though. I just HATE replaying missions, especially long ones. I think there were like 24 or 25 kills on that one. That's a lot (for me).

I am trying to figure out when a SHIV is actually a massive benefit to a mission. I can't tell for sure. Oh, they seem potent enough, but no more so than maybe an assault Lt. or Capt. Anyone else use them?

[Androidpk]

I have a hover one and an alloy but haven't used either one of them.

[Reliel]

I have two alloy shivs and two hover shivs. I use at least one on every mission. They can be used as makeshift cover.

[Gizmo]

RNG is bade.

[Warriorbird]

I have two alloy shivs and two hover shivs. I use at least one on every mission. They can be used as makeshift cover.

This.

[Androidpk]

Is having makeshift cover (which can still be destroyed) worth replacing a colonel grade soldier? I could see possibly switching out my heavy guy sometimes but the fusion launcher is pretty nasty on on occasion. My ideal setup would probably be two assault, 1 support and 3 snipers.

[Gizmo]

Is having makeshift cover (which can still be destroyed) worth replacing a colonel grade soldier? I could see possibly switching out my heavy guy sometimes but the fusion launcher is pretty nasty on on occasion. My ideal setup would probably be two assault, 1 support and 3 snipers.

I'd wait until they fix buggy SHIVs.

But then again, you may not play the same difficulty as I have been so it may not make as much as a huge difference

[Reliel]

Is having makeshift cover (which can still be destroyed) worth replacing a colonel grade soldier? I could see possibly switching out my heavy guy sometimes but the fusion launcher is pretty nasty on on occasion. My ideal setup would probably be two assault, 1 support and 3 snipers.

If you have Plasma shivs. Otherwise don't swap out your Colonel units. If you have a sniper with the perk that allows them to turn partial cover into full cover, it's worth having a Shiv around them.

[TheEschaton]

I'm seriously considering buying this game after watching a preliminary play through - what's it cost right now?

[Androidpk]

If you download from Amazon it's $45.

[Tgo01]

I'm seriously considering buying this game after watching a preliminary play through - what's it cost right now?

The game is definitely fun on normal difficulty (and I'm assuming easy as well) but classic and from what I hear impossible are just a pain in the ass. I know people have already beaten this game on classic ironman but it's such a pain in the ass. I've read other forums where people claim in classic if it says you have a 40% or less chance to hit an alien it's a guaranteed miss. It's certainly not true because I have hit aliens before with a low chance but it sure does seem that in classic mode your shots have a lower chance to hit than what the game actually says. I know RNG and all of that jazz but shit, I'll have 4 people with 30% chance all take a shot, all miss. Next turn, same thing. Once I even had a guy point blank from the alien, 90% chance to hit, miss. For some reason the alien moves and shoots at another guy of mine, next turn the same guy runs up to the alien, 90% chance to hit, misses. Also the utter thrill of finally managing to connect with an alien only to see you do 2 damage and they have 4 health.

Meanwhile the aliens shoot at my guys who are on higher ground then they are from half way across the map and crit them like it's nothing. My troops panic if one of my other troops get poisoned. POISONED! I once had 3 people panic in one turn because one of my guys was poisoned, two of them fired at their teammates and of course those shots hit.

Not that you asked for anyone's opinion but I gave mine anyways. Just saying if you buy the game play on easy or normal first, you'll actually get a chance to enjoy the game before trying a harder difficulty. Think I'm going to beat the game on normal again before tackling classic again.

[Drakefang]

^^^

What he said. Even on normal it can be frustrating to see that, one, your percentages to hit seem to generally suck shit and, two, even when you have 50-60% chance to hit you miss a lot...and it's always in crucial moments. I think the computer actually cheats against the player. If you get hit, you can pretty much count on it being a crit. If you crit once out of four shots be happy.

Either the RNG is set at -20 base or the computer cheats to beat the player. I'm inclined to believe that based on playing it.

I like 3 assault, 1-2 snipers and 1-2 support. The first 1/3 of the game, snipers rule. Last 2/3 they really don't seem to accomplish much. They seem to miss a LOT.

[Taernath]

I'm pretty sure the numbers for using a sniper rifle in close combat are not represented correctly. The game tells you there's a penalty, and I almost never hit a target in close, but the percentage still shows 90%... Then I'll switch to a pistol, which displays more or less the same and have no issues.

And yeah, the AI is using aimbot or something because thin men are getting crazy, long range shots (which crit) that some of my snipers would have trouble with. C'est la vie.

