When does the combat start having a bit more depth? I'm about an hour in i turned off the tutorial too..... it just seems to feel very rinse and repeat, the engagements have been the exact same as the first one i entered.

eluv

United States1251 Posts

October 12 2012 08:09 GMT

#484

As your guys rank up and you meet more powerful aliens, there's going to be a lot more going on. An hour in though sound like maybe 2-3 missions, so I'm not quite sure what you expected. In any case, you'll be using more abilities, more frequently, and your enemies are going to be doing the same. By the time you have some 3-4 rank squadmembers, you'll notice that you're managing things quite differently. A sniper with just headshot isn't really all that different from an no-class recruit, but one with squad sights and damn good ground sure as hell is. Same goes for an Assault with lightning reflexes, and a heavy with suppression.

Yergidy

United States2107 Posts

October 12 2012 08:27 GMT

#485

I love this game so much. It is incredibly fun. I had to drag myself away from the computer at 5am so I could go to sleep. I can't remember the last time a game did that to me, and it hasn't gotten old.

-Archangel-

Croatia7457 Posts

October 12 2012 08:30 GMT

#486

OK let me state what I feel are problems with this game without comparing it with old x-com.
A common one:
1. Not being able to know which class your rookie is going to get.
Others:
2. Not being able to pick up items from fallen allies. If I need to capture an alien and my arc thrower guy falls during mission I want to be able to get to his body and exchange my item for the Arc. Or a medkit, or an extra grenade. This feature is critical for Ironman play.
3. Strategic part of the game being too scripted and not random enough. Or at least it feels like it.
4. Too many abduction missions, not enough UFOs. I hate abduction missions, they are a lose-lose missions. Even when successful panic goes up in 2 places and you get much less alloys and 0 elirium from them.
5. Randomly appearing enemies during tactical missions. By that I mean the thin man that drop from the sky. Or what I had, I camped my whole group on top of hill and in same turn 2 cyberdisks appear with drones with 2nd one "spawning" next to my group. Come on!?!! Tactical part of the game is never going to be really tactical with this shit. Planning is a crucial part of fun tactical games, and introducing this kills any planning and smart play and makes missions totally random.
6. Similar to 5. this is another problem that makes parts of tactical combat stupid. When you scout ahead, and discover new enemies they get a free move. I don't have a problem with that but often that free move is towards your troops or the scout often killing him without you being able to do anything (even if you had one move left often due to map/cover you cannot get him safe). The free move should always move them into cover away from your troops.
7. Soldier levels are too powerful and you are too dependent on it. Combined with only 6 men per squad it is not a good mechanic. Playing Ironman is much too punishing as it is now. Soldiers are expandable and should not become superheroes no matter how much experience they get. Their power should more depend on equipment and less on levels.

Ferrose

United States11378 Posts

October 12 2012 08:40 GMT

#487

I don't understand the class thing at all, aren't your soldiers supposed to be the best of the best to even be considered to be picked for XCOM? You'd think that they would have distinguished themselves in their own militaries and already have some kind of specialization.

Regarding the abduction missions, I didn't really think of this till TotalBiscuit pointed it out in his video, but why can't I have more than one skyranger? Being able to only respond to one of three abduction just seems like the game is forcing you to make artificial choices for no reason other than forcing you to make choices.

Scorch

Austria3371 Posts

October 12 2012 08:48 GMT

#488

Gonna go buy the game today, hopefully I'll be able to play tonight. Which difficulty would you guys recommend for me? I never played any of the original XCOM games. I have however watched streams and played plenty of Jagged Alliance 2. Is classic doable or should I stick with normal? Both non-ironman. Can the difficulty be changed during a playthrough or only chosen once at the beginning?

Talin

Montenegro10532 Posts

October 12 2012 09:52 GMT

#489

I want my life back.

seRapH

United States9777 Posts

October 12 2012 09:53 GMT

#490

On October 12 2012 17:48 Scorch wrote:
Gonna go buy the game today, hopefully I'll be able to play tonight. Which difficulty would you guys recommend for me? I never played any of the original XCOM games. I have however watched streams and played plenty of Jagged Alliance 2. Is classic doable or should I stick with normal? Both non-ironman. Can the difficulty be changed during a playthrough or only chosen once at the beginning?

