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I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknow

I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknown on your first playthrough. You didn't know what lies ahead, you didn't know what technologies to research, and how to do what. New aliens were catching you by surprise all the time, and Chrysalids, god, they were so so scary. When I got to flying armor my guys never walked again, just because of these guys. I actually even liked the immediate sequel, because it added difficulty and stuff. If only it wasn't this last alien syndrome... The reboot was a letdown for me. Underground base-hive was gorgeous, but I lacked the freedom of roaming the globe and sending patrol aircraft in different directions, locating bases that I knew were somewhere out there... It felt like I'm railroaded on a fixed path, instead of slowly finding out the clues on my own. The second X-Com 2 was a step better for me, and I liked the feeling of being a scrappy resistance fighter, and all resource and time constraints made a lot more sense in that context. I actually managed to beat X-Com 2 in Ironman mode on Commander difficulty without losing any soldier, and THAT was a major feat, I tell you. Ironman adds a lot to the game, you can't savescum from a risky missed shot, and actually start to be really afraid for your guys.

gibsonhouse 6y ago
I would recommend looking into the game Xenonauts. it captures some of that flavour.
- sergiosgc 6y ago
  Xenonauts is good, but Firaxis' Xcom 2 is better. The original atmosphere is very well reproduced, with more recent graphics and a decent storyline.
PhaedrusV 6y ago
Agree on all points. There's a total conversion mod for the original X-COM: UFO Defense that is amazing, and being actively worked on. New updates every month or so. Hundreds more hours in the campaign. Set a few hundred years after X-COM loses, and earth is a radiated wasteland when some intrepid mutant gals start to fight back against the "Star Lords". It's called xPiratez. Rated a soft "R" for gratuitous pixellated boobage.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  TIL about the existence of OpenXCom, so I guess I know where my next weekend will go...
  - PhaedrusV 6y ago
    Yeah, it breathed new life into the basic game in a big way. The mods, on the other hand, get pretty different.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
      Unfortunately, their website appears to be down, at least for the last couple of hours..
parksy 6y ago
The sense of mystery and dread that you mentioned touches on the only part of the article I disagreed with - the critique of the "pointless" weapons, of the game giving you a sub-par base and sub-par craft to begin with, and basically no guidance is what made it such an adventure. X-Com (the organisation) truly feels like a hastily slapped together ragtag bunch in the beginning. Governments have thrown money at a problem with no real plan or strategy and whipped up something ASAP. They want results and it's your job to deliver them. You're the expert, they're more than happy to pull out if you fail. You are probably unprepared, but no one had any idea how unprepared, something you very quickly learn after your first encounter. That elite squad you outfitted with all of mankind's best aircraft, armour and weapons? Just got owned in their first encounter. Medkits? Basically useless when you're being melted by a single plasma rifle charge. The clutter and disarray really drives home just how vastly outgunned humans are in the beginning and the story driven by player experience would suffer greatly if all the "useless" stuff was pared back and the starting condition pre-optimised. Otherwise a great article.
- IggleSniggle 6y ago
  Yes, this is it! The special sauce of the original is that there is so much mystery; "Enemy Unknown" is the whole idea. While I love the Firaxis reboot, and think it has better gameplay, I'm not sure it's strictly a better game. It all feels so clean and organized, and it's always clear what needs to be done. There's no sense of bureaucratic panic, wasted time on pointless tech-trees, or over-investment in a singular hail-mary plan that is completely foolhardy only in retrospect. The discovery portion of XCOM matched with the dreadful mystery of XCOM, overlaid by unknown levels of complexity, is what makes the game feel real/alive. It makes the gamespace feel much more wide-open than it really is. When you first experience your own base under attack, the feeling is "holy shit I didn't even know this could happen and wow I did not plan appropriately for this eventuality!" In the reboot, it mostly just feels like another mission, where the layout is totally decoupled from the actual decisions you've made. And you're much more likely to have trained commandos at homebase rather than a ragtag bunch of rookies with "failed experiments" gear (eg laser tech and maybe some grenades lying around). That's just one more example to illustrate how the original XCOM was as much about creating tension through the limitless possibilities of the unknown. Each and every decision was less like a chess game and more like a desperate gambit.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but wish to add that one thing I really didn't care for about the newer X-Com games was that the reverse difficulty carve is significantly more pronounced than it was in the original. Ironman helps a little, but it still feels like the real game is all in the beginning and you're just going through the motions after that.
pier25 6y ago
> Ironman adds a lot to the game, you can't savescum from a risky missed shot, and actually start to be really afraid for your guys. I don't savescum... but I've had a couple of bugs or glitches with the reboots that I'm afraid to start an ironman game and not be able to go back to a previous turn.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  You can still backup save files in Ironman on Steam actually, it's just too messy to use all the time for a failed shot. But it is better to save once in a while than lose the entire game, like I had once in UE4, ruining a very promising world conquest.
sandworm101 6y ago
Try "Xenonauts", a recent remake of X-com using the original mechanics. It isn't a direct port, they have added a couple mechanics in areas like air combat, but it is 95% x-com with better graphics. My want: Xenonauts + TFTD. TFTD was the pinnacle of the x-com franchise imho. That opening sequence, and all the sound, was amazing. I still hear TFTD sounds being reused in modern scifi.
- Natsu 6y ago
  There's a Xenonauts 2 that's in the works, though it has no fixed release date yet. I have it on my Steam wishlist.
  - sandworm101 6y ago
    Well, if they are the "spiritual successor" to the X-com franchise, Xenonauts 2 will have to be horrible. If they called it "Xenonauts: Fear the Depths" then I would be hopeful.
- chaostheory 6y ago
  One of the creators of X-com released his own game recently: Phoenix Point https://phoenixpoint.info/ https://phoenixpoint.info/
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    But it's terrible.
    - chaostheory 6y ago
      It was a few months ago, but it looks like they keep patching it. I played it a few days ago and it was much better. Could pull a No Man's Sky.
    - rasz 6y ago
      X-COM: Apocalypse was also terrible, proving Julian Gollop was simply lucky and at the right time meeting right people.
Natsu 6y ago
> I actually managed to beat X-Com 2 in Ironman mode on Commander difficulty without losing any soldier, and THAT was a major feat, I tell you. Dodging save corruption is itself impressive :)
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  Actually I did backups every few hours, but so far I never encountered savefile corruption in x-com games. Happened to me a few times in ck2/eu4 though.
skocznymroczny 6y ago
For me the best part of X-Com is when you actually learn the mechanics of the game. When you learn the missions that aliens do, recognize how the ships look like. If you see three-four supply ships on the ground you know they're either resupplying or building a colony. Do you attack the colony, or harvest the supply ships that come regularly? Look at the chart. Seeing extremely high alien activity in some remote country? High odds there's an alien base there.

