UFO: Aftermath

aka: The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge, UFO: Kolejne Starcie, UFO:AM
Moby ID: 10575

Description official descriptions

In the year 2004, Earth is suddenly overcome by "spores" launching from an alien mothership. Slowly blocking earth from the sun, in only a week it rains down biological death on the earth... killing most of humanity and larger life forms.

Since then, the few survivors of mankind have sought out each other, and by 2005, enough humanity has joined together to make a stand. Calling themselves the Council of Earth, and working secretly in hidden bases, they must research, recruit and train to the ultimate goal of shooting down UFOs, engaging aliens in combat and reclaiming the Earth from their oppressors and the mutated biology.

This game is VERY similar to the cult favorite, X-Com but with a post-apocalyptic War of the Worlds (or perhaps "V: The miniseries") feel to it. Much of the game takes place on the world map where you choose which missions to attend to, where to build new bases (and what type) and your overall sphere of influence. Additionally, you control Research & Development and current equipment for your squad.

On the 3D map of each "area" however, the game is real-time strategy that pauses to allow you to give orders to your forces. In fact, at the end of queued actions or whenever something 'signifigant' is noticed, the game stops allowing you to put together a strategy. Just as in X-Com, these areas are limited in size, and visibility. However objectives vary.. killing all enemies is not always the purpose of a mission. Soldier development is also fairly detailed. The skills your squad uses out in the field they will get better at (they gain experience individually). Additionally when they reach certain prerequisites in their base stats, they can train to get better at certain skills, including Soldier, Medic, Scientist and others.

Spellings

  • UFO: Нашествие - Russian spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

74 People (69 developers, 5 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 68% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 35 ratings with 8 reviews)

Worst Encounter

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.

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

Tactical combat freaks will enjoy this game

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.

Windows · by Tommy Wood (38) · 2004

Slightly disappointing, but a good start

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.

Windows · by Andreas SJ (21) · 2003

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Many of the graphics are regionalized. For instance, European cities look very different than American cities. Additionally, you may select your starting region from the GAMES menu.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Shoddyan.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, JRK, Stratege, Victor Vance.

Game added October 5, 2003. Last modified March 6, 2024.