Don't listen to Veggie, there is a tutorial. It teaches you the basics of moving in the tactical map... Which is... You know, pretty standard RTS fair, you know, Right-Click to move/attack.... Wait, that's it.

As for the base part... Once again, dead simple to understand, perhaps if you've never ever played RTS's before you'd get confused, but it's not that hard at all. You put Researchers (Green Stat) into Labs and such, Technicans into Workshops and such, while using your Soldiers and Soldier + Tech/Research to fight.

If you've ever played UFO/XCOM/XCOM:EU you're going to understand the entire thing from the get go. You set research, you set production, you then let time run. You then defend your territories (many of which hold resources, which, once again, is so simple, each node = 1 resource, so if you have 2 Metal Mines, you can build anything that requires 2 Metal Mines as many times as you want) and attack others. At which point you go into the combat mode. While it isn't turn based, you can pause the game to issue orders, similar to other games like Dragon Age: Origin. You then gather loot, which opens up more research options.

Your NPC's all level up, Techs and Researches included. This is done by Soldiers via fighting battles, while for Tech + Researchers it is done by researching and producing/building. Every time a Soldier levels up, he gets a point to put into attributes, like Strength and Willpower (there are several) these stats in turn affect skills, like Aiming, Snap Shots, Manipulation, Charisma. Each attribute, when clicked, tells you want it improves and each skill tells you want it does. You also get Training Points to spend on various abilities, such as being able to Equip Heavy gear. As for non-combat NPC's, you can train them with Training Points too, these points go into things which help them speed up or improve various other things. Such as Research Speed or Production Speed.

Hybrid's are interesting, such as Soldier + Researcher, as while they are not as dedicated as others, you often need Researchers/Techs to go with you on combat missions in order to get various things. Which of course give benifits. Not to mention, you're not only getting human NPC's, but Alien's too, which have their own Training Point abilities.

The Conquest Map is pretty simple. You click areas to capture, then build stuff, which is all done automatically once ordered. If you get attacked, you're warned and a Red mark appears so you can click it and enter a fight to free it. If you expand far enough, you'll bounce into other races borders, at which point, you'll be able to invade their area and get their resources and such.


Overall, it's a DIRT CHEAP game which has lots going for it. Combat is decent, lots to research and upgrade, specific NPC's talk and argue with each other over stuff to do. It's enjoyable for the price and I recommend it to anybody who likes XCOM:EU/XCOM/UFO series, or perhaps Xenonauts. For £5.50, it isn't bad at all.

I also believe there were two prequels to this, UFO: Aftermath and UFO: Aftershock, both set in the same universe at different points in time.

Aftermath is fighting the Aliens
Aftershock is the rebellion
Afterlight is truce and leaving for Mars

I think. Can't remeber this late.

I've never played any previous XCOM or UFO game before XCOM: Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within which I DO love! But compared to this one, the latest XCOM is a little bit more board-game like and Afterlight is a little bit more complex without overstrain the gamer.

You'll like this game, if:

- you liked the most recent XCOM but looking for a more complex XCOM/UFO game
- you like strategy games generally
- you like squad-based strategy games with RPGs elements such as Jagged Alliance, Fallout Tactics

You'll probably don't like this (so I was told), if you're looking for an first hour XCOM successor or can't overlook the outdated graphics.

Let's get more detailed:

Afterlight is "more" real time like XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Let's say there is an enemy attack on one of your territories you have e.g. 3 days to react. In the mean time you can keep on training or squad (which takes time actually), keep on with the production and so on if you need to do so. The opportunity of the attack doesn't vanish if you ignore it just to do one day more of research or you need additional time for producing a item (that is instantly ready in XCOM: Enemy Unknown).

Also your scientists and technicians you take on a mission (which is quite a good idea because of some bonuses) are not available at your base and since getting to an attack spot needs a bit time it is important to manage well your base, squads and as well as the equipment.

In combat it reminds me a lot to Jagged Alliance. You just can't spray and pray on an enemy if one of your squadees is in line of sight because the travel distance is actually calculated instead of simple numbers on hitting a target or not hitting like in the latest XCOM. The odds are showed to you so you know what are the chances of hitting own soldiers, in such case, or the enemy.

The combat system is very transparent and is comparable to Jagged Alliance Back in Action (pausable real time with each individual plan for any squad member). I don't want to bad mouth the newest XCOM. I still love it and it features much better graphics, innately better customization possibilities for your soldiers and it is more user friendly (interface, micro- & macromanagement) and feels just "more modern".

This games got me hooked right from the beginning that many games aren't able to nowadays so you probably should get it.

