DO NOT PREORDER - X Com 1 (Reboot) was underwhelming and dumbed down

[Douglas Quaid]

Fanboys are going to hate this, but face it, X-Com (reboot) was not as good as the 1994 original (UFO:Enemy Unknown), and highly disappointing. I'm not buying this "X Com 2" unless it fixes all the dumb mistakes of the reboot:

1. Combat system sucked due to aliens ALWAYS getting the first move. Forget stealth, there's no way to sneak up on enemies as they always get the first move and always appear in groups. This completely removes any stealth aspect for hunting down aliens, and makes for very boring combat - find alien groups, kill them, rinse and repeat. There's no tension or value to sneaking around as the aliens will always see you first and be able to take cover. Ruins immersion as well. In the 1994 original you could sneak up on aliens which were scattered around the map, and sneaking around had its uses. Not this dumbed down gameplay.

2. Dumbed down inventory and soldier system. If someone in your party dies, there's no way to pick up that person's inventory. This was possible in the 1994 original, so why'd they remove this feature in the reboot? It was to dumb the game down, apparenly adding an item pickup system was deemed too difficult for the average gamer to handle, so they just removed it. The guy with the stun gun died? Too bad, restart the mission, even though the body is right there along with the rest of the inventory.

You are only limited to a few items per solider as well. AKA, the developers think you are not intelligent enough to handle inventory management. Want to have a guy on your squad who holds the ammo, extra grenades, etc? Too bad, forced inventory. Developers think it's too complicated for you.

3. Luck-based HQ building and only 1 base - More dumbing down of the game, no more multiple bases, and expanding your base is entirely up to luck based on where the steam blocks are. Compare this to the 1994 original where you could make any base you wanted, anywhere in the world. Again, Firaxis thinks you are too stupid to be able to handle it. "If it's too hard, gamers won't buy it" was their philsophy.

4. Forced failures - The worst offense of the reboot was the multiple choice mission selection. You are provided with mission options, selecting a mission means you fail all others automatically taking a hit to influence and funding. In the 1994 original, if you were good enough, you could respond to ALL threats since you had multiple bases, teams, etc. Again, instead of letting skilled players succeed, you simply have to choose which missions to fail and there's nothing you can do about it. Dumbed down gameplay again.

I could go on but those are the major reasons why the reboot was bad, all it made me want to do was play UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-Com UFO Defense), a superior game that came out 20 years ago. Firaxis only went backwards with the reboot, removing lots of tactical and strategic elements, to give you a dumbed down version of the 1994 game - but kept the name so you would buy it. They took the original name "Enemy Uknown", combined it with the more recognizable "X-Com" name, and exploited it. Don't be fooled again. Don't pre-order until you know what kind of game this is going to be.

Is it going to have as much tactic depth and immersion as UFO:EU? Maybe, maybe not. The first reboot proved that was not the case. Be wary of this.

[Coin]

Messaggio originale di Mr. Stallman:

There's one thing I can agree with, though: don't preorder XCOM 2.

But only as a particular case of a more general rule of thumb: don't preorder digital goods.

The only situation that justifies a preordering system is when there's a need to fit the production to the demand.
Is there a risk of Steam selling out of digital copies? No? Then don't preorder digital copies.

Preorders for stuff like the Steam Controller and Steam Link are justified because they actually need to be physically manufactured and shipped for every item sold. Digital copies, not so much.

That's why we have "bonuses"! ;)

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

what you want is a FPS console game, NOT a strategy turn based game.

Again, do you fancy yourself as someone who's opinion matters, and who can call what other people want?

[Milk]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

They didn't remove strategic elements, they removed redundant systems.

They removed item salvaging, and significantly reduced squad size and inventory customization. If you want a guy to be the ammo carrier, you just can't do it.

There is no ammo reserve in EU. You can argue about the ramifications of that strategically, (personally I never ran out of ammo in UFO Defense because ammo was cheap AF) but in this case it's irrelevant. And the alien weapons explode unless you stun them. There's nothing to really pick up. You can also argue about the ramifications about that strategically, (personally I don't really mind because I don't generally need to pick up alien weapons when I have identical plasma weapons), but it's also irrelevant in EU. The system isn't necessary, so adding it would be redundant.

[Douglas Quaid]

Messaggio originale di Coin:

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

Then why did they call it "X-Com"?

Because the own this franchise, herp.

And they took the name because they knew it would sell. They even took the original tagline "Enemy Unknown" to further manipulate the fanbase. I know the original X-Com as "Enemy Unknown" because that was its original name.

Firaxis used it as a marketing trick.

[Son of Sam]

Instead of whining about how a game wasn't built to appeal to your tastes, why don't you go play games that were? If you're so in love with the original XCOM series then keep playing them or pick up Xenonauts.

I realize this is supposed to be a bait thread, but come on. At this point it's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for the sake of it. Move on, OP. No one really cares if you think XCOM:EU ♥♥♥♥ in your bed.

[Coin]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

And they took the name because they knew it would sell. They even took the original tagline "Enemy Unknown" to further manipulate the fanbase. I know the original X-Com as "Enemy Unknown" because that was it's original name.

Firaxis used it as a marketing trick.

Oh noes. Really, dude... you must be trolling

Messaggio originale di Leutnant Otto Von Hitzig:

Instead of whining about how a game wasn't built to appeal to your tastes, why don't you go play games that were?

Probably because he's trolling.

[Nick Naughty]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

They didn't remove strategic elements, they removed redundant systems.

They removed item salvaging, and significantly reduced squad size and inventory customization. If you want a guy to be the ammo carrier, you just can't do it.

That would be the redundant systems.

[Milk]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

Messaggio originale di Coin:

Because the own this franchise, herp.

