I used to be a huge fan of Ufo: Enemy Unknown (The European version of the original XCOM: Ufo Defense) and I got this XCOM complete pack recently.

I remembered how these old games are incredibly hard, so I started on Easy mode to get used to the game.

On my very first mission I took my first step out of the submarine and was immediately shot by a rocket launcher which killed 7 of my 8 soldiers instantly. The 8th soldier panicked and killed himself.

Welcome to Easy Mode.

It's really hard for me to do an unbiased review of this game, so I would rather speak about my
personal experience.

When I was about 11 years old, I played the first X-COM: UFO Defense through and through.
As a kid I thought it was the most challenging, well-put togheter game I'd ever played.

Time passed by, and, one fateful day, I read the review of X-COM: Terror From the Deep in a french
magazine. There was only one thing left to do: BUY. IT. NOW.

And, thanks to my parents (and me being a good boy around xmas ;)) I got my hands on a copy of this
game. I still own the original box, floppy disc edition.

I played this game at least one week per month for about a year and a half.

It's now 2014, and I still haven't found a game so compelling since. Everything in this game pulled me
in, and would never let me go. The music. The atmosphere. This always present feeling of dread. The pressure put on your shoulders when trying to save as many civilians as possible during a Terror mission without sacrificing your favorite soldiers.
And, above all else, the incredible depth of the tactical options that were offered to you throughout the game. Both in combat situation and on the Geosphere's more laid-back, strategical planning.

This is the kind of game that involves you so much that you start to create your own stories about your pixelated soldiers. I knew their names.I knew what they were capable, or uncapable of doing while on a mission. I knew them, and losing any of them had some kind of impact on me. "They were my soldiers. my mates. They were good soldiers, and I'll never forget them."

To me, X-COM: Terror From the Deep defines the word "classic" when it comes to Strategic planning and Tactical
Combat.

TL;DR: I was raised on this game. It will forever be my favorite PC game of all time. I would hide under my covers, way past my bedtime, as my older brother played through the night. It gave me horrid nightmares as an 8 year old. :)

The following is an excerpt from an email I wrote to my older brother on 8/26/11: (spoilers below)

"Over 15 years ago we began an extermination of an alien threat known as the ‘Terror from the Deep.’ I am proud to inform you that our mission was completed in a “Superhuman”-ly fashion at 0100 hours this morning.

CAPT KDW “Da Bomb” lead a team of advanced X-COM aquanauts through the abyssal depths of T’leth. CDR Leviticus, LCDR Sigourney Weaver, and LT Tommy Lee Jones destroyed the final life-support pillars and personally escorted the alien mastermind to the gates of hell.

It took 11 months to research and build the Leviathan. In the final month of December, 5 to 12 USOs were detected and engaged daily. From January 2040 (X-COM’s formation) the aliens conducted twice-per-month artefact sites, shipping routes, terror sites, and X-COM base assault missions. Though an alien colony was eliminated for every month beyond June, the entire globe was littered with half a dozen known sites.

This wasn't my first attempt. The original X-COM had a glitch that reset the difficulty to Beginner. The true Superhuman difficulty makes TFTD pretty darn difficult. Add on the fantastic modifications from XCOM UTIL, you face a formidable foe. Here are some of my most notable struggles:

**Base defense, first month.** Initial layout is nearly impossible to defend. Aquatoids use Mind Control. Thermal tazers are required to neutralize your own soldiers. Calcinite (deep sea diver) take 20+ rounds of Gauss Rifle.
**Terror attack, first month.** Live Deep One or BUST. Period.
**First Lobsterman encounter.** I am convinced that it is impossible to kill a lobsterman with gauss technology. They take a minimum 2-3 rounds of Sonic Cannon.
**First shipping route or artefact site.** Even the weakest alien soldiers have better than 100% aimed shot. The cyberdisk (bio-drone) and triscene (dinosaur) are by far the biggest challenge in the game. I have never seen either one miss and both can fire 5+ shots in a single reaction or turn. I’m not sure if they can be mind-controlled (I never broke 100+ MC skill) but they both can move across the entire map to destroy your squad. The bio-drone’s death explosion is lethal even with Mag. Ion Armour. The triscene is probably the most rare creature in the game, fortunately. No exaggeration here: the triscene will absorb 20+ rounds of sonic cannon before it dies on Superhuman.
**Medium to Very Large USOs.** Basically requires Sonic Oscillator. Barracudas often get blown to bits or can’t keep up. Without the advanced weaponry, this effectively ends your game within the month they begin appearing.

