X-COM: UFO Defense (1994)

Stone. Cold. Classic. Absolute perfect game in every way. No notes. Nothing to add.

Ok, I will calm down.

Really, I have played this game more times than I care to admit. Every time I spend a week re-experiencing the thrill of fighting those asshole Ethereals and the scary-as-fuck Chryssalids. Man, the Base Management part of this game IS SO FREAKING satisfying and the action part holds up so, so well.

I actually made fun of the person who showed me this game the first time they tried to tell me how awesome it was, I just saw the Geoscape and the base mechanic and told them "wow, great Excel simulator, dude". That is one of those minor regrets I will always have because at the time I did not know this person was showing me one of my favorite games ever. Two weeks later this game is all I wanted to talk about. Ten year old me was a complete idiot, really.

On a minor note: I have the sound effects of this game etched in my memory permanently.

Played through this with openxcom and the gog game files.

Very brutal at the beginning even with lots of mid-battlescape reloading (I did that a ton, luckily my x-com invented limited time travel first before taking on aliens).

A little repetitive later on, tedious to completely clear out larger sized UFOs over and over again, and to adequately train everyone (how about dedicated training facility mods? Probably already a mod for that). Eventually once I had what I needed to get to the end I stopped doing ground missions and fast forwarded to having done the research, maybe finished the game within 11 months in-game.

I think I was slow to get psionics, also slow in other early research options before I consulted the ufopeadia. Had the in-mission psionic training mod turned on, eventually had a fun squad so powerful that they could relay mind control every sectoid in a single turn- that was useful for the the final missions, I used a mind controlled Ethereal to finish the game.

It would be interesting (and either already done or possible to do with openxcom mods) if some types of aliens had coordination AI to attack you on multiple sides in the same turn.

Tons of fun to shoot out half the walls on a farmhouse to get through to targets hiding inside from half the map away- leveling it with a rocket is a little too easy and too destructive on the other hand.

Near misses ought to increase likelihood of panic on both sides (or is that already true?).

A graphical scenario/battlescape-save editor for openxcom would be nice, I'd like to set up a base entrance defense level with my squad in an armored bunker and tons of sectoids and others on all sides- but they would need the AI to want to converge on the base rather than wandering.

For the past week, I've been playing the X-PirateZ total conversion for the OpenXcom (front end?) pretty much nonstop, and it's the most amazing thing i've seen. Not only is this the nicest mod i think i've yet to play since Counter Strike, it's also my intro to OpenXcom which is loaded with some really nice improvements to the basic engine and allows a lot of option tweaking. (I was immediately impressed with autodetecting my main displays max widescreen resolution, something I don't think i've ever seen a game do!) In any case the game X-PirateZ is a quality tested and balanced conversion that respects the spirit and play style of X-Com and adds lots of twists to tactics and R&D. I was actually afraid I would not like it. I snubbed this as some lame pirate game. Trust me don't snub this off if you like the rich mythos of XCOM and feel that pirates is just 'too weird' or 'uncanon' because BOOM it's so Cannon, get it? yo ho ho...

The game world is really interesting and it's a fun take on the whole research the interesting world type of storytelling that is imo the strong fascination that brings an xcom player to become an xcom fan. We have tons of factions and a very dystopian world that emerges some several hundred or so years after the aliens invade and xcom fails. What we see is what remains of the earth after the aliens have more or less conquered earth and moved on. So the research, factions, mythos and all the creative ideas at work actually fit well in the xcom setting and should please virtually any xcom player who appreciated that sort of thing. The music fits this mood too. It's a rockin chiptune (Amiga style) of a badass artist who self describes himself as neo-straylight productions (Unreal Tournament, Alexander Brandon, Necros, etc) and that's not far from the truth. Top notch tracker type music is rocking and it gives the game this very cyberpunky edgy feel that fits right in. And the background art is top notch slick stuff that borders between the fantasy art stuis of Heavy Metal, luis royo, and various sci fi fantasy type lurid pulp stuff. I love this kind of stylized stuff in games that just feels right.

All this fluff builds up the 'role' you play command/control of a bunch of postapoc warrior mutant cyberpunkin hypersexualized women pirates.

OMG What's not to like?

Atmospherics aside, on to the game. I really like (and approve) of some of the gameplay mechanics and changes that this mod comes with. TBH, the base XCOM is a bit bland, especially in the beginning. You have a squad of anywhere from maybe 6-12 units, and let's be honest, there is no real need to outfit or customize the loadout. You can pretty much neglect most of the gear in the game by researching a laser pistol, from there a laser rifle and you can pretty much jump stragith to plasma without much need to really resaerch anything but those three weapons and a medit and alien grenades. That's it. you don't even need to give pistols to the guy with the motion scanner (or even use it) and psionics are interesting but a bit bland as well... This was imo where XCOM has a chink in it's armor... Most of the research has to do with building a better aircraft and just telling the story (fluff) than actually helping you with tactical combat. This is my main gripe with XCOM and its one reason i found myself not replaying XCOM UFO Defense but always drawn to Apocalypse because the tactical combat was *much* more diverse. (And let me tell you... once I came across Jagged Alliance 2, I simply got out of my federally funded bases altogether and moved straight on into that crackhouse. Didn't even think twice about it!)

