X-COM: UFO Defense

The Good
Everything good about this amazing game has already been quoted by the other folks wriing reviews. It's tough to describe to the 'uninitiated' how good the game is, because you'll keep going off on tangents about the bazillions of game features, and little perks that keep you glued to the screen. How good is it? Well, being the year 2001, and being a game developer myself, I've seen, played, and created more than my share of games. Each year games make new leaps in technology, surpassing their predecessors. We see every technology-related buzzword imaginable (and a few that have yet to be coined) pop up in public relations blurbs. The latest polygon pushing graphic engines, 3d sound technology, megapixels, terra-hoo-hahs... Know what? It all doesn't matter a damn. Having never played X-com until this year, after we have 1.5ghz processors and hudreds of megs of ram stacked in or machines, a far cry from the old 386 X-com needs, when it popped up on Classic-Trash.com, I thought I'd give it a whirl.. after all, all the 'old' magazines and gaming vets said it was great... It's free, what could there possibly be to lose?

Well, weeks later, as I write this bleary eyed and exhausted, I'd have to say that it's the best 3.5 meg I've downloaded. Many games come close to beating out X-Com in my mind, notably Bullfrog's Syndicate, Sid Meyer's Pirates, Lucas Arts' Sam n' Max Hit the Road, Maxis' SimCopter, Ion Storm's Deus Ex, and Blizzard's StarCraft. But none will ever edge it out. the ambiance, atmosphere, gameplay, and nail biting terror beat out any qualms you might have about the graphics or dated engine. After all, no matter what the game, the 'good' graphics and 'bad' graphics alike will fade in your mind after you play the game, and the gameplay will rear it's ugly head. The good gameplay is the keeper, and the forgettable will be shelved for something new. Snazzy, cutting edge graphic fests will always be superceded by the next generation, but incredible gameplay is timeless, and that's the key.

IGN.com has done a very nice job of outlining the brilliance of X-Com, and why they too named it the best game of all time. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in explaining it.

"There are four things that make X-COM great that still haven't been surpassed in other games.

1) The sense of attachment to your troops

Almost better than any RPG, you care about your characters in X-COM. Once stories start happening to your characters, they take on a special significance. The best computer games don't necessarily tell you a story, but they let you create your own memorable stories. You'll remember the time a new squaddie single-handedly took out a roomful of aliens with a suicide grenade. You'll remember being ambushed before you could step off the ramp of your Skyranger. You'll remember the time a bad ass female soldier mowed down everything in sight with an auto cannon. You'll remember the time you just flattened an entire building because you knew an alien was hiding inside. You'll remember the time a rookie with a med-kit dashed into harm's way to save the lieutenant. You'll remember your early attempts to train and use psionics against the aliens. You'll remember those tense hunts as you pair your men off and spread out into back alleys and farmhouses. You'll remember your first raid against an alien base and your first visit to someplace further away than you thought you go.

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Because the characters improve through battles and accumulate stories, it's not always about how big your gun is, something first person shooter and many RPGs can't see past. Instead it's about where a character has been and how far he's come. As in real war, a brutal and senseless process of natural selection winnows the lesser soldiers out, leaving behind the strong and the lucky. X-COM was made to be played over the long haul as an ongoing story that is just as much about your characters as it is about an alien invasion.

It's a seemingly minor detail that you can name your characters, but this makes a big difference when it comes to giving them a place in your imagination. Everyone has probably used the names from Aliens: Drake, Vasquez, Hudson, Hicks and Apone. Maybe even Gorman and Frost. Did you get as far as Dietrich, Spunkmeyer and Wierzbowski? For a really weird experience, name your troops after people you know, your friends and family, your boss or your co-workers. It's pretty demoralizing when your mother gets shot or your best friend gets mind-controlled and you have to put him down.

2) The way the gameplay unfolds in the campaign

The way you play X-COM changes as your hard-working scientists climb the tech tree and give you new ways to play the game. It starts out small with your men taking up rifles against Sectoids in small UFOs. But X-COM keeps throwing in new twists, like motion scanners, hyperwave decoders, and battleships with full complements of well-armed Mutons and their Ethereal overlords. Bigger guns and psionics come along as you're facing more powerful enemies, but there's always a sense that your resources are limited and you have to spend them wisely. Time is just as precious a resource as money as you fight for the hearts and minds of the countries of the world.

Some of the fun is sucked out once you learn some of the tricks like how to manufacture laser rifles for a thriving economy or how to build a base optimized for defense. But even then, there's a lot to do between battles. X-COM is a long game and you'll probably fight over a hundred battles by the time it's over, but they're held together and driven by a strong and compelling strategic shell.

3) Atmosphere

X-COM rode in on a wave of renewed interest in aliens and conspiracies a la X-Files. It conveys perfectly the feeling of being on the fringe of a horrible vast plot from somewhere else. You get a real sense that those little alien bastards are poking their noses into international affairs, that they're up to something as they flit about in their nimble ships. The actual incursions are just moving dots against a map of the world, but it completely works from the point of view of someone sitting at the base and tracing radar contacts while sending out interceptors to shoot the offending UFOs down. It works even better once you start to appreciate the cause and effect relationships between the different alien ships and how they influence the political and financial scene. It's really a surprise when the little boogers come gunning for you at your own base.

