UFO: Extraterrestrials

[wautd]

Simple question: is it worth getting it? I've looked for revieuws but I'm seeing all kinds of scores

[Nephtys]

Simple question: is it worth getting it? I've looked for revieuws but I'm seeing all kinds of scores

The game is (In my opinion, I know White Haven disagrees with me) pretty shoddy and bites hard... until you get the mods.

Seriously? I'm playing it like X-COM Right now, after-modding up several really annoying lacks in the original version. Such as crashed UFOs not sustaining any damage, no way to reserve AP for firing, no data on weapon stats in the UFOPedia, no way to recruit new soldiers, your current soldiers never truely 'die', the aliens are idiots, the base interface is awful, etc...

All of that gets fixed with one fan-mod more or less.

[Vympel]

I must here more about the game before I decide to get it- White Haven, you out there? Edumucate me.

[rhoenix]

I must here more about the game before I decide to get it- White Haven, you out there? Edumucate me.

Echoed. I'd like to see just how close the gameplay is to the original XCOM: UFO Defense, regardless of the graphics and sound being better. I'd like to know what the average UFO mission is like, what the average Terror mission is like, etc., and compared to how they were in the original.

That may be asking a bit much, though.

[Stark]

What I've heard is that it's a pretty shoddy, feature-incomplete implementation of XCOM. Just like all the OTHER games that have failed to even reach the same level as XCOM. I think it's actually fucking sad that - JA2 aside - nobody has made a decent turn-based tactical in more than a decade.

[Nephtys]

I must here more about the game before I decide to get it- White Haven, you out there? Edumucate me.

Echoed. I'd like to see just how close the gameplay is to the original XCOM: UFO Defense, regardless of the graphics and sound being better. I'd like to know what the average UFO mission is like, what the average Terror mission is like, etc., and compared to how they were in the original.

That may be asking a bit much, though.

Well.

Having played to the 'late lasers' stage, in X-Com Terms, something around a half dozen UFO assaults, two terror sites and one alien base op, I think I have a good feel for the game.

The stock is awful. It's missing a crapload of features, a lot of annoying interface issues. I will list them.

- No tactical zoom
- Awkward Geoscape Panning.
- The way soldiers shoot is lame, and often you misclick the square of the shot type.
- No UFOPedia data that's helpful (Like what's the diff in stats between the 'Shotgun' and Rifle'
- Rifle bullets are apparently .75 caliber and travel at roughly 12 feet per second. Also, the camera tracks them in slo-motion.
- Male soldiers make 'SPLURCH' sounds when they die.
- Female soldiers make 'ALIEN!!!' noises when they die.
- Interceptions on the geoscape usually result in your basic fighter running out of fuel during the dogfight itself, which usually drags on across whole continents.
- A lot of alien weapons are pitifully weak early on (One basic soldier in starter kit took five plasma gun hits at point blank). Your rifles are pointless, just have everyone carry grenades and rocket launchers.
- When a UFO is shot down, the entire crew is alive, the UFO is intact, there's no wreckage.
- Burning down civilians for fun in terror missions is perfectly Kosher.
- Your starting craft is so small, there's no point in taking a tank. Unless you happen to only want a group the size of an SG-team to do the mission (4).

Okay.

The fan-mods fix pretty much most/all of that, and add tweaks to graphics, new interfaces, so on, so forth to make it pretty playable. I'm finding it almost a clone of X-Com now, but with a few minor twists that makes it interesting.

The improved AI is actually decent sometimes, and is at worst equal to Old X-COM. Once, an alien with psychic paralysis powers and a melee attack used paralysis to freeze my soldier in place looking down a hallway, then ran down another path to melee him from behind so nobody else saw what got him.

Despite my TOTAL HATRED of how SPECTACULARLY messed up the stock was (as I have ranted to White Haven, who likes stock), when modded it's a pretty ok X-Com experience, and I do feel the nostalgia coming back. It's got one-more-turn syndrome, and is nearly as tense as when you're praying nobody shoots the crap out of you. It's pretty cool too that the fanmods come with settings so you can tweak it exactly, like if you want to speed up research rates, or soldier XP advancement, so you can have a game move quicker or slower than normal.

UFO:EX is in my opinion, inferior in as a whole to the old game (which I indeed still play) or JA2, but has a few perks, and is superior to the UFO Games in all except interface, art style and polish. I'd reckon it's somewhat superior tactically than X-Com Apocalypse, if only the interface was a bit better.

Just be careful of the opening Intro. It's badly rendered, breaks continuitiy, and has such shoddy voice acting that it's actually rather funny. (They got Jane. They must be invincible.)

[weemadando]

*THAT* game is unworthy of being compared to X-com. Unworthy of being mentioned in the same sentence.

[wautd]

Ok, I'm convinced not to buy it

[GuppyShark]

Letdown!

EDIT: Of course, if the company releases an awesome patch that fixes that shit, I'd consider buying it.