There were other difficulties; most of them dealing with Molecular Control / Research / Financial. So – what was the ultimate secret of my success?

1. Hand-to-Hand. This was the best tactic and the ultimate key to my success. Half my squad was equipped with Sonic Pistol / Thermal Lance. The thermal lance costs about 8 TU’s, has 100% accuracy, and turns lobsters into meatloaf. The sonic pistol is extremely underestimated and in my opinion the best overall weapon in the game.

2. Research. Weapons, Armor, MC, Submersibles. Proper order is essential. If researched improperly, you cannot complete the game.

3. Manufacture. Technicians can make certain items (Gauss Cannon, Particle Disturbance Sensor) for profit. With a permanent manufacture base, money is never an issue, only sponsorship to avoid losing the game.

4. SWS (Tanks). They die so easily, but they are by far the most effective scouts. Plus replaceable!

5. Aquanauts. I hired over 300 soldiers over the course of the game. Every initial statistic should be over 40, especially reaction, otherwise your soldier is just cannon fodder. MC strength needs to be a minimum of 80. Any soldier vulnerable to mind control was sacked or sent into USOs with primed sonic pulsers.

Instead of having a full squadron armed with cannons, I found diversity is best. There is no reason to leave anyone in the ship, ever. MC specialists (as many as possible!!!) should be equipped with pistols and following your scouts. When in doubt, nothing beats the old elevator trick or blasting away entire ships with the Disruptor Pulse Launcher. I was surprised to find that the traditionally difficult Tentaculant (STINKIN’ BRAIN) were relatively easy to kill. Their only real threat potential is their knack for sneaking around the battleground unnoticed. Once you’re well equipped, or have mind control, the game is simply an endurance challenge, regardless of difficulty."

Soon, OpenXcom will release TFTD support. I'm anxious to jump back into this game and try some of the truly difficult challenges: No Psionics, Ironman, Aggressive/Sneaky AI, the works. Thanks for sharing in my passion. :)

A great game, but as a sequel it does the bare minimum.

The aliens have launched a Terror attack on a cargo vessel. My X-COM operatives have fought their way into the middle cabins on the deck of the tanker. Three units are grouped together, preparing to breach another room. Suddenly, one of the three is taken under molecular control but opts not to shoot the other two and instead runs into the unexplored room. Now I face a decision: do I enter the room knowing that I will likely be fired upon by my own unit or wait it out, leaving her inside with unknown terrors?

I decide to wait. As soon as my aquanaut comes to her senses she is blasted repeatedly by a Bio Drone until she drops unconscious. Now I face another problem as the room is quite small and there is nowhere I can safely fire upon the Bio Drone without getting caught in its death explosion. But I have a wounded soldier that needs help ASAP so I burst into action. One unit dashes into the room taking only time to grab the unconscious body of his comrade before rushing back out. While the door is still open the remaining aquanaut pulls a grenade off his belt, primes it and throws it right at the base of the Bio Drone before retreating a short ways. The blast from the grenade blows out the walls, yet still hovering in the smoke is the Bio Drone, now able to see my exposed grenadier. Fortunately his Ion Armor absorbs most of the shots that rain down on him leaving him a little shaken but with no fatal wounds. Suspecting that the alien can't take much more punishment he sets up and fires back. He connects and this time the floating death disc goes down in a fiery explosion even bigger than that of the grenade. My shooter is ok but a poor civilian gets caught in the edge of the blast and is killed.

The fighting is over in this sector but there is still drama left. My unconscious warrior is bleeding out but the nearest medic is several rooms away. The medic and the aquanaut hauling her limp form sprint toward each other. Will they make it in time to save her? Yes! He patches her up and pumps her with stimulants to get her back on her feet. Now weaponless, weak and in need of a few weeks off to recover, she is out of the fight; but she is alive.
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X-COM has the ability to create moments like these that are wholly your own. This episode felt like something out of an action film to me. It's complete with heroics, suspense, mad dashes, aliens, hard decisions, explosions and a nameless citizen as collateral damage. Combine the combat side with the also enjoyable base management and research side and Terror From the Deep is truly an excellent game.