During the actual missions, X-COM used darkness and limited visibility to good effect. What you couldn't see would kill you, so every door and dark alley was an unnerving potential trap. Nighttime missions were especially frightening. Death could come quickly in X-COM, especially in the pre-armor phases of the game. The sound during the missions deserves special mention: shrieking victims, slithering hissing aliens, and an eerie pulsing soundtrack. Even the sound effects in the shell screen were great. How many times have you heard a control panel sound effect in a movie or TV show and thought to yourself, "Hey, that's an X-COM button!"

4) The way you can break stuff

An important element in an action sequence, particularly one with guns and other things that go boom, is how you clearly demonstrate the destructive power of a battle. Bullets wreak havoc. They break glass and shatter the bottles on the bar. An explosion can knock over a wall and a molotov cocktail can burn down a house. But in a first person shooter, all this has to be scripted and it takes up precious CPU cycles. There's a strange irony in the fact that it takes a staid turn-based game like X-COM to really capture the mayhem of combat.

Things break in X-COM and the game captures this beautifully. It's one thing to shoot out windows and punch holes through walls with your gun, but destroying the entire side of a building with a rocket is uniquely satisfying. Throwing a grenade is truly an event. My first shot with a blaster bomb was one of those rare peak gaming experiences that I'll never forget.

Because X-COM captures these four elements so well, it remains the best turn-based squad-level combat game you can play."

The Bad
It's too good. Everquest has nothing on this puppy.

You'll lose sleep.

Deal with it.

The Bottom Line
Like I said, the only way to describe X-Com to others is as the BEST game of all time. Hands down. Three meg download. Do yourself a favor (unless you like sleep).

By now, there shouldn't be any reason for you to not get this game. Well, what are you waiting for?

Now, you must excuse me, for my heavily equipped Avenger is approaching the Alien's European base, and it's time for The Captain to kick ass and take names.

The Good
The game is insanely challenging at all difficulty levels, has many moments where you'll need a clean pair of underwear afterwards, and combines strategic thinking with tactics. Your overall progress in the game is measured by how well you complete missions, which can make or break your game. I think what I like best about this game is that the gameplay stands the test of time; it's still a very good design after all these years.

The Bad
The only complaint one might have about the game is that the game is difficult. Even on easy it is possible to lose even when you know what you are doing. On the highest difficulties, I've managed to lose in one in-game month. I've heard rumors of somebody building a mod for it that makes it even more difficult, and that's not something I wish to imagine.

The Bottom Line
The game is a take on the classic alien invasion scenarios one encounters in pulp fiction and Sci-Fi B movies. You've got several races and species of alien creatures. There's your typical little green men, your big-headed alien psychics, mutated earth creatures, the obligatory reference to Alien, and nasty cyborgs. The game consists of the Geoscape where you manage your bases, personnel, equipment requisitions, research, and of course send out aircraft to intercept UFOs. The other half of the game is spent in the tactical combat mode, where you actually kill the invaders. The game's plot progresses as you successfully complete missions and gain new items to research, all contained helpfully within the UFOpaedia. At first the conflict is rather one-sided, but as you research, you actually start having competent soldiers as well as the advanced equipment to fight the aliens. Of course, the aliens do not sit on their duffs; they respond to your success in a variety of ways.

The Good
X-COM: UFO Defense has quite a bit of complexity for a game of its age. You have to manage a worldwide organization from its budget, on down to each individual soldier in tactical combat. And while there is a lot to keep track of, the interface is very straightforward if a little unwieldy.

Managing the organization as a whole involves keeping track of funding, base construction, personnel management, and research/manufacture. This is all taken care of from the Geoscape screen. There is a wealth of information in the UFOpeadia, once you do research of course. Keeping track of you budget can be hard, what with paying salaries, maintenance costs, and vehicle leases. This can be counteracted by selling your newly captured equipment, just remember to keep some for research purposes. The management portion can get a little tedious, but it is only half of the game.

The tactical portion is really detailed for a six-year-old game. Squad tactics are important because any soldier left without backup will probably die. Once you arrive at the battle location, you must disembark from your transport and commence the alien hunt (here sectoid,sectoid,sectoid...). Depending on the alien mission, you might have to try saving as many humans as you can, which can get difficult depending on the alians present. The game tracks damage to the environment (gee sarge, that wall just got in the way!), and imposes line-of-sight rules (what you can't see,can and will hurt you). Tactical is my favorite part of the game, though it can take some time.

The Bad
I do have a few gripes about the game, such as difficulty. Even on the easiest setting, X-COM can be very hard to get started in. I tried the hardest setting once. I lasted a months worth of game time. While the tactical is my favorite part of the game, it has its issues. The environment damage makes getting through buildings to the aliens fun, but I don't understand how the rest of the building stays floating when the ground floor is blown completely away. And the line-of-sight rules can be a little screwy sometimes. There have been times when I could see the aliens, but could not shoot them (if I stick my head any farther around the corner, it'll get blown off!).

Chrysalids. #!&% Enough said.

