X-COM: Apocalypse

aka: APOC
Moby ID: 349
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Things have not gone well since the last Alien War. The world resources have been exhausted, and most of the population have been concentrated into the last hope: Mega-Primus, a self-sufficient city. Things are starting look good until a strange portal opened in the sky, and UFOs emerged from it. It seems that the X-COM is needed again.

X-COM: Apocalypse is a sequel to X-COM: Terror from the Deep, and is the third entry in the X-COM series. It is a real-time / turn-based strategy game that features a mix of research, resource management, macro tactical combat, and micro tactical combat. At the city screen, the player controls vehicles to engage the threats (everything from rival factions to alien UFOs). If a UFO has landed or infiltration has been reported, the vehicles will land/dock at the infestation site and engage in tactical combat with the equipment at hand. Once the player managed to capture aliens and alien equipment, the scientists can research and perhaps even copy them for the player's use.

The player will also need to balance the budget as everything costs money, from agents to equipment. The various human factions must be kept happy, otherwise they might turn against the X-COM. The player must hire recruits, buy weapons, ammo, and equipment to outfit his squads in the vehicles (including weapons on the vehicles and their ammo). The management mode for tracking down UFOs is called the Cityscape; combat takes place in a separate environment, the Battlescape, where the player engages the individual aliens that managed to escape.

Differences from the previous games in the series include reworked graphics, larger maps, a more complex world, and the possibility of choosing between real-time or turn-based tactical combat. Also, instead of just engaging aliens, the player will also have to deal with multiple human factions, from a cult that worships alien invaders to gangs, from industrial giants to security forces.

Spellings

  • 幽浮:啟示錄 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 87 ratings with 6 reviews)

Aliens + Weapons + Explosions = Fun

The Good
The best part for me was the actual combat. Being able to choose between realtime mode and turn based mode is a nice feature, although I have to admit I've only ever played in turn based. I tried realtime and it wasn't to my liking. Playing in turn based mode I was able to take my time and methodically comb through a building. The different aliens demanded different tactics to deal with them. When going after a multiworm, for example, I didn't fire at it, but instead positioned my agents around it, then ended my turn. When the aliens had their turn, my agents used their remaining time units to fire on the multiworm, hopefully not actually killing it outright. Then when it was my turn again I had full control of my agents to deal with the four hyperworms that popped out of the dead multiworm (this usually meant trying to kill them all with one explosive round from an auto-cannon). On the other hand, the only strategy you need to kill a Spitter is to shoot it a couple times, or in the case of a Psimorph, to hide. The combat really makes this game.

The research helps develop the story at a good pace, and also allows you to make better weapons (and use the aliens weapons against 'em). Better weapons helps you deal with the powerful aliens that show up the farther the game goes. Trust me, if you don't use these new weapons, you'll feel a bit silly trying to kill a Megaspawn with machine guns. One of the trickier things is trying to get a live specimen of every alien, so you can develop an effective toxic to use against them. Stunning most aliens is relativly easy, but trying to get a live Popper or Brainsucker is going to require alot of planning or alot of luck.

You can rename your agents. This makes the death of one of your agents a bit more substantial. I dunno about you, but when I see "(insert girlfriend's/wife's/familys pet's name here) has died." I get a desire to reload the game. Actually, I reloaded every time someone died. I'm just too caring.

There are three types of people you can hire as agents. You've got the normal humans who are usually lacking in skills at the start but get better as the game goes along, those alien/human hybrids from the last game (their name escapes me) who are really slow and pretty bad at combat, but have good psi abilities, and andriods, who are good at everything, and immune to psi attacks from the start, but can't ever get better. Because everyone has different abilities that change as the game progresses, you have to carefully decide who should get what type of weapon. You can't just randomly give people things...a person who has poor aim is going to be worthless with a sniper rifle, and if you weigh down a weak person they'll slow down the entire squad. This is strategy.

Explosions! You can blow up EVERYTHING if you're so inclined. Although this might make some factions in the city unhappy, it will surely satisfy you, and that's what it's all about.

The Bad
The Civilians! Bleh! What were they thinking? They add nothing to the game, only serving to get in your way, and make you wait (during turn based play) for them to move during their turn. I'd rather not spend time watching helpless civilians dash around doing nothing. They don't even try to help. Maybe if they occasionally picked up a weapon to help you, or jumped up and down on a brainsucker, or something, rather then just wasting my time. Their pathfinding is pretty bad too, causing them to get stuck on steps (always in your way), and invariably I ended up shooting half of them so I could get where I needed to be.