[Cao Cao]

I've heard that soldiers are immortal, i.e. they go down but are back and ready to go next mission, instead of dying and staying dead.
That isn't true, is it?

[Vympel]

Well so far sounds pretty lame. How the fuck could you set out to remake X-COM and not even have the same features as a game over 10 years old? Losers.

[Nephtys]

I've heard that soldiers are immortal, i.e. they go down but are back and ready to go next mission, instead of dying and staying dead.
That isn't true, is it?

It is in stock.

Fixed in mods to be like X-Com

[rhoenix]

...Wow. I admit to being disappointed, but not too surprised. Nephtys, thank you for posting all the information you did, but I don't believe I'll be getting that game in the near future.

UFO: AI is an open-source and free salute to the old XCOM - from the way it looks and plays now, it'll likely become XCOM's replacement for me. However, the project does need more graphics people, that much is obvious...

[Cao Cao]

I've heard that soldiers are immortal, i.e. they go down but are back and ready to go next mission, instead of dying and staying dead.
That isn't true, is it?

It is in stock.

Fixed in mods to be like X-Com

Well damn, that's stupid. Sure I never liked losing my best guys in the X-Com games but hell.. it's the consequences of a bad battle and all that. Makes you more careful next time.

Still, if there's a strong modding community willing to fix these mistakes I'll be tempted to pick it up.

[Nephtys]

I've heard that soldiers are immortal, i.e. they go down but are back and ready to go next mission, instead of dying and staying dead.
That isn't true, is it?

It is in stock.

Fixed in mods to be like X-Com

Well damn, that's stupid. Sure I never liked losing my best guys in the X-Com games but hell.. it's the consequences of a bad battle and all that. Makes you more careful next time.

Still, if there's a strong modding community willing to fix these mistakes I'll be tempted to pick it up.

Honestly, while the game isn't that great, I'm enjoying it. It's not the same 'OH SH--!' experience the original was the first time through, but it's similar enough to be fun.

The most commonly used Mod 'Frankenmod' allows a lot of tweakability. Right now, it allows for 'incapacitation' in case a soldier gets shot just a little over their threshold of health and armor. They're out of battle and hospitalized for a few weeks or longer, and will die if not stabilized while on the ground. Most troops go down this way. You can tweak several grades of this in the mod menu, from 'Troops almost always live' to 'Troops never, ever survive a knock-out wound'.

If your soldier gets PWNZORED by like a rocket or shot to the unarmored face, they'll be killed on the spot. But it's sorta nice that there's a distinction between the two.

[Vympel]

Were they able to mod UFOs being damaged when they're shot down? I always loved the trail gouged in the Earth with fires burning ...

[Nephtys]

Were they able to mod UFOs being damaged when they're shot down? I always loved the trail gouged in the Earth with fires burning ...

Yep. There's a path of destruction where the UFO went down, and chunks missing from it's hull/internals/dead crew there.

[Vympel]

How'd they mod it so easily? Was the game made that way, or are these features that just weren't implemented, or what?

How destructible are the environments? Same as X-COM?

I'm thinking about getting this if the mods are high quality and fun and recapture the X-COM feel satisfactorily. However, there's no indication of when this game is even coming out here. EB hasn't heard anything about it.

[Stark]

I'm curious, but solely because of Neph's pimping. Even if game+mod=fun, the game still sucks balls if it can't even get UFO right. I mean, honestly, ' ' doesn't cover it.

Are there UI mods? From the screenshots I've seen, the tactical UI looks like a mess. The After[x] games had awful tactical UI's too, so maybe noone can make them anymore.

[Vympel]

If the UI is the same as the original X-COM, I'll be satisfied. My standards for a proper turn-based squad tactical shooter have gotten so low lately.

You've got the UFO: After[whatever] series, which just sucks as far as I'm concerned and I have no interest in playing them.

You've got Silent Storm, which was pretty fun but then ruined the end game with NAZI UBER POWER ARMOR or some shit. (the moment I heard about that I stopped playing the game before I reached that point).

Even Jagged Alliance 2, the last great game of the genre, IMO- had a minor "that's fucking stupid" spoiling factor of the stupid Rocket Rifles, and the bizarre design concept whereby massive rifles cost nothing to shoot but pistols take all of your action points, rather than the reverse.

I was really looking forward to UFO: Extraterrestrials, and now it turns out they've ballsed it up too, and the mod community is making it right.

I mean really, is it so hard to just recreate what a decade old three-game franchise already did fine?

[Stark]

If the UI is the same as the original X-COM, I'll be satisfied. My standards for a proper turn-based squad tactical shooter have gotten so low lately.

I agree, and it's depressing that UFO is still looked back on so well. You'd think someone would have made a non-suck alien tactical in the last 10 years.

You've got the UFO: After[whatever] series, which just sucks as far as I'm concerned and I have no interest in playing them.