The Bottom Line
The bad ponts are really minor gripes. In all, this game is very enjoyable, and has held up very well over the years. If you like sci-fi types of strategy games, its worth a look. Some software stores still carry the UFO Defense, Terror From The Deep, Apocalypse pack for about $20-$25.

The Good
X-COM: UFO Defense starts the player out in an immediately evocative scenario: you are the sole line of defense against alien invasion of Earth. Cliched? Trite? Already-done and done well since Space Invaders? Not so fast. This time our tired alien invasion plot isn't a stand-in "meaning" for abstract gaming cliches that could just as well be tied to any old concept, but rather an integral justification for a streamlined and brilliant game experience.

The game has two modes—strategic, and tactical. In the former the player can build facilities, buy new bases and equipment, hire soldiers and scientists, research technologies, build weapons, track and intercept UFOs. In the tactical mode, the scope changes to a small isometric slice of terrain, wherein the player equips and leads a squad of soldiers to wipe out any aliens that infest the surface. Seems like standard fare for a turn based strategy with an added action element, but there's a crucial difference--the strategic decisions are made in chaotic real-time (albeit with the option to slow things down), and all the action occurs in the traditionally staid format of turn-based gameplay.

It's easy to miss the impact of this, but the way Julian Gollop has reversed the cliched modes of play for action and strategy is extremely important to the game's style and feel. Contrast this with Archon or Lords of the Realm, other excellent genre-blenders which make the opposite and more traditional choices for action and strategy gameplay style. With the strategic view occurring in real-time, urgency -and- a sense of complete control are both carefully maintained, reimagining the normally staid, relaxed gameplay that is provided to the player of traditional turn-based strategy. As UFOs flit around the globe in real time, you don’t respond to static, finalized enemy decisions, but rather to –ongoing- actions that require precise timing and resource management for a successful response. Aliens (either flying, landed, or terrorizing civilians) aren't waiting around for you—if you take too long to respond or lack the resources to do so, you can only helplessly watch them go about their nefarious business.

And how is that business described? Simply but brilliantly. No cinematics, no flashy graphics, simply red dots flying around and turning into green x’s as they land. In the beginning game it seems almost random, since the player lacks the knowledge to divine alien intent, but –every- UFO mission has a deadly purpose. After interrogating some live aliens, you’ll learn about the –alien- missions, and what’s at stake if that red dot becomes a grounded green x and escapes unmolested—a new alien base can be created, a terror attack can be unleashed, your bases can be discovered and destroyed. They may engage in abduction, government infiltration, harvesting of Earth-based life (including humans!) for food—all evocative and frightening purposes behind those little red dots. And they require no graphics whatsoever for the player to understand and believe. Just a bit of imagination. Once you learn what those little buggers are up to, new strategic decisions are necessary beyond any “stop all dots, kill all baddies” cliché. Aliens attempting to infiltrate governments or discover your base suddenly receive priority for destruction, and if a terrorist ship isn’t stopped, it will cause a massive terror attack on an urban center, requiring a dangerous and costly tactical response. You may want to let supply ships for alien bases land before assaulting them rather than shooting them down, as this provides maximum resources from a tactical engagement. In addition to the added atmosphere and strategic considerations, any and all of their missions can impact your relations with various countries, your funding, the safety of your bases, and the scale of future alien attacks. All this added atmosphere and strategy results from little red dots and green x's? Brilliant!

The story unfolds primarily through research. As alien weapons and lifeforms are researched, gradually their dark purpose and origins become apparent. Live aliens of a higher intellectual order provide insights into alien strategy and society, dependent on the alien’s rank. You’ll learn far more useful information about their strategy from leaders and commanders, medics will provide you with research concerning other alien lifeforms, and navigators will provide you with the ability to decode a UFO’s purpose directly from radar. All are useful, all advance either the plot, atmosphere or strategic scope of the game.

The tactical mode is what really shines, however. Terrain is destructible, and the weapons are overpowered, balanced, and extremely fun to use. Soldiers build skills with use, and may be given custom names and equipment. Aliens are unique and terrifying, and their AI is brilliant but entirely fair as they are given the same abilities and limitations as the player’s units. As with the strategic mode, a perfect balance is struck between urgency and control, and again it’s due to an unusual choice: turn-based action gameplay. The chaos, fear and anticipation of combat are well simulated—opening a door or turning a corner and seeing an alien is a terrifying experience. This is largely because due to the action not being entirely divided by turn: units are not altogether static during an opponent’s turn—they may fire back if enough time units are available to do so, and their reaction skill is high enough. So all real-time questions remain: Do I have enough time to kill it before it reacts? Do I have backup to cover me in case I fail to eliminate the threat? Do I have time to run to relative safety? If I move, will it react and shoot me down? All these tactical problems are there and well-executed in a turn-based format. Since these benefits are maintained, the added control of turn-based gameplay perfects the system in a way that the often out-of-control mess of real-time tactics could never duplicate.

Lots of reviews here already mention the details and window dressing of X-COM gameplay that greatly enhance the experience (RPG elements, attachment to individual soldiers, etc.), so I thought the innovative, counter-intuitive choices the designers made to realize strategy and action deserved most of my review's attention. The balance achieved between player control and excitement is the big victory, and this makes X-COM a remarkable and unique experience.

