UFO: Aftermath

The Good
The feeling that you didn't know what was around the corner, being able to keep taking your chopper to hotspots with your troops and not having to return to base, unlike XCOM, where you could only have 1 engagement per Skyranger. Also, most missions you did not have to keep aliens walking - you could gun them all down, and gain experience, while leaving one alive. Could change base functions on-the-fly. Soldiers, even while wounded, weren't necessarily 'out of action' like in XCOM - they could keep on fighting mission after mission. The music - it's minimalist and creepy - just like what apocalypse sounds like...and the aliens - they're just...out of this world, and sickening, like in Abomination: The Nemesis Project. The 'creeping doom' adds a sense of urgency to the game

The Bad
Not being able to get into a building and snipe. Always having to remember that dropping items or rearranging items within your backpack takes time (not instantaneous like XCOM). Not being able to make an outlay of your own base. When you get Interceptors, if 1 of the 3 in a squad gets damaged, the whole squad is grounded. When aliens invade, your men seem to be all over the place...it's a base, they know where the aliens come through... where's the organisation? Also, the fact that you can find weapons unrelated to geography - come on, how easy is it to find an AK-47 in America? Minor gripe: you only start with pistols, Uzis and shotguns - you'd think there would be some light machineguns like H&K MG36...Sometimes the enemies behave just like Abomination's cultists and follow you around. You can just crouch behind a rock and kill 8 enemies this way, with one soldier.

The Bottom Line
Buy it! You won't regret it! It's XCOM for the new generation!

The Good
The best thing that can possibly be said about UFO: Aftermath is that, even if the developers claim otherwise, the game is a spiritual successor of the classic X-Com. However, the guys at Altar obviously thought todays gamers would be overwhelmed by the multitude of options and repelled by the time-consuming turn-based battles. Said and done, geoscape was reduced to a minimum. For example, funding now isn't an issue, you needn't worry about the layout of your bases any longer, you just set them to one of three (in the late game four) basic modes-of-operation and be done with it, squad management is now a breeze, because you can never have more than one single squad anyways, etc. Likewise, the squad-battles themselves have been turned into RTS-like fashion, essentially they now play very similar to the combat seen in Baldur's Gate. In an effort to bring in a tad strategy, "important" events, like a friendly unit under fire or the sighting of a foe, will auto-pause the game. All these events can be disabled, though. The graphics, while not exactly top-notch, are nicely done, but you're very likely to be playing at the maximum zoom-out, so you'll miss a lot detail. What you'll notice is that Altar has gone great lengths to give city missions in different locales a memorable outlook, and they succeeded, cities in Russia, Australia, North America and Asia all look entirely different, which is a pleasant feat.

The Bad
If you're out of Elementary School for any amount of time, you'll likely feel that the game has been dumbed down a bit TOO much. Apart from the aforementioned base-simplifications ... You can only produce a single item at a time, and can only have a single research project going. In the late game, you'll have a dozen manufacturing bases around the globe cooperating for a day to solder together a single laser pistol. And you can't even tell them to keep going until 10 are ready. No, single items only. A single squad, 7 members, will be on all your missions around the globe. Sure, you can let it consist of various group-members at a time, but only one active squad is allowed. (And still it's very likely three of your seven squad members have exactly the same voice...) These are only a few examples for the nuisances on geoscape level. But what about the squad-battles? In order to allow for the freely-rotatable 3D real-time environments, a lot of tactical possibilities had to be sacrificed. Remember the height levels in X-COM? Gone, just a "flat" map now. Remember the possibility to enter every building, from the gas-station to the toolshed? Gone, only bases and UFOs can be entered now, effectively switching to an entirely different map. Remember the possibility to take cover? Gone, the aliens will hit you hard, no matter if you're standing upright on open ground or if you're kneeling behind a car-wreck in the ruins of a city, if they can see you, they'll hit you. (Might have something to do with the fact all actual aliens have "heroic", the best level, in all their stats.) I'll stop here, though plenty more similar weaknesses could be pointed out here.