The interfaces are silly, the geoscape is simplified, and the power creep is retarded. The art sucks and the research is weak.

You've got Silent Storm, which was pretty fun but then ruined the end game with NAZI UBER POWER ARMOR or some shit. (the moment I heard about that I stopped playing the game before I reached that point).

SS has a good engine (the only non-JA2 tactical I can play these days), but SS1 was bugged, SS2 had new features that ruled but even MORE bugged, and Hammer and Sickle was stunningly, cripplingly hard. At least it actually ADDED to the formula (with penetration of everything) and MODERNISED things (like the awesome collapsable houses). The mechs (and oh shit, don't forget the ALIENS and the LASER GUNS) were stupid, of course.

Even Jagged Alliance 2, the last great game of the genre, IMO- but had a minor "that's fucking stupid" spoiling factor of the stupid Rocket Rifles, and the bizarre design concept whereby massive rifles cost nothing to shoot but pistols take all of your action points, rather than the reverse.

Lategame power creep is a problem in many games - but JA2 vanilla had a bunch of weapons-data problems. There's a fanmade 1.13 patch/sourcecode thing that changes the data to not be stupid (ie, Deagles don't do more damage than FALs) and firing pistols takes like 4/5 time units. Much better, but the whole 'you do something so fifty nine thousand guys come to fight you' is frustrating.

I was really looking forward to UFO: Extraterrestrials, and now it turns out they've ballsed it up to and the mod community is making it right.

I mean really, is it so hard to just recreate what a decade old three-game franchise already did fine?

Apparently. The brothers who made UFO were clearly Jesus or something.

I actually think it's because everyone wants to make UFO 'their way', which happens to suck. Like the After[x] games - it's UFO, but lamed up for their stupid story. SS has a great engine, but is restrictive story-based instead of UFO freeform.

[Nephtys]

Well. Let's see. The UFO:After Series got an acceptable visual style. They had good art direction and cool atmosphere and so on. Especially in the first game, where stuff looked apocalyptic. 2nd was Beh, 3rd was alright if cartoony.

Only they had a real time system that made it so your squads ran around, gunning aliens as a pack instead of strategy. Also, their geoscapes had no intercept, rudimentary base building, and a lot of mandatory 'grind' missions that were boring, stupid and pointless.

Stock UFO:EX has all of the gameplay elements from X-COM, -EXCEPT- for hiring people, and putting assault/research teams on secondary bases. There also isn't apparently human-usable psionics.

Modded UFO:Ex adds the ability to hire soldiers, since the soldiers are now killable. With the tweaks to the interface (It's amazing honestly what just a few new buttons on the UIbars can do), it's playable. I've gotten decently far. I still hate this game's horrible artstyle (the armors and weapons look idiotic), I'm going to play on, now that it feels propperly X-Commy. As in, Aliens still land UFOs to do whatever, cause terror sites, and come after your bases when they're pissed off.

The another difference is that interception now is risky. Those jerks can damage your fighters, or for the hell of it, chase down a fleeing, damaged fighter to splash it.

Know what's sad? That after modding and new features were added, it looks visually somewher near how X-Com: Apocalypse looked. And that game came out ten years ago.

--

I got frustrated with Silent Storm because of their retardedly hard difficulty at times (oops. Your squad died because of some stuff you have no control over. END OF GAME.), and the two minutes between turns even on a brand new computer.

Overpenetration was really awesome though.

[Stark]

Well. Let's see. The UFO:After Series got an acceptable visual style. They had good art direction and cool atmosphere and so on. Especially in the first game, where stuff looked apocalyptic. 2nd was Beh, 3rd was alright if cartoony.

Do you remember what the laser guns etc looked like? Ugh. And the start was fine, with zombies and shotguns etc, but once everyone had super shields and uberlasers the game was just stupid.

I got frustrated with Silent Storm because of their retardedly hard difficulty at times (oops. Your squad died because of some stuff you have no control over. END OF GAME.), and the two minutes between turns even on a brand new computer.

Overpenetration was really awesome though.

I didn't have any turn problems that I remember, but the games *were* riddled with bugs. I got used to keeping a 'start of the battle' save, just incase the 'oh yeah ps you're all dead' things happened. The physics is really what makes the game appeal to me, despite it's problems: every time a guy ends up slumped over a desk or hanging off a balcony, it's great.

Oh and the 'brace yourself and say 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH'' MG guys.

[Nephtys]

What was worse about the UFO:A Series, was that there was one point in *every* game when the aliens go... "screw this attack humans with laser rifles stuff. From now on, everyone is to be issued only an automatic rocket launcher."

[Stark]

Do any mods make the game return to Earth? I'm sorry, but for me half the fun was the 'TERROR SITE: SYDNEY' thing. I don't really give a shit about a) a story or b) some lame alien planet. I want to defend the world and watch the US turn to the aliens, dammit.