However, taken in context of its predecessor, UFO Defense, it is a weak sequel. It is largely just a reskin with some tweaked stats for equipment and aliens. The biggest additions are new environments to fight in and a bit of alien lore. Ultimately it's more like a standalone expansion than a true sequel.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few gripes I had beyond the weak sequel issue. First, the game has a few pretty bad bugs, mostly within the research tree. Fortunately there is a small, free, fan made fix for these bugs called XcomUtil that is popular enough that you shouldn't have trouble finding it. And finally, the last place you invade at the end of the game, T'Leth, is just awful. The 2nd and 3rd portions of this mission are seemingly never ending slogs through linear winding corridors and rooms with relatively sparse alien resistance. My units were constantly out of energy from all the running. To top it off you cannot save your game during the final (3rd) portion which made for a marathon of several hours to finish both the 2nd and 3rd maps in one sitting. It left a definite bitter aftertaste lingering after completing this otherwise fantastic game.

Playing this game will put hair on your chest, allow you to eat lightning and crap thunder.

Bought this game the year it came out.

It makes Dark Souls, and Darkest Dungeon-like games seem kind to you.

If you make it through the first mission without losing over 1/2 of your team, the A.I. just gave you a freebee.

Playing this game on easy will allow you to conquer the rest of the X-Com franchise games, as well as most other games like this as if you were a God.

If you like unforgiving, yet rewarding games... this game is for you.

If you hate a challenge... run. the. hell. away. very. far. and. very. fast.

110/10 would allow this game to humiliate me again for another 20 years.

Terror from the Deep is the sequel to X-COM UFO Defense that puts you back in charge of the international global defense organization, X-COM, except now the classic stereotypical alien/paranormal encounters have been replaced with aquatic Lovecraftian horrors and B-movie sea creatures.

The basic gameplay is very similar to X-Com: UFO Defense. In fact, you could call it a simple retheme with new graphics and not be too far off.

I prefer the setting, charm, aesthetics, and difficulty balance of the original, but the sequel does several things that I find to be nice improvements on the formula. There are a number of small gameplay improvements vs UFO Defense; for example, when you destroy an alien base, the game gives you a message saying so, instead of you having to abort the mission before seeing for sure that you destroying every base control panel section. You can also open doors without moving through them, a definitely useful feature. The terror sites in the original all used the same urban terrain set, while the terror sites in Terror from the Deep can use one of four different terrains (seaport, island resort, cruise liner, cargo ship), which is nice for variety. Alien sub designs are also more intricate and complex than the UFOs in the original.

Alien base assaults are a bigger ordeal, with 2 parts to the mission; first, you have to fight through the well defended surface entrance to the base, and then explore the comparatively empty inner levels. Melee weapons are fun and new to the series, and are very effective against some tough enemy types.

The biggest difference, though, is the atmosphere. The homage to Lovecraft is obvious throughout the game; even the general theme of "ancient mysterious aliens came to Earth many eons ago and are coming out of their hidden places in the deep parts of the world to reclaim it" is basically Lovecraftian. The alien architecture is reminiscent of Neo-Victorian era style science fiction and depictions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea era submersible technology and similar; there is a lot of brass looking riveted metal and almost steampumk-ish looking alien equipment. There are also hints at other undersea myths like the lost city of Atlantis, and the Gill-Man/Swamp Creature and other aquatic B-movie monsters. Compared to UFO Defense, the enemies are tougher, deadlier, and scarier, and the environments are darker and architecture more complicated. It's now harder than ever to keep your soldiers alive, which brings me to my next point.

The game is difficult. Very difficult. Terror from the Deep was designed to be hard for people who thought X-COM UFO Defense was easy on 'superhuman' difficulty. Weapon clips are much smaller, there are no infinite ammo weapons, and all weapons are designed for underwater use. Some of them, like torpedo launchers (Terror from the Deep's version of rockets) don't work at all out of water (terror sites). The fact that there are no land only weapons to use (like regular firearms) is annoying and makes the game more difficult, for sure. Speaking of water vs land weapon use, grenades can be thrown underwater as if through air. This may annoy you if you take notice of unrealistic physics in games.

