[OT] X-Com

[Heretic Apostate]

Tell me about X-Com. I've read just the teensiest bit about it. Is it a real-time clickfest, or more of a turn-based strategy thing? Is there a tech tree? Which is the best, for someone who enjoys (but cheats to maximize the enjoyment ) the Civ series and SMAC/X?

 

[Lazybones]

Ah, X-Com. If you're talking about the original, it's a squad-scale turn-based tactical combat game within a larger game that focuses on base-building, resource management, and research trees.

Now, with all the cliches out of the way...

X-Com: UFO Defense is, IMHO, one of the ten best games ever made for the PC. The bulk of the game involves you taking a squad of 8-12 marines to investigate alien crash sites (and later, alien bases). The marines carry weapons that you bought and/or researched in the larger "macro" game, starting with slugthrowers and then grading up as you learn more about the alien technology. The game moves in "phases", with each marine having a number of "action points" based on his/her stats. You move all your marines, do combat actions/etc, then the aliens take their turn. If you saved some points you can do opportunity attacks while the aliens move.

Nothing beats rounding a corner with no action points left to see three or four aliens suddenly appear (the game has a dynamic LOS system, excellent music, and cool "mood"). By mid-game you'll find yourself using advanced squad tactics just to keep your squaddies alive (they improve the more missions they survive).

All this doesn't really capture the feel of the game (though just remembering it makes me want to go back and play it again). There were several sequels; X-COM: Terror from the Deep was an ocean-based mod that was strangely almost EXACTLY like the original game except with new names for the technologies and weapons and new skins for the aliens. X-COM: Apocalypse added a real-time option that was interesting, althougth the rest of the game wasn't as engaging. They did a space-based shooter set in the same universe that was just lame. Go for the original, X-COM: Ufo Defense. It's been given away as Freeware by PCGamer on one of their demo disks, and I've seen it in bargain bins for $5. A classic, and if you don't get hung up on the dated graphics, a BLAST to play.

 

[Black Omega]

X-Com was indeed a great game. I still have it on my PC and play it now and then, as a matter of fact.

Part of the fun is that your research for the tech tree includes certain research that advances the storyline as well as things that make your troops tougher in combat. Excellent build up, good variety of action, fairly tough opposition. None of the games that came after can live up to the original in gameplay, though the graphics do look dated obviously. Well worth the $5 or so you'll pay for it now.

 

[Darklance]

An excellent game. Very hard however.

 

[Lazybones]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...8042269/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/002-5418129-6066409

This might affect the availability of the original game, but I'm sure you could find it in a bargain bin somewhere.

Here's a review that claims that the game is the best ever (and discusses its high points): http://pc.ign.com/articles/084/084420p1.html

Here's a link to a playable demo (haven't tested it):
http://www.happypuppy.com/win/demos/xcomufodef1.html

 

[AegisEversoaring]

Former Lead Tester chimes in...

Glad to see some people still like XCOM, I thought it was one of the best near-RPGs ever created...
I'm the former MicroProse Lead Software Tester for the XCOM and Terror from the Deep products. I had a ton of fun testing and helping the development team make the game fun. Some of the other testers that worked on the product and I still talk about how we could have made the game better back then.
It is a pity there isn't a game out there now that is as challenging as XCOM, if there were, I'd be playing it right now!

Aegis Eversoaring AKA Vaughn Thomas, former test-lead for MicroProse Software

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Well, I have it, but I can't seem to play it. Even at 5 secs per tick, the game just moves too quickly. Within about 30 seconds of starting the game, I had three UFO sightings and one UFO terror.

Now, the CD came with a copy of MOSLO on it. I just can't figure out how to make it slow down the game. I've read the readme.txt file, and I type moslo /25 ufo.bat (the ufo.bat file defeats the copy protection; it came with the game, so it's not a hacker/piracy thing). Trouble is, that causes a fatal error and crashes the game.

Without MOSLO, I can't play because my computer is too fast. With MOSLO, the game crashes.

If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know. Black Omega, you say you still play it, so you must have solved this problem.

I have a Pentium 3 (don't know the clock speed, probably in the 700s), 128 MB of RAM (dang, I'm going to have to up that soon....), Windows ME (but I went and put back in the EMM386, so I have ALL types of memory; also, I run Norton Utilities two or three times a week, to clean up problems), and about 18 GB of hard drive available (out of 28 GB). If any of that is relevant to my problem.