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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 thi

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.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
Hey, don't offend Laser Rifles! First, they are a valuable source of income (second only to Light Alloys + Personal Armors production, but that requires 2 components and is also messy), and do not require any ammunition, firing endlessly. My every soldier carried an obligatory Laser Rifle in his backpack, taking it out and firing it every chance he had, achieving 3 objectives at once: - the more stuff you carry, the faster strength and TUs of a soldier grow - he always has a backup weapon with infinite ammo and decent damage - everytime your other units are searching for that last alien, you must choose some barn or cabbage and SHOOT at it at full auto, RAPIDLY rising shooting accuracy. In addition to laser rifles my commandoes always carry autocannons with HE or Incendiary ammo, creating havoc every time they can and scaring enemy to death. Later you can replace autocannons with Heavy Plasmas and those Blaster Launchers, but before that, it's the best way for heavy loading soldiers. The only downside to this is somewhat reduced TU count in the beginning, and you also have to set up the gear for every mission, which is a drag. Unfortunately, original XCom doesn't have loadout templates.
- andorov 6y ago
  Heh also firing a stun grenade into your ship at the end of a mission. Promotions for everyone!
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Unfortunately, original XCom doesn't have loadout templates. I remember downloading a savegame editor just to "cheat" and automate some of the equipment management. I shouldn't have to manually tell my soldiers to load ammo into their damn weapons, lol.
- type_enthusiast 6y ago
  I played this game though probably 100 times and never realized that repeatedly firing weapons is what improves a soldier's accuracy. So thanks for that. I mean, it makes perfect sense when you think about it, as long as you assume there is no other training that these soldiers go through behind the scenes. Which... Yeah.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago

Hey, don't offend Laser Rifles! First, they are a valuable source of income (second only to Light Alloys + Personal Armors production, but that requires 2 components and is also messy), and do not require any ammunition, firing endlessly. My every soldier carried an obligatory Laser Rifle in his backpack, taking it out and firing it every chance he had, achieving 3 objectives at once: - the more stuff you carry, the faster strength and TUs of a soldier grow - he always has a backup weapon with infinite ammo and decent damage - everytime your other units are searching for that last alien, you must choose some barn or cabbage and SHOOT at it at full auto, RAPIDLY rising shooting accuracy. In addition to laser rifles my commandoes always carry autocannons with HE or Incendiary ammo, creating havoc every time they can and scaring enemy to death. Later you can replace autocannons with Heavy Plasmas and those Blaster Launchers, but before that, it's the best way for heavy loading soldiers. The only downside to this is somewhat reduced TU count in the beginning, and you also have to set up the gear for every mission, which is a drag. Unfortunately, original XCom doesn't have loadout templates.

andorov 6y ago
Heh also firing a stun grenade into your ship at the end of a mission. Promotions for everyone!
JohnBooty 6y ago
Unfortunately, original XCom doesn't have loadout templates. I remember downloading a savegame editor just to "cheat" and automate some of the equipment management. I shouldn't have to manually tell my soldiers to load ammo into their damn weapons, lol.
type_enthusiast 6y ago
I played this game though probably 100 times and never realized that repeatedly firing weapons is what improves a soldier's accuracy. So thanks for that. I mean, it makes perfect sense when you think about it, as long as you assume there is no other training that these soldiers go through behind the scenes. Which... Yeah.