The Bottom Line
All the simplifications I listed above were done for a reason. However, many weren't actually finished to the point they were first planned, because developing time ran out. Others were finished, but don't reach the goal they had in mind. In the bottom line, the game just lost too much profile. Even if you can forgive or live with all the mentioned shortcomings, there's still another aspect: The Story. It's is a patchwork of different "wouldn't it be cool if we had" things that don't really belong into the same storyline, it's presented very badly (apart from the intro and extro, there's only a number of text-windows and the shortish descriptions of the research projects) and, if compared to the original X-COM, UFO:AM just isn't fun to play. That said, this isn't a bad game, not at all. It's quite nicely done and reaches an acceptable level on almost all levels, but it fails to set itself apart from the crowd. It's solid, yet far from good, let alone exceptional. IF I remember this game in a decade, like I fondly remember X-COM today, I'll only remember it because it tried to resurrect a classic that I remember, not because it was a classic itself.

The Good
Having never played X-Com, this review will lack the combination of nostalgia and righteous indignation I’ve been seeing on the web.

On May 25, 2004, a flying saucer will enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Attempts to make contact with it will be futile. The saucer will unleash a biotoxin killing most of the life on Earth. The remaining humans will form the Council of Earth, a global authority combining scientific and military resources to reclaim the Earth. But the Earth has changed. Terran life not killed by the biotoxin has been changed into transgenants, alien craft patrol the skies, and rumors abound of an alien biomass devouring continents.

UFO: Aftermath is a real-time strategy game, divided into a Strategic game and a Tactical game. The strategic game plays out from world map. From the global view you can initiate new research, direct the development of new technologies, manage your squad (including equipping and training them), order your aircraft to intercept UFOs, and send your squad on missions.

Missions take place during the tactical portion of the game. There are several varieties of missions, but they all involve moving your squad, of up to seven members, through a well drawn 3D map, engaging hostile forces, and accomplishing certain objectives.

All this sounds better than it actually is.

The Bad
In UFO: Aftermath, the player is reactive rather than proactive. In the strategic/world map portion, you have to wait for missions to come available rather than directing the attack against the aliens or the biomass or anything else. I understand that you are really following the orders of the Council of Earth, but that aspect is so poorly implemented that it seems irrelevant.

In the tactical portion (where you spend most of the game) things aren’t better. To begin with, your team has no AI. They will only do what you tell them to do and then they do it in real time. This includes managing their inventory. Here’s how annoying this is—your medic needs to heal someone, so you open up their inventory and rearrange the Tetris puzzle that is the inventory system to put their rifle in their backpack and put a health pack in their hands. Then you jump back to the tactical view and have to wait for them to rearrange their inventory like you just did. Giving them an order too soon afterwards cancels everything out.

In combat this is worse. You cannot give standing orders to your troops to defend themselves. You have to tell them what to do, step by step… and listen to them talk. Every time you tell your troops to do something they have to respond with their inane accents and attitudes. Painful.

Missions come in several varieties. The best ones are story missions, which further the plot and feature the best level design. The other ones seem to be randomly generated and are repetitious. You have the option of delegating missions, but the computer controlled teams aren’t as good. So I kept playing the same types of missions over and over and over.

I’m going to gloss over the aircraft interceptions of UFOs. And the fact that there’s only one helicopter, but infinite planes. Should I mention how bad the sound is? The fact that enemies make no noise? The uninspiring weapon effects?

UFO: Aftermath isn’t good.


The Bottom Line
I appreciate what Altar was trying to do here, but they fell way short of producing a quality product. Internet rumors mention that they had no time for playtesting and that there was pressure to get the game out the door. Early interviews with the designers show that they had a grander vision than they were able to deliver.

I was hoping for a game I could sink my teeth into. A complex and dynamic game that offered hours of play and replay. Instead I found UFO: Aftermath to be interesting from the outset, but it rapidly became tedious and ended up unrewarding.