[Reliel]

I've had issues where my sniper has 90%-99% and he'll miss like 3-4 times before nailing something. That's far away. Up close he'll nail something with a 10% chance, frequently.

Boils down to luck, I guess.

[Androidpk]

I'm pretty sure the numbers for using a sniper rifle in close combat are not represented correctly. The game tells you there's a penalty, and I almost never hit a target in close, but the percentage still shows 90%... Then I'll switch to a pistol, which displays more or less the same and have no issues.

And yeah, the AI is using aimbot or something because thin men are getting crazy, long range shots (which crit) that some of my snipers would have trouble with. C'est la vie.

PC or console? If I'm close to a target with a sniper rifle, as in really close, I will definitely see the penalty added on the % to hit.

[Taernath]

PC.

There was a patch released today that seemingly fixed my hanging problems.

My go-to squad got wrecked fighting a sectopod in an overseer UFO, but at least no one died. A couple days later I shot down a battleship, but with everyone else still recuperating I had to send in my B team. We'll see how this plays out. At least there are no sectopods this time.

[Fallen]

Someone post patch notes if they get the chance.

[Androidpk]

Major Fixes
• Abductor roof visibility problems resolved

• Interception game hang issues resolved
o If two interceptors are sent after UFO
o If Skyranger is returning from combat after an Interceptor was already deployed

• SHIV inaccessible issues resolved

• AI Alien Activity Hang resolution

• Multiplayer connectivity optimization

Other Fixes
• TempleShip optimization: All Soldiers properly spawn when restarting the mission after clearing the second room of TempleShip

• Snapshot penalty should no longer apply when Overwatching without first moving.

• Easy Difficulty is now easier.

[Atlanteax]

I picked up this via Steam's Xmas sale last night ... played it for a couple of hours, looking forward to seeing how it unfolds past the first few missions.

[Gsgeek]

It was pretty fun and somewhat similar to the original game(in a good way). I've played it through once so far and don't regret spending the money to purchase it. Was worth it.

[Atlanteax]

It was pretty fun and somewhat similar to the original game(in a good way). I've played it through once so far and don't regret spending the money to purchase it. Was worth it.

I loved the Classic, but in a way, I feel that the remake is 'better' in a lot of ways ... the following being just a few examples

1) battlescape is far less time-consuming (streamlined, but all the 'important' moves are still there), and far less 'cheap deaths' (a fair trade-off for only having a max of 6 for squad) ... and is genuinely fun now

2) killed aliens drop weapon fragments ... no more swimming in (and using) plasma weapons by month 2 ... progression in available weapons to use is actually progressively structured

3) no longer able to address every single UFO incident (abductions/etc) but in a way, it is more liberating to be forced to pick and choose your sequence through the ongoing series of missions

So far, has definitely exceeded my expectations ... I've played some 'remakes' that were letdowns, and it was a concern for this one.

[Androidpk]

This is the first Xcom game I've played and I had a lot of fun. It's funny how attached you can become to your squadmates when you know that one small fuck up and you can lose someone forever. I ended up restarting my first game after a couple of hours because everything was so new to me and I fucked up badly but on my second game I steam rolled through, only lost two guys in first couple of missions. My top sniper ended up with over 100 kills by the time I finished.

[Whirlin]

Interesting, in the classic game, I usually ended up just having 4 people leaving the skyranger anyway, so the transition to 6 people was fitting.

The one thing that I thought they didn't do a good job on was balance between the classes.
Sniper was hands down the strongest class, for throughout the entire game too. But once they reach captain and unlock the 2 attacks... it's game over.
Assault was very powerful, able to dish out a lot of damage with the rapid fire skill. Close range, blahblahblah. Once they unlock the HP skill, they're set.
Support grow very weak. If your supports don't end up having high Will, they're gonna be worthless once the firing starts. They lack natural accuracy like a sniper, which pretty much forces their two slots to be scope + medkit (once they unlock 2 slots), and even then, with a normal plasma rifle, they're doing what? 6 damage compared to a plasma sniper rifle's 2x 10 shots (without crits), or the shotgun's 2x 10 shots.
Heavy was way underpowered. They're only good early on when your natural accuracy with guns suck. However, this is also the most resource intensive time in the game when you need every last weapon fragment you can get... but nope, destroyed by the explosions. Later on, while they have high natural HP, their slow movement rate basically nerfs the speed of the entire squad. By the end of the game, I found my heavy barely effective against anything other than mechanical units. I'd just use him as an opener for Halo-Targetting. But even with the heated bullets, and hitting mechanical units, we're still talking about the most powerful rocket only doing as much as a sniper or assault's attacks, but only once per battle.

