I have tried to get it working a couple times since getting the new monitor. Hard freeze every time. Went so far as to delete the install and all my local data even.
What model of monitor is it? Nvidia or AMD card? Maybe try running it at 60fps?
Restarting with my choice of squad members and full healing between rounds seems to be helping immensely. Zephyr and Blueblood, plus Godmother and Terminal, are ludicrously good.
Finished it after restarting and setting healing to full between encounters. I probably should have upped the difficulty a notch, though, because on normal that was maybe too easy.
Pretty solid combat, decent but not very extensive skill trees, not sure it has much replayability. It will be interesting to see if the sequel gets made, and if so, what changes.
I think I’ll go back and try to actually finish a game of the first (of the remakes) XCOM game, which I never really did much with. Or maybe XCOM 2? Is the first one still worth playing?
Probably not. XCOM2 was the same game in many ways but simply… ‘more’. As in, XCOM is good but I can’t think of anything it really did that wasn’t improved or expanded in 2. Except maybe for the look and feel. 2 was where it definitely leaned heavily into the comic book vibe (especially with the DLC), which I wasn’t personally sold on. On the flipside, 2 has a lot of workshop mods which are worth checking out, even if it’s just for more soldier customisation doodads.
I’ll also note that the plot, or at least the outcome, of XCOM was retconned by 2. So don’t feel like you’re missing out on narrative.
Good to know. And, um, XCOM is like brutally, nastily difficult. At least for me.
Though really, the whole concept is dumb. “The entire Earth is threatened by bloodthirsty, hostile aliens! Let’s, um, send four soldiers at a time to attempt to defeat them! And while we’re at it, let’s not bother to actually station any of them in different places! Let’s cram them all into a bunker somewhere so they have to spend hours getting anywhere!”
It’s a great premise but it needs to be massaged into working properly. For example, there could be multiple stages: in the first stage, you have minimal funding but are investigating small alien incursions. In the next stage, the aliens drop bombs on all army bases on earth and you’re the only one left to fight. The original x-com was vague enough that it let you fill in the details.
2 works a bit better in that regard as, well, earth lost and you’re all that’s left; a small but elite and highly mobile resistance movement.
I think the only one of these that really got that issue of scale right was probably Apocalypse, as you’re only defending a single city. Kinda like Chimera Squad.
I do love the narrative of the original XCOM (both the real original and the new original), in that the idea of defending the Earth against alien invasion is cool. I agree though that the gameplay never really does justice the possibilities of the story. Or maybe the focus on tactical combat precludes the sort of strategic layer that the narrative really needs. Still fun games.
I recently finished this too. It never really grabbed me the way XCom2 did. I think it was the premade characters and hokey dialogue. I started on expert because I played XCom2 on Commander. Was a fun ride, not to hard not too soft, until the 3rd faction boss. Then the difficulty spike was so pronounced I rage quit for a few days, dropped it to story mode and finished it up. Bring on 3!
The dialog is ok until the umpteenth time you hear it, especially the barks when you miss a target. Overall I didn’t mind the back and forth, but I’d trade it I think for more variety in troopers. As it is, once you get a good foursome, you only switch if one has to heal up. I went with Godmother, Blueblood, Zephyr, and Terminal pretty much the whole way.
What they should have done is have you building additional bases and training/assigning troops, and you assign those troops to other missions that occur off screen, with success dependent upon level, weapons/tech, leadership and some random factor. That would make the world seem “bigger” and more “realistic”.
I assume they didn’t because that wasn’t the sort of game they were envisioning, but yeah, that sounds cool. I’d love a planetary-scale sci-fi invasion/defense type game. The scenarios in BattleTech I always liked most were invasions, the stuff that the BattleSpace rulebooks covered.
The makers of the Long War mod are working in a “grand strategy” alien invasion game. I’m really looking forward to it.
I love the Xcoms but the strategic game does suffer somewhat from everything being subservient to the tactical combat.
There is a small thread for it:
Thanks; that seems cool!
Currently being Kickstarted!
I feel like I’m closing in on beating the first faction and I feel like the game is … fine? Definitely not loving it as much as the first 2. I can’t really put my finger on why that is. Maybe I’m playing it too soon after Gears Tactics, which I enjoyed more.
I think I like the smaller maps and getting right into the action. It’s nice not to worry about activating pods. I think years ago I’d be perfectly happy putting hours more into it but today there are so many games that want to be tried, or older ones that are better.
I bounced on it the first time, when it came out, but recently finished a full play through and enjoyed it. I’d agree, it’s a solid game, but not one that makes we want to ever replay it. The streamlining of the XCOM formula works quite well, and has some nice QOL enhancements, but the game is still XCOM-lite for better or worse. I don’t miss the gotchas or occasional tedium of the full-fat XCOMs, but I do miss the depth of tactical options and of course a lot of the strategic layer.
Speaking of Gears Tactics, that one looks interesting, but I ain’t paying full price. I hope it goes on sale this fall.
I played in on MS PC Gamepass so it was a steal for me.
Yeah, I have difficulty finding more than one or two games I want on any of the “pass” plans.