Has anyone ever finished the game ?

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

This has to be my favourite of the UFO series of games - even better than UFO Apocalypse. However after battling threough for a very long time the game irrevocably crashed at the very end missions. Has this been ixed now ? Caused a lot of problems back in the day and it was never fixed then...

S.x.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Okay - a bit of onward play and some internet searching.

Once the Wargot ship is destroyed you are left with ongoing attacks from Stargosts and Cultists.

After some time - other things start to happen again.

So far the game is working find on Windows 8 (Eastern Australia and New Zealand excluded - in game, not in regions where the game won't work).

S.x.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Spolers continue.

As does the game.

The problem is that there are no more than a dozen enemy in the entire game. At this stage there about six you encounter, albeit cultists have different weapons. Still your teams are now so tough you can wipe out all opposition with barely a scratch on you - if that.

The trouble is that by this stage you just want to get to the end and the game leaves you playing the same enemy on the same maps over and over again.

S.x.

[Volodus]

gallifrey:Do you play ironman? Because most games are easy when you can save and load :)

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

The game is easy TBH. That's the problem. Equipped with gyroscopes and accelerators my riflemen's range isn't that much worse than the snipers. The primary issues are not forgetting where missions are when you restart and, again TBH, a bit of boredom. I've defeated the same enemies on the same or very similar maps more than thirty times. I'd like to see the end of the game but I'm getting bored of the interim fights.

S.x.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

I HAVE FINISHED THE GAME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad

Towards the end you have a lot of missions defending yourselves from Starghost and Cultist attacks that by then you might be able to take on single handed. The final research is Laputa so there's no way of hurrying it up.

The final location has no costume changes when it really ought to have custom changes. Again.

There's a mission part way through the end mission when you have to destroy an item marked with a red circle. THIS IS A LIE. There are three objects marked with red arrows and you need to destroy the INPUT pipes. I wasted a hell of a lot of ammo until I gave up and searched the internet

And I got a surprise at the end when the game finished after just one of my team got to the end zone.

The plot revealed has you thinking - What ?

The Good

A proper final level with some new enemy. The downside is because that's the end of the game you never get to find out what they are and what their full (impressive) abilities are.

Persevere.

S.x.

[malgrumm]

Автор сообщения: gallifrey

I HAVE FINISHED THE GAME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad

Towards the end you have a lot of missions defending yourselves from Starghost and Cultist attacks that by then you might be able to take on single handed. The final research is Laputa so there's no way of hurrying it up.

The final location has no costume changes when it really ought to have custom changes. Again.

There's a mission part way through the end mission when you have to destroy an item marked with a red circle. THIS IS A LIE. There are three objects marked with red arrows and you need to destroy the INPUT pipes. I wasted a hell of a lot of ammo until I gave up and searched the internet

And I got a surprise at the end when the game finished after just one of my team got to the end zone.

The plot revealed has you thinking - What ?

The Good

A proper final level with some new enemy. The downside is because that's the end of the game you never get to find out what they are and what their full (impressive) abilities are.

Persevere.

S.x.

say if you ever feel like plying it to completion again may i suggest a mod you you to try? the Combo mod adds new tech, weapons, armor and also ups the number of enemies on a map. it also tweeks the armored Wargots and SG to be pretty much immune to bullets so it forces you to use a mix both bullets AND lasers when you first encounter the Wargots and then laser/plasma and a weapon type that im not going to mention for the SG. also with the mod if you took good care of your troops in the original game you'd better take DAMN good care of them as loosing a high lvl soldier with that mod can actually force you to either reload or in the worst case a game restart.....wait sorry i meant the Weapon Rebalance Modification!

[Keyser Băsoze]

Автор сообщения: fricke.harald

Well, I have not seen the end yet, but I managed to get across the crash before the final missions. I have installed the 1920x1080 resolution mod mentioned in another thread and it fixes the crash which seems to be related to the text window that should contain the transcript of the message. In the original version, this windows does not appear and the game crashes with a null pointer exception after playing the videos.

Installing the resolution mod was quite straightforward. I put the files into the UFO directory, then started the game. At the first start, half of the game was rendered off-screen, but there was enough of the UI visible that I was able to reset the preferences, which fixed the problem for the next start.

Hey guys, just a quick question related to the above quote: do I need to install any kind of patch or tweak the config to get past that crash / bug or does the standard Steam installation play just fine ?

