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[Cajoes]

And their mental abilities seems to be on the fritz as well, anyone else noticed that?

Most of their degradation is explained in the flavor text for the game.

Basically a lot of them were turned into drooling idiots.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

True, but it's still a little jarring when you try to attack the Expedition after basicly walking over the Reticulan settlements.

[forsaken1111]

And their mental abilities seems to be on the fritz as well, anyone else noticed that?

Most of their degradation is explained in the flavor text for the game.

Basically a lot of them were turned into drooling idiots.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

True, but it's still a little jarring when you try to attack the Expedition after basicly walking over the Reticulan settlements.

True that.

[Saint]

Eh, I love the UFO series just because of the storyline. They link into the other episodes nicely, and are well woven into the gameplay. It's not necessary to play the early ones before the later ones, but I'm glad that I did.

Yea, because it doesn't spoil anything.

I hope this is sarcasm. If you don't play them in order you get huge spoilers.

I speak in sarcasm a lot.

[Sergius]

Ok, after playing Aftershock for a whole day, I can say definitely that it's much better than the predecessor. There's "some" destructibility in the environments (if you count making a tiny hole in a gate once in the whole game), and the tactical aspect is awesome. It really plays like you got a squad of people there.

Anyone else think the "capture" mechanic was a bit silly? I mean, it goes like this:

Mutant Enemy: Grr, Arr!
Soldier: Tag, you're it!
Mutant Enemy: Ah, no fair! I trust you guys follow the Geneva Convention for dealing with prisoners?
Soldiers: Indeedly do, neighbor!
Mutant Enemy: Alright! Count me in! I'll even spit at my own guys for free!

[Muz]

Eh, I love the UFO series just because of the storyline. They link into the other episodes nicely, and are well woven into the gameplay. It's not necessary to play the early ones before the later ones, but I'm glad that I did.

Yea, because it doesn't spoil anything.

Well, yeah, you get huge spoilers, but what I meant is that you can still have fun and get the background without playing an earlier game. The intro for the Aftershock basically spoils half of Aftermath, which was why I said I'm glad I played it in order. I actually bought the whole trilogy shortly after playing Aftermath. But IMO, the later games are better and more polished, so skip the early ones if you've got limited time.

How well does this series stack up to the fun of the original X-Com? I've been debating trying these out for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it. Is it worth cramming into my sparse gaming schedule?

Biggest mistake many people make is to compare the two. Kinda like comparing Age of Empires to Command and Conquer. They're both different games, with different styles, different base building, different research, and every game in the series has different game mechanics and tactics. Only thing they have in common is that they're squad games where you shoot aliens. You'll have a lot more fun without any expectations.

Don't confuse it with UFO: Extraterrestrial which was pretty much an X-Com clone that was ugly and had really bad changes to the X-Com style.

[LegoLord]

I've looked at a couple reviews for the games.  The general impression I get is that the first is repetitive and not challenging, the second one was . . . just generically bad, from what I read, although it did mention some good points to it, and the that the third's problem was the difficulty curve and the rehashed maps.

Afterlight seemed to have the highest number score, but that's not necessarily a good indicator.

Having played them, would you say this is accurate?

[Muz]

I dunno.. I enjoyed most of the games, but I know lots of people who didn't. I wouldn't take seriously any reviewer that compares them to X-Com, though. Those reviews sound rather accurate, but I actually love the series, even with all the flaws. I'd say they're all very... unique, and I'm glad I played them. If you're the one who plays only for pure gameplay, then it might not be for you.

1st was repetitive, but points for the research style, squad/equipment handling, the mood, and the way the storyline unfolds.
2nd had a lot of gameplay flaws, but it's got a lot of originality, with weapon modding, different ways to manage taking control over the world, and IMO, it was overall a fun game but a bit simple. The same uniqueness are also its flaws, but I personally really enjoyed it.
3rd also tied in the missions/story nicely with the gameplay. Yeah, difficulty curve is shit, though.. early missions had you killing the enemy with one shot, later ones had them killing you with one shot, but I loved a lot of the little details. It had a smoother flow than the other two games, though, which was why it's rated higher.


If you want a squad-based tactical game that's different and pays a lot of attention to detail, then you might enjoy it. I love the little tech animations, the weapon data, and the fighter-UFO animations in the first one, as well as showing the world getting eaten up. I liked how the second one showed your modified weapons and equipment on the screen and even the destructible environments (which happens rarely enough that it's believable). I like how the third one was permadeath, but when one of your characters died, he's replaced by some other relative, with associated background story. All those tiny details how you affected the world.. love them more than a strictly balanced game with high addiction and no useless bits.