The Good
When an old strategy gamer hear about a new game based on the early 90s UFO series it makes someone to try it or try it and I feel the need to say that meeting features on this title that I didn’t saw for years was a pleasure. In contemporary days is very hard to find a TBS instead of a RTS (in this game you will find a mix, but closer to TBS)

I found many reviews to focus on the fact that the graphics are strongly disappointing for a modern game and base their ratings on it, well they are right that even the isometric 2D view on the original games are still better that the present 3D but I disagree on nuking a game just because the graphics.

The plot and story play are well executed and the technology tree and base management are ok. The enemies are ok despite the fact that the transgenants are very easy to eliminate.

The RPG-like soldier development is one of the strong sides on the game, enjoyable, as well as the variety on armors, guns, grenades and similar.

The Bad
There are many minor flaws that as a player, I can allow, but the mayor flaw in this game is the unbalanced, non-escalated difficulty.

I will tell my story with this game, I start playing and finds it a decent game while I am advancing trough the learning curve (a little long) at one moment the difficult is ok , but suddenly I need to beat the “enter a crashed UFO missions” and here my problems begin. I found that it will be better if I restart my game (now that I know how to play it better) and develop further my technologies and my soldiers so I can beat this reticulans (the main raze) and continue advancing. In my second game I did better and managed to beat these hard missions, so far, the game is ok, I like challenging games even very hard games and using a few save and load do not bother me.

SPOILER I continue advancing by playing every non-plot missions and fighting for every experience points when I come to the third plot mission, the one where you need to secure an item so you can build a ship to reach the moon for the final mission and I found it impossible. I believe that some fans will negate this but for the average player this mission is frustrating, I could try, right, but saving, loading and replaying every min for 10 hours isn’t my idea of a good game experience. Therefore, I gave up and either I quit or cheat… SPOILER

I rarely come to one of these options but after expending not a few hours at least I deserve to know how the story ends so I cheated (third time on my life since I dislike it) for the last 20 mins just to reach the final.

The Bottom Line
I will give an advice to any original UFO games lover that this game, while isn’t better that the original and despite the fact that you will find many similar features, can be very frustrating. However, if you can live with it, go ahead, UFO aftermath is a nice try.

The Good
The combat engine is excellent and the control scheme is fairly vigorous and powerful. The characters are nicely animated and the voices are very interesting with their different foreign accents. They are very realistic and gives the impression u are leading a real international army, made up of people coming from all around the world to fight the alien hostiles. Also the mood music is quite original and contributes to create a catching atmosphere.

The Bad
I would have liked some higher level of customization of bases and equipment.

The Bottom Line
Much fun to play!

The Good
There are strong surface similarities between UFO and X-COM, but U:A is a very good game on its own merits. The combination of individual tactics and a captivating plot results in an amazing game where you can use several powerful weapons to combat the alien enemies. The graphics are pretty competent and both the sound effects and the voice over are very good. Also the world map is well done and very detailed.

The Bad
The tactical interface could have been a bit user-friendlier: it takes some time getting used to.

The Bottom Line
I have played the game for a week and I just love it.

The Good
Cool premise, and some nice video work, though the only graphical aspect i felt was executed really well was soldier animations. The animations are smooth and blend well, leaving you with some very lifelike characters.

The Bad
I bought the game about a week ago, and i'm having really mixed feelings. On one side, i was deeply in love with UFO: Enemy unknown on the amiga, but i also sucked at it, horribly. It still kept me coming back though, even though the micromanagement and many in-depth aspects went way over my head at the time. It's very hard for me to see Aftermath as anything other than a spiritual sequel. It may not share the same lingo, but the gameplay is incredibly similar. Where it doesn't match up is in the way it handles base building (bases are established as rewards for certain completed missions) and in the pseudo-realtime combat system. Being so deeply affectionate about the "forefather" makes it tough to accept the shortcomings, but i've given it an honest, truthful attempt. I still come off disappointed.

The biggest problem in my opinion is the premise. Where UFO charged you with figuring out the increasing frequency of UFO sightings and abductions, leading up to full scale invasion, Aftermath starts off with the attack well underway. The strange thing here is that wow, almost all humans have been destroyed, yet it takes little to no effort to regain control of most of the american continents within the first couple of weeks. There's a leap of faith required on the player's part that i had severe issues with.