And they took the name because they knew it would sell. They even took the original tagline "Enemy Unknown" to further manipulate the fanbase. I know the original X-Com as "Enemy Unknown" because that was it's original name.

Firaxis used it as a marketing trick.

And that matters why? They're not frauding anybody, I don't know why you keep trying to convince us we're being lied to.

[Douglas Quaid]

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

They removed item salvaging, and significantly reduced squad size and inventory customization. If you want a guy to be the ammo carrier, you just can't do it.

There is no ammo reserve in EU. You can argue about the ramifications of that strategically, (personally I never ran out of ammo in UFO Defense because ammo was cheap AF) but in this case it's irrelevant. And the alien weapons explode unless you stun them. There's nothing to really pick up. You can also argue about the ramifications about that strategically, (personally I don't really mind because I don't generally need to pick up alien weapons when I have identical plasma weapons), but it's also irrelevant in EU. The system isn't necessary, so adding it would be redundant.

So if you want to pick up a stun gun or pick up extra grenades you can't. So that's one strategy aspect down the drain in a STRATEGY game. See the problem?

[PocketYoda]

I really enjoyed it.

[Douglas Quaid]

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

And they took the name because they knew it would sell. They even took the original tagline "Enemy Unknown" to further manipulate the fanbase. I know the original X-Com as "Enemy Unknown" because that was it's original name.

Firaxis used it as a marketing trick.

And that matters why? They're not frauding anybody, I don't know why you keep trying to convince us we're being lied to.

Because they slapped the name on there as if it was going to be a true sequel but we got a watered down version of it with nothing new, and only removals.

[LemonRush7777]

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

I don't need nostalgia goggles, you can play EU with Dosbox right now and you will find it a much better game than the reboot. Just look at everything they removed from the original, and you would know.

Besides the strategic elements they removed from the original, they didn't ADD anything substantial to make up for it. It was just removal of fun elements and decent graphics. Tell me what they added or expanded to the original?

I know, I have the original.

Let's see, what did they remove...

I see they removed the buggy as hell radars and replaced them with satellites.

I see they made individual missions more important instead of having the player scrambling around and doing literal hundreds of missions, which was a massive cause of (literal) fatigue (for me).

I see that they removed tons of weapons from the air game. I mean you can argue that this "limits" tactical options, in the same way that only using alien grenades instead of keeping some frag grenades "limits" tactical options.

I see that they removed in-game inventory management. I can't say I miss sorting through 14-26 soldiers and fixing their kits because the game sucked at keeping loadouts consistent.

I see that they removed the clunky submarine control UI as well. Man I will miss not knowing what certain buttons do because they're not labeled.

Like I said, it's a fun game, but I'm not blind. I played it a ton. I know a lot about that game. It is exploit city, infested with bugs and a nice dose of imbalance.

Don't wanna get into this discussions, but I just wanted to point out that the original X-com had mods that fixed any of the issues it had, like making the inventory management significantly better. If you use the updated engine OpenXcom, you can install even more mods, many that extend the game a lot with new everything. One could argue that a fully modded Xcom Ufo Defense could be a glimpse of what a modernization of the old game would look like.

For those too lazy to do modpicking, you can just install the Final Mod Pack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7MbedC-R1o

[Douglas Quaid]

Messaggio originale di Leutnant Otto Von Hitzig:

Instead of whining about how a game wasn't built to appeal to your tastes, why don't you go play games that were? If you're so in love with the original XCOM series then keep playing them or pick up Xenonauts.

I realize this is supposed to be a bait thread, but come on. At this point it's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for the sake of it. Move on, OP. No one really cares if you think XCOM:EU ♥♥♥♥ in your bed.

I'm advising gamers not to buy this based on the name alone, because that's how Firaxis manipulated it from the very start.

[Milk]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

Messaggio originale di Lvl. 21 Dank Pingu:

There is no ammo reserve in EU. You can argue about the ramifications of that strategically, (personally I never ran out of ammo in UFO Defense because ammo was cheap AF) but in this case it's irrelevant. And the alien weapons explode unless you stun them. There's nothing to really pick up. You can also argue about the ramifications about that strategically, (personally I don't really mind because I don't generally need to pick up alien weapons when I have identical plasma weapons), but it's also irrelevant in EU. The system isn't necessary, so adding it would be redundant.

So if you want to pick up a stun gun or pick up extra grenades you can't. So that's one strategy aspect down the drain in a STRATEGY game. See the problem?

No. Mainly because I never fall into situations where I need to do that. I mean I can't go prone either, that's another strategy system that doesn't exist. My guys can't use any gun they want, they're class limited.

I'm not saying I would be averse to that feature being added. I'm just saying I don't care if it's not in there. I'm playing a strategy game, not an RPG. I don't want to walk around checking bodies.

[Son of Sam]

Messaggio originale di Douglas Quaid:

I'm advising gamers not to buy this based on the name alone, because that's how Firaxis manipulated it from the very start.

I'm pretty sure everyone got the tear-soaked memo around the time EU was released. At this point anyone who is shocked to find that the rebooted XCOM isn't like the original either never played the originals or has absolutely no ♥♥♥♥♥ to give.

[Milk]

Messaggio originale di Fenrir007:

Don't wanna get into this discussions, but I just wanted to point out that the original X-com had mods that fixed any of the issues it had, like making the inventory management significantly better. If you use the updated engine OpenXcom, you can install even more mods, many that extend the game a lot with new everything. One could argue that a fully modded Xcom Ufo Defense could be a glimpse of what a modernization of the old game would look like.

For those too lazy to do modpicking, you can just install the Final Mod Pack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7MbedC-R1o

Yes, I personally use XcomUtil. But I don't consider UFO Defense + mods to be UFO Defense. I take games at face value.