[Evilgrim]

Evilgrim's official seal of 'Lurking' goes here.

[Farce]

Just got this, and I've been having a blast.

I really like that there's a choice in your equipment.  I've never played the originals for any appreciable amount of time, though I've watched a couple LPs, but one thing that always bugged me about them was how limited your arsenal was.  In the first, all I can remember is ever seeing use was starting rifle > laser (possibly skippable) > heavy plasma, with occasional support weapons in the form of fire/explosive cannon rounds/rockets and stun/blaster bombs.

Afterlight seems to be tempting me with an eventual moddable arsenal and tons of big guns, though I've been using the projectile weapons for forever (and they're awesome).  There's also variation in suits and troops, instead of the completely linear armor tree from original X-com, which is great... except I've also not gotten any except the light battle suit.

The only thing I can really complain about is how slow the geoscape goes.  I've only got one science and tech truck ranging across my giant territory (30 territories, a quarter of the surface I'd estimate), they're hella slow, and I'm not sure if I can ever get more.  As a result, getting cool new buildings and tech takes forever, as I can't get the needed resources quick enough.  Research similarly takes aaaages despite four guys working non-stop.  I've got tons of them lined up, and still a few unassigned.  I guess the speed's balanced to let me keep up with the aliens... but still, I've only just gotten grenades.

Fights are quite fun, though I've only been using the humans on missions due to finding my xeno allies and the drones pretty useless.  As a result, they're severely underleveled, and therefore useless!  Despite the lack of variety, though, the humans have enough equipment to stay varied, and therefore interesting.

It was pretty cool when the enemies ramped up in difficulty the first time - suddenly captains! - and this second time I've managed alright too.  ...Except for my latest mission, where like eight high-level beastmen are bunched up in one of their huge great hall things, with five more outside.  I think I counted 3 chiefs in there, with another in the group outside.  I've been trying to overwhelm them through sheer grenadery, but there's just too many of them.  The captains and chiefs manage to stay standing after I huck like five at them, and I just can't suck up the amount of gun they bring to the fight.

...Actually, I just thought up another thing to complain about.  Why do my damn drones need combat experience to have their upgrade chips installed?  That makes them weak, unable to keep up, and non-expendable, as they should be.  Dammit, game.

[Deadmeat1471]

I enjoyed these games, they dont match up to xcom but they are by far the best attempt yet.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

I've played UFO: Aftermath and Afterlight (not Aftershock). I like the setting of Aftermath better because it incorporate a high number of Earth-based weapons. It felt like Jagged Alliance mixed with X-Com (a wet dream to fans of both masterpieces!).

[Nirur Torir]

Overall, I enjoyed the series. Aftermath had a really odd difficulty curve though, being hardest in the mid-game, before getting easy again as you get the insanely powerful weapons.
Aftershock was the only on I didn't get around to beating yet, but I enjoyed the unique geoscape elements.
Afterlight:

The only thing I can really complain about is how slow the geoscape goes.  I've only got one science and tech truck ranging across my giant territory (30 territories, a quarter of the surface I'd estimate), they're hella slow, and I'm not sure if I can ever get more.  As a result, getting cool new buildings and tech takes forever, as I can't get the needed resources quick enough.  Research similarly takes aaaages despite four guys working non-stop.  I've got tons of them lined up, and still a few unassigned.  I guess the speed's balanced to let me keep up with the aliens... but still, I've only just gotten grenades.

I like to train a driver for each truck when the game starts before I send them out, along with whatever skills improve the building speed.

Fights are quite fun, though I've only been using the humans on missions due to finding my xeno allies and the drones pretty useless.  As a result, they're severely underleveled, and therefore useless!  Despite the lack of variety, though, the humans have enough equipment to stay varied, and therefore interesting.

It was pretty cool when the enemies ramped up in difficulty the first time - suddenly captains! - and this second time I've managed alright too.  ...Except for my latest mission, where like eight high-level beastmen are bunched up in one of their huge great hall things, with five more outside.  I think I counted 3 chiefs in there, with another in the group outside.  I've been trying to overwhelm them through sheer grenadery, but there's just too many of them.  The captains and chiefs manage to stay standing after I huck like five at them, and I just can't suck up the amount of gun they bring to the fight.

