I think before I discuss Mythos Games and Microprose's UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-Com: UFO Defense: It's one of my favourite games ever. So fair warning, I'm kind of biased for it, but like my FF6 review I'm aiming to look at both how it stands up to modern approaches and how it stands for its own time.
That task is made both easier and tricker by the existence of a remake/reboot/re-imagining in the form of what is usually dubbed EU2012 by the cool kids: XCOM Enemy Unknown and the expansion, Enemy Within. This is something FF6 lacks, but shouldn't. HINT HINT SQUARE-ENIX. Anyway, as for that remake, well, I won't talk too much about it except comparing a few small aspects of it as a "modern approach" since, rather sadly, X-Com-like games and strategy games in general simply aren't as common these days. Most strategy games out there are either updated rereleases to older games like Age of Empires (HD re-release and new expansion of AoEII) or are F2P games using the name for some microtransaction based game like, er, Age of Empires (World Domination... possibly).
Anyway, let's start. In the-then near future of 1999, the Earth is under attack by Aliens. Harvesting resources, kidnapping cattle and people alike, and launching terror raids to make the puny humans surrender, the aliens have technology well in advance of our own. Powerful weapons, super-fast flying saucers, and terrifying psionic abilities, efforts to fight them as individual nations failed miserably. X-Com is formed by the nations of the world, funded by sixteen of the richest nations. They become the first, last, and only line of defence against the worst scum of the universe... before Will Smith even welcomed people to earf let alone rocked the suit and shades, might I add.
The game is said to have drawn inspiration from sources such as Gerry Anderson's UFO, where a secretive organisation fought an alien invasion, as well as many others. I personally speculate the rookies at least drew inspiration from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, alas forgetting they're not invincible. We'll get back to that when we discuss difficulty, but now, gameplay.
The game has been described as part management sim and part turn based strategy. The management portion is the Geoscape, a world map where you react to alien UFOs and control your bases and interceptors. The Geoscape also leads to the base screens, where you control the troops and resources at a base. You can purchase weak earth weapons, recruit troops, build new facilities, and also recruit scientists and engineers. The former will research captured alien materials and lifeforms, the latter can build either weapons researched by the scientists, or designs inspired by the research. The engineers also provide a second source of income outside the monthly council fund, via manufacturing and selling weapons and technology. This can become important to fund expanded bases: If you have two or more, on higher difficulties the monthly income from the council may not cover their costs.
A game over can occur on the geoscape influenced by events in management or in battle, either through lack of funds, or through low scoring against the aliens. Aliens and XCom score points for successful missions, but in order to score as the aliens expand their operations, you too will be forced to expand: And if you suffer high casualties and high mission failure rates, you lose cash and points, and eventually, the game. Luckily, the aliens don't score as well as you much of the time, and success in X-Com is, well, if not easy, it's at least fair to say the definition of failure is flexible.
For instance, in the battle leading to those stats, despite the loss of five from six civilians and twelve from fourteen X-Com operatives, the main reason I scored a 'Good' was that many of the aliens I killed were actually Chryssalids made from the dead civvies and squaddies. We'll get back to them in the difficulty bit too..
The combat portion of the game is known as the Battlescape. This is a turn-based isometric overview, where you control your units on various different battlefields against the various different aliens. Your troops start off very poorly armed and equipped, barely able to survive against the weakest alien weapons, and taking a few hits to down some weaker aliens on higher difficulties. Terrain can provide cover for both aliens and you, but can also be destroyed by explosions and gunfire. This is the main thrust of gameplay, the geoscape is important but most of the game itself is found shooting the aliens.
Fittingly, it's the most prominent area where we see how it stands for the time and to modern standards. First up, you can only fire and move one unit at a time, and there are no right-clicks. The interface menu also takes getting used to, as the icons lack any text indicators and rely on you remembering what is what. In the image below, the cursor is pointing at the inventory screen: clicking this will show us what Robert Taylor carries. However, the green bar below his name is his time units: What he can do this turn, which is pretty much nothing as it's at two. Below is stamina (spent running around), health (he's not been shot... yet!), and morale (lost when friends explode in showers of icky red goop, which again, hasn't happened... yet!).
