X-COM: Enemy Unknown remake in development at Firaxis Games

I'm too much of a wimp to play Ironman, so it's just Classic for me. I try not to reload, but I keep it around as a last resort.

Stunning and capturing my first alien was a thing of beauty. My assault managed to dodge two overwatch shots, stun one of the aliens, and my sniper cleaned up the last one.
 
Chryssalids are back. Cue me shitting my pants when one mauled one of my soldiers to death straight away.
 
I never got around to playing the original X-COMs, so starting on classic may have been a bit of a mistake for me. Ironman is just inconceivable at this stage - if I wasn't able to reload a dozen times I'd have three mission wipeouts, 0 credits and a roster of nothing but rookies right now. What does me in is that floaters and thin men can frequently one-shot me in full cover for upwards of 6 damage. I'm trying to front-load the weapons research but it means I'm light on defence and have a backlog of autopsies and interrogations.

I did have one triumphant moment where I ended up with nothing but a squad of rookies to go and investigate an intercepted craft, with a sub-objective of capturing an outsider. It took a couple of restarts to avoid wiping out, but we eventually pulled off a kind of suicide rush of human bait, which left only one of my rookies standing with 4 dead floaters and a captured outsider at his feet. One of them was a panic kill, too.

I'm enjoying the challenge but I'd like to cut down on the reloads from here on out, so hopefully I've reached the basic level of competency where that's possible. Not sure what I can do as long scrub enemies are one-shotting me all over and my Officer School is still building though. I guess pussy out of the 'Difficult' and 'Very Difficult' missions, but pshaw.
 
I always sucked at the original, the best advice I can give for less save reloads is to overwatch and hunker down A LOT. Half cover is rather risky to hide behind as one crit can easily kill your soldiers, so if you are forced to go to half cover, hunker down and wait for the enemy to react. Flanking is also very powerful in this game, gives you a large accuracy and crit bonus so try to do that whenever possible (if they aren't in overwatch and there is only one alien around, you can always just run right around it until you are behind it and shoot it in the back).

Other than that, I guess the other thing is to really prioritize keeping your veterans alive. If it means sacrificing a rookie to save one, so be it. It'll really pay off later once you have some Captains or something like that, as they are so much more reliable than rookies when it comes to succeeding on missions.
 
my girlfriend bought a copy of this last night, she's a fan of the old games whereas i never played them and didn't really dig the gameplay videos i saw the other day, but from peeking over her shoulder earlier - at the base, the autopsy's, research, the whole global campaign stuff etc etc, it's all really peeked my interest. i can totally dig that side of the game, so i'm gonna sit down with it when she's finished playing.
 
I'm enjoying this more than I thought. I am a massive fan of the original, and still play it when I get the urge. I love all the little touches that make it feel like an XCOM game. It is brutal when you make a mistake, as others have said. But the original was like that too.

My only real quibbles with it are the limited loadout options (I don't mean range of equipment, I mean 'grenade or scope' limitations), and the occasional bizarre pathfinding. I had a guy inside a building, opened a door, got shot at, hunkered down. Took out the alien with a sniper. Then next turn, sent the guy outside. Instead of walking through the open door, he dived trough the window on the other side of it :confused:

It does have a much steeper learning curve than the original, but so far I'm liking the challenge.
 
I played a bit more today and got through 3 or 4 pretty tough missions with no casualties or reloads needed. That included my introduction to Chryssalids, when I just said fukkit and spammed the area with explosives ('spam' meaning 2 grenades - I've been pretty wary of explosives up until now due to the rewards hit). So yeah I'm feeling a lot better about things.

Expanding your squad really changes the game. But even more significant than that is shrewd use of overwatch. Killing or otherwise knobbling stuff with reaction shots is massively satisfying and really changes the whole flavour of a fight. I made sure to give my newb sniper the only laser pistol I could afford, just so she could use it to overwatch and occasionally shoot while moving. Worked great in my last mission, she hit more with her pistol than she did with her rifle.

Really loving this game, despite (or because of?) having no expectations or anticipation for it.
 
I got this after hearing good things and I'm seriously enjoying it. It always makes me very sad when I lose a squad member, but it's mostly down to me pushing forward too much or just doing something stupid. Might restart now I understand all of the mechanics better without the tutorial bit. Lots of fun though!
 