Sometimes the map would be awfully big for the amount of aliens on it. There have been times when I've killed a total of three aliens on a map that could have easily taken fifteen. Taking seven to ten turns to carefully walk across three-quarters of a map, making sure an alien doesn't jump out and suck someone's brains out, only to find a Spitter and two eggs at the far end can put a kink in the entertainment.

After a while, before you get to take the fight to the aliens, the buildings all start to look the same. They are made of blocks, instead of randomly generated, and because of this you get to know where everything is, and even where aliens are likely to be. After seeing the same shopping mall six times it kinda loses the cool factor.

You don't get enough control over your vehicles. All you can really do when you spot an alien craft is send your stuff after it, and then just sit back and hope it gets shot down before it beams aliens down to a building, or before it destroys all your craft.

The Bottom Line
All gripes aside, this is a really fun game, even more so now that you could probably get it for $10. If you like turn based strategy games at all, go buy this game. If you like realtime strategy games, I'd imagine you'd like this game too.

Windows · by Dr. Elementary (273) · 2012

City planning made easy (BOOM!)

The Good
You can blast almost everything to bits! A very easy (though not always smart) way of killing your enemies, whether they be aliens or evil cultists, is using high explosives to level all the buildings and structures on the screen - and a very pleasing way at that. Never mind the civilians, they always get in the way anyhow (you often have to murder a couple of innocent fools just because they block doorways). The aspect I like most about all the UFO (or X-Com) games is the fact that while they are essentially tactical wargames, they acknowledge the fact that raising hell is actually a tactic.

The ability to choose between real-time and turn-based combat from mission to mission comes in handy, as certain types mission do not require a lot of control over the units, and combat can be quite tedious if you command a dozen or so agents in turn-based mode.

The retro-futuristic hi-res graphics are also very nice, and the sound effects are quite rewarding (aieegh! boom! zap!), though the music is quite hum-drum.

For a game that needs no storyline the storyline is OK, but the overall atmosphere and the constantly increasing difficulty kept me motivated enough to actually finish the game (which for me is something quite rare).

The Bad
As with the first two UFO games, some of the combat missions tend to drag out, but Apocalypse is much more playable than its predecessors in this sense. Also, on more difficult levels of play the bases tend to get very crowded right at the beginning, which is not a good thing, though it does make the game more difficult all right.

The music could have been more inspiring, or inspired.

The Bottom Line
Running an X-Com operation in a self-contained metropolis of the future means having to deal with evil cultists, criminal gangs, political organizations and mega-corporations while fending off (and eventually destroying) evil aliens from another dimension. While most of the action takes place at UFO (or IFO, if you research them) infiltration and crash sites in fierce isometric combat, but you also get to look at the city map while building your base, researching alien technology, arming your troops and using you craft to shoot down enemy vessels - in short, this game has it all! (Including hulking monsters rampaging through the city, destroying buildings.)

Though some aspects of the game could have been developed further (like the political and economical life of the city, space travel, etc), this game is one of the best in its genre as far as it goes. It's no Jagged Alliance 2, but well worth the price if you can find it!

Windows · by Late (77) · 2001

Probably the only playable real-time tactical combat game...

The Good
The pause-able real-time combat mode is great, plenty of terrain and buildings (most are destructable), good mix of weapons, lots of alien environments too, enemy reinforcement portals you can actually blow up

The Bad
Too many aliens to fight, no more base designing (the building's "fixed"), the factions have little to no effect on the city or economy, the neo-retro look, can get REALLY repetitive

The Bottom Line
XCOM:Apoc is a game that revolutionized real-time tactical combat. The ability to choose between real-time and turn-based combat reveals entirely new ways of playing, as each mode requires completely different tactics and weapon choices.

The maps now feature plenty of floors that are much larger than the old XCOM maps. You can visit the slums (where the gangs usually hang out) and see the architecture different significantly from the rich sections of town, which is yet different from the industrial sector, and so on.

The terrain now is even MORE destructable than before. Once, I've shot someone on a slum balcony. The balcony collapsed and the body fell six floors. Pretty darn amazing... Consider this is just isometric sprites!

The basic game premise didn't change: you have to engage UFOs and exterminate any aliens you find, either infiltrating the different corporations or causing general mayhem. After you take down the UFOs or located infiltrations, you can engage in tactical combat. Research captured aliens/bodies/equipment so you can make use of them for youself, and build bigger/better equipment, and eventually deal with the problem once and for all, while managing your research, budget, building new stuff, buying new stuff, hiring new people, make all the factions happy or at least neutral... it's a lot of responsibilities.

The problem with APOC is frequently, the game becomes just "hunt down that last bug". On tight maps, the bugs don't attack that much, which makes seeking them out dangerous as you must search room to room for that one last "bug" to kill. This was a problem in TFTD, and it still didn't get resolved, though aliens do try to escape if they're close to edge of the map and things are going bad.

