XCOM: Enemy Unknown

krayzkrok · 2012-10-12T08:47:43.000Z

Well I played for 5 hours straight just then, absolutely loving it. I decided to go for Classic, and was doing fairly well. Had one complete wipe (an escort mission), but the other five or six weren’t too bad in the losses department. Just played a fantastic mission where I was down to one vet and one rook within the first three moves, again 6 sectoids, 2 thin men and three floaters. The vet survived, just, but what a firefight.

Just got a “the aliens have changed their tactics” cutscene and… the power went out for 0.5 seconds. Of course, I hadn’t saved it had I? Five hours gone! Nooooo… ooo… ooo.

ooooo

Oh well, at least I should do better this time and not make the same silly mistakes. But Cpl. Hong, veteran of 6 missions, you will be missed.

forgeforsaken · 2012-10-12T08:51:13.000Z

krayzkrok:

Just got a “the aliens have changed their tactics” cutscene and… the power went out for 0.5 seconds. Of course, I hadn’t saved it had I? Five hours gone! Nooooo… ooo… ooo.

For some insane reason autosave is turned off by default. Make sure to go turn that on.

TimJames · 2012-10-12T09:01:52.000Z

rezaf:

…with dull narrow-tube levels to boot.

The levels really do feel kind of generic early in the game. They tested and iterated the levels almost too much. The cover distribution feels the same, so the flow is the same. I haven’t seen any crazy levels with a huge wide open space you have to cross or something. Maybe that would suck.

habibi:

I love this game so much I’m wondering if I should get a nvidia card for PhysX. Am I mad? Is it a big deal.

I didn’t realize this took advantage of PhysX. They certainly aren’t dumping the particle effects everywhere. The smoke grenades and poison clouds seem pretty standard or X360 port style. I’d have to see a comparison video.

Virgil Hilts:

With a good pistol and Gunslinger snap shot is unnecessary, while squad sight provides a tangibly unique ability to get >75% shots from halfway across the map. No contest. Really, the sniper’s skill tree isn’t balanced very well. Gunslinger, Squad Sight, and Double Tap are all borderline requirements because a sniper with those three skills dominates the field like nothing else.

I received a captain sniper as a mission reward to go along with my top dog colonel-ish sniper. I should have split their builds a little more. On both of them I took the opposite of Gunslinger since I think I’ve only used my pistol once. Maybe that was a mistake, oh well. I grabbed the Execution perk with the new guy just for flavor. That should help them sit back as a tag-team.

Once I got a high rank soldier, a second sniper, and a squad full of nicknamed guys, that feeling of attachment from X-COM came rushing back. It’s been missing until now. I’m about to start my first mission where I’m ready to turn loose a few badass characters I know and love. They did a good job recreating that feeling.

TurinTur · 2012-10-12T09:14:39.000Z

WTF IS… XCOM Enemy Unkown

nKoan · 2012-10-12T09:30:43.000Z

Driveled:

Why the hell is auto save disabled by default? It’s my fault for having auto windows update enabled (new install) but that doesn’t make me feel any better about losing a couple hours of gameplay.

Yeah, I had a crash to desktop last night near the end of an alien base mission.

Universal_Leader · 2012-10-12T09:52:55.000Z

Huh. I had a mission take place in a genuine honky-tonk bar, with country music and everything, right in the middle of Alexandria, Egypt. Who knew that was there?

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-10-12T09:55:23.000Z

Universal Leader:

Huh. I had a mission take place in a genuine honky-tonk bar, with country music and everything, right in the middle of Alexandria, Egypt. Who knew that was there?

Perhaps the aliens arrival is… for the best?

MikeJ · 2012-10-12T09:55:52.000Z

I starting to think we shouldn’t view it as losing countries, but rather as a race between the player and the aliens to ‘claim’ the map. Territories don’t give you anything unless they are claimed.

krayzkrok · 2012-10-12T09:56:42.000Z

My second game resulted in termination of the X-Com project because I lost everyone on the opening mission. My third game I lost everyone on the second mission. Is it my imagination, or is it easier to get going if you do the tutorial and get a bit of a head start?

robc04 · 2012-10-12T09:57:52.000Z

First terror mission…
Not good.

Piemax2 · 2012-10-12T10:06:16.000Z

I like this so much I’m going to get a console copy too. Has the hive decided which console version is better?
Also I just realized that you can start building satellites before you have the links to use them -I mistook the warning for a “no”. This will make it easier to keep panic down early.

Vesper · 2012-10-12T10:07:02.000Z

robc04:

First terror mission…
Not good.

Has anyone done well on this? I seem to never be prepared for that bit of nastiness in all of my games so far.

Giaddon · 2012-10-12T10:09:21.000Z

I’ve haven’t had a bad terror mission yet, actually. Just lucky, I guess.

Woolen_Horde · 2012-10-12T10:10:42.000Z

Vesper:

Has anyone done well on this? I seem to never be prepared for that bit of nastiness in all of my games so far.

I got my first terror mission when I still had gunpowder weapons, and I aced it on the first try. (Got the “Like a Scalpal” achievement for nailing Excellent in all three categories). The original X-Com was even more ruthless. First terror mission in the first month.

Believe me, that first terror mission may very well be the easiest, too. The things that I’ve seen. Shudder.

Vesper · 2012-10-12T10:18:52.000Z

I have trouble dealing with the uh… increasing numbers.

Teiman · 2012-10-12T10:39:28.000Z

I was a oldschool gamer, but I have adapted myself to the mindset to the modern gamer, and one thing that scare me from XCOM, is the failure state. Has a modern game, I have not problem failing, or even very hard difficulty (not impossible for my skill), but I want to know when I have failed, and I want to be able to return before I did the error, and try again.

I realize that this is not possible in XCOM, you make a lot of decisions, you don’t really fail as much that success slowly escape from your hand until a point where you are truly doomed (you have doomed yourself).

Blips · 2012-10-12T10:42:00.000Z

Woolen Horde:

The things that I’ve seen. Shudder.

There is one terror mission that is just disgustingly difficult. I’m not sure how randomized the spawn locations are but…

warehouse

on a military base of some kind at the very back of the map was a giant warehouse filled with people. The game started with a chrysalid in the same warehouse. Let’s just say fighting 5+ zombies and 3+ chrysalids all at once with the default guns and armor is not easy.

TimJames · 2012-10-12T10:45:59.000Z

Piemax2:

Also I just realized that you can start building satellites before you have the links to use them -I mistook the warning for a “no”. This will make it easier to keep panic down early.

Thanks for the tip. Don’t forget to put mechanics like this in the mechanics thread. They’re just going to get lost in this one.

Woolen_Horde · 2012-10-12T10:55:40.000Z

So what’s the point of the Light Plasma Rifle? All the other weapon groups have pistol/rifle/heavy/sniper variants. But Light Plasma is the odd man out; no other group has something like it. What’s it supposed to be good at? Which class is supposed to use it?

Blips · 2012-10-12T10:58:14.000Z

Woolen Horde:

So what’s the point of the Light Plasma Rifle? It seems like the odd-man out. All the other weapon groups have pistol/rifle/heavy/sniper variants. But Light Plasma is the odd man out; no other group has something like it. What’s it supposed to be at? Which class is supposed to use it?

It has plus 10 to aiming, but a very slight reduction to damage output when compared to the full plasma rifle. I find it useful to arm soldiers I intend to keep at a distance from enemies with the light gun (like support) and to arm my assault soldiers with the full plasma as they’ll be closer and the aim bonus will count for less.