Next time I play, I'll probably just make a squad of 2x support, 2x assault, 2x sniper. Maybe start with a heavy in there until I can unlock the "gain more will as you rank up" talent and rebuild my squad.

Seriously though, I love the game... I've also been impressed with them doing little patches to make it run better than when it first came out.

[Androidpk]

I ran with 2 snipers, 2 assaults, 1 support and 1 heavy. The heavy did end up with the lowest amount of kills but he also had some pretty crucial moves. On the last boss part he pulled off a pretty sick crit with the fusion launcher thingy, killed the two guards and heavily damaged the head guy.

[Atlanteax]

What difficulty PK?

After first starting on normal + tutorial, it seemed a bit easy, so in 3rd month I switched to Ironmode Classic.

I was compelled to restart multiple times as battle tactics I was using in normal were simply not cutting it on Classic (such as no longer being able to just frag-grenade a Thin Man that landed nearby you) ... and definitely had become more disciplined about movement/scouting and now more consistently end missions with zero losses in personnel.

Heh, nothing like being "oh shit" when you get a Terror Mission in Ironman...

As per Whirlin's comments, the Heavy Class *does* seem more of a liability than an asset (dunno just how much utility there is in holo-targeting surpression at 'end-game') and I saw a chart illustrating how the Heavy also receives the smallest increase in +Aim on ranking up (Sniper obviously gains most, followed by Support and then Assault) ... which seems to make the "Rapid Reaction" ability an utter crapshoot. So it seems that Heavy is relegated to a support role, but you already have a Support Class (that can suppress too).

Probably do need to rely on including a Heavy (or 2) in early-game at the harder difficulties so that you can holo-target for your Snipers and so that you can just Rocket foes in hard-to-reach places or as a 'safe move' (ie just rocketing the 5-health Outsider when it exists the UFO) until you get laser weapons and better armor.

[Androidpk]

Normal.

[Warriorbird]

Interesting, in the classic game, I usually ended up just having 4 people leaving the skyranger anyway, so the transition to 6 people was fitting.

The one thing that I thought they didn't do a good job on was balance between the classes.
Sniper was hands down the strongest class, for throughout the entire game too. But once they reach captain and unlock the 2 attacks... it's game over.
Assault was very powerful, able to dish out a lot of damage with the rapid fire skill. Close range, blahblahblah. Once they unlock the HP skill, they're set.
Support grow very weak. If your supports don't end up having high Will, they're gonna be worthless once the firing starts. They lack natural accuracy like a sniper, which pretty much forces their two slots to be scope + medkit (once they unlock 2 slots), and even then, with a normal plasma rifle, they're doing what? 6 damage compared to a plasma sniper rifle's 2x 10 shots (without crits), or the shotgun's 2x 10 shots.
Heavy was way underpowered. They're only good early on when your natural accuracy with guns suck. However, this is also the most resource intensive time in the game when you need every last weapon fragment you can get... but nope, destroyed by the explosions. Later on, while they have high natural HP, their slow movement rate basically nerfs the speed of the entire squad. By the end of the game, I found my heavy barely effective against anything other than mechanical units. I'd just use him as an opener for Halo-Targetting. But even with the heated bullets, and hitting mechanical units, we're still talking about the most powerful rocket only doing as much as a sniper or assault's attacks, but only once per battle.

Next time I play, I'll probably just make a squad of 2x support, 2x assault, 2x sniper. Maybe start with a heavy in there until I can unlock the "gain more will as you rank up" talent and rebuild my squad.

Seriously though, I love the game... I've also been impressed with them doing little patches to make it run better than when it first came out.

What you describe was pretty much what my squad was. It's a hell of a game.

[Whirlin]

So... There was so much positive feedback of this thread, I figured I'd give it a bump.

There's supposed to be a sizable DLC expansion being released within the next month or so... From the trailers, it looks like they're going to add Deux Ex style personnel augments. So while someone may not be a psionic, they can go mech themselves out and step further away from humanity that way.

Pre-order is 10% off... It's being released a little too close to Christmas to think that there will be anymore than 10% off, if at all, during the winter sale. I know I'm always one for deals, but I'll unload some cash for XCom titles... Guess I'm just a horrible fanboy for all those old Microprose games.