gibsonhouse 6y ago

I would recommend looking into the game Xenonauts. it captures some of that flavour.

sergiosgc 6y ago
Xenonauts is good, but Firaxis' Xcom 2 is better. The original atmosphere is very well reproduced, with more recent graphics and a decent storyline.

PhaedrusV 6y ago

Agree on all points. There's a total conversion mod for the original X-COM: UFO Defense that is amazing, and being actively worked on. New updates every month or so. Hundreds more hours in the campaign. Set a few hundred years after X-COM loses, and earth is a radiated wasteland when some intrepid mutant gals start to fight back against the "Star Lords". It's called xPiratez. Rated a soft "R" for gratuitous pixellated boobage.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
TIL about the existence of OpenXCom, so I guess I know where my next weekend will go...
- PhaedrusV 6y ago
  Yeah, it breathed new life into the basic game in a big way. The mods, on the other hand, get pretty different.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
    Unfortunately, their website appears to be down, at least for the last couple of hours..

parksy 6y ago

The sense of mystery and dread that you mentioned touches on the only part of the article I disagreed with - the critique of the "pointless" weapons, of the game giving you a sub-par base and sub-par craft to begin with, and basically no guidance is what made it such an adventure. X-Com (the organisation) truly feels like a hastily slapped together ragtag bunch in the beginning. Governments have thrown money at a problem with no real plan or strategy and whipped up something ASAP. They want results and it's your job to deliver them. You're the expert, they're more than happy to pull out if you fail. You are probably unprepared, but no one had any idea how unprepared, something you very quickly learn after your first encounter. That elite squad you outfitted with all of mankind's best aircraft, armour and weapons? Just got owned in their first encounter. Medkits? Basically useless when you're being melted by a single plasma rifle charge. The clutter and disarray really drives home just how vastly outgunned humans are in the beginning and the story driven by player experience would suffer greatly if all the "useless" stuff was pared back and the starting condition pre-optimised. Otherwise a great article.