The Chryssalids can be summed up in one word: AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. They're fast, they're tough, they run up and can kill even the toughest soldier in one hit, and the bad news is, they've often got the chance to make multiple hits. And the worse news? They breed. Your dead soldier becomes a zombie, you shoot the zombie, out pops another one of these. A chain reaction can happen and tear your entire force to shreds. They only show up in alien bases, battleships, downed terror ships, or terror missions: but the latter is where it's nasty, for there are civvies, soon to be zombies, as well as lots of little hiding places for them to lurk. At night, they can rush in along those nine squares you can see without your guys even reacting except to scream.
They're just one of the alien foes, though, and they're what is called terror units. There are Sectoids, "Grey" aliens who use psychic powers on you on occasion, and bring flying saucers called Cyberdiscs as their terror unit. Those are tough, needing heavy weapons or advanced weapons to drop them, and explode when they do die. Next are Floaters, who can fly, but are fortunately quite weak. They bring Reapers, massive bipedal balls of fur and teeth that are nasty if they get close, but easy to dodge... but tricky to kill with starting weapons unless you break out big guns. There are Mutons, tough aliens who take a lot of shots to go down most of the time. Their terror units are kind of rubbish: Silacoids which are just rocks that burn the ground, and Celatids, that actually can be dangerous if they're in range. There are the Ethereals, tough and every one of them psionic. Oh, and they can fly too. They bring the Sectopod, a bipedal war machine that takes strong lasers to down. As for the Chryssalids, they come along with Snakemen, who may look funny... but they can be dangerous too.
Graphically, the game may not be on par with PS4, but these were actually impressive graphics for the time, and they do a great job even today lending themselves to X-Com's strongest point: Atmosphere. It is the appearance of the graphics, the actions of the aliens, the uncertainty and the need to be on your toes that makes this game. It uses what it has and uses it well. It all combines to make a game that can be engrossing, challenging, tense and even frightening at times.
And that's something that's missing in modern games. There's information shown in game, helpful tips, enemies with glowing weak points, checkpoints. X-Com had save scumming, but that's optional and relies on you remembering to keep saving - something you may forget to do even if trying to save scum. Add in the nintendo-hard elements of your best guys dying to stray shots, and you have a game the likes of which we might not see again for a long time.
X-Com/UFO is a deserved classic, holding up strongly today thanks to how it was made. In being different to what is seen today it has arguably become stronger. It was somewhat different when it was released, but now, much like the older Resident Evil and Silent Hill games used their limitations to make atmosphere, X-Com remains one of the best games ever for it. A gem, albeit unpolished.... and covered in blood from all the dead rookies.... but a gem nonetheless. Even if it can be a bit obviously Nineties, and even if it will leave every player perplexed by the mystery of why the Aliens love Disco so much...
If you can, give it a go. I'm not saying you'll necessarily enjoy it, but I'm pretty sure that if you let it in, you'll see why it's a cult classic. And maybe you too will learn to fear the Chryssalids. If you haven't done so already. Just remember, if you're lucky, they'll kill you before they plant the egg... And they can pop up anywhere when you least expect it.
That task is made both easier and tricker by the existence of a remake/reboot/re-imagining in the form of what is usually dubbed EU2012 by the cool kids: XCOM Enemy Unknown and the expansion, Enemy Within. This is something FF6 lacks, but shouldn't. HINT HINT SQUARE-ENIX. Anyway, as for that remake, well, I won't talk too much about it except comparing a few small aspects of it as a "modern approach" since, rather sadly, X-Com-like games and strategy games in general simply aren't as common these days. Most strategy games out there are either updated rereleases to older games like Age of Empires (HD re-release and new expansion of AoEII) or are F2P games using the name for some microtransaction based game like, er, Age of Empires (World Domination... possibly).
Anyway, let's start. In the-then near future of 1999, the Earth is under attack by Aliens. Harvesting resources, kidnapping cattle and people alike, and launching terror raids to make the puny humans surrender, the aliens have technology well in advance of our own. Powerful weapons, super-fast flying saucers, and terrifying psionic abilities, efforts to fight them as individual nations failed miserably. X-Com is formed by the nations of the world, funded by sixteen of the richest nations. They become the first, last, and only line of defence against the worst scum of the universe... before Will Smith even welcomed people to earf let alone rocked the suit and shades, might I add.
