NEWBIE - XCOM and Shadowrun? Same type of game?

[ChrisPharmD]

First of all, I'm scared. I've owned these games and their successors for a very long time. I've heard they use the same battle mechanics and run on the same engine. Is that true? Same developer?

I think I'm going to try XCOM: Enemy Unknown first. And I know this game is hard.

There are so many titles and DLC and talk about these games. What do you think is a good order to play this all in?

Also, is there any "I wish I knew before playing this game" things?

Thanks! :)

[asd]

I played Shadowrun years ago. It was an ok game. However, not because of its "tactical" combat. I think the mechanics into a little bit more detail than XCOM, however the AI is not very good in Shadowrun. The way I remember it, you also can't take cover behind many objects that you should be able to use for cover. That is not the case in XCOM. Nearly anything can be used as cover, which makes the game much less annoying to play.

I'd play Enemy Within first. Enemy Unknown is almost obsolete. Enemy Within is the same game, but with less bugs, more maps and some more gameplay features.

And then if you liked it, get XCOM 2. It's more of the same, but they improved many of the issues of Enemy Within. But you might, or might not like the changes introduced. The timers for example. However, the game has a much better mod support than Enemy Within, so you can download nearly anything from the workshop to customize your experience.

Speaking of modding there is also Long War for Enemy Within. If you completed vanilla EW, then you should give Long War a try. It makes the game longer (what a surprise) but it will also be a lot more difficult. Enemies get upgraded over time, and many UFOs will appear in the skies that you will need to shoot down... so good luck I guess. But on the bright side your soldiers also have a lot more tools at their disposal, more soldier classes, items, you can take more soldiers into battle etc... it's a great mod.


But if you're looking for something more realistic (well as realistic as shooting aliens from space can be) and more simulation-like (Enemy Within plays more like a board game...) then you could give the old X-COM games a try. But if you are turned off by dated graphics then I'd try X-COM Apocalypse (it has okay graphics, it's playable... at least for me) or Xenonauts (it's pretty much a remake of the original X-COM, however unlike Enemy Unknown, Xeonauts stayed true to the X-COM formula, without changing the gameplay too much)

[ChrisPharmD]

Originally posted by Tabus:

I played Shadowrun years ago. It was an ok game. However, not because of its "tactical" combat. I think the mechanics into a little bit more detail than XCOM, however the AI is not very good in Shadowrun. The way I remember it, you also can't take cover behind many objects that you should be able to use for cover. That is not the case in XCOM. Nearly anything can be used as cover, which makes the game much less annoying to play.

I'd play Enemy Within first. Enemy Unknown is almost obsolete. Enemy Within is the same game, but with less bugs, more maps and some more gameplay features.

And then if you liked it, get XCOM 2. It's more of the same, but they improved many of the issues of Enemy Within. But you might, or might not like the changes introduced. The timers for example. However, the game has a much better mod support than Enemy Within, so you can download nearly anything from the workshop to customize your experience.

Speaking of modding there is also Long War for Enemy Within. If you completed vanilla EW, then you should give Long War a try. It makes the game longer (what a surprise) but it will also be a lot more difficult. Enemies get upgraded over time, and many UFOs will appear in the skies that you will need to shoot down... so good luck I guess. But on the bright side your soldiers also have a lot more tools at their disposal, more soldier classes, items, you can take more soldiers into battle etc... it's a great mod.


But if you're looking for something more realistic (well as realistic as shooting aliens from space can be) and more simulation-like (Enemy Within plays more like a board game...) then you could give the old X-COM games a try. But if you are turned off by dated graphics then I'd try X-COM Apocalypse (it has okay graphics, it's playable... at least for me) or Xenonauts (it's pretty much a remake of the original X-COM, however unlike Enemy Unknown, Xeonauts stayed true to the X-COM formula, without changing the gameplay too much)

Aw man thanks for the detailed reply! Okay, awesome. I'm glad you warned me about not starting with Enemy Unknown. I'll start with EW. As far as XCOM 2, I bought that at retail price for some reason that I cannot explain. It was one of those things where I'd see it pop up on Steam over and over again, and the pressure got to me. So I bought it. And this was when it first came out!

I have seen footage of the old XCOM and I will say that the graphics are a bit of a turn off. Don't get me wrong, I love some classic games like 90s cRPGs but I really can't. I tried Wasteland 1 and I just... nah...

The other games you mentioned, I will definitely look into them. However, I'm kind of on a budget at the current moment. That budget meaning zero dollars. haha I'm saving up for Summer Steam Sale and I want to see what's going to happen there first before I buy anymore games this year.

I have bought way too many games this year. With Playstation dropping Persona 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn and Nioh.... Nier as well. I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on games this year. So, even if these games are super cheap, I really need to chill out and be patient until the Summer Sale.

Not to mention, my list of games already is just through the roof of unplayed content. There's so much just there that hasn't even been touched. But I definitely can look into the mod for these games.

Also, I will look at those other games and scope them out for a later date. I just really need to halt all gaming purchases, no matter how cheap. lol

Thank you again for your detailed reply! It was really helpful!

[Traul]

Even if the systems have similarities, the two games are completely different. Shadowrun is a story-driven RPG. Combats are easy-ish on purpose because too much reloading would break immersion. Xcom is a hardcore tactical game with an excuse of a backstory mostly there to provide an end.

[Bilateralrope]

One thing that annoyed me about Shadowrun Returns and Dradonfall is that everyone has more HP (relative to weapon damage) than XCOM, so combat is much slower. Then another wave of enemies appears.

With XCOM, I usually finished a fight with a pod of aliens in a single turn. Sometimes it took two if I screwed up my tactics or woke up too many aliens in one go.

The end result is that Shadowrun fights were less interesting.

[ChrisPharmD]

I'm having some crashing issues :O

I played the tutorial and at the end, I got a CTD. I Googled it, unchecked Steam sync, verified cache, turned off V-Sync, turned off framerate smoothing, and set the game to borderless windowed.

I replayed it, and I have not had another crash yet. I made it to the beginning of the first non-tutorial mission... and now I'm sleepy and going to bed. lol

The visuals are much better than I had anticipated. I guess I was expecting a Wasteland 2 type visual experience, but this game has way better visuals.

[DiamondPearl]

you get used to the graphics. they are not really that bad