I don't mind the 1024 x 768 resolution, as I''ve just finished UFO: Aftermath (which ran nice and smooth on my Win7 x64 machine withount any necessary tweaks) and I was thinking of giving this a spin.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Mine worked fine from Steam, no Mods required. I'd also save the very final battle (you'll know it when you see it) to replay against the final challenge.

S.x.

[Keyser Băsoze]

Cool, thanks for the reply :)

[CryptoCrash]

I just finished this after many attempts over the years, always thwarted by a bug. This time i saved often and always in a new slot, that way i could backtrack to before a game ending bug if i ever discovered one.

I have finished all the UFO games now and found this one to be the weakest of the series, not just because of its bugs. The tempo is out, you conquer the world early and then have to wait for laputa research (that cant be speeded up) to unlock final events. The reticulan ship that arrives triggers 1 mission with no real in game effect afterward, the rebellion in the laputa ends with no explination until later research happens. Cultist attacks keep happening, and are a joke to deal with by that stage of the game. 90% of equipment and skills are useless (late game you want troopers with plasma/warp guns, no heavies, no stealthers, no melee, no snipers and no psy projectors). You just keep waiting for the end game.

The core concept of the game is great and the story is fantastic, but the way gameplay and story are woven together is really poor.

[CryptoCrash]

oh it also crashed on me when i triggered the final cutscene, i had to replay the entire final mission... not happy

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Автор сообщения: Sparky1x

I just finished this after many attempts over the years, always thwarted by a bug. This time i saved often and always in a new slot, that way i could backtrack to before a game ending bug if i ever discovered one.

I have finished all the UFO games now and found this one to be the weakest of the series, not just because of its bugs. The tempo is out, you conquer the world early and then have to wait for laputa research (that cant be speeded up) to unlock final events. The reticulan ship that arrives triggers 1 mission with no real in game effect afterward, the rebellion in the laputa ends with no explination until later research happens. Cultist attacks keep happening, and are a joke to deal with by that stage of the game. 90% of equipment and skills are useless (late game you want troopers with plasma/warp guns, no heavies, no stealthers, no melee, no snipers and no psy projectors). You just keep waiting for the end game.

The core concept of the game is great and the story is fantastic, but the way gameplay and story are woven together is really poor.

I disagree.

The first half of the game is great.

The graphics are far better than Aftermath and I prefer them to Afterlight. Played in slow motion the fights are brilliant - like the end of "The Wild Bunch". The research tree is good and the skill system is arguably the best of the trilogy. The strategic game regarding choice of buildings is very good.

SPOILER ALERT !!!!

The Cultists when they first appear are very tough enemies. I never "conquered" the world mainly seeking to defend existing territory from Cultist and Wargot attacks. And by building multiple facilities to build the spaceship not all my troops were carrying warp rifles. But laser sniper rifles with Level 3 snipers and M60 rifles with gyrostabilisers and AP ammo dropped most enemy very effectively.

The problem is the second half of the game is effectively the same as the first but by that time the enemy are no threat at all - not until the very final battle. The game gets very repetitive. And the final story has a "Huh, what, really ?" aspect to it.

But how often do you play games with REALLY satisfying endings ?

I'd cite Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for the first few play throughs, Baldur's Gate (at least parts one and two), X Com Apocalypse. But otherwise - ending games tends to be an anti-climax.

S.x.

[CryptoCrash]

Gallifrey we really see this game differently. I loved the ending, *spoiler alert* the fact that the wargot and starghost ships were actually the main aggressors and the wargots and starghosts were just unwitting pawns was a fantastic plot twist i did not see coming. Tactics wise the game is a let down. simply line your troops up as if you were fighting in the age of muskets (on a roof if there is a suitable one). they go forward with 1 trooper to agro the enemy and run back to your line of guns... dead enemies. I felt the other 2 UFO games offered a more tactical approach to combat. I agree the base building system is awesome but when the best close combat weapon and the best heavy machinegun can be found early in the game you start to question the game balance. Also psyconics are poorly thought out, their projectors are USELESS. They are a great addition to the team as their abilities as 'spotters' are awesome, just treat them as another trooper with less armour and better perception.

The game is great but if feels like a beta, it needs debugging, re-balancing and the game tempo needs adjustment.

[SportyHeadShot]

the ending is a bit............. :( lackluster............. your climax is basically shooting at the walls lol... :-/ well... I guess I did it?

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Автор сообщения: SportyHeadShot

the ending is a bit............. :( lackluster............. your climax is basically shooting at the walls lol... :-/ well... I guess I did it?

Maybe not. There's another level after shooting at the wall.

S.x.