Having just played 11 hours straight of the original X-com, I feel entirely justified in saying that this new game is NOT going to capture what made X-com great in any way, shape, or form.
Actually, gonna elaborate on this while it's fresh in my mind.
Also, I'm going to be doing a lot of comparisons to Mass Effect 1 & 2 so be ready for that.
Geoscape/BattlescapeLegit X-com has two interfaces: Logistics and DEATHKILLMAIM. Indubitably, our faux X-com (heretofore referred to as FBI-com for obvious reasons) will claim to have these as well, which is a claim I don't agree with. That claim appears to be no more true for FBI-Com than it is for Mass Effect (either). The Geoscape has a realtime map, your data graphs, your UFOpaedia, your base selector, and two intercept options (the Intercept button or clicking on a base on the globe). Within the Base screen, to the right of the image of your base's layout, you have the option to switch to any other base, the base info button, your soldier roster, your aircraft logistics screens with subscreens for each craft, the build facilities button, Research Screen, Manufacturing screen, Transfer interface, Purchase/Recruit and Sell/Sack interfaces, and (naturally) the Return To Geoscape button. These are all presented in a nice, orderly fashion as a list down the right side of the screen. I don't have to spend two minutes waiting for the goddamn elevator to move twenty feet and wonder why there aren't stairs. I click, and I'm there. No fluff. No unnecessary dialogue "HEY U WANNA RECRUIT SOLDIERS?" "YA I WANNA RECRUIT SOLDIERS" or other such bullshit to artificially add to Steam's disapproving 63 Hours Played glare. I want better stuff to kill aliens? Research > Add Project > Assign X Scientists, DONE. I want to manufacture stuff? Basically the same process with the question of how many things I want made. I don't have to run around the FBI HQ or the Normandy or what the fuck ever. I hit my goddamn buttons and it's done.
Within the DEATHKILLMAIM interfaceYeah, it gets its own section. Your options in FBI-com are pretty clearly going to be "Forward" "Backward" and "Shoot." I don't know about you guys, but after the freedom to approach problems literally however you wanted (From "The alien is probably waiting there - I'll use my laser rifle on autofire at the tile I think it's hiding behind!" to "Rocket to wall, kthxbai" to "I'll throw rookies through the door until the alien runs out of TUs") I don't think FBI-com is going to satisfy. They're going to want linear maps, scripted encounters, triggered events, and, well, basically not do what X-com let you do - anything.
Actually have X-comYou may have noticed X-com was a game where aliens were fought by X-com and 2k's game is a game in which aliens are fought by Not X-com. This is a likely source of problems to people who rather liked X-com. The only solution to this I could think of was if X-com recruited you, but we all know what happens to rookies in X-com.