Here's a game

this is a highly innovative but low quality member of the X-COM family of games. It has pausable real-time combat like X-COM: Apocalypse. You aren't able to recruit new team members so you basically have to do a mission restart if one of your guys gets killed (although you can have robots on your team and build more robots). Difficulty spikes a couple of times as game throws larger numbers of increasingly powerful enemies at you, but they basically just rush you with no special tactics or real coordination between enemies. The game also generates TONS of tactical missions, there are about 100 regions on Mars with missions to capture every one, enemies counter attack generating defense missions, and the tac missions are fairly repetitive with you taking the same squad/equipment on a dozen or more missions between upgrades. The game does a poor job of keeping you updated as to where you are and what you are doing and the tactical camera went nuts on me a couple of times in the Martian underground. Also the game sometimes hangs for 1-2 minutes while pathfinding in the tactical game.

CAUTION! This game will not run on modern Intel graphic drivers. It's an old (by now) bug, that have no workaround and seems to never be fixed.

Though game itself is pretty nice.

If you are wondering to buy or not to buy, first you must play Xcom. If you are the type of player who loves xcom and all the strategy in it, you will like this game!!

The tutorial is a mess and it takes a while to get used to all of the tabs within the game, but once you get it its addictive! Great game for its price.

I can see a lot of negative reviews about game not working at all. I have played it multiple times, also outside steam, and have never encountered any problems.

There is plenty of research, items, skills and weapons upgrades available. There are no nameless engineers/scientists presented as a count, but every member of your staff has its own skills so you have to manage them carefully - one may be good at researching certain technologies, the other at constructing outposts.

The game is really good.

UFO: the advanced pause simulator with quickload grinder

pros:
- you shoot at enemies
- nice graphics
- base/research is quite detailed (but confusing at first)

cons:
- if you get techs researched in wrong order it will be hard, very hard.
- camera angles are quirky
- limited amount of randomness in missions

overall nice, a bit challenging tactical game. if you try to go with guns blazing you will get your ass mowed and served to you :P recommended for ufo fans.

Best of UFO series, possibly even best from all UFO\X-COM series.

Very interesting story line, alive characters with history, that you can actually read. Nice overall gameplay, even bad scripted camera cant spoil the game. Without spoilering I can say, that you wont regret a minute spent in this game. Its a jewel, that must be in your collection, and jewel, that must be played till the end at least once. This game have some modding potential, just check the web for it, but its good even without mods.

Gameplay Strategy = 10/10 (Science, Production, Base development... the best I saw)
Gameplay Tactics = 8/10 (minor camera bugs and AI route problems, but great in all other aspects)
Graphics\design = 7/10 (was 10/10 when the game came out in 2007)
Story = 10/10 (Wont spoil it for you, but its great)

8.7/10 in total

What is your favorite XCOM game?

For quite a few people I expect the answer will be 'the first one I played.'

This is certainly true in my case, and for me it is UFO Afterlight. Man, did I get a smacking the first couple of times I tried it, but eventually I was able to make progress and finish it. Great sense of achievement!

In later years I played again with the very good Total Rebalance mod, which fixed a lot of the worst 'bugs' (something I'll come back to).

UFO Afterlight came onto Steam long after Aftermath and Aftershock, and the Steam version has been overhauled to be now both less punishing at the outset and somewhat smoother overall than the original - I have just completed an enjoyable vanilla run-through under Windows 11. However, UFO Afterlight remains an ambitious, if somewhat flawed, masterpiece of the genre.

The flaws (putting on one side the voice acting, which can be quite grating to the uninitiated) are really twofold.

First, the pathing of units can be quite annoying until you get the hang of it. Second, progression goals can be opaque, and it's possible to miss out on really useful (and sometimes essential) techs if you don't do the right things in the right order. As far as I can tell, quite a bit of this (the 'bugs' I mentioned) has now been put right in the overhaul, but not all.

So much for the bad. But on the plus side, there is so much more.
- There are four (five if you count the neutral robots) different potential enemies, and each requires a different strategy and loadout for your teams.
- Some of your people are multi-skilled - is their time better spent going on missions, building up your base and the planet, or producing essential materiel? Every bullet, every medipack, and every grenade has to be manufactured, and they are consumed on missions - heaven help you if you run out half-way through a fight.
- One of your goals is to terraform the planet Mars. Not only does this happen in real time - the map of Mars changes before your eyes - but it has both tactical and strategic consequences. Tactically, as Mars improves, the environment becomes less dire (early on, it is death to attempt a mission in inadequate gear). Strategically, terraformed Mars has not only rivers but seas, which has consequences for your economy.
- As you progress, so do your adversaries. New and more powerful enemy units arrive. Weapons and tactics that worked before become obsolete, and your arsenal needs to evolve to keep up. Weapons and suits can be upgraded with add-ons that can transform their performance, and new and powerful technologies can be extracted from your adversaries.
- Possibly the best implementation of the sniper class in any XCOM-like game.
- Last but not least, UFO Afterlight has enough strategic depth that every playthrough is different - characters that quite literally became godlike in one playthrough can be wholly eclipsed by others in another. True, you can find a way to play through it on rails, but part of the fun is experimenting with different team builds and tactics. If this sounds quite a lot like the Firaxis XCOM games, my suspicion is that Firaxis learnt a lot from UFO Afterlight.

In summary, if you can live with its idiosyncracies, UFO Afterlight is a great game - don't miss it!