The Bad
As far as gameplay goes, there is nothing wrong with this game. The dated graphics are the only real complaint.

The Bottom Line
A tour-de-force of innovative, unexpected design that broke barriers, transcended gaming cliches, and remains unmatched to this day.

The Good
Jeez, where to start?! This game was an amazing breakthrough in turn based strategy games. The campaign aspect is long and complex, you need to worry about politics, research, base-expansion (and defence), and soldier training. The missions are edge-of-your-seat suspenceful, and at just that right difficulty. The missions vary from your basic clean up missions to the more complex terror missions. The aliens are creatively done, they have a wide arsonal of weapons for you to discover and research, and the psychic battles are just as important as the physical ones. Music is moody and well composed and the sound effects are superb.

The Bad
There wasn't really anything I didn't like about this game!

The Bottom Line
The greatest turn-based squad-based strategy of all time.

The Good
X-Com is one of those rare games that gets just about everything right. I've always thought this was one of the best games I ever played for the PC, but recently began wondering if nostalgia was simply making it out to be more than it was. I've been playing it recently for a week straight, and have quickly come to the conclusion that this IS my all-time favorite PC game. I will tell you why:

The game combines both a strategic and tactical game in one. Both are equally complex and important, and FUN in their own right. As a strategy gamer, running the operations of my X-Com bases is pure delight. One portion of the game is ran from the Geoscape. This is a real-time view of Earth from outer space. It shows locations of your X-com bases, major cities, detected UFO's, crashed/landed UFO's, alien bases and cities being terrorized. Some things, such as Alien bases, you need to find before they appear. Once a UFO is detected, you send out your interceptors to shoot it down. Once it's shot down, you then send out your Skyranger filled with X-Com operatives to secure the landing site. This is where the game turns into the tactical portion of the game.

At the start of the battle, all your X-Com operatives are inside the Skyranger which has just landed at the crash site. As you exit, you may or may not run into aliens in the vicinity. Eventually, you will, and this is where your soldiers take the fight to the aliens. Most of the game you will be behind the aliens in technology, so will need to use a lot of tactics and heavy firepower (grenades, rockets, etc) and some luck to fight the alien menace. As you win fights and secure alien crash sites, ALL their technology is captured and taken back to your X-Com base. From there, you can assign scientists to research ANYTHING. Alien corpses, live aliens, alien rifles, grenades, UFO power sources, UFO navigations, etc. Everything researched has value, whether it's tangible or just information. Do you research alien plasma rifles so your troops have better weapons, or UFO craft equipment so your fighters can shoot down bigger UFO's? You'll constantly be making these decisions throughout most of the game. The research and discovery aspect of this game, especially the first time playing it, makes X-Com one of those games where you catch yourself saying, "I'll go to bed once I researched...".

Then once a new weapon is researched, for example, you get to actually use it in the tactical combat. In X-Com you are always progressing, and seeing the benefit of this progression in actual gameplay is a real joy. Throwing your first alien grenade and seeing it do much more damage than your own grenades, or seeing a soldier survive multiple hits because of some new armor he donned due to the research you've done is great!

The tactical portion of the game is almost like an RPG. You hire new soldiers from your base screen, in the strategic portion of the game. Each soldier has about 8 statistics that can increase the more missions he/she goes on, and how many aliens they kill. They not only gain skills (Like accuracy and strength), but also rank. What happens to soldiers in a tactical fight is how their skills raise. So if you load a soldier up with a ton of equipment each mission, their strength increases, allowing them to do more with more weight. If they fire a lot, and kill aliens, their accuracy increases. The detail is amazing! Each soldier has a first and last name, so soldiers who survive a lot of missions you'll begin to get attached to. You'll see someone like Alan Davies, and remember some of the heroic missions he went on where he barely escaped death and killed the last three aliens with a well placed grenade. Then, unfortunately, some day he'll die and you won't be losing a generic soldier. You'll be losing a veteran who you grew accustomed to and counted on to be the leader on every excursion. Now you have to get a replacement who may panic the minute a friend dies next to him.

The tactical combat, even though the graphics are dated, are still very atmospheric and creepy even to this day!! Especially if you haven't played the game before, the first time one of your soldiers turns a corner or enters a new room and sees an alien for the first time your heart will jump. "What the hell is THAT thing??" you'll ask, and notice the soldier that just saw the alien doesn't have enough turn points left to fire at him. The detail in the tactical combat is amazing. Objects can block weapon fire, smoke and objects can block line of sight, smoke can knock aliens/humans unconcious, explosions can rip holes into the sides of buildings, etc. Each weapon/item has a lot of uses as well. Equip a motion detector, and you can see movement 'blips' around that soldier. Use a medikit on a soldier, and you can use three different things: Painkiller, Stimulate or Heal. Different body parts can be injured to, so you choose the body part and heal it. I can go on and on about the level of detail of this game, but these are just some examples!

The game is highly addictive, and is rightly seated in gamers' minds as one of (if not THE) best PC game of all time. Play it for yourself and find out. Even for being so old, the gameplay is still golden!