Anyway with You could destroy terrain (often penalty) set buildings on fire, use frag grenades to blow up plants/cover/curtains in temple raids on cult of sirious, supressive fire, mix armor pieces, there were many things you could do that made combat much more interesting. In this game X-Piratez (i'm just going to call it a game and not a mod) you can really get clever with your units as you have a lot of weapons you accumulate real fast and you can decide what you want to use. They are stat based and you gain levels when you use your stats (so use equipped weapons levels up associated stats) so this lets you spec them. This statbuilding is pretty big for the game imo. It gives you role playing element and lets you diversify. It makes things more interesting.

My favorite is definitely melee weapons. And melee weapons themselves are very diverse in what stats they can build. Standard knives/daggars rely on a forumula of STR and reactions, so you can give shootsy guys knives to get the bonus of firing back with pistols as interrupts, and you can have your big heavier guys have two handed swords, massive hammers (for armor) or a combo of maces and rapier if you want something lighter to say combine with shotguns. you also have a mod present that allows for a very intersting weapon 'handedness' system

one handed (knives, pistols, etc no penalties when use one handed)

two handed prefereably (basic rifles and shotguns and some of the bigger SMGs or samurai swords, some penalty, negated often at close range, burst fire, etc.)

two handed only (massive hammers, RPGs, you get the idea)

Combined with the speccing, this handedness gives you so much freedom to do all kinds of different stuff. You actually get curious about how gear works, and experiment constantly. Also, it doesnt seem like you can really screw up your builds, since you aren't really pressured to make progress (you just have to not get too crazy with your budget really). I tweak the load outs of my crew every mission depending on who is wounded who is there, how many i have what i have surplus ammo of, etc. It's great because you actually will use a lot of the weapons and learn how the game works, what works better for your style etc. You can also find really interesting gear and it will cause your playstyle to shift, for example. i killed some faction that had space marine type power armor and i gave that to a solo bike raiding unit. he can fly on the integrated jet pack and at night is most effective and using a samurai sword and a self charging laspistol. A++ That armor is like way up the tech tree. You can literally find yourself with tribal armor and energy weapons or power armor and baseball bats depending on how you've done your research and what your raiding parties yield. It almost sounds silly but it works great, and It's fun.

I also love night missions (or even day). Nothing like sending your four Riddicks into the thick of the night with stabby slashy weapons and dispatching them silently I really like it. (there is a kind of alert mechanic present, like jagged alliance 2, omg i'm fiending just writing about it) and mopping up the last remaining few with your guns if need be, or bashing them over the head with the butt of your rifle for research or hostage/ransom purposes. It seems a lot of playesr like smoke cover and melee type raid tactics and never look back, you can do it fairly early on in the Research tree and it's really hard to beat and the best thing about knives and some weapons is they cut through armor very nicely, so you can do high level raiding and get some pretty sweet loot if you are up for it/scumming a bit.

While it's maybe not perfect, it's really good. But most important is that it is big enough to let you play around and try things, and find what you like and that's what matters. There is a really interesting balance effort between different gear setups, armor and weapons. (the basic flintlock rifle you start out with has quite a bit of utility in the sense it is cheap, and doubles as a rather decent melee weapon, and it gets some upgrades later too, like a bayonett, and chemical munitions, as do shotguns when you run into armored opponents) Heck there is so much stuff. There's all kinds of different healing items. Everything from bandages to group healing, morale banners, booze bottles in your quickdraw holster, to even special 'outfits' that give you powers/abilities.

in UFO Defense you had to do things on a certain unnaounced time table. You had to make certain concessions and there were certain kinds of things that you had to do, and get them done. Also in combat you could get stuck in some situations (like terror missions were very hard if you didnt have proper research) This isn't quite as bad. it's not so hard and you dont get little 'gotcha' penalties (like a bunch of chrysalids in a terror mission about to eat the last hostage you dont know about) the way you play at your own pace. So you can mess around. you're not suppose to attack civilian ships but if you feel like it one day because nothing else shows up? OK, we can be a little bad, we are pirates after all right????

So, cult of sirius is back! you can do raids and kidnap the priests for ransom and research YO HO HO. I only wish there were more frequency of the special missions but they just 'happen' and you have a time limit to engage them. there are several like this Also there are 'terror missions' but they twisted it a bit and turned it into something that imo is a lot better and more fun (i just wasnt really a fan of the SWAT type dynamic entry tactics and hostage saving vs killing off the chrysalids asap, very random results and put too much pressure on the player from sheer chance) Normal missions are not really the same either: You can engage UFO's/encounters at your own convenience and comfort, rather than take great lengths to chase after every single one (including the ones you don't see) and because the factions are different it offers so much more variety to what your standard down the ship and fight the surivviors type scenario is like. You kind of never know what you will get.

I have to say I almost wrote this game off because it was about pirates and glad i gave it a chance, because its probably the most fun i've had playing a game 2016:

Great concept design, style
interseting backstory
rockin soundtrack
great mechanics upgrade
tons of freedom
very creative spiritual successor that adds depth, freedom, and does not detract from spirit of the original.
Temple Raids
Free, and fun (The best things in life)

6 out of 5 due to it being a small crew (technically just one guy but he used others people's stuff) and its free. You cant beat this. Def the most addictive tactical crack i've seen since JA2 wildfire... Should i reccomend or should i reccomend you stay away?