In addition, the research is delegated strangely. When you have 12 research bases you'd think you could run several projects at once, but you are forced to take them one at a time. Same with developing new technologies. you have x number of engineering bases, but they all cooperate to produce a single suit of armor? Eh?

A final lapse of logic is that while you protect the whole world from alien attacks, you have one squad of soldiers and one chopper with which to fly them to their destinations. So all in all the "strategic game" as the manual calls it is an overly simplified and broken down version of the XCOM global view game dynamic with no resource management whatsoever, contrary to the box blurb.

The tactical game is equally simple. You guide your troops around the battlefield in a jilted on/off fashion as the game auto-pauses for you on a bazillion different occasions. Often you have to unpause the game up to 7 times in a row to get back in control of things. The interface sorely lacks basic features, like telling a soldier to guard an area. Instead the game will auto-pause for you whenever a targeted enemy enters or leaves line of sight. Very very annoying. "No you damn idiots, you don't need to do some spectacularly intelligent thing, all you need to do is keep your gun pointed in the same general direction and fire again when he pops back out!"

Another strange function is the "manipulate" button. There are no objects in the game to use other than doors, and doors are opened with a right click regardless. Why there is a "use" function at all is mind boggling.

In addition, there is no way of moving while crouching or going prone, making crouching pretty a pretty worthless maneuver. The game world itself is randomly generated, and it shows. Missions are all markedly similar, and buildings cannot be entered, making the game bound to street level. There are levels where you enter crashed UFOs and alien bases, and the interiors leave a lot to be desired.

The sound work is also lackluster. The music is about as scary as your average episode of MASK, although you can sense it really tried, rock ballads during aerial dogfights and all. The voice work moves between atrocious and good. For some reason the game attempts comedy at odd times. Some characters are stereotyped so bad it aches, including the ditzy blonde and the ahhnold german. It really doesn't fit the game's post-apocalyptic setting or overall graphical execution.

A final blow is the uninterested and matter-of-factly way the game addresses itself. Missions aren't presented as a game world element, but rather as "tasks for you to finish before the game can proceed". Objectives are given in a simple, to the point way that is overtly generic and undescriptive, making what could have been a "The laboratory ship downed over Poland has crash landed in central Krakow. Investigate the crash site and secure it for our science team" a case of the "You must eliminate a certain number of enemies to complete this mission". Very sad, and a total atmosphere killer.

The Bottom Line
All in all, Aftermath gets certain things dead on, but they are all minor. The gameplay remains too simple and random to be truly satisfying, and the lapses of logic make the storyline a bit hard to swallow. I'm pleased to be playing a new UFO game, and i hope they do a sequel to this one, but it feels like a work in progress solution.

The Good
It's a real pleasure to have a game so reminiscent of the classic original XCOM, with a brand-new storyline and some nice production values. The strategic-level game flows nicely, and many of the simplifications in this area work quite well.

The Bad
At the tactical level, the game is very disappointing. There are many small usability issues that could be addressed in a patch, but there are some design elements (like the more realistic weapon ranges, which force you to play at an emotionally-distant maximum zoom out) that seriously undermine the wonderful tension and immersion of the original classic.

Between the interface flaws and the lack of emotional connection, the tactical battles become little more than annoying obstacles which must be overcome to keep the story going, instead of the heart and soul of the game's appeal.

In the long run, the overall lower complexity combined with the lack of fun value in the battles themselves will make this game infinitely less replayable than the classic. In XCOM, you might finish one game and immediately start another to try out a different strategy, or just to get more time playing the fun tactical battles and reliving the slow curve from massive inferiority to eventual dominance on the battlefield. Aftermath simply does not have these things, and that's unfortunate.

The Bottom Line
To mangle a cliche, I would allow this game to hold a candle for XCOM. After 15 or so hours of play, I do plan to continue playing at least once through the story, with judicious use of cheat functions to circumvent the most annoying battles and to rebalance around the way the UI makes it nigh-impossible to use terrain to your advantage.