Another problem with APOC is the huge amount of damage the weapons cause. It feels somewhat unbalanced. The armor aren't that much better, and there's an "entropy missile" that actually strips armor from your XCOM troopers! One hit, and the trooper is without armor. One more hit (from just about anything) and s/he's toast! At least you can carry personal shields (if you can capture/manufacture some), but that just delays the inevitable. In later stages, when enemy carries only the toughest weapons and visibility is bad, expect to lose a LOT of your agents in assaults.

The craft combat (CityScape) phase is also a bit unbalanced, as it's easy to win with a fleet of Hoverbikes. The larger vehicles are only useful for delivering your agents to buildings in a single group and return with captured stuff.

All in all, XCOM:APOC is not a bad title, but it didn't quite have the "magic" like the initial title did. Individually the features are fine, but they don't quite all fit together as a whole. If you like XCOM, definitely give it a try. Even if you don't, give it a try to see how GOOD real-time tactical combat CAN be.

DOS · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2001

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Just found a poster: Lumpi (189) Sep 1, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

X-COM: Apocalypse appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

Apocalypse has a bug that appears rarely, which can render legit playing tougher or be a boon for all the cheaters out there.

After a fight you return with the stuff you found, or you produced an item in your workshop, and suddenly you get a message that your storage is full, even though it should just be at, say, 20%. Look through your storage, the chance is high that one item type has 65536 items in it. To use the base ever again for storing anything, you have to sell the stuff.

Now it depends on whether you want to play legit or cheat:

You can have 65536 alien artifacts, each one worth 0$, so 0$ in total. But you could also have 65536 missile launchers worth 20 million $.

There is apparently no real solution for it, nor any bug fix available. But try re-loading your last battle-savegame, the bug may shift to another item type.

So, if you want to cheat, chances are high that you can get an incredible amount of cash (compare 20 mio $ to an income of 100.000 $). If you want to play legit, you must have an unresearched item available, otherwise you are screwed (either you must take the cash or you can't use the base any more for any legit storage use).

Warning:

If the above is a common vehicle item (both aircraft and ground vehicle), sell only from one of both. Do not sell from the other one, even it says it has 65.536 items there too! If you do, the storage percentage goes into the negative and the game crashes! If you don't, but wait a bit after selling the first items, the second stack just disappears.

Cut content

Look at the screenshots on the back of the box of the European release. In one of them you can see a building being attacked by gigantic yellow aliens. These are not actually featured in the game, being one of the things that didn't make it into the final release version. Also, if you check the contents of the CD, you can find graphics for items and monsters that didn't make it into the game but are still included there.

Development

The X-Com: Apocalypse design went through a number of significant changes before release, including the controversial introduction of real-time action in tactical combat. Pre-release concerns about this change ultimately led to a compromise: the option to choose between turn-based and real-time combat.

A lot more things besides that were planned to be in the game, but were never finished due to lack of time and problems implementing it. This includes multiplayer support (for up to 8 players with hotseat, play by email or lan), a large number of skills for the agents (driving, flying, perceptive ability and sanity among others), a scenario generator to quickly start a tactical missions with as many sides as you'd want (and you could control anyone, from any organization to the aliens themselves), multiple random generated alien dimensions, among other things.

Actually, some of these things was programmed and were in a somewhat working state in the beta stage, but they were removed for the retail release.

XCOM agents

Originally the plan was for all the XCOM agents to have ability in research and engineering as well as combat skills, and you must hire the best agents. That feature unfortunately did not survive the game, and the game ended up with separate engineers and researchers apart from the XCOM agents, but if you look closely, they use the same agent recruitment interface.

Information also contributed by deepcut, Kate Jones, PCGamer77, and Xoleras

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Related Sites +

  • OpenApoc
    OpenApoc is an open-source re-implementation of the original X-COM: Apocalypse, that requires the original files to run, licensed under the MIT and written in C++ / SDL2.
  • OpenApoc code at GitHub
    OpenApoc is open-source and anyone can contribute own code!
  • OpenApoc is new (mod for) X-COM: Apocalypse
    OpenApoc is an open-source re-implementation of the original X-COM: Apocalypse, that requires the original files to run, licensed under the MIT and written in C++ / SDL2.
  • X-COM Tactical Command
    Tips, strategy, and general information on all things X-COM.
  • X-Com: Apocalypse - UFOpaedia.org
    Very detailed wiki for Apoc that contain all info you need and more

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 349
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Additional contributors: Narf!, Kasey Chang, Paulus18950, FatherJack, Mak Sim.

Game added November 1, 1999. Last modified March 10, 2024.