Your alien allies can use their special weaponry through walls, without needing line of sight. They also make great medics.

...Actually, I just thought up another thing to complain about.  Why do my damn drones need combat experience to have their upgrade chips installed?  That makes them weak, unable to keep up, and non-expendable, as they should be.  Dammit, game.

They can never directly compare with your humans, but they do get better later in the game, after you get the research to equip them with

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quad rockets

They're also useful as expendable scouts if you're trying an iron man game. Other then that, I rarely use them.

Near the end-game, units become slightly more expendable, but it's not easy to figure out why. Large spoilers, so I'll PM it to anyone who asks instead of using a useless spoiler tag.

[Majestic7]

My favorites of the UFO series are X-Com Apocalypse and then UFO Aftershock. Reading this thread made my install and play Aftershock again. Maybe I'll give Afterlight another spin once I've played Aftershock through. I really miss the big interactive city of Apocalypse with all the different factions though... and the mayhem!

Apocalypse would be just perfect if the factions were somehow present on the combat maps as well and there was a way to make the city size huuuuuuuuuuuuge without increasing difficulty. Now it is tied to the difficulty level and I'd like to have extremely big city without taking extreme difficulty level. Oh well, can't have all.

You know, I kind of wish someone did UFO: Roswell with Silent Storm engine (game or mod). Could use all the WW2 equipment in the game, since the game would take place 1947... I just love the engine in that game, with everything bloooowing up and crazy ricochets galore! 

[Greiger]

I can't believe I didn't notice this thread earlier.  Played a bit of Aftermath, but skipped aftershock by accident and went straight to afterlight.

My problem with aftermath when I first played it was that it didn't like my graphics card.  There was a large number of graphical artifacts.  I still managed to play it for some time.  But later some large geoscape thing was apperantly showing up

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Biomass

which gave all indications that I should be able to see where it is spreading.  I could not.  Naturally this pretty much killed my ability to counter it, and the game became unplayable.

Later I got afterlight (mistakenly thinking it was the second game) which had the same problems. IR and Psi and all those vision modes actually crashed the game outright.

After that I eventually got a new computer and played afterlight again.  And now I seem to be rather far.  All my soldiers (Ute, Benat, Diego, Harold, some younger black haired woman, a male blond field medic, and an expedition reticulan) are all max stat, level 25 demigods.  Yet the beastmen are still giving me nightmares.  The high level beastman matriarchs kick my ass wholesale, they outsnipe my sniper, outdodge Ute, and outarmor Harold, and there's usually 5 or 6 to a mission.

Maybe I should play aftermath again now that my graphics card can actually do what the game wants.

[Farce]

Goddammit.  This is the second bluescreen the game's inflicted on me.  Something about irqc_not_less_or_equal.

In better news, I have conquered the mission that I got stuck on, after like five failures.  Instead of rushing them, I set up outside, with everyone on one side, Ute on the other (I have no idea why, but even then I was pretty sure it was a stupid idea), Harold in front as bait, and Diego. with his rawkits in the back.  When the target chief waltzed down, the big group started chucking all their grenades inside to knock out whatever units were following him, while everyone else opened fire.

...Or at least, that's what was supposed to happen.  Instead of shooting Harold, the chief shot (and hit, multiple times) Diego, waaaay in the back.  I still haven't taught him to run - I mean, who needs running when your gun is that big? - so retreating him around the corner took a while. Ute had heavy injuries from some previous mission, as did Diego, and she got shot down almost first thing.  I ran Harold over to her and had him stand in front to hopefully soak some of the stuff they were shooting at her.

Diego got knocked out during the fight again, and I think our medic, Gene, got blown up and knocked down.  Tabbie was really useful, doing big damage with his mind bullets from behind the corner.  The victory required awesome running-up-real-close-and-wild-firing from all my pistoleers, who I think took no hits during the exchange with the chief.

Oh yeah.  Also, Diego shot his rocket while Sam was right next to the chief they were fighting with.  Due to the way I have my battle pauses configured I sorta derped with 'em and the rocket got too close before I could even get her to start running away.  She got blown into all-red-damage and just dropped.  Fun times.

Spoiler: Victoly shot (click to show/hide)

I haven't healed from that yet, as the game keeps generating invasions in my territory.  However, the spaceship from Earth arrived, so now I have a bunch of cool swag.  I haven't figured out what raw materials they've dropped off, but now I've got bigger guns for Diego (which I have not used yet), but more awesomely I've got some attachments!  That's totally cool.