Ok.. so, got the new x-com game.. And finding myself.. well. Kinda hating it. Which really sucks since i loved the original x-coms (least up until enforcer and apoc and all..) ... And paid about 70 bucks for it.
The game just has a really bad habit of.. how can i put it.. Fucking you over completely. combat seems interisting, but lacks the feel of the originals. Now you rely on cover, ALOT. But cover is useless as aliens can destroy it with a single shot of any of their weapons, and at times, just seem to ignore that your guy is in cover killing them instantly. But cover works for them. You occasionally make a stupid shot (alien hiding behind a reinforced concrete wall and your pistol shoots clean through) but most the time when your in ght 80% hit you just miss, even if your guy is blasting away with a HSW.
Combat is broken down into rounds, where your suppose to get 2 actions, run twice, shoot once (less your character is a certian class and has a certian skill) or run then shoot. Problem is aliens dont follow this pattern, some of them getting to take several actions in a row. usually all of which being killing your team. One really annoying thing is the moment you notice the aliens, they scatter. Run to hide in cover and all that at their max move. So you see a group clustered together and think "hell yeah! Rocket time!" they suddenly scatter like roaches with the light turned on. Even if there is no reason for them to know you have spotted them. Oh, and they have a habit of occasionally randomly spawning in the middle of places, so nothing like having a couple freaks suddenly appear in the middle of your formation in flat open terrain and kill them. Cause Fuck You.
They are of course heavier equipped, but you dont get to research their weapons right away, you get "fragments" cause the weapons self destruct when user dies. Which means it takes forever before you get a plasma pistol. it almost takes as long to get laser weaponry.
One big problem is they decided soldiers now have classes.
Heavy: Carries a heavy machine gun and choose of suppressing fire skills, and rockets. (which can only be used once) seem to have the highest health.
Assult: Carries a shotgun and... usually doesnt get to do anything as the shotgun sucks because of its short range and their slow moving speed. health is kinda.. Meh.
Sniper:Again, actually rather Meh. Their rifles dont do alot of damage, arent very accurate, and unless you take a special skill you cant move and shoot, having to stay in one position to fire, or move then wait for next turn (as pistols only tickle. Even against sectoids.)
And support, who could kinda be useful if it wasnt for the equip limit. Use standard assult rifles (or rifle pattern weapons) and can use healing items and such multipule times.. If you take a skill.
Problem is skill wise and all you cant really customize your characters. Once they go from rookie to squaddie the game chooses a class at random and your stuck with it. Cant choose to equip the guy with a gun thats decent, or anything really. THat's that fuck you if you want him to be a heavy. Buy a new guy and hope asshole.
Equipment is also done like this, "choose your armor. Choose your gun (from their strict branching) and choose a special item. Thats it, no loading your guy up with extra equip for whatever reason, clips are unlimited so you can reload for free, but you only get One grenade. And if you take it you cant take say, an armor enhancement to help your guys survive. Cant take the stun gun to take down aliens. (which really sucks as it would be nice to be wearing he under shirt And carrying the stun gun since you have to run up to things that can kill you in one go with the weakest weapon they have. Still hate how they make you go close range. Evidently nobody ever heard of a dart taser.)
It just gets so damn repetative so damn fast. Each mission is a chore, and the game VERY quickly ramps up the difficulty without caring if you have the things you need to make the equipment you need to keep up. Aliens will randomly spawn in mission just to make it harder and longer, and nothing is more annoying then the squad you worked on and built for the last 6 fucking hours gets killed off like they were nothing, and now you have to start building up some new random drones in hopes of being able to fucking do anything!
Cash is so slim you get to build one thing a month. Choose well. You get scientists and engineers by doing missions, cant hire them. And missions..
Mission selection is where you will get fucked over. Each time you get a mission, you have a choice. save this location, this location, or this location. each one offers its own reward, cash (which is ncie) researchers (nice) and Engineers) which are also nice) BUT. The places you dont go to get fucked over and gain a couple points of "panic" and once they hit like, 5-6, that country leaves the commity. You can take missions to lower it, if they give you that place as a choice. but again, its a juggling act thats to over complicated. You cant keep everybody happy, and in trying to do that you have trouble getting the resources you want and need. So you have to choose to let x countries quit, or keep everybody happy and struggle to survive as you dont have enough cash, eigineers, or scientists to keep up.
Im hoping they release a patch that changes alot of things.. cause right now, this game isnt worth it. I suppose people will call it "nintendo hard" But wasnt nintendo hard hard because they made things as shitty and cheap as possible to pad out the game? And im all for a hard game. When you beat a really hard mission (on table top, or on a VG) you get that feeling of accomplishment, a small adrenaline rush, a kick that hey, Your a badass.
Here, it feels like you won because it let you. You didnt win despite its cheating, you didnt win cause you were a tactical master, you won cause it just didnt really give enough of a fuck to bother, and the next mission your likely to get TPK simply because it still doesnt give a fuck and throws a nuke at you. I dont find that fun.
Hell, thinking on it makes me remember valkeria chronicles, and how that engine would have been better for this game, at least let you feel involved.
Turn based combat, but with a twist. Durring each characters turn you take control, moving them with in a designated moving area, using cover and all active time. You had to move fast as enemies that noticed you took potshots, that while werent dangerous (did a little damage, so if you just stood there like a derp you would get killed, or ran into a group of enemies, or ran into an elite or boss or something) kept you on your toes. Come time to make an attack it goes to 1st person and you actually aim, (cant remember if was a time limit or not) the characters firing skill affected how accurate you were, how much you swayed, ect. You could take body shot for reg damage, head for criticals, or so forth. It was a kinda cool twist on turn based battle, and would be great for games like these
But this.. It sucks. Hell. I'll say it. Apocalypse had better combat then this.
