XCom

[NanoPaladin]

I am not sure about the general populous here but my impressions on XCom hold the game in high regard. My biggest wish for the game now would be to further expand on the soldiers, after all they are the core to the game. I am unsure if another expansion is in the works for the game but if so what sort of things would you like to see from it?

 

Personally I'd love for an expanded equipment system in terms of armor and weapons as well as an expanded set of Genetic upgrades. 

[Leferd]

There's definitely a lot of XCOM fans here. For me, it's my favorite game to come out of since KotOR 2.

[Humanoid]

Mine's pretty simple: more levels. Abduction missions have by far the best variety, but as you get further into the game they mostly stop. The other mission types have the big problem of being both limited in map variety and have some balance issues to boot. You end up doing Exalt missions as often as Abductions yet the latter has an order of magnitude more maps.

 

I'd also say that pretty much *all* UFO and alien-base type levels need to be overhauled to get rid of ramps and silly diagonal walls - indeed that's true of all levels: the engine just can't cope with line-of-sight when these elements are in play. Many of the smaller levels also need to be somewhat enlarged, because the game does not scale the number of aliens to the size of the map and ends up trying to squeeze over a dozen aliens into an area the size of a small house. And of course it's well past the time they fixed the dumb bugs in certain maps that incorrectly detect LoS, screw up the calculation of cover, and mess up alien pathing. (There are also some very specific map bugs, like the flooded street map where the first pack of aliens always starts activated)

 

My primary non-map complaint would be how the late game devolves into a simple case of massing firepower. The early game is at its best when you have a mix of clever defensive positioning, audacious flanks and general use and destruction of cover. The late game involves aliens who don't use cover and instead have passive always-on defense bonuses, massive hitpoints and a bunch of tools which often make cover irrelevant. It's boring, lazy encounter design.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Humanoid

[Hurlshort]

I want to go off planet and bring the fight to the aliens.

 

I'd be pretty happy with a Terror from the Deep remake too.

[Gorth]

Loved the X-Com games since trying UFO: Enemy Unknown on my Amiga way back in time... favourite is X-Com 3 - Apocaplyse (which probably makes me a minority). Second best tactical combat system and semi autonomous game world since JA2.

 

Oh, and I hated the latest addition to the franchise, cursing the family trees and fertility of every person responsible for its making.

[Serrano]

favourite is X-Com 3 - Apocaplyse 

 

Good man 

Edited February 10, 2014 by Serrano

[Lioness]

My XCOM pet peeve is: I want more Skyrangers!

I can build a score of alien inspired fighter crafts but never a second Skyranger :/

 

I get the dilemma of choosing to clear abduction spot A, B or C... but that's a very gamey choice compared to a if I had to split my dozen of troops into two or three Skyrangers to save all spots at the same time or fail horribly trying.

That or trying to scrape together a Bravo squad to clear a crash site while Alpha squad is busy somewhere else.

 

Overall I am happy enough with the squad tactics aspect of the game, but I feel Firaxis have gone too far into the streamlining of the strategic part of the game.

[Gorgon]

The ending is weak. Exchange it with a multiple level challenge like the old games. More weapon tech. Lasers are much more accurate than plasma, but do less damage. Like the old game.

 

Levels should also be larger and you should be given a scan device. Enemy patrol locations would be given as a general area hint. This would be to avoid always running into another group the minute you try something clever like flanking or seeking high cover.  You should not be rewarded for sitting still in cover. 

[NanoPaladin]

Some great ideas there that I did not even think about to be honest. 

[Hurlshort]

The ending is weak. Exchange it with a multiple level challenge like the old games. More weapon tech. Lasers are much more accurate than plasma, but do less damage. Like the old game.

 

Levels should also be larger and you should be given a scan device. Enemy patrol locations would be given as a general area hint. This would be to avoid always running into another group the minute you try something clever like flanking or seeking high cover.  You should not be rewarded for sitting still in cover. 

 

While not quite what you are talking about, I do use the sniper scanner regularly in battle.

[Bryy]

XCOM is a game that I never want to play because I've beaten it and it feels like a chore.

 

Then I start it up.

 

And it is 3am.

[darthdraken]

The simplified version of xcom by praxis is in its self a good game. But limited on many levels.

If you ever played the original then the difference is very obvious.

If you like xcom the original look up xenonauts.

Or the ufo series.

I love the piraxis game and expansion but it to me is mission so much more of what it could of been.

Only one base. One transport.

Only one alien base. Etc etc.

The original had aliens building loads of bases and you could attack all.of them. And in time fly to mars to finish them.off.

And that spawned xcom 2 terror from the deep.

A even harder game but still good story line.

 

I hope piraxis expand a hell of a lot more and create more freedom and give us multiple bases. Enemy bases etc. Even scrapping on the moon would be cool. Etc etc

[darthdraken]

I liked apoc because of the time pause feature. And one mission i loved. Five aliens were on a fire escape on the side of a building. I blew up the bottom of the fire escape and the entire thing collapsed. And all the aliens died. It was funny as hell.

I did hate the retro thing and the ending part bit hey loved the game

[Serrano]

I liked apoc because of the time pause feature. And one mission i loved. Five aliens were on a fire escape on the side of a building. I blew up the bottom of the fire escape and the entire thing collapsed. And all the aliens died. It was funny as hell.

I did hate the retro thing and the ending part bit hey loved the game

 

I remember doing a mission in one of the luxury apartments and one of the first things to happen was this crowd of people burst through the lobby doors fleeing a couple of arthopods firing brain suckers from the back. I used sleeping gas grenades to put down the crowd and then took out the arthopods without any civilian casualties, you have to love a game that allows for those kinds of things to happen randomly. Another thing that can potentially happen is that the aliens do enough damage to the city that they make most if not all of the factions (even cult of sirus as I recall?) hostile and the kind of cityscape battles that happen towards the end are just insane. 

 

One of the things I really loved about Apocalypse was how truly different the layouts were depending on where missions were taking place. With residential blocks for example it was always a given that you needed a couple of squads to wait outside all of the exits while other teams sweeped the building otherwise the aliens would run and try to flank you or exit into another zone requiring another tactical mission. I loved the fact that the aliens could escape into other zones and then depending on how many their were could either be taken out by security or could multiply and infest the place without you knowing until the problem was bad enough to raise the alarm. You could play detective in Apocalypse by looking at the graphs and figure out where the trouble spots were based on activity and where you saw the last UFOs move over in the city. Was a great game and definitely my favourite in the series.   

Edited February 13, 2014 by Serrano

[Oner]

I had an interesting terror mission yesterday. After spotting the first Chrysalid, every enemy on the map started beelining towards my squad. Thankfully they were stupid and went back and forth on the edge of the fog of war, so I could whittle them down.