The Bad
While X-Com has gameplay second to none, anyone worth their salt can tell you it has its problems as well. Graphics are old, but they don't affect gameplay. There are plenty of crashes in X-Com, even the Collectors Edition, and especially so now on WinXP. You have to save quite often, but the game is SO good, this will become second nature, and getting back into a game takes a matter of seconds. the only time you'll get pissed about this is if you had forgotten to save in a long time, or after a very long and important battle that you had won. An auto-save feature would be nice!!

Equipping your soldiers before each battle is also a big hassle. It would have been terribly useful if you could assign equipment loads that were automatically saved, so your soldiers would be equipped properly before each battle. For example, some soldiers I designate as (Hvy), which I typically give the heavier loadouts too (Rocket launcher + rockets, medikit, extra grenades, etc). It'd have been very useful if they started with that loadout at the start of each mission. Instead, you have to manually load each soldier every time. A nagging issue that you never truly get used to.

Lots of general bugs, such as loading a saved game that was in tactical combat and had proximity mines down. They are now gone and useless once you loaded the game.

Some weapons/research aren't very useful, such as most HWP's as they die in a few shots and are very expensive, and pistols.

The difficulty can sometimes be very frustrating, especially to casual players. Aliens are generally very accurate, and in the early to mid game you will experience a lot of casualties, even if you win a fight. Especially terror missions! Another thing that is frustrating, especially on terror missions, is that you can sometimes barely get off your Skyranger before half or most of your squad is killed. You get half your guys off, four aliens are waiting right outside, and either blast them all before they can get a shot off or just throw a grenade there and annihilate your entire team. Would have probably been smart for the X-Com team to land a 'wee' bit away from the terror site and then work their way to it.

There's other problems, and annoyances with X-Com that I can't fully document here. They are experienced after heavily playing the game (which most people will!), but ultimately NONE of these problems will deter you from playing it. X-Com proves to the current industry you don't need high production values to make a classic game. Even with the dated graphics, sound, music(which is actually still kinda creepy!) and bugs this game is a shining achievement in gameplay!

The Bottom Line
X-Com is a strategic and tactical game where you defend earth from an alien invasion. You control everything about X-Com, from purchasing weapons and equipment, building new base facilities, intercepting UFO's, researching alien technology, manufacturing new equipment, investigating crash sites and ultimately finding a way to eliminate the alien invasion once and for all!

The Good
The turn-based tactical playing, the RPG style of the characters, the financial strategy. The integration of all the "playing styles". I remember the sensation when your best squadron Captain dies in action after many successful missions... the first alien kill of the a rookie... One of these games that you remember by itself, not the circumstances around.

The Bad
The interface.

The Bottom Line
Strategy and turn-based tactical game with RPG-style characters.

The Good
X-COM UFO Defense is one of those few classic games that truly changed gaming forever. It's right up there with DOOM and Civilization as one of the greatest games of the nineties.

It presents enormous value for money, since it will keep you glued to the screen for many months on end. Pick this one up and kiss your social life goodbye.

X-COM is as complicated as you want it to be : if you want to study base defenses and statistics, fine. If you want to blow the crap of aliens, you can do that too. Either way, you're in for a whole lot of fun 'cause this is a BIG game. As in, it could conceivable take you many months to finish, depending on how much hours a day you play it.

X-COM was released seven years ago, when practically all games used VGA mode 13h, which was limited to a 320*200 resolution, in 256 colors. Mythos Games handled these limitations with style - the color scheme covers everything from bright reds and yellows to the dark, murky browns and greens. In the Battlescape, lights fade out across a certain distance, without any color artifacts (aka banding) like in other games.

The isometric tiles and character sprites are another example of how the limited technology was exploited to its fullest. And the artwork looks genuinely cool and coherent.

The MIDI music is brilliant, both in the Geoscape and during combat.

The Bad
The number of actual sound samples is few (we're talking 1994 after all, when many people had no sound cards, or cards that weren't compatible with many games). The effects fit the mood perfectly though; who will ever forget the first time they heard the clicking footsteps of a Chryssalid during a terror mission, or the hovering sound of the man-sized UFOs as they closed in on your squad ?

The Bottom Line
Load up your old 486, play this game till the sun comes up and you will know: this is truly one of the greatest games of all time.

The Good
X-Com's is the crowning achievement for PC hybrid/genre-bending games. No other game had ever managed to combine strategic depth, resource management, rpg-ing and tactical squad-based combat into a cohesive and well-crafted package. Truly the game is amazing, even by today's standards.

By now everyone knows the story, aliens are invading earth, they are bad, they must be killed. However instead of stepping on the shoes of Captain Steroid, and shooting the hell out of the little green men, you take the role of the leader of the UN's appointed alien-retaliation unit: X-Com. The thing is, you are pretty much flying solo here. You are given a monthly funding with which you are trusted to build bases all-over the world, hire personnel, start researching alien technology, shoot down UFO's and proceed to examinate them, etc. Sounds simple enough right? Actually in a way it is, and that's probably the game's major acomplishment, it manages to blend incredibly deep and complicated (not to mention diverse) gameplay premises and merge them into a perfect amalgamation of pure genius.