Oh no, you did not shoot that green shit at me!
The game is said to have drawn inspiration from sources such as Gerry Anderson's UFO, where a secretive organisation fought an alien invasion, as well as many others. I personally speculate the rookies at least drew inspiration from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, alas forgetting they're not invincible. We'll get back to that when we discuss difficulty, but now, gameplay.
The game has been described as part management sim and part turn based strategy. The management portion is the Geoscape, a world map where you react to alien UFOs and control your bases and interceptors. The Geoscape also leads to the base screens, where you control the troops and resources at a base. You can purchase weak earth weapons, recruit troops, build new facilities, and also recruit scientists and engineers. The former will research captured alien materials and lifeforms, the latter can build either weapons researched by the scientists, or designs inspired by the research. The engineers also provide a second source of income outside the monthly council fund, via manufacturing and selling weapons and technology. This can become important to fund expanded bases: If you have two or more, on higher difficulties the monthly income from the council may not cover their costs.
A game over can occur on the geoscape influenced by events in management or in battle, either through lack of funds, or through low scoring against the aliens. Aliens and XCom score points for successful missions, but in order to score as the aliens expand their operations, you too will be forced to expand: And if you suffer high casualties and high mission failure rates, you lose cash and points, and eventually, the game. Luckily, the aliens don't score as well as you much of the time, and success in X-Com is, well, if not easy, it's at least fair to say the definition of failure is flexible.
Yeah... "Good"...
For instance, in the battle leading to those stats, despite the loss of five from six civilians and twelve from fourteen X-Com operatives, the main reason I scored a 'Good' was that many of the aliens I killed were actually Chryssalids made from the dead civvies and squaddies. We'll get back to them in the difficulty bit too..
The combat portion of the game is known as the Battlescape. This is a turn-based isometric overview, where you control your units on various different battlefields against the various different aliens. Your troops start off very poorly armed and equipped, barely able to survive against the weakest alien weapons, and taking a few hits to down some weaker aliens on higher difficulties. Terrain can provide cover for both aliens and you, but can also be destroyed by explosions and gunfire. This is the main thrust of gameplay, the geoscape is important but most of the game itself is found shooting the aliens.
Fittingly, it's the most prominent area where we see how it stands for the time and to modern standards. First up, you can only fire and move one unit at a time, and there are no right-clicks. The interface menu also takes getting used to, as the icons lack any text indicators and rely on you remembering what is what. In the image below, the cursor is pointing at the inventory screen: clicking this will show us what Robert Taylor carries. However, the green bar below his name is his time units: What he can do this turn, which is pretty much nothing as it's at two. Below is stamina (spent running around), health (he's not been shot... yet!), and morale (lost when friends explode in showers of icky red goop, which again, hasn't happened... yet!).
The image also shows us that Snakemen make their vindaloos far too strong. This was like that when we got here!
Though perhaps not as user-friendly as a modern interface, when you get used to it, it's fairly simple and does what is needed. It doesn't overwhelm with information or distract you with sparkling special effects telling you something you already knew, and it doesn't throw up "helpful" tips all the time. Some players may find that very enjoyable. It also can add a little to the difficulty of the game, as you need special items to view the alien's stats rather than having them hover around over them all the time.
The game itself however can be difficult. As noted, your troops start poorly armed. The aliens do not. Even on beginner mode they can take a rifle shot or two to go down, and that's assuming you hit, as sometimes your troops can literally miss the broad side of a barn. The aliens get better at shooting as the difficulty goes up, too: and even on beginner they can be very good shots. There are five difficulty levels, though a glitch in DOS versions (the version available on Steam via the Dosbox emulator) makes it reset to the easiest after the first battle. This has an unofficial patch via a program called XComutil, and is not present in the windows and playstation versions (the windows version also available on Steam, but less likely to work on modern versions of Windows). There are also no auto-saves. Everything is manual on your part.