Classic imo if you're not doing ironman. And yes you can change difficulty.

TaShadan

Germany1978 Posts

October 12 2012 10:15 GMT

#491

iam in china right now and xcom doesmt show up in steam

YMCApylons

Taiwan359 Posts

October 12 2012 10:17 GMT

#492

My review is up in the updated OP.

BlitzerSC

Italy8800 Posts

October 12 2012 10:26 GMT

#493

I wanted to buy this game, but for 50€ ? Really ? I guess I'll have to wait until the price is lower...

ToT)OjKa(

Korea (South)2437 Posts

October 12 2012 10:26 GMT

#494

Snipers, snipers everywhere!

+ Show Spoiler +

fffffffffff

DonKey_

Liechtenstein1356 Posts

October 12 2012 10:28 GMT

#495

Two snipers with double tap plasma sniper rifles makes the game pretty simple. :|

also seems 1 out of 2 recruits is a sniper.

seRapH

United States9777 Posts

October 12 2012 10:47 GMT

#496

On October 12 2012 19:28 DonKey_ wrote:
Two snipers with double tap plasma sniper rifles makes the game pretty simple. :|

also seems 1 out of 2 recruits is a sniper.

Plasma sniper rifles just feel too strong in general. Critting with one takes around half of even the strongest of enemies.

BlitzerSC

Italy8800 Posts

October 12 2012 10:49 GMT

#497

I bought it. I didn't buy a full priced game since Deus Ex:Human Revolution... I hope I won't regret it ^^.

PandaCore

Germany553 Posts

October 12 2012 10:50 GMT

#498

A lot of people complain about not being able to choose the class for your soldier, but I think it's fine.
I see it as your rookies just find out what they're talented with as they level up and their class is chosen according to that.

Apart from that, I played the old ones a lot on the past, but I'm still having quite a hard time on classic so far.

I think in the first 5 missions I lost about 9 soldiers and in the 5th or 6th one lost my whole squad (bomb defusal is brutal), so I checked out normal to see what it's like and it's way too easy, so I'm still torn if I should start on classic again

jtype

England2167 Posts

October 12 2012 10:55 GMT

#499

2 Snipers
2 Assaults
1 Support
1 Heavy

That's my setup at the moment, and has been for a while. I make good use of 'in the zone' on my snipers and smoke grenades on my supports. Lightning Reflexes can be amazing for drawing fire and creating reaction shot opportunities too. Occasionally I'll switch out a support/assault for another heavy, if I want more rockets against tanky enemies.

What about you guys?

I'm absolutely loving this game at the moment, even though I can't help but agree with most of the criticisms levelled at it. I hope there's a mod/dlc/patch that can sort out some of these issues.

Sub40APM

6336 Posts

October 12 2012 10:57 GMT

#500

My biggest pet peeve about this game is combat in space ships. With theoretically 3 levels its sooo difficult to just move your guys around without the camera shifting. In one battle I thought I was sending my sniper to an overhead position and she ended up droping in a pit with 4 mutons

Am I just dense and there is a way to freeze the current level you are on as movement paths or did they designers took one step too far in trying to make this game fluid/fps/appealing to xbox kids??

Other than that I'd say its dam near addictive and the other irritants dont detract from game play too much. Although there are some.
1) someone else noted it, but the aliens spawning inside of your group is stupid.
2) sometimes the combat ai makes dumb decisions, when 3 mutants and a bersker have two xcon guys cornered the right choice isnt for the 3 mutants to go away somewhere else while the berseker runs in and gets caught in its own aggression ai running back and forth between people doing reaction shots to it
3) They made the game multi-national yet didnt bother spending a couple of hundred bucks to get different voice actors for different nations?
4) the UFO intercept thing seems like a wasted opportunity for a fun mini game. Just buy the extra satellite bonuses and dodge and attack and even the best spaceship goes down to some crappy missile plane
5) Wish there was more weapon variety, as it is now its just make a beeline for plasma sniper rifles and on most maps thats gg