When it comes to base-building you have to consider placement, defences, installations, and the like. Personnel recruitment is a mini-rpg game where each of the soldiers in the game has his/her own stats (which determine their equipment availability and their roles in combat) and must be exercised by experience, yet you have to balance each squad and have fresh recruits ready for deployment to cope with fatigue, wounds and even KIAs. And then you have possibly the best aspect of the game, which is the turn-based squad tactical combat. Combat takes place on isometric tile-based levels complete with every option now common to tactical games, such as taking advantage of cover, statistically accurate firing models and more esoteric options like sneaking around, sniping, etc. etc.

The research aspect of the game brings into the spotlight another sexy aspect that X-Com blends in succesfully: Alien lore. This provides more than just an interesting setting for the game, but also serves as the perfect means for gameplay progression. Once you salvage enough equipment your technology tree will start to grow, but more importantly so will your options. Having better airships will allow you to take down bigger UFOs (in yet another great mini-game) which in turn means bigger challenges and greater payoffs, new weapondry (like tanks) will change the rules of the game, and eventually psychic research will yield even more tactical considerations in the squad-based portion of the game.

Yet the game doesn't just rely on that gimmick to progress gameplay, with each success and improvement you make the aliens will take notice, and soon enough you'll go from shooting down tiny UFOs to big motherships, and the aliens will start to terrorize more and more cities (which add human hostages to the mix). Then you'll start discovering alien outposts and bases and eventually they'll discover one of yours and try to invade it, and that's where the base planning takes part (that and the reserve of soldiers you remembered to keep around.... right??). Eventually you'll take the action off-world in hopes of clearing the alien threat once and for all, but that my friend, is another story :)

The Bad
How can one put this without sounding like a rambling fanboy??? Well I just can't. There's absolutely nothing wrong with X-Com. All I can think about is that for the "idle" moments on tactical mode they should have added a real-time mode to accelerate things, but that's it.

Oh, and sometimes it can become overwhelming in it's open-endedness and options, but I chalk that up more to my poor attention span than the game itself :)).

The Bottom Line
Well, let's put it this way: If some bad-ass aliens come and blow the hell out of earth ending thousands of years of human evolution and cultural development, one of the many things we'll be able to think about while we are torched out of existence is "Well, at least we had X-Com out of the deal!"

Without a shadow of a doubt X-Com is one of the most imaginative, innovative, and well-crafted games ever made. A pure example of gameplay perfection and refinement. Truly a masterpiece among masterpieces and a must in every serious gamer's collection. If you haven't played it you simply are not a gamer, you are just an average jerk with a computer :) Now go, it's time to show that damned Alf who's the boss.

The Good
Great Theming, Graphics (for its Time), AI, Weapon choices.

The Bad
Its hard, Real Hard.

The Bottom Line
X-COM is a Turn Based Stratergy, Military style.

In 1999 in order to counter an increasingly hostile Alien Force, the United Nations set up the eXtraterestrial COMbat force, or X-COM.

As the Head of this force, you are responsible for establishing XCOM bases, researching new Technologies (Alien and Human), Manfuacturing advanced weaponry and ships, and ordering your fighters and troops into the battle.

After shooting down a UFO, your task is to send your squad of troops into "Recovering" it, by eliminating all aliens in the battle map.

But however, them aliens are a heck of a lot smarter, and more numerous than you, its only a matter of time before they're building secret underground bases (which need to be destroyed, from the inside), Infiltrating Earths governments (and cutting your finding), and sending bigger and badder UFOs to invade your bases. The only hope is to find their Head Base, wherever that is.

The Good
Innovative concept, outstanding graphics for 1994, excellent turn-based combat engine. This game was the first I played that put me in control of an entire military operation, from management and logistics to strategy and tactics. It was up to me to keep my guys alive! And the steadily improving stats of your soldiers made you very attached to them, so you'd give them names and keep up with their progress! Needless to say, many an hour has been wasted, erm, I mean spent, defending the earth from extra-terrestrial terrorists.

The Bad
Jerky mouse interface in the equipment and battlescape screens. Will sometimes evilly corrupt my latest savegame and make me start from the last one.

The Bottom Line
A must-play for anyone who considers themselves a serious PC gamer.

The Good
X-COM: UFO Defense is a unique game that stands out among others. The interface is easy to jump into and handles well.

The Bad
This game is just mean, plain and simple. Even at the easiest level, you'll be soaking up massive casualties. And the turn-based combat system makes the entire thing even harder.

The Bottom Line
All in all, a good game that rarely gets boring.

The Good
This was the original, the sequels to this game pale in comparison. Its hard to believe that all the information that is in this game fits on 4 floppies. Controls are easy, sound is good, and it keeps bringing you back for more.

The Bad
It isnt a game that you can really just jump into, you have to learn what does what and how you counter act those actions. It really doesn't have any other true bad features, this game is still a hit, 6 years after its release.

The Bottom Line
A Great Simulation/Action/Kill the evil Aliens type game, Go For IT!!!!!

The Good
Well, the game is very large. It's more like 2 or 3 games. Soooo.....