Even the toughest armour and weapons you have can sometimes go down to a lucky shot, or fail to harm the enemy. Overconfidence can be fatal, and battles can swing on random chance as much as having the right tactics and gear. Aliens will shoot at you in your turn if they have points for reaction fire, making rushing around dangerous. You can do the same to them, of course: but often, you will be outnumbered, or forced to root them out from where they're camping behind closed doors or in small areas. Night time missions are even worse: you see less than half as far, and aliens can see the full twenty square range. Prepare to lose people without even seeing the shooter. Hell, they'll even shoot you if you try and throw a flare to light up an area ahead sometimes!
The aliens also have units with terrifying abilities, most notably, the Chryssalids.
The game itself however can be difficult. As noted, your troops start poorly armed. The aliens do not. Even on beginner mode they can take a rifle shot or two to go down, and that's assuming you hit, as sometimes your troops can literally miss the broad side of a barn. The aliens get better at shooting as the difficulty goes up, too: and even on beginner they can be very good shots. There are five difficulty levels, though a glitch in DOS versions (the version available on Steam via the Dosbox emulator) makes it reset to the easiest after the first battle. This has an unofficial patch via a program called XComutil, and is not present in the windows and playstation versions (the windows version also available on Steam, but less likely to work on modern versions of Windows). There are also no auto-saves. Everything is manual on your part.
Even the toughest armour and weapons you have can sometimes go down to a lucky shot, or fail to harm the enemy. Overconfidence can be fatal, and battles can swing on random chance as much as having the right tactics and gear. Aliens will shoot at you in your turn if they have points for reaction fire, making rushing around dangerous. You can do the same to them, of course: but often, you will be outnumbered, or forced to root them out from where they're camping behind closed doors or in small areas. Night time missions are even worse: you see less than half as far, and aliens can see the full twenty square range. Prepare to lose people without even seeing the shooter. Hell, they'll even shoot you if you try and throw a flare to light up an area ahead sometimes!
The aliens also have units with terrifying abilities, most notably, the Chryssalids.
No, not you, these guys are actually terrifying rather than annoying.
Yeah, that's it... JESUS CHRIST IT'S A CHRYSSALID GET IN THE SKYRANGER!
The Chryssalids can be summed up in one word: AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. They're fast, they're tough, they run up and can kill even the toughest soldier in one hit, and the bad news is, they've often got the chance to make multiple hits. And the worse news? They breed. Your dead soldier becomes a zombie, you shoot the zombie, out pops another one of these. A chain reaction can happen and tear your entire force to shreds. They only show up in alien bases, battleships, downed terror ships, or terror missions: but the latter is where it's nasty, for there are civvies, soon to be zombies, as well as lots of little hiding places for them to lurk. At night, they can rush in along those nine squares you can see without your guys even reacting except to scream.
Sometimes at night, fire helps. Sometimes, it doesn't.
Especially their vindaloo. That dead one? Farted himself through the roof and landed there. The UFO is like three screens away.
Graphically, the game may not be on par with PS4, but these were actually impressive graphics for the time, and they do a great job even today lending themselves to X-Com's strongest point: Atmosphere. It is the appearance of the graphics, the actions of the aliens, the uncertainty and the need to be on your toes that makes this game. It uses what it has and uses it well. It all combines to make a game that can be engrossing, challenging, tense and even frightening at times.
X-Com/UFO is a deserved classic, holding up strongly today thanks to how it was made. In being different to what is seen today it has arguably become stronger. It was somewhat different when it was released, but now, much like the older Resident Evil and Silent Hill games used their limitations to make atmosphere, X-Com remains one of the best games ever for it. A gem, albeit unpolished.... and covered in blood from all the dead rookies.... but a gem nonetheless. Even if it can be a bit obviously Nineties, and even if it will leave every player perplexed by the mystery of why the Aliens love Disco so much...
No, seriously.
If you can, give it a go. I'm not saying you'll necessarily enjoy it, but I'm pretty sure that if you let it in, you'll see why it's a cult classic. And maybe you too will learn to fear the Chryssalids. If you haven't done so already. Just remember, if you're lucky, they'll kill you before they plant the egg... And they can pop up anywhere when you least expect it.