I've mentioned that base assaults are long 2 part missions. Terror sites on boats are also big 2 part missions. You will have to kill A LOT of aliens to complete a boat terror site; it's quite an endurance test. Alien bases in particular are heavily defended and almost always deep enough underwater that the environment is dark regardless of the time of day. They can be brutal.

Now for as for the game's flaws; the fact that most of the game is underwater makes a lot of the environments feel a bit too similar, even though there are a variety of underwater terrain types. The colors blue and yellow are a bit overused and make the game's aesthetics a bit garish, especially when compared to the pleasingly colorful original X-Com.

Also, the game features the same somewhat cumbersome user interface and many of the same bugs as X-Com UFO Defense. The difficulty bug from the original is not present here, but the disappearing ammo bug still is (in the DOS version, at least. The Windows version fixed it). Aliens also like to carry around melee weapons, but they don't ever use them. Worst of all, if you research a couple things in the wrong order, it can make your game unwinnable by making some required research unavailable. Even if you don't screw up your research path, the research tree is more convoluted and requires more live aliens than that of UFO Defense, which can be frustrating because it's not obvious which alien types you need to research to unlock other techs.

Maps are, in general, larger. Bases and boat terror sites span across two separate maps instead of 1, and even UFO crash site maps are larger than they were in UFO Defense. The 2 part terror missions can be pretty tedious, and they can drag on forever. The boat maps feature more rooms and more complicated architecture than usually seen in X-Com games, and as a result, there will often be aliens standing around somewhere waiting for you to find them because they won't ever leave the room they started in. It makes for very long missions, and an overall long and drawn out game.

MODS:
You can play the game by itself, especially if you have the Steam version that comes bundled with DosBox (The Steam version also includes the Windows version, in the 'TFTD' subfolder in the game folder). I recommend some mods, though. XcomUtil is a great simple mod that works for both UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep. It gives Gauss weapons infinite ammo (like lasers in UFO Defense) and fixes other bugs.

TftD Extender is a bit more extensive, and makes the game more playable, in my opinion. While much of it overlaps with XcomUtil, it also has options to make boat terror sites only 1 part missions, sub crash site maps a bit smaller (more like UFO Defense size maps), there are optional alternate tech trees, aliens can use melee weapons, and you can tell engineers to make and auto-sell equipment, among other features. With some tweaking, you can run both Xcomutil and Extender at the same time. I HIGHLY recommend using TFTDextender if you are going to play the game nowadays.

CONCLUSION (TL;DR):
If you've always wanted to try a tactical turn based strategy game where you fight Lovecraftian horrors underwater, or if you are a big fan of the original X-COM UFO Defense and would like a very similar game with additional challenge and variety, then you should definitely try it. I prefer the original UFO Defense, but this game is unique and worth experiencing, in my opinion. (Don't let the difficulty scare you away; if you are very familiar with the first game, this game isn't much worse, except for the alien base assaults, which are absolutely brutal.)

X-COM Terror from the Deep is a huge strategy game based mainly on the players descision on many things at once. The plot is that Earth is being invaded by aliens from the sea who aren't hesitant to kill anyone preventing them from their main goal: Taking over the entire planet. The player's job is to be the Lead Commander of the whole X-COM facilities. The player is given a simple job: Stop the aliens from destroying the world. Now, when I saw "Lead Commander", I mean exactly that. The player controls everything that is given to it, such as sending out patrols, whether to attc\ack aliens or not, buying/selling materials, hireing people to work for you, and a whole lot more.

This game is, like I said, a big strategy game. It involves lots of numbers, and money is extremely important. If you don't have enough money till the end of the month, the world governers shut down X-COM and the aliens win. The player has to make the right choices on what to manufacture, patrol, construct, attack, and most importantly, research. I have to say, researching is the key factor of getting the most out of this game. Without research, the player will have to stick to harpoon guns which don't do that much damage at first. But with research, the player can have better weapons that deal more damage, and I mean a LOT of damage.

