UFO: Afterlight

[Lare Kikkeli]

UFO: Afterlight is the latest in a series of spiritual sequels to XCOM made by the Eastern-European developer Altar. The predecessors have been a bit buggy, yet quality games.

 

 

Here's the plot in short:

 

 

After a war with aliens, humans have been banished from Earth to live in a space station and a small base on Mars. Time has passed largely uneventfully in the high-tech yet rudimentary Mars base. Over 10'000 colonists remain in cryonic suspension, waiting for a time when the desert planet can support them. Among the less than thirty people awake two new generations have risen and only the oldest now remember Earth. Contact with the increasily authoritive Council of Earth has become strained and recently cut altogether. Automation is very advanced and researchers are nearing the point where they can start terraforming Mars. Then an archeological dig disturbs something that should've been left alone..

 

In pre-release interviews and hype, the developers said that the game would feature:

 

* A new setting based on a Mars colony that was built shortly before the events of the previous game, UFO: Aftershock

* Distinctive weapons, as opposed to several weapons having the same statistics but just a different look

* Role-playing elements in a more crucial role through "strong distinctive individual characters".

* Simplified micro-management of resources

* A more complex technology tree

* Improved user interface based on customer feedback

 

 

The Eurogamer review is pretty positive, and I def will get this game as soon as I can.

 

 

Some screenshots:

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2007 by Lare Kikkeli

[Slowtrain]

I played Aftershock for a while. Didn't care for it. Trying to rip off the gameplay of a superior game does not by default make the ripper as good a game as the rippee sadly.

[Lare Kikkeli]

I played Aftershock for a while. Didn't care for it. Trying to rip off the gameplay of a superior game does not by default make the ripper as good a game as the rippee sadly.

 

Well the whole idea is to "rip off" Xcom as it is a spiritual sequel.

 

 

Jeez, you're almost as bad as hades.

[Slowtrain]

I played Aftershock for a while. Didn't care for it. Trying to rip off the gameplay of a superior game does not by default make the ripper as good a game as the rippee sadly.

 

Well the whole idea is to "rip off" Xcom as it is a spiritual sequel.

 

 

Jeez, you're almost as bad as hades.

 

 

Heh.

 

Well, yes, and I didn't think it was a bad game. But I was playing it for a while and eventually said to myself, why am I spending time playing this game when I could be playing XCOM instead? So I did just that.

 

I guess for me, Aftershock just didn't do enough to establish its own identity. XCOM is such a replayable game that it is hard to compete with.

[Lare Kikkeli]

The new features such as terroforming Mars (which has always been one of my fav scifi concepts), role-playing elements and the auto-pause options in combat sure sound appealing though. Sounds almost like a mix between JA and Baldur's Gate.

[Hurlshort]

I'm really just not a fan of the real time combat for these types of games, even with the pausing system. I'd rather play TB, and games like Xcom, JA, and Silent Storm do that extremely well. I'm keeping an eye on UFO: Extraterrestrial as that's another xcom ripoff, but it sticks to the TB combat.

[Sand]

I sdon't think the humans would just give up Earth. We world fight for it till the end of the species.

[Gfted1]

I sdon't think the humans would just give up Earth. We world fight for it till the end of the species.

 

 

Considering there are only 10,030 humans on Mars and however many more you can cram into a space station I think it was pretty much the end of the species.

[Spider]

There are still Humans on Earth. The marsians are only a splinter group of humanity (although the fate of the ones left on earth is largely unknown).

 

Also, in the chronology of the UFO: After* series, humanity did fight back. And lost. That's when Aftermath starts I think (I've only played Aftershock and Afterlight).

 

Afterlight is an ok game. Better than Aftershock, but suffers from the same flaw. Gameplay gets extremely repetetive after a while (you go through sooooo many missions). I haven't finished it, but haven't touched it for a month or so either. I'm waiting to go back to it until it's not so fresh in my memory.

[Berserk]

There are still Humans on Earth. The marsians are only a splinter group of humanity (although the fate of the ones left on earth is largely unknown).

 

Also, in the chronology of the UFO: After* series, humanity did fight back. And lost. That's when Aftermath starts I think (I've only played Aftershock and Afterlight).

In Aftermaths beginning there was never a real confrontation when the aliens arrived. They simply parked in orbit and smothered everything with a bio-engineered sporecloud. After a month or so the spores dissapaited and that's when survivors and military personell starts to cooperate.

 

One of the endings for the Aftermath game is that humanitys leaders surrendered to the alien invaders in the first game in order to get themselves out of the frying pan. Aftershock uses that ending in order to get the story started.

Edited April 9, 2007 by Berserk

[Musopticon?]

Which was a damned good ending. Totally unexpected twist.

[kumquatq3]

I'm looking out for "UFO: Extraterrestrials" which comes out on the 17th

[Hurlshort]

I'm looking out for "UFO: Extraterrestrials" which comes out on the 17th

 

Same here. I even pre-ordered it. The main page says April 16th, but it's pretty quiet there. I'm wondering if it will really come out. I never saw a gone gold notice.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I can tell from this demo that the game is eastern European/German in origin. Each element of the game is actually very deep and very complicated. Looking at a single panel of the strategy game interface borders on being overwhelming.

[baby arm]

Same here. I even pre-ordered it. The main page says April 16th, but it's pretty quiet there. I'm wondering if it will really come out. I never saw a gone gold notice.

According to someone at the ET forum, one of the developers said that the final build was sent to the publisher on the 10th.

UFO was given to publishers today.They,ll need a week to test it and some

time to manufacture DVD .

Best,Michal

[Hurlshort]

I just read on the front page that UFO:ET has been pushed back to May 1st. Since they are currently testing the supposed gold copy, that might be accurate. It seems pretty hush hush, seems like they have an odd relationship with the publisher. I'm also pretty concerned with the English translation, as Michal, the head guy there, is pretty bad at English. That might be what the publisher is doing, and if so, I expect even more delays. It takes longer than a couple weeks to translate an entire game.

[baby arm]

It takes longer than a couple weeks to translate an entire game.

Not if the game doesn't actually exist. Maybe this is all some big media hoax, like Angelina Jolie or the Korean War.

[Spider]

It's also possible that the publisher has been working on the translation for a while. They hardly need access to the gold copy for that. It's also possible that Michal has hired someone who speaks english better than himself to do the translation.

 

But even if the english sucks, that is part of the charm when it comes to these games. It was pretty bad in games like Silent Storm and UFO: After* as well. Didn't really make a difference in those games.

[Hurlshort]

UFO: ET is supposed to come out today. I just watched an impressive gameplay video, it really does look like the original Xcom with a graphical overhaul, and that's just fine by me.

 

I heard a rumor that soldiers don't die, they go unconcious and spend time in the med center. That;s an odd decision, but hopefully the hospital stays will depend on the injury. I don't want a guy who gets torched being ready to fight in three days.

[Hurlshort]

UFO:ET is now available from matrixgames.com. It's been getting decent ink as a tribute to Xcom, so if you still try and boot up the original, this one is probably a good buy. I'm downloading it now.