How linear is this game?

[bipoqrlz]

I'm kind of on the fence with this and I just wanted to know if this game is linear. I looked arround and couldnt find an answer, so does the game have set missions and levels that makes the game the same experience over and over or is it kind of how Civilization is where there are multiple choices you can make to win the game/screw yourself over?

[Barawin]

Damn Quilla, for someone who dislikes this game, you spend a tremendous amount of time on it's forum! I see you bashing it on every thread I read.

The examples you chose are arguable. Dragon Age, for instance, is rather linear. You have chapters to complete to progress in the story, and side quests to spend time between the major set points. You even have a serie specifically named "main plot" to keep track of next thing to do! It's rather similar to your "DO THIS! NOW!" comment...

Same goes with XCOM:EU. There are steps to complete to progress, and side missions between those steps. It's no more, no less linear than Dragon Age.

I don't see much difference in the way the game progresses between them. They are both linear in the fact that you need to go through pre-set missions to progress, and they are both non-linear in the fact that you may delay those main missions until you feel ready to complete them cleanly, doing side quests/missions to improve the skills of your team in the meantime.

[Jatekos]

Messaggio originale di Barawin:

Damn Quilla, for someone who dislikes this game, you spend a tremendous amount of time on it's forum! I see you bashing it on every thread I read.

You must not read many threads because I've only posted in like 4 or 5 threads in the past 2 days. Chill dude.

[Poor Dick]

Messaggio originale di Quilla:

You must not read many threads because I've only posted in like 4 or 5 threads in the past 2 days. Chill dude.

For a lot of us, that's a lot of threads.

[cRaZy eYes]

Messaggio originale di bipoqrlz:

Alright so pretty much what I got from this is there is a main quest that is linear but I have the option to do it whenever as various side missions pop as time progress, giving me as much time needed to promote troops and conduct research. Is this accurate?

Yes.

[Old Miser]

Please, don't say the linearity of the remake is the same as in the original. It's not. The original was one of my all time favorite games, and I played it over and over and over again. Yes, the path to victory might be always the same, but in the original, opposite to the remake, you had an infinity of options which made every game a completely different one.

COMPARISON:

Here are some comparisons, so you can understand my point:
1 - In the original you could have as many bases as you pleased. In the remake you're stick with 1.
2 - In the original you could have as many assault ships as you wanted. In the remake you have only 1 for the entire game.
3 - In the original, each turn during battles, you're told what's the soldier "energy" and you can choose how to spend it, in any way you choose. In the remake, basically, each turn your soldier has to make a move, and take a shot, or make two moves, etc. The battle is way more limited in the remake.
4 - The original has more weapons.
5 - The original has more stuff to be researched.
6 - The buy/sell item option in the original is realistic and complete, while in the remake it's awkward and limited.
7 - The original had more enemies, more alien crafts, more air crafts, more building options.
8 - On the original, you had to figure out what to do by yourself, by actually reading the researched results and guessing on what to do, and it still wasn't very clear. On the remake, you have an "objective" box that tells you what the next step is in a single sentence. As someone said before, even though you can postpone doing what the game tells you to do, there's no real point in doing so.
9 - The list goes on...

On the other hand...
1 - The remake has better graphics (obviously) and some cool video clips.
2 - The remake introduced some nice new features, like the Training School, the Foundry and a few others.

MY OPINION:

If you don't care about graphics, and you don't want the game telling you exactly what to do next, go with the original. You can't go wrong. It's amazing.
If you think good graphics are essential, and/or you like games that straight ahead tell you what to do next, go with the remake.

MY EXPERIENCE:

Just finished the remake for the first time on classic difficulty. Feel like I'm never going to play it again.
Beat the original in super-human about 10 times. Feel like re-installing it right now.

[Aleera]

Kinda of a big necrothread there Old Miser, please let sleeping dogs be. :)

[Mandemon]

Micer... you kinda missed what "linearity" is.

I present you a challenge. Beat the original without doing following steps in following order:

1: Capture any alien
2: Capture either alien commander or leader
3: Research Cydonia or Bust
4: Capture alien commander (even if you captured and interrogated commander in step 2, you still need to repeat step 4... by getting yourself a new commander)
5: Research Avenger
6: Assault Cydonia

You can't. That's linearity. Linearity is not "I can only build one base". Linearity that you only have one path.

Both games have only one path to victory, but how or when you complete each step. XCOM gives you a goal to reach, "Capture alien", "Capture Outsider", "Assault Alien Base" etc. etc.

But how and when you do those, it leaves to you. Both are equally linear.