This game is pixelated, so it's graphics are kinda poor. But the strategy, thinking, and the numbers all come together in this, so the player needs to really take everything into account when it invovles money. Battling is pretty intense too. The battle system is based around the player having it's turn to get it's men together and plan an attack. Most of the battles are under water, so it's pretty dark at first. But when the player starts moving it's men around, the environment starts to pan out and you have a good look on the battleground. Once the player has done it's turn, it's time for the aliens turn. The aliens basically do whatever the player can do: move, attack, or run away and group up. It's all based on strategy and knowing what aleins have what, cause it's not just one kind of alien attacking Earth. There are many species of aliens and all have different capabilities than other aliens.

I fully recommend this game for the strategic and brain power one has to use, and is my dad's favorite game, so after watching him play a lot, and after me playing a while myself, I've come to fully enjoy this game. I hope you will too.

Summary: A harder version of X-Com 1 set underwater
Multiplayer: No
Completion: 20 hrs
Cards: No
Cloud: No

I have a love/hate relationship with the second X-Com game. On the one hand, it's X-Com! On the other hand, it's X-Com... but 4x harder! For all intents and purposes this is X-Com 1 with a few important tweaks and changes.

The first change you'll notice is that everything takes place under water, with the exception of a few terror missions. Thus you cannot place bases on land. It's essentially the inverse of the first game. It's no big deal, but it's worth noting that some weapons do not operate on land, you cannot use flying suits on land, and some aliens only appear on land while others only appear in water.

Clips have been reduced *drastically*. Powerful cannons are now limited to 10 shots, with full-auto removed on heavy weapons, which I think is a good, though perhaps overly punishing change. Sonic weapons should be limited, sure, but I feel the Gauss weapons should have retained unlimited ammo, or at least given much more generous clips. At least the limited Sonic Cannon ammo is somewhat offset by the fact that you'll find Sonic Cannon clips up the wazoo when all aliens start carrying them.

Enemies received some interesting changes. Remember how Chryssalids became 100% non-threatning as soon as you got flying suits? Not so in this game. Tentaculats will float across the ocean floor and happily devour your brains wherever you are. Hallucinoids and Xarquids don't explode upon death, unlike pesky cyberdiscs (however Bio-Drones do, but they're relatively rare), but they appear much more often.

TFTD introduces my possibly favorite weapon, melee drills, particularly the lowest level drill. If you turn a corner and face an alien, these drills make short work of them using barely any time units with unlimited ammo. Bloody brilliant, and highly effective against lobsters. Blaster Launchers and Mind Control are as effective as they were in the previous game, so roughly the same tactics apply by the endgame.

Probably the biggest change and single worst feature about the game is how massive the maps can be. They're not just huge length an width-wise, but they span multiple stories high. I loathe the start of the next month, where shipping route attacks occur. The abominable ships take forever to search, and the disturbance scanner doesn't work if the aliens don't move. Alien bases equally suffer. Go ahead. Take a peek inside one, I dare you.

Exacerbating the problem is how quickly your soldiers run out of energy. Your poor energy bar doesn't replenish nearly enough to cover that much ground in reasonable time. It does allow for more time units to be retained for reaction fire, but I'd rather have my troops be able to move into better cover instead of saving up TUs for reaction shots. For this reason, it may be a good idea to take a few Displacers/Coelacanths to scout for you on those gratuitously large maps.

The research system in some old versions of the game are somewhat buggy. I believe the Steam version does not have this problem, but it is something to be aware of, just in case.