IggleSniggle 6y ago
Yes, this is it! The special sauce of the original is that there is so much mystery; "Enemy Unknown" is the whole idea. While I love the Firaxis reboot, and think it has better gameplay, I'm not sure it's strictly a better game. It all feels so clean and organized, and it's always clear what needs to be done. There's no sense of bureaucratic panic, wasted time on pointless tech-trees, or over-investment in a singular hail-mary plan that is completely foolhardy only in retrospect. The discovery portion of XCOM matched with the dreadful mystery of XCOM, overlaid by unknown levels of complexity, is what makes the game feel real/alive. It makes the gamespace feel much more wide-open than it really is. When you first experience your own base under attack, the feeling is "holy shit I didn't even know this could happen and wow I did not plan appropriately for this eventuality!" In the reboot, it mostly just feels like another mission, where the layout is totally decoupled from the actual decisions you've made. And you're much more likely to have trained commandos at homebase rather than a ragtag bunch of rookies with "failed experiments" gear (eg laser tech and maybe some grenades lying around). That's just one more example to illustrate how the original XCOM was as much about creating tension through the limitless possibilities of the unknown. Each and every decision was less like a chess game and more like a desperate gambit.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but wish to add that one thing I really didn't care for about the newer X-Com games was that the reverse difficulty carve is significantly more pronounced than it was in the original. Ironman helps a little, but it still feels like the real game is all in the beginning and you're just going through the motions after that.

pier25 6y ago

> Ironman adds a lot to the game, you can't savescum from a risky missed shot, and actually start to be really afraid for your guys. I don't savescum... but I've had a couple of bugs or glitches with the reboots that I'm afraid to start an ironman game and not be able to go back to a previous turn.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
You can still backup save files in Ironman on Steam actually, it's just too messy to use all the time for a failed shot. But it is better to save once in a while than lose the entire game, like I had once in UE4, ruining a very promising world conquest.

sandworm101 6y ago

Try "Xenonauts", a recent remake of X-com using the original mechanics. It isn't a direct port, they have added a couple mechanics in areas like air combat, but it is 95% x-com with better graphics. My want: Xenonauts + TFTD. TFTD was the pinnacle of the x-com franchise imho. That opening sequence, and all the sound, was amazing. I still hear TFTD sounds being reused in modern scifi.

Natsu 6y ago
There's a Xenonauts 2 that's in the works, though it has no fixed release date yet. I have it on my Steam wishlist.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  Well, if they are the "spiritual successor" to the X-com franchise, Xenonauts 2 will have to be horrible. If they called it "Xenonauts: Fear the Depths" then I would be hopeful.
chaostheory 6y ago
One of the creators of X-com released his own game recently: Phoenix Point https://phoenixpoint.info/ https://phoenixpoint.info/
- jeffbee 6y ago
  But it's terrible.
  - chaostheory 6y ago
    It was a few months ago, but it looks like they keep patching it. I played it a few days ago and it was much better. Could pull a No Man's Sky.
  - rasz 6y ago
    X-COM: Apocalypse was also terrible, proving Julian Gollop was simply lucky and at the right time meeting right people.

Natsu 6y ago

> I actually managed to beat X-Com 2 in Ironman mode on Commander difficulty without losing any soldier, and THAT was a major feat, I tell you. Dodging save corruption is itself impressive :)

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
Actually I did backups every few hours, but so far I never encountered savefile corruption in x-com games. Happened to me a few times in ck2/eu4 though.

skocznymroczny 6y ago

For me the best part of X-Com is when you actually learn the mechanics of the game. When you learn the missions that aliens do, recognize how the ships look like. If you see three-four supply ships on the ground you know they're either resupplying or building a colony. Do you attack the colony, or harvest the supply ships that come regularly? Look at the chart. Seeing extremely high alien activity in some remote country? High odds there's an alien base there.