<u>Fighting Battles</u>
The game engine for the battles is simply brilliant. I mean, the core engine used to make this game is still being used again and again and licensed out to other developers (like in Chaos Gate). I liked the realism, how a single alien could sometimes wipe out half of all of your XCOM-Operatives as soon as they stepped outside of the dropship. I also liked how one of your operatives could go into an alien ship by himself and slaughter them all (though this happens less often than the former). The weapons, the graphics, the aliens, the myriad of strategies employed to bring victory makes the battle system an absolute stroke of genius.

<u>Building Bases and Researching</u>
Another great thing about this game is the research system. In Syndicate you researched weapons and other technologies too, but it wasn't fun. In this game it is. You also have to hire engineers to manufacture the weapons, and then you also have to build labs and manufacturing plants for your scientists and engineers, and... Another neat feature in this game is how you build bases and maintain them. You have to micromanage everything, from shipments of clips of ammo for your soldiers' pistols to buying tanks and high tech interceptors. You also have to build bases. The facilities you build allow you to do new things, or get more of something. All employees such as soldiers and scientists require living quarters to live in. Scientists need laboratories to work in. You need general stores to keep all of your items. You need hangers to keep ships.... You can also build more than one base, and sometimes aliens attack your base and you get to fight in them. The location of your base also matters, because it affects your ability to defend funding countries, which brings me too...

<u>Those Ungrateful Bastards</u>
You are running an international defense agency, so you are sent funding by all of the nations on a monthly basis. They pay you a certain amount of money; some more, some less. However, if you do a bad job of defending them they will lower their funding and even withdraw it if you do a really bad job! So you have to build your bases close to your primary funders.

<u>Air combat</u>
This is one of the smaller portions of the game but still is important. Sometimes you send out interception missions to shoot down alien aircraft; there are strategies to this section too but what you actually do in these situations is very limited.

There. The game is absolutely huge and wonderfully built, a technological masterpiece.

The Bad
If you completely blow out the bottom story of a house, or a lower section of a street light, the upper parts would stay intact floating in the air. Alien intervention perhaps =)

The Bottom Line
One of the best games ever made.

note:
July 2000's PC Gamer issue distributes the full version of this game along with a bunch of other full version games such as the original Monkey Island and Descent. It's a great chance to pick up some games you missed out on in the original release.

The Good
This game is simply cool - you can equip your ship with soldiers, weapons and mini-tanks. After you shot down an UFO with your interceptors, you send your ship there and move your soldiers around on the terrain, which is real fun beacause the game is very tactical. Another great thing is researching alien technologies, the developers thought up really nice ideas for this game. Like the PSI forces your soldiers can get through training.

The Bad
Well, it's quite hard, even on the lowest skill grade. The graphics are not too exciting, but ok. And the interface is a bit complicating.

The Bottom Line
If you like UFO's and aliens and tactical games then you'll better get your hands on it! It's the best one of the three classical X-COM's.

The Good
Very strategical combats, excellent AI, graphics like UFO cartoons

The Bad
Becomes hard easily

The Bottom Line
If you like turn-based strategy games, you will love this game but if you don't you will hate it.

The Good
Hell, this thing was the best strategy-tactical game out there. Researching aliens, using their technology, deploying soilders, hiring scientist, building bases and the never-forgettable GeoScape. All this was BIG back then and a milestone that inspired many games now.

The Bad
The sound wasn't too impressive. Other than that, this game rocks.

The Bottom Line
The strategy genre at its best. An instant classic.

The Good
The sounds and graphics in this game are great. When first released they were brilliant. But what makes this game so damn good is the gameplay. It is stupendously fun to play - I still play it to this day! None of its sequels can touch it. It's quite a small game, and can be completed in a few days, which is good because it prevents the game from getting boring.

It can also be very tense. You're thrown straight into the action, and those night-time missions... do yourself a favour, turn the lights out. Go on, you know you want to. Do a night-time mission. When the aliens shoot at you from the darkness, you will jump out of your seat. Wonderful.

The Bad
It may look a little dated these days, especially being stuck to 320x240 VGA mode, but if you bear in mind that this game is six years old, you'll realise that it is actually perfect.

The Bottom Line
Easily the best and most enjoyable turn-based strategy game out there. It's got a great graphics, a compelling storyline, and real atmosphere. An essential addition to any gamers collection.

The Good
X-Com is really like no other game. As turn-based combat games go, X-Com require a depth of planning and tactics like no other. The entire feel of the game is unqiue. It's tremendously immersive and addictive; you'll spend hours trying to keep your little soldiers alive through just a few more missions. Each new weapon you develop will make you feel so good you'll just have to run a few more missions.

Having played every combat game there is, I've never played a game that was as tense as X-Com. Directing your men around looking for the hideous aliens, there is a palpable sense of fear; when a shot rings out from a hidden alien it can make you jump right out of your chair. Killing a well-positioned alien or completing a level brings a distinct feeling of relief. Only the truly great games can evoke that sort of emotion.

The Bad
X-Com is very, very hard, often unfairly so, and requires a lot of game saves. It's possible to have an entire squad slaughtered without any realistic chance of putting up a fight; more than once, you will have half a squad killed just opening the hatch of your ship.