I admit it; I'm too scared to try this game without save-scumming. Even then it's still challenging, and the large maps are still tedious. It's fun, though not as fun as the first game, and the charm goes down very fast because of the problems. Ultimately, if you want a harder X-Com 1, this is it. I rate this a 7/10.

are you a bad enough dude to play terror from the deep and beat it?

no, you're not
nobody is

After the successful UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994), developers Julian Gollop and his brother Nick had big plans but:

"Microprose wanted us to do a sequel in six months. We told them the only way we could do a sequel in that timeframe would be to change the graphics and tweak a few bits. Eventually we came to a compromise: they'd license our code to make a direct sequel, and we'd do the third one in the series in two years. TFTD was made entirely by Microprose; we had no input apart from giving them our code. They managed to do it in a year, but they had a much bigger team. A shockingly large team, I thought at the time, 12-15 people."
Eurogamer: Julian Gollop interview[www.eurogamer.net]

At that point, Gollop also surrendered the X-Com licence to MicroProse:

"There was some dispute about who owned the licence. In those days, companies weren't terribly good about intellectual property protection. Our lawyers said that if it went to a court battle, we'd probably lose, and have to hand over the X-Com name. But strangely, their lawyers were telling them the same thing! We eventually struck a deal that we would get increased royalty rates for X-Com Apocalypse, and they would take the licence. And then, of course, Microprose took it in a slightly different direction."
Eurogamer: Julian Gollop interview[www.eurogamer.net]

X-COM: Terror From the Deep (1995) is a clon of its predecessor but set underwater. The game is much harder as a design decision which came from the bug in the original game: the difficulty was reset to the easiest one after the first mission which led to complaints about how easy the game was.

Terror From the Deep's maps are generally one-third larger than those of Enemy Unknown and the alien bases are four levels deep instead of two. They also made all of the terror missions and alien-base assaults two-map expeditions. To extend "give them more" formula the aliens establish colonies much faster.

Enemy Unknown had a problem when you have to occasionally search for the last enemy stuck somewhere on the map. Bigger maze-like Terror From the Deep's maps makes this issue more evident.

All weapons are less effective, e.g.: Sonic Cannon doesn't have auto-shot and carries only ten rounds instead of thirty-five of Heavy Plasma Rifle from Enemy Unknown. It also uses more soldiers' time to fire so units can only squeeze off two shots per turn rather than six. Gauss Technology, parallel to Laser Weapons, keeps the auto-shot ability but uses ammunition which makes a significant impact to inventory management in the two-stage missions. Moreover, Gauss Damage Resistance is the most common resistance enemies have.[www.ufopaedia.org]

Terror From the Deep has a bunch of aliens that only appear briefly at the beginning of the game and most of the time you fight bullet-sponge Lobster Man. This workhorse of enemy invasion forces is much tougher than the first game's Mutons. They are also almost immune to Gauss Weapons with their 70% resistance to it and don't only survive a direct hit from Disruptor Pulse Launcher, the equivalent of Blaster Launcher, but sometimes they can eat two shots of those (in rare cases even three) and stay alive.[www.ufopaedia.org]

Terror From the Deep adds to the weapon roster a drill, melee weapon, which balances the lack of auto-shot in close-combat encounters. In the open, you have to line up a dozen troops and salvo fire at everything, use lots of explosives or try to stun enemies with Thermal Shok Launcher thanks to enemy's generic vulnerability against it. Just watch your back, the bastards have a nasty habit of waking up.

In a few situations, e.g. terror missions, you will have to fight on dry land where some of your guns don't work. This is unfortunate because torpedo launcher is the only starting weapon that can reliably take down tough terror units like bio-drones.

The research tree is hideously convoluted. To develop Ion Armour and following Manta submarine you need a live Deep One research first.[www.ufopaedia.org] You can't finish the game without it but the Deep Ones are early-game invaders and they will be replaced by more dangerous enemies soon. You may lose a game prematurely without even realizing it.

Sadly, this isn't the only trap you may end up in. It is possible to cut yourself from researching the following technologies by not having its sample in storage before the research of previous technology is completed.

You can check extensive Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide[www.ufopaedia.org] but it was the year 1995 and I had no internet. Despite my effort, I ended up without a chance to finish the game several times with a bitter feeling of Terror From the Deep unambitious cash-grab nature.

I could say that X-COM: Terror From the Deep is the same game as UFO: Enemy Unknown, but that would ignore my experience. While the only real change is the ability to open doors without going thru, the other adjustments - enemies' high toughness, time-consuming missions and fighting most of the time the same enemy because it is the biggest brute - change the game's feeling.

After so many years I have written the review as a result of reading a very good article XCOM: Terror From the Deep[women-and-dreams.blogspot.com] from which I have borrowed some formulations.