Looks like a pretty good game but I can't help but feel that it would get repetitive. Every battle looks very similar as far as environments go.
 
The battles themselves are set up in much the same way every time, but so far progression in terms of my soldiers, my equipment, and the enemies I encounter have kept things fresh. The council will occasionally give you missions where the objective is something other than just killing all the aliens so that helps too.
 
Aren't the environments randomly generated too? I've restart a few times and it's taken me to a different area for the same mission. Either that or they just choose a random preset for that area.

Still, I'm gonna restart today since I understand how the game works now, can make a better start :)
 
From what I can remember, they said all of the maps are premade, but there are so many of them that the chance of seeing the same one twice in one playthrough is rather low. Me personally I don't think I've seen any repeats yet but it's hard to tell.
 
Man, the aspect of having recovery time from any wound received in combat is so harsh, in a good way. You really have to keep the concentration levels high, otherwise you make a bunch of lazy moves to close out a mission and suddenly 4 of your guys who would have been fine are now out of commission for a week.

I get such immense satisfaction from the way combat works out. Earlier I was investigating the first really huge downed UFO you encounter. I was going by the numbers, until I lazily decided to rush my Assault guy, appropriately nicknamed 'Psycho', through a couple of doorways to dispel the fog of war. That revealed a group of 3 Chryssalids who said 'sup' and walked over to stand beside Psycho and 3 of my other guys. I shat myself and made the only decent move that was left to me on that turn: fired a Shredder rocket right into the middle of my dudes. The rocket killed one chryssalid, shredded the rest, shredded my guys, and panicked them. The panicked members proceeded to shoot one chryssalid, then the other, killing them both thanks to the dmg buff from the rocket. Psycho escaped without any damage. Loving this game.
 
I really don't think that it is possible to maintain a steady panic level for every country, or to get through with all of them still on the Council. Maybe I'm just getting my priorities horribly wrong. I restarted the game to try and prioritize satellites, but never enough resources to get them in time. Meanwhile I haven't moved on with the objective of capturing an Outsider and assaulting the alien base, while the game is throwing Cyberdiscs and Mutons at me (though they're fairly easy).



Also Brazil and Japan can eat shit.
 
Once you do the alien base assault, panic drops by 2 all over the world. That might help keep everybody on board if you're doing well at the strategy layer. I wasn't, so I had already lost Mexico and Australia by then. I'm also shit at the satellites - struggling so much with resources that the only satellites I have up are the ones you launch in the tutorial. Still, with the panic levels a bit greener I finally feel like I can get out of the hole I was in.

But that base. Oh man, the base asssault. What a shithole. It's mostly just long. Between exploding power sources, chryssalids and guys bleeding out on the floor after being shot by my own mind controlled sniper, I lost 4 serious veterans including a max level heavy and my boy, Psycho. I tried one mission just after the base and wiped so hard with my new squad of clowns. This run through could still conceivably be ****ed.
 
Well I caved and bought it. Still playing my first game on Normal/Ironman. Here's my longest surviving soldier.

qq60r.jpg
 
I have been hearing a lot of great things about the game, been tempted as hell to pick it up. I have always been on the lookout for a challenging, yet satisfying strategy game. The only ones I have played are the final fantasy tactics and fire emblem series.
 
Tollbooth Willie said:
I really don't think that it is possible to maintain a steady panic level for every country, or to get through with all of them still on the Council. Maybe I'm just getting my priorities horribly wrong. I restarted the game to try and prioritize satellites, but never enough resources to get them in time. Meanwhile I haven't moved on with the objective of capturing an Outsider and assaulting the alien base, while the game is throwing Cyberdiscs and Mutons at me (though they're fairly easy).



Also Brazil and Japan can eat shit.
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Managed to finish the game on my second playthrough not only with all the countries still on the council but with only Egypt above 1 bar. Satellite coverage is the key.
 
I need a suggestion.

I just got this game, I have never played an XCOM title before. I am alright at turn based strategy games. I hear the Normal difficulty is a cake walk, and the Classic difficulty is a big leap in difficulty..