You can get around this by saving a lot, and you CAN learn the game and minimize casualties, but even playing really well, you'll often have your men wiped out just by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Bottom Line
A classic, innovative, and thus far unmatched landmark in PC gaming.

The Good
In a word, everything. X-COM is one of those rare games that has the property of appearing relatively simple and easy, but, once you're past the surface, you find layers upon layers of deep, engaging, and complex gameplay. The battle system, while sometimes questionable, is very well done, and, as was said before, far more complex than it's simple surface would indicate. I was quite surprised to find that it actually does have location-specific damage. The managing screen is also no less than brilliant. Your bases are completely at your control, as are all of your resources. The interface design is also quite good, though not quite as silky smooth as the rest of the game. As for graphics, well, I think this proves that graphics matter very little in the light of outstanding gameplay. Fancy 3-D graphics probably couldn't heighten the sense of shock and surprise when I ran into that Snake-Man hiding in the corner.

The Bad
Well, the game in itself isn't that hard, but it's trying to catch back up once you're behind. It's like Risk. If you start losing, even a little bit, the enemy forces will just roll over you. Also, funding can be difficult somtimes. I found myself relying more and more on selling plasma weapons salvaged from fights than international funding to keep out of debt.

The Bottom Line
Near-perfect. While it pusishes you severly for your mistakes and misfortunes, it rewards you so greatly for your victories that you can forget all about the five tries it took to defeat that alien base.

The Good
Easy to learn, and fun to play. I agree with Tomer. Play this one in the dark with volume turned up. The sound may be simple, but it will draw you in, especially when one of them "indestructible" alien bruts walk up to your men (dispite 3 point blank range shots into its exoskeleton) and convert your favorite point man into a reincarnation of itself.

The game is hard to beat at first (which I see as a plus). But it is also hard to lose. If you hang in there long enough and manage your resources, you'll eventually get to fry the buns off these irascible alien creatures.

The Bad
I didn't appreciate having to spend 1 hour plus scourging the game screen looking for some fatally wounded alien hiding in a corner.

The Bottom Line
If you like Jagged Alliance, you will probably like this one. Your team members will have a lot less personality, but the superior graphics and sound will make up for it.

The Good
I liked the turn based part of the strategy.

The Bad
The fact that the soldiers have time units that run out way too fast.

The Bottom Line
It is a pretty fun but very challenging over-head strategy game.

The Good
The mix between turn based strategy and base building makes for a game that never gets boring.

The Bad
It also never gets easy. One bad month and your whole game is down the drain.

The Bottom Line
Quite possibly the best turn based strategy game ever.

The Good
This game borrows a lot from its predecessor, Laser Squad, and I like both. It has an amazing strategy engine, the GeoScope display is really great, the combination of various types of strategy (battles, world and base construction) and resource management make this one of the most memorable games ever to hit the PC. The graphics are not phenomenal but very well drawn and the music/sound effects are decent. But the atmosphere! Try playing this game at 1:00am with lights off and high volume. It rocks! This is the only game since The 7th Guest and Alien Breed that could genuinely spook me out of my chair.

The Bad
It's really, really difficult.

The Bottom Line
A classic game you simply can't miss: get it, play it and love it.

The Good
Investigate UFO sightings, down the UFO and investigate the crash. Attack if the enemy is hostile.

In the case of X-COM, the enemy is always hostile. Locales range from city streets to small farms. The defense force? A small number of troops that the player can name and customize.

X-COM started the player off with a few characters to hire and a budget. As a result, it made gamers take special care of their troops with each mission while making the best of home base: researching aliens and their craft and other technology.

If you lost one of your more experienced (i.e. strong stats, attack points, etc.) troops on the field, that was it - you lost them for good.

The game also captured a very eerie atmosphere for a turn-based game. Sometimes a mission would involve exploring a farm in the pitch black of night, with only lights from the troops to see just a few feet around. I know others understand how startling it may have been to follow along a fence, turn the corner and then suddenly realize that a Sectoid was right in their face. Were there enough action points to do something else? ;)

A tense atmosphere and solid, turn-based gameplay were X-COM's staple features. The graphics are bright and colorful even for the duller more haunting missions. Randomly generated levels kept the game fresh every time.

The Bad
I never paid too much attention to the "base management" side of things as much as other players may have. I was primarily interested in the combat. Of course, this led to difficult missions because I wasn't researching enough or spending enough time on other base-related events.

The Bottom Line
X-COM is one of the forefathers of today's turn-based strategy games. Chances are that any of today's solid turn-based titles derive some inspiration from this game.

The Good
This game has a mix of several elements, base and resouce management, and combat. In this game this is delightfully put together for a totally immersive experience. You can shoot down Alien ships, research and build alien technologies, build new weapons, equip your soldiers, and manage your base and your personnel inside of it. This game offers such a long and worthwhile experience it is highly recommended. This game has everything a strategy/action/combat fan would want. It is a classic all should own.

The Bad
Even on the easiest difficulty the game is rather hard. Funding given by governments is sometimes not enough.

The Bottom Line
An awesome experience by all counts, it may be a 6 year old game, but it delivers that classic gameplay that never gets old.