[Narthsin]

Thanks for bumping this, I wasn't aware of the expansion coming. I may have to look into it.

I've played the hell out of it, and beat it on Hard and Normal Ironman modes. On Impossible difficulty I've managed to get about 30% into the game, and is such a crazy challenge that I give up after a while as basically everything starts going to hell fast, no matter how good you do in missions. It takes very careful planning, and it feels like a huge victory to beat a mission with only 1 casualty or two. I guess that's why they call it impossible.

I've enjoyed playing through on Hard with the custom settings you can unlock. I really like trying to get a squad with incredible stats leveled up by choosing the setting that makes their starting stats a lot more random, and having them level up randomly too. I basically hire and fire rookies until I have a group that has starting stats of over 175 or so to start, then go from there. In one game I had a pair of snipers with about 140-150 AIM and 130+ will at one point. I typically go with the 2 sniper, 2 assault setup, with a support and heavy, or two supports if needed, depending on the stats.

I think I've found that the starting levels of the game are a lot more difficult, and grow easier as your tech goes up, even with the nastier aliens. Overall the replay value of this still doesn't fail to be entertaining.

[Taernath]

I preordered it a little while ago. New genetic enhancements, weapons, enemies, and a 'mechanized' class I guess. Sounds pretty good. One thing I thought was interesting: there's a new enemy organization called EXALT, and they dress like the guys from The Bureau. I wonder if that's intentional.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd9CmpLZVMI

[Whirlin]

released today

[Taernath]

Played 15 minutes and got stuck in combat and unable to do anything (happened in base game sometimes, too).

[Gsgeek]

New DLC: awesome

Buggy: not so awesome

[Whirlin]

sad... I have a ton to do at work today (and working from home)... and haven't been able to load it up... I'm really looking forward to playing it though... sad panda :(

[Gelston]

Noticed I just got a 4 gig patch for XCom, suppose it is to ensure multiplayer compatibility with people who bought the expansion.

[Whirlin]

Ok... I've clocked in maybe 10 hours... Here's my review so far.

HOLY CRAP... More has changed in this game than I could have ever anticipated from the trailers, snippets, and spoilers that were shared over the internets. I'm VERY impressed with the depth of the DLC... I've seen companies declare these changes as being a standalone game, and charge more money for the number of changes they've made.

First, there's about 1 new mission a month. These missions are heavily scipted, and putting the troops in scenarios like never before. One example that I'll give is: Get to the other side of the map, activate a beacon, and get back to the other side of the map, in 10 turns, with 2 Crysalists spawning each turn. Most of the new missions you can take slow, and take defensively, but they incentivize speed.

Second, the Meld mechanic (used for genes and the new mechs), incentivizes speed heavily in missions. If you actually want to collect Meld, you will not be able to move conservatively and overwatch every turn. You need to move fast to harvest the meld.

Third. All Talent Trees are COMPLETELY different and reorganized. You know what class sucked before? Heavy. You know what class isn't that bad now? Heavy. Sniper got moderately nerfed. Every class has Med-Pack buffs rather than just the support. It's just, completely different. I really haven't gotten far enough to determine what's the best class so far.

Fourth. Most Second Wave options still exist from the XCom. So you can add back in the random leveling and random starting stats, etc. Those options were really nice additions, and I could have seen them forgetting to add them into the expansion.

Fifth. New Aliens. Not just the new anti-XCom Exalt units, but also just whole new aliens throughout the game. And, not just new top-tier aliens either. Second missions I had during the first month, there were new cloaked aliens flying around.

Sixth. Money and combat are generally re-balanced. Since there's been a general upscaling of growth and top tier strength, as a result, you're more likely to see aliens squads of 3 while fighting, and more aliens per mission/ufo/terror site. As a result, that's more alien tech, more alien corpses to sell on the grey market. This also helps cover for the increased costs of cyber implants or Mech stuff. Additionally, the new Cyber/Mech facilities count as Workshops/Labs for adjacency bonus. So, facility layout is even more important to get the adjacency bonus for cost reduction.

Seven. Steam Trading Cards added... whee?


All in all, I'm VERY impressed with this game, and would highly recommend it to everyone that played the original. The only thing to keep in mind is that we are heading for the holiday season, and there may be potential for a discount during the steam winter sale. If you are busy with a Next-Gen system, or CoD/BF4, then DEFINITELY pick it up at a discount during the winter sale. If not, pick it up now.

10/10, much more of an XCom 2 rather than just DLC.