Should I play on "Normal + Ironman" or "Classic" for the right experience? (NOT Classic + Ironman. Just Classic)
 
I'd say Classic.... but I'm a fan of the original XCOM games, so I'm biased...
 
stemot said:
Managed to finish the game on my second playthrough not only with all the countries still on the council but with only Egypt above 1 bar. Satellite coverage is the key.
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"when it doubt, build more satellites"
 
ZT said:
Should I play on "Normal + Ironman" or "Classic" for the right experience? (NOT Classic + Ironman. Just Classic)
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Classic. The game is meant to be challenging. It's XCOM, baby.
 
I must admit that I'm playing through on the easiest difficulty because I care more about the meta-game and well... I'm so pathetic at strategy games it would make most hardy, grown men weep.
 
Between Classic and Normal Ironman, I would recommend Classic. It'll be difficult, but the ability to reload a save means that you can learn how to be competent against the tougher AI without outright losing 2 hours in.
 
Wanted Bob said:
Between Classic and Normal Ironman, I would recommend Classic. It'll be difficult, but the ability to reload a save means that you can learn how to be competent against the tougher AI without outright losing 2 hours in.
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Agreed. I wouldn't really recommend Ironman in any game for someone who has never played it, or anything in the franchise before. The original definitely had an unforgiving nature if you ballsed up. The new one is just the same.
 
I played on Classic the first time through and it was kinda hard, but I was able to learn a lot on how to cover my ass, and not be over aggressive by reloading and trying things differently.

I just started a new game on Normal mode, with Ironman this time. The problem with me in these games is I hate losing AI members when I can avoid it. Like, I feel bad when I get them killed. So probably after I lose someone I've gotten to like I'll just quit. I've lost a couple newbies already (killed on their first mission) but that seems typical as it happened in my last games too (lost one because I had too many nations drop out).
 
I should really get around to finishing this. I usually get up to the missions with Mutoids (?) and those zombie-creating Ant-Lion type creatures and lose a lot of troops, then start over again.
 
morgs said:
I should really get around to finishing this. I usually get up to the missions with Mutoids (?) and those zombie-creating Ant-Lion type creatures and lose a lot of troops, then start over again.
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Yep... Chryssalids.... my most hated and feared alien in the original... And not overly fond of them in the new one either *shudders* Fighting them was always where reloads were invaluable.
 
I lost my two favorite guys in one turn to them in my first game. I was like NOPE and reloaded. Still lost two guys, but they were rookies, so whatever.
 
Yeah, when they pop up on the screen I shift pretty much all of my soldier's attention to killing them as fast as possible. Being shot by a Sectoid sucks a bit. Being eviscerated by a Chryssalid and having the corpse turn into another Chryssalid is a whole different level of suck.
 
I'm pretty far in this at work and only lost two people. I feel kind of unstoppable so long as I have two fully levelled snipers covering my ass.

But yes, **** Chryssalids and Cyberdisks.
 
I just wish there was an ability to assign classes instead of automatically assigning them for you after they level up once.
 
In The Zone is the sickest ability in the game FYI.
 
Which one is that?

I like Lightning Reflexes myself. I tend to play overagressive, and usually stock up on Assault troops with Lightning Reflexes, and Support troops with the extra movement. I'm beginning to wonder if I should even bother with Heavies. I'm thinking I'll just take two assault, two support, and two snipers. I did just lose my best Heavy last night.
 
It's the sniper ultimate that lets you get free actions if you kill an alien outside of cover. It's just ridiculous, esp. considering many aliens can't use or almost never use cover and the ones that don't can be initiated with a rocket removing cover and weakening enemies enough that they can be finished in a single shot.

In the alien base I took out 8 tough aliens in a single turn with 1 shredder rocket and my ITZ sniper. Before I got Plasma sniper rifle.
 
I am playing on normal,With all the countries still in the council,am at the moment on attacking the badass ship that causes earthquakes after you research the ball thingy.I think that is the end,don't know for sure,and don't want to find out.

Squad:
1 sniper Colonel with psy abilities
1 heavy Colonel with psy abilities
1 heavy Captain
2 assault Colonels
1 support Colonel

Reserve:
1 support Captain
1 sniper Captain
1 support Sergeant

All armour unlocked.
All weapons unlocked.
14 Satellites in orbit atm.
6 soldiers dead

P.S.A question:
If you capture a live specimen with the arc thrower,what happens?
What do you get as a bonus instead of just killing the poor bastard ?
 
It was my belief that capturing a live alien is necessary to progress the story, because once you capture an outsider alien